Former White House Covid advisor Andy Slavitt
March 1, 2021 a group of MIT students and Phd candidates put together a set of visuals and deep “analysis” takes based on Twitter interactions around Covid. In one section they call out the ring leaders of the “Anti-Maskers Network” – yours truly, Alex Berenson, our own team reality collages El Gato, HOLD2, Kerpen, Gummi Bear, Kyle Lamb, Jordan Schlachtel, Clay Travis and Ethical Skeptic.
From the report:
The anti-mask network comprises over 2,500 users (9% of the whole network) and is anchored by reporter @AlexBerenson, blogger @EthicalSkeptic, and @justin_hart. Despite being opposed to this community’s views, The Atlantic’s @Covid19Tracking project and @GovMikeDeWine of Ohio (among others) are also classified as part of this community because anti-maskers frequently reference them as purveyors of misinformation.
Newly released documents from Alex Berenson’s lawsuit against Twitter reveal private Slack chats in 2021 where Andy Slavitt, who was then a COVID White House advisor, called for Alex’s account to be taken down.
From Alex’s latest Substack:
In a White House meeting in April 2021, four months before Twitter suspended my account, the company faced ‘one really tough question about why Alex Berenson hasn’t been kicked off from the platform,’ a Twitter employee wrote.
…
Andrew Slavitt, senior advisor to President Biden’s Covid response team, complained specifically about me, according to a Twitter employee in another Slack conversation discussing the White House meeting.
‘They really wanted to know about Alex Berenson,’ the employee wrote. ‘Andy Slavitt suggested they had seen data viz [visualization] that had showed he was the epicenter of disinfo that radiated outwards to the persuadable public.’
Alex would later be banned from Twitter and my account was also taken down later in the summer.
Did Andy Slavitt use the MIT visual to create a black list of Social Media accounts to be taken down?
Stay tuned!
Reprinted with permission from Rational Ground.
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