NVIC to FTC: Restore Freedom of Speech to NVIC and Americans Sharing Vaccine Information Online

On May 21, 2025, NVIC submitted a written public comment to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) written by NVIC’s Co-founder & President Barbara Loe Fisher in response to an FTC’s Request for Public Comments Regarding Technology Platform Censorship in order for the agency “to better understand how technology platforms deny or degrade (such as by “demonetizing” and “shadow banning”) users’ access to services based on the content of the users’ speech or their affiliations, including activities that take place outside the platform.” In the statement, Barbara provided evidence for the increased censorship that NVIC has been subjected to since 2020 in the digital public square.

Online Censorship of NVIC Began in 2020. Attached to NVIC’s public comment to the FTC is a special report on censorship The Silencing of Barbara Loe Fisher and the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) in the Digital Public Square: A Violation of Freedom of Thought, Speech and Conscience, which was submitted to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee on Nov. 1, 2023 and also was submitted as part of Barbara’s testimony at a public roundtable in the Senate sponsored by Sen. Ron Johnson on Feb. 26, 2024. Anchored with over 400 references, the report details how NVIC began to be targeted for online censorship after sponsoring the online Fifth International Public Conference on Vaccination: Protecting Health and Autonomy in the 21^st Century in October 2020. By the end of 2021, NVIC had been removed from all four major social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and You Tube) and, today, is only able to communicate on “X” after Elon Musk purchased Twitter and restored NVIC’s account in February 2023.

Barbara concluded the public comment by stating that “There is no greater calling for Americans in the 21^st century than to defend those civil and natural rights that protect against tyranny. We appeal to the Federal Trade Commission to take steps to restore freedom of speech to the National Vaccine Information Center and those Americans sharing information about vaccine science, policy and law that I and NVIC publish on our websites and on social media and communications platforms in the digital public square.”

Read the entire referenced public comment HERE