Fox News host Greg Gutfeld said Friday that the White House should not be trusted to identify and flag “misinformation” for Facebook.
Gutfeld and “The Five” co-host Jesse Watters argued that the White House did not have the best track record when it came to identifying false narratives — and that the “collusion” between the federal government and a social media platform like Facebook should be a huge red flag. (RELATED: ‘Pathological, Shameless Liar’: Greg Gutfeld Unloads On Joe Biden The ‘Unifier,’ Says ‘All He Does Is Bank On Racial Discontent’)
WATCH:
Watters began the segment with a clip of White House press secretary Jen Psaki, who explained that the White House was partnering with Facebook in order to stop the spread of misinformation specifically with regard to the coronavirus vaccines. Psaki argued that false narratives about the vaccines were putting people at risk.
“If you are a government official, you can crackdown on free speech and just say, ‘Saving lives. We are going to take away your First Amendment. Saving lives,'” Watters said in response.
“I don’t see how this is cracking down on the First Amendment,” co-host Jessica Tarlov replied, arguing that misinformation on the coronavirus did get people killed and that social media companies had a responsibility to help keep people safe.
“Doesn’t matter,” Gutfeld pushed back.
“But do you think the White House should be in charge of labeling what is disinformation?” Watters asked. “The White House, Joe Biden, the Democratic Party, have a horrible track record when it comes to what disinformation is.”
Tarlov objected, saying that the White House didn’t really have much of a track record at all after only six months in office.
“Lab leak. Open borders. Laptop. Russians. Hoax,” Watters continued.
“Let me finish,” Tarlov protested, but Watters turned the question to Gutfeld instead.
“Let’s say President Trump, a couple years ago, colluded with Facebook to crack down on people posting about the Russia hoax. He said, ‘You know what, CNN is posting about the Russia hoax, it’s disinformation, it’s tearing the country apart, let’s nuke ‘em.’ What do you think the media would have said?” he asked.
“They would have gone crazy,” Gutfeld replied. “None of this matters, once government is involved with a corporation, that is a violation of the First Amendment. That’s what’s happening. It doesn’t matter if you believe it’s disinformation. It doesn’t matter. Because it is — every opinion could be misinformation by our definition.”
He went on to explain why he didn’t trust Democrats to determine what constituted misinformation.
“Imagine the people — look at it from our perspective. Imagine the people who spent decades calling us stupid, rubes, and racists, are now in charge of controlling the spread of information by using the word ‘misinformation,'” Gutfeld continued. “Any sane person would say hell no.”
Gutfeld concluded by repeating that it didn’t matter what Democrats — or anyone else — believed was misinformation because the real issue was the collusion between the government and Facebook.
“When information comes out and it’s wrong, and it’ll be wrong on the left and it’ll be wrong on the right. That doesn’t matter. The collusion is what matters,” Gutfeld concluded.