Emails show US federal agencies urging Facebook to push “messages of duty” on COVID

Newly-obtained emails have revealed how US federal agencies encouraged Facebook to use Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data to push “hyper-localized” alerts to its users and recommended that it push a “focused message” on COVID topics such as travel and masking.

The emails were obtained by Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN), a group that investigates medical procedures and educates the public of their right to “informed consent,” and show communications between Payton Iheme, Facebook’s US Public Policy head, Irum Zaidi, a top aide to then-White House Coronavirus Task Force Coordinator Deborah Birx, and Amira Boland, a career staffer in the federal government’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

In a November 2020 email, Boland requested that Facebook use the county-level CDC data set to push “hyper-localized stats/ alerts based on where users are located” and even suggested specific “local weather alerts” style messaging such as “COVID is spreading faster in Franklin County.”