In early 2021, the Biden White House sent a series of emails to Amazon pressuring the online retailer to suppress the distribution of books that cast vaccines in a negative light.
The administration was ultimately successful in its efforts: Amazon began limiting the visibility of titles that cast doubt on vaccine efficacy soon after hearing from the White House.
The internal Amazon emails, provided to the House Judiciary Committee in response to a subpoena, reveal that White House senior adviser for Covid-19 response Andrew Slavitt concluded that the retail giant was trafficking in “misinformation” after conducting a cursory search on the topic of vaccines.
“Who can we talk to about the high levels of propaganda and misinformation and disinformation of [sic] Amazon?” Slavitt asked an Amazon representative in an email dated March 2, 2021.
“If you search for ‘vaccines’ under books, I see what comes up,” Slavitt wrote in a follow-up email. “I haven’t looked beyond that but if that’s what’s on the surface, it’s concerning.”
Amazon initially held off on censoring any books, citing concerns that doing so would be “too visible” and grab the attention of conservative media outlets.
“We will not be doing a manual intervention today,” an email among Amazon executives reads.
“The team/PR feels very strongly that it is too visible, and will further compound the Harry/Sally narrative (which is getting the Fox News treatment today apparently), and won’t fix the problem long-term . . . because of customer behavior associates.”
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