Rachel Levine’s trans disinformation

Shortly after Christmas, an alarming video surfaced from May last year. In it, a leading health adviser to the Biden administration called for social-media firms to do more to suppress ‘misinformation’ and ‘disinformation’ around the trans issue, particularly on the medical treatment that is provided to children who identify as trans.

‘The positive value of gender-affirming care for youth and adults is not in scientific or medical dispute’, proclaimed US assistant secretary for health Rachel Levine, who identifies as a transwoman. Because of this, he added, ‘we need to use our clinicians’ voice to collectively advocate for our tech companies to create a healthier, cleaner, information environment’. Levine’s crusade against misinformation and disinformation is part of a worrying authoritarian trend of governments working in tandem with corporate media and Big Tech to dictate the terms of acceptable thought.

As the self-satisfied laptop class never tires of telling us, misinformation is the kind of ‘wrong’ information that supposedly dumb people share online – usually something they’ve picked up from some scary populist. Disinformation, meanwhile, occurs when someone – a government official, say – knowingly disseminates something false, to sow confusion and discord, demoralise a target population or harm a political opponent.

Now this is awkward. I am but a simpleminded woman – sorry, person in possession of a uterus. I carelessly let my subscription to the New York Times lapse recently. I only have a master’s degree, and it’s not in gender studies. So I don’t want to spread the ol’ misinformation. But I suspect this Rachel fellow might not be telling the full truth.

Read here

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