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Juxtaposition: GOP Cries as Facebook Extends Ban on Insurrectionist Liar; Biden Proposes Seizing Vaccine Patents to Save Lives

That shouting guy who left the White House on January 20 seems really mad—though how can we tell any difference? he was always mad—that he can’t force a private company to host and amplify his shouting for another six months. His supposedly conservative supporters are shouting, too, about how it’s “tyranny” not to seize Facebook’s assets and place them at the service of a real tyrant who incited and cheered real insurrection against the real government and real will of the people in January. Facebook’s Oversight Board recounts the crimes against our nation of which Facebook quite sensibly wants no part and affirmed, if not indefinitely, the banishment:

The Board found that the two posts by [***] on January 6 severely violated Facebook’s Community Standards and Instagram’s Community Guidelines. “We love you. You’re very special” in the first post and “great patriots” and “remember this day forever” in the second post violated Facebook’s rules prohibiting praise or support of people engaged in violence.

The Board found that, in maintaining an unfounded narrative of electoral fraud and persistent calls to action, [***] created an environment where a serious risk of violence was possible. At the time of [***]’s posts, there was a clear, immediate risk of harm and his words of support for those involved in the riots legitimized their violent actions. As president, [***] had a high level of influence. The reach of his posts was large, with 35 million followers on Facebook and 24 million on Instagram.

Given the seriousness of the violations and the ongoing risk of violence, Facebook was justified in suspending [***]’s accounts on January 6 and extending that suspension on January 7 [Facebook Oversight Board, statement, 2021.05.05].

Meanwhile, the new guy who’s actually doing the job of President of the United States put his Administration’s support behind the government seizure of another form of property, the intellectual property rights vaccine makers hold over the coronavirus vaccines:

United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai today released a statement announcing the Biden-Harris Administration’s support for waiving intellectual property protections for COVID-19 vaccines.

“This is a global health crisis, and the extraordinary circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic call for extraordinary measures.  The Administration believes strongly in intellectual property protections, but in service of ending this pandemic, supports the waiver of those protections for COVID-19 vaccines. We will actively participate in text-based negotiations at the World Trade Organization (WTO) needed to make that happen. Those negotiations will take time given the consensus-based nature of the institution and the complexity of the issues involved.

“The Administration’s aim is to get as many safe and effective vaccines to as many people as fast as possible.  As our vaccine supply for the American people is secured, the Administration will continue to ramp up its efforts – working with the private sector and all possible partners – to expand vaccine manufacturing and distribution.  It will also work to increase the raw materials needed to produce those vaccines” [Office of the United States Trade Representative, statement, 2021.05.05].

The other guy’s desire to force private business to give up its autonomy is rooted entirely in self-interest. The current President of the United States proposes his version of vaccine eminent domain (hmm… payments to Pfizer et al. for this government taking? or does all the support we taxpayers gave to support the development of these vaccines allow us to invoke our own ownership rights?) to help others—billions of others:

The World Trade Organization is considering a proposal to address that inequity as India, South Africa and more than 100 other nations advocate to waive IP rights for coronavirus vaccines and medications, which might let manufacturers in other poorer countries make their own.

The consequences of not passing the waiver are “staggering,” Mustaqeem de Gama, South Africa’s World Trade Organization counselor, told NPR — “not only on the level of the loss of human lives, but also on the economic level.”

“We believe that intellectual property rights constitute a very substantial barrier to ensure equitable access,” he said. “We believe that if we could have a limited, targeted waiver to ensure that we can ramp up production in various parts of the world, we would go a long way to ensure that we address not only the prevention, but also the treatment of COVID-19” [Emma Bowman and Ashish Valentine, “Biden Backs Waiving International Patent Protections for Covid-19 Vaccines,” NPR, 2021.05.05].

Facebook and Pfizer are both businesses. As long as we view corporations as people, they enjoy the same right to property that we do. Property is a fundamental right, to be tread on cautiously, and only when a clear case can be made for service to the common good without devastating the property holder we would deprive. If ever such infringements are justified, curtailing patent rights to speed the battle against a global pandemic likely offers that justification. Respecting Facebook’s right to police its own content and protect us from a lying insurrectionist serves the public good and mitigates against an intrusion on their property. Speeding the production and delivery of vaccines amidst a global pandemic to save lives and economies justifies some intrusion on Pfizer’s property rights.

9 Comments

  1. John 2021-05-05 19:40

    Let’s hope Facebook bans the treasonous 45th for life. He has no redeeming social or civic value.

    The government is correct in waiving intellectual property protections for a pandemic vaccine it spent & offered billions to promulgate & distribute. Recall what the greedy, selfish pharma barons did with the “free” diabetes insulin.

  2. Mark Anderson 2021-05-05 19:47

    Well, its easy, you can’t trust a lying Republican. Just look them up whenever you need anything done because they lie like rugs.

  3. Arlo Blundt 2021-05-05 20:10

    Well…you can’t tell me there isn’t enough money out there in Trump World to start another “Facebook-Twitter-Instagram” company as a platform for their lies and treasonous plots.Thought they’d have an alternative by now, after all they live in an alternative universe.

  4. DaveFN 2021-05-05 21:29

    Great gesture on Joe’s part. But surely he also knows that the United States doesn’t have the power to unilaterally enact such a universal patent waiver. Moderna, principal patent holder on mRNA vaccines, has already pledged to not enforce its patent rights, allowing other companies to move forward with mRNA vaccine development, which they have.

  5. Richard F Schriever 2021-05-05 21:57

    Arlo – they may have the moolah, but they ain’t got the brains. AND patriotic and business savvy (Trump has historically stiffed how many thousands of contractors again?) US programmers prolly wonlt get tabglked in the wb of one of his contracts. Russian hackers, however……..

  6. leslie 2021-05-05 22:30

    What a story we have developing. The very survival of a large, powerful democracy. Of a world community of all cultures.

    “Trump rips McConnell, Cheney and Pence over 2020 election.” Twttr

    “McConnell 100% focused on obstructing Democratic President Biden.” Twttr

    In the House, McCarthy is incompetent, as GOP political leaders often are chosen to for their demonstrated, unintelligent, unprincipled, groomed role as puppets.

    Dems have slight majority rule in both houses of Congress.

    During the covid pandemic the GOP deployed extreme right wing militias to lead an attack of the Capitol during Congress’s certification of Joe Biden’s presidential election. It was televised. The GOP continues to lie that it did not happen. This includes SD’s Republican political leadership. Puppets. All of them.

    Putin and Trump have left President Biden with compromised military instabilities in Afghanistan and Ukraine, while US Intelligence confirms Russia’s active major roles interfered with both the 2016 and 2020 US elections, as enabled by the GOP.

    Global climate change has forced the US to embrace a worldwide effort to mitigate the consequences of the warming planet from massive fossil fuel usage despite science’s warnings since 1988. Species extinctions are prolific. Potable water wars are reappearing.

    The right to vote, like rights to fresh air and water, has become a hostage strategy of the haves over the have-nots.

    The most wealthy billionaires, the very few of the planet, are on track to becoming trillionaires yet they and their corporations are targeted for 1.2% GDP sized tax increases and avoidance crackdowns by the Democrats in the US.

    Worldwide, disinformation is proliferate, threatening planetary peace. Human beings, capable of education, still seem inherently destructive. Myopic.

    This is all happening now. The big picture: Economic inequality and global warming are threatening world wide stability. That is what the election was about.

    And the GOP is in a screaming, flaming death dive. There is humor in that.

    We are witnesses in real time to these events. Either our salvation, or their demise. Hopefully both.

  7. grudznick 2021-05-06 07:14

    It is indeed good that Mr. Trump remains banned from the Facebooks. grudznick can remember a world in which all were banned from such useless and dangerous blog sites, and the world was a better place. But Mr. Trump, for sure, should be muzzled.

  8. Jake 2021-05-06 09:39

    Grudz-agreed, but muzzling might be the least of what the POS deserves!

  9. Chris S. 2021-05-06 12:25

    It’s not seizing a patent; it’s releasing it for general use. Most of those vaccines were developed with loads of government funding, but even if they weren’t, why should the government enforce a monopoly patent so an extremely profitable company can make even more money while a pandemic rages? The government has no obligation to value intellectual property over public health.

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