An official at the World Health Organization (WHO) brazenly admitted to being behind worldwide censorship during the COVID-19 pandemic, but that’s not his most disturbing confession.
An official at the World Health Organization (WHO) brazenly admitted to being behind worldwide censorship during the COVID-19 pandemic, but that’s not his most disturbing confession. WHO Team Lead for Digital Channels Andy Pattison explained during an April 15 interview with the Planet Classroom Podcast the role his globalist organization took in pushing major social media platforms to censor users. Pattison discussed how the WHO worked with Big Tech on so-called misinformation prior to COVID-19. He addressed these companies’ efforts to “make their misinformation and disinformation policies a little bit stronger,” adding, “we were advising them on how best to do that.”
Disinformation policies on Big Tech platforms did in fact get “a little bit stronger” during the pandemic. In fact, MRC Free Speech’s exclusive database CensorTrack, shows that MRC researchers have found more censorship related to COVID-19 than any other specific issue. The 1,319 examples included seven examples of platforms censoring U.S. senators and 11 examples of platforms censoring members of Congress. Big Tech even censored at least 45 doctors or medical researchers. The MRC found 569 accounts that Big Tech platforms deleted and hundreds more that these platforms locked.
When Planet Classroom co-founder and CEO Cathy Rubin asked Pattison what he would do differently, Pattison did not take the opportunity to repent of helping trample free speech on social media. Instead, Pattison expressed his regret that WHO's collusion with Big Tech petered out instead of becoming permanent.
The WHO team lead endorsed creating “long-term sustainable models” for collaboration between the WHO and Big Tech. Pattison lamented that “what happened with COVID is that you had this huge outpouring of support on technology, but then once COVID was ‘over’ in people’s eyes, that went away. And what we need to do is think of almost a health online collective where people will come together in the good times and in the bad times that we’ll be there constantly, so we’re not just stepping up in emergencies, that we’re already ready in emergencies.”
Pattison presented the Big Tech companies, especially Meta, as extremely cooperative and even showing initiative in making COVID-19 plans.
Although Pattison did not mention it, YouTube was also very publicly cooperative. As of April 11, 2021, YouTube had a detailed list of prohibited COVID-19-related content. At the top of the extensive censorship list, the platform stated, “YouTube doesn’t allow content that spreads medical misinformation that contradicts local health authorities’ or the World Health Organization’s (WHO) medical information about COVID-19.” Based on a 2023 YouTube blog post announcing the end to some of those policies, it appears the platform continues to censor content that “contradicts” the WHO.
Pattison also failed to note that the federal government pressured many Big Tech companies, including Meta, to censor so-called disinformation and misinformation on related topics.
President Donald Trump recently blasted the Biden administration for pushing this censorship on a new landing page exposing his predecessor and the WHO alike.
The WHO not only pushed censorship but also brazenly covered up the origins of the COVID-19 virus, allegedly to please the Chinese Communist government, and yet it is left undeterred.
Pattison’s comments follow similarly disturbing remarks from WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus in October 2024. Ghebreyesus warned that misinformation and disinformation were “almost as deadly” as the pandemic, blaming social media. Ghebreyesus lamented that this so-called misinformation and disinformation was also impacting his ability to get nations to sign a globalist pandemic treaty.
Conservatives are under attack! Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech 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.
