The National Institute of Health is cleaning house after MRC Free Speech America exposed the agency for pushing censorship under the Biden administration.
MRC released a study on March 13 exposing 57 Biden administration censorship initiatives. The NIH and the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases worked alongside Big Tech and the Biden White House to enforce censorship on those questioning the federal government's official positions on COVID-19.
Last week, NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya hit the ground running as several high-level bureaucrats who played significant roles in the censorship detailed in MRC’s report have been pushed out. Dr. Clifford Lane, a former deputy director for clinical research and special projects at NIAID, was among the ousted individuals. Lane is a close ally of Dr. Anthony Fauci, the embattled former NIAID director. This comes nearly a couple of months after the principal deputy director of the NIH, Larry Tabak, resigned.
MRC’s study noted that under Tabak, Fauci and Lane’s leadership, the NIH and NIAID began encouraging censorship by Big Tech to ensure that online information aligned with the White House’s agenda.
The report—as detailed in Initiative #20—specifically warned:
Beginning in 2020 and stretching into the Biden administration, the National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases (NIAID) began pressing Big Tech platforms to censor content critical of COVID-19 lockdowns or supportive of using hydroxychloroquine (HCQ). Separately, NIAID also pushed the publication of “research” specifically to incentivize the “take down” of the accounts for its COVID-19 critics.
Indeed, the NIH and NIAID even coordinated directly with the World Health Organization and Meta to censor those who suggested that COVID-19 originated from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (which Fauci reportedly helped fund):
In one instance, NIAID Director Anthony Fauci asked WHO Chief Tedros Ghebreyseus to convene with him directly so they could “get ahead of ...the narrative” on COVID-19’s origins. Acting on the recommendation of the WHO and Dr. Fauci, Big Tech platforms censored speech suggesting that the COVID-19 virus originated in the CCP’s Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Tabak, who in December 2021 became the Acting NIH Director, similarly oversaw outsourced censorship of speech related to the COVID-19 pandemic and associated vaccines.
[I]n 2022 alone, the National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases (NIAID):
- Paid data analytics group Melax Technologies (now part of IMO Health) $300,000 to use artificial intelligence (AI) to surveil and censor online speech regarding the COVID-19 vaccine.
- Paid the tech firm Innov8AI $300,000 to use AI to flag American speech for online censorship. The campaign was conducted to control the “online narratives” on medical issues “in real-time.”
- Paid consulting group Gryphon Scientific (now part of Deloitte) $299,964 to develop strategies and targets for “elimination of misinformation online.”
The Atlantic reported, “On February 11, HHS also attempted to unceremoniously reassign Tabak, the deputy director, to an essentially meaningless senior advisory position to the acting HHS secretary, with an office in another city, far from the laboratory he ran at the agency—a demotion that several NIH officials described to me as an insult Tabak chose instead to retire that same day.”
Dr. Fauci’s wife, Christine Grady, was also effectively fired. Lane and NIAID Director Jeanne Marrazzo, who succeeded Fauci, were similarly offered reassignments “in states like Alaska,” Politico reported. Several others at the FDA and CDC were offered the same post.
These oustings come just after Trump neutered some of the censorship powers of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), each of which MRC called out in its study.
The Biden-led SEC issued a compelled speech rule requiring companies to suppress employees’ speech that countered leftist fearmongering about climate change (Initiative #45). Biden’s Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) awarded a grant to the University of Washington to create virtual “escape rooms” to push censorship (Initiative #17).
On March 14, Trump signed an executive order cutting the IMLS workforce, and on March 28, Trump’s SEC voted to stop defending the Biden-era climate change disclosure rule.
Free speech is under attack! Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech and government be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on hate speech and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
MRC Free Speech America Director Michael Morris, MRC Senior Counsel for Investigations Tim Kilcullen and Contributing Writer Catherine Salgado contributed to this report.
