NIH Hid Public Comments Package — page 15

Stipulation of Facts for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals et al. v. Collins et al., U.S. District Court for District of Columbia, Case No. 1:21-cv-2380-BAH [Examples of Posts PETA 51. Asa result of the keyword filtering used by the NIH on its Facebook page, certain comments made by multiple PETA employees in response to Facebook Live videos and Facebook posts did not appear on the NIH Facebook page. 52. OnSeptember 24, 2020, PETA employee was prevented from posting three comments on a Facebook Live video on the NIH Facebook page about COVID-19 vaccine research. One read, "Francis Collins, we appreciate all your hard work to search for a COVID vaccine, but why is NIH still wasting money on cruel and ineffective monkey fright experiments?" was unable to post these comments at all, because they violated the NIH's content moderation settings for Live videos. [El <aw that the comment had not been posted because it was bordered by a red box, and text below 'the comment read "Unable to post comment. Try again." A copy of attempted comments is attached hereto as Exhibit [X]. 53. OnOctober 8, 2020 again tried to comment on an NIH Facebook Live video about gene editing, but several of her comments were blocked due to the NIH's keyword filters for Live Videos, including: "Congratulations, Dr. Doudna! Francis Collins, please end NIH's fright experiments on primates;" and "CRISPR can be used for advanced, non-animal experiments. In light of the many nonanimal technologies that are developing, how can NIH continue to conduct experiments on macaques and other primates?" J saw that the comments had not been posted because they were bordered by a red box, and text below the comments read "Unable to post comment. Try again." A copy of FY attempted comments is attached hereto as Exhibit [X]. 54. OnMay 27, 2021] attempted to post several comments to an NIH Live video featuring Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett, including: "Thank you, Dr. Corbett and Dr. Collins, for your hard work on the COVID vaccines! Why is the NIH still wasting funds on Elisabeth Murray's monkey fright experiments instead of investing more in important clinical research about COVID-19?" The comments were hidden from public view and were only viewable by I andj Facebook friends. A copy offi] HER comments is attached hereto as Exhibit [X]. 55. On June 4, 2021, PETA employee NE. using a pseudonymous account, posted a series of comments to an NIH Facebook post about social deprivation and adoption. posted the following words: "monkey," "cruel," "PETA," "TORTURE," "TORTURING," "TORMENT, "ANIMALS," "NON-ANIMAL," "primates," "tests," "fake spider," "fake snake," "fright," "experiments," "vacuum," and "burn." Due to the NIH's keyword filters, the comments containing the words "monkey," "cruel," "PETA, "TORTURE," "TORTURING," "TORMENT," "ANIMALS," and {'NON-ANIMALS" were all hidden from public view. A copy oi comments is attached hereto as Exhibit [X]. 56. OnJuly 2, 2021, PETA employee| posted a series of one-word comments to an NIH Facebook post about cancer research. posted the following words: "experiments," "fright," "fake snake," "fake spider," "tests," "cruel," "primates," "primate," "non-animal," "animals," "torment," "torture," "PETA," "monkeys," and "monkey." Due to the NIH's keyword filters, comments Commented [0GC1]: I have checked each post example to confirm each example contains at least 'one word on the NIH keyword filter lists, except where indicated in comments below. The fact stipulation currently attributes these hidden comments to the filters. Please confirm to the best of your ability that each example was hidden due to the filters and not some other mechanism, such as 'through manually hiding a comment or Facebook/Instagram's own filters. oGc 2021-12-06 18:28:00 'Commented [0GC2]: "Non-animals" is not a filtered term. Please investigate whether the NIH Facebook filter "animals" hid this or whether this may have been hidden through some other mechanism, Facebook's own anti-spam filters. oGc 2021-12-06 18:12:00 Commented [FA([3R2]: it is possible this was filtered because it used the term "animals,", or Facebook may have a mechanism that hides comments when they are posted repeatedly in short succession (this would be to block bots and stop spamming). We think itis likely the latter since we have tried posting a comment "non-animals" on an NIH post and it was not blocked. Fine, Amanda (NIH/OD) [E] 2021-12-07 12:18:00