OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Democrat California Rep. Ted Lieu is active on Twitter and is not shy about getting into arguments, but he may have taken on one argument that he cannot win. The representative attacked the most recent installment of the “Twitter Files” as “misinformation” and he was dragged by Twitter CEO Elon Musk for it.
David Zweig showed the most recent “Twitter Files” and showed that the FBI was involved with communicating with Twitter, reporting tweets that it thought needed to by examined by the company’s staff, which for many is an example of the government getting involved with policing speech.
And in a tweet that he has since deleted, Rep. Lieu responded to the reporter.
It started with Zweig showing how the government, in both the administrations of former President Donald Trump and President Biden went after tweets that it deemed to be COVID “misinformation.”
“Exhibit A: Dr. Martin Kulldorff, an epidemiologist at Harvard Medical School, tweeted views at odds with US public health authorities and the American left, the political affiliation of nearly the entire staff at Twitter,” the reporter said.
“Internal emails show an ‘intent to action’ by a moderator, saying Kulldorff’s tweet violated the company’s Covid-19 misinformation policy and claimed he shared ‘false information,’” he said.
21. Internal emails show an “intent to action” by a moderator, saying Kulldorff’s tweet violated the company’s Covid-19 misinformation policy and claimed he shared “false information.” pic.twitter.com/lq9QOP8h27
— David Zweig (@davidzweig) December 26, 2022
“But Kulldorff’s statement was an expert’s opinion—one which also happened to be in line with vaccine policies in numerous other countries. Yet it was deemed “false information” by Twitter moderators merely because it differed from CDC guidelines.
“After Twitter took action, Kulldorff’s tweet was slapped with a “Misleading” label and all replies and likes were shut off, throttling the tweet’s ability to be seen and shared by many people, the ostensible core function of the platform,” he said.
23. After Twitter took action, Kulldorff’s tweet was slapped with a “Misleading” label and all replies and likes were shut off, throttling the tweet’s ability to be seen and shared by many people, the ostensible core function of the platform: pic.twitter.com/Qa1HpaEray
— David Zweig (@davidzweig) December 26, 2022
That was when Rep. Lieu stepped in.
“Dear @davidzweig: The tweet you cite is in fact misleading. People of all ages at high risk from COVID generally benefit from vaccines,” the representative said in a tweet. “Prior natural immunity may last only a few months. COVID appears to be a leading cause of death for children.”
But Lieu deleted the tweet after Musk fact-checked him.
“The preprint you linked to has actually been re-written as a result of my critique because it is seriously flawed and inaccurate. You linked to the old version,” a public health fact checker said, and Musk responded.
“Ted is linking to misleading data,” the CEO said.
Ted is linking to misleading data @CommunityNotes
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 26, 2022
During a hearing on the practices of social media companies, Rep. Lieu expressed that the government policing social media would be “unconstitutional.”
“The First Amendment applies to the government. Can we just get that clear? It does not apply to the strict content of private companies. So let us just go through something very simple. And I will ask you, Mr. Szoka. We do not tell Fox News what to filter. Right?” he said to Berin Szoka, President, TechFreedom.
“Correct,” Szoka said.
“And we cannot tell Facebook what content to filter; the government cannot. Right?” the representative said to which Szoka responded “correct.”
“That would just be flat-out unconstitutional,” the representative said.
“You know, I have seen places that regulate content on the internet and the media. North Korea, Russia, Iran. We do not want to be like that. Why are we having a hearing about regulating content? It is unconstitutional to begin with,” he said.
.@tedlieu do you still stand by your statements in this video? If so, what happens if there's proof the Government intervened & colluded with Twitter (Social Media) to filter, restrict content & violate the 1st amendment, especially since you said, it's flat out unconstitutional? pic.twitter.com/G8TDCL96FO
— Diamond and Silk® (@DiamondandSilk) December 18, 2022
Red State reported:
The fact check goes on to expose, in detail, why the original claim of COVID-19 being a leading cause of death for children is false. The study (which was done by a group in the UK) cherry-picked time periods, ignored the difference between dying with COVID and dying from it, and double-counted deaths over a 26-month cumulative period (while comparing to other causes of annualized deaths only in 2019).
Here’s the thing, though. Lieu shouldn’t have needed to be shown that fact check. If he weren’t so busy pushing ridiculous leftwing narratives, which is what the entire Twitter Files saga is about, he’d have used common sense to recognize what he was spreading was wrong, and that includes his claim about natural immunity. There is no definitive study that says natural immunity only lasts a few months and there is plenty of data that suggests it lasts much longer.
