Aaron Berman, a former CIA agent, has just been promoted to lead the elections policies team at Meta, the Internet behemoth that also controls Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Oculus. Conservatives are concerned about Berman’s employment background; some of them wonder about his involvement in Meta’s prior “misinformation” efforts and forecast even more suppression as the 2024 election draws near.
Meta promotes former CIA agent to "Head of Election Policies" after spearheading 2020 "misinformation" teamhttps://t.co/DQderkWMNp
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) June 27, 2023
As of 2019, Berman began using Facebook. According to a Breitbart investigation, Facebook’s senior product policy “misinformation” manager was the former government agency worker. To concentrate on US protocols and “put policies into practice during critical events,” he reportedly formed a team for the corporation. The “misinformation” manager worked for Facebook during the run-up to the 2020 elections, when extensive censorship on several social media platforms repressed conservative voices and news stories.
Although there is no proof that explicitly connects Berman to Meta’s intended acts, the timing and other circumstances suggest to various government influences, potentially making a former CIA agent an appropriate liaison. The New Civil Liberties Alliance and the Attorneys General from Louisiana and Missouri filed a lawsuit against a number of government officials, including President Joe Biden, alleging that they colluded with at least eleven federal agencies to stifle right-wing discourse on various platforms, infringing upon First Amendment rights. Facebook alone has more than 3 billion users, giving it considerable reach and potential political impact, according to the plaintiffs, so any control over its material might significantly change public perceptions.
Additionally, The Post Millennial discovered evidence that Berman might have influenced the censoring of conservative views on vaccine use after President Joe Biden allegedly said that Facebook was “killing people.” The creator of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, has openly acknowledged that the Russian “propaganda” warnings that led to Facebook’s deletion of posts about Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop were directly orchestrated by the FBI.
Before switching to Facebook, Berman spent 17 years as a CIA analyst. He contributed to the President’s Daily Brief, which is top-secret information that the president receives every morning from the intelligence community. Perhaps Berman’s decision to oversee Meta’s election policies is merely the innocent application of expertise, but conservative pundits are concerned that the decision could have a significant impact on the political outcome in 2024.
