Image Credit: Rep. Jim Jordan / Facebook
The Center Square [By Casey Harper] –
The Biden administration’s collusion with social media companies and others to censor speech related to COVID-19, election integrity and other issues “was far more pervasive and destructive” than initially thought, a key witness and sitting U.S. senator testified at a Thursday Congressional hearing.
Republicans on the subcommittee called it “the largest speech censorship operation in recent history.”
“Their censorship has extended to critical topics like how best to respond to COVID-19 and even to elections themselves,” said Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who leads the relevant subcommittee.
Two states filed suit against the Biden administration over the issue last year in Louisiana and Missouri v. Biden et al. Missouri’s former attorney general and current U.S. Sen. Eric Schmitt testified at the hearing regarding that lawsuit and the information they’ve found.
“Discovery obtained by Missouri and Louisiana demonstrated that the Biden administration’s coordination with social media companies and collusion with non-governmental organizations to censor speech was far more pervasive and destructive than ever known,” Schmitt said.
A major catalyst for the Congressional interest in censorship claims has been billionaire Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter and subsequent release of a series of “Twitter Files,” document dumps from the social media companies’ records showing a strong relationship between the federal government and Twitter to censor viewpoints, mostly on the conservative side of the political spectrum.
Matt Taibbi, the journalist who initially was given the Twitter files to break online, testified before Congress recently. Jordan raised what has become a major controversy and criticized as federal intimidation: while Taibbi was testifying, IRS agents showed up at his home.
Jordan called it an “unlikely coincidence.”
“It certainly appears to be just the latest example of the weaponization of the federal government against the American people, and it shows the need for this subcommittee and its work to proceed no matter how robust the opposition,” he said.
The ongoing effort has been called a “taxpayer-funded censorship campaign” by critics who argue it could violate the First Amendment.
Matthew Seligman, a Constitutional Law Center Fellow at Stanford Law School, testified at the hearing and pushed back on the claim that the First Amendment was violated. He argued that the decision was ultimately up to the companies themselves and that “there was no threatened adverse governmental action attached to those suggestions.”
The House Oversight Committee has also launched an investigation into the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which worked with the big tech companies and the Democratic National Committee to have posts censored.
“CISA is framing any dissenting opinion disseminated online as a cyber threat to critical infrastructure,” the Oversight Committee said in a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. “CISA leverages partnerships with left-leaning private organizations – who have received millions of dollars in federal money – to identify and then take action against political speech unfavorable to the Administration, especially around its handling of COVID-19 policy.”
But the censorship was not restricted to one agency. The FBI reportedly warned social media companies just before the 2020 presidential election that the Hunter Biden laptop story would soon break but that it was disinformation. The laptop has since been verified and many details of the story are continuing to be validated.
As The Center Square previously reported, The White House has downplayed its own role in encouraging tech companies’ censorship, but former Press Secretary Jen Psaki admitted the White House had a hand in regulating information.
“We are in regular touch with the social media platforms and those engagements typically happen through members of our senior staff and also members of our COVID-19 team, given as Dr. Murthy conveyed, this is a big issue of misinformation specifically on the pandemic,” Psaki said at a press briefing in July 2021, referring to the U.S. surgeon general, Dr. Vivk Murthy.
About the Author:Casey Harper, The Center Square D.C. Bureau Reporter – charper@centersquare.com ~ Harper is a Senior Reporter for the Washington, D.C. Bureau. He previously worked for The Daily Caller, The Hill, and Sinclair Broadcast Group. A graduate of Hillsdale College, Casey’s work has also appeared in Fox News, Fox Business, and USA Today.
One Response
** C E N S O R S H I P ** probably the biggest game going on in the U S A , and attacks on Political Dissidents , such as Financial Sabotage , Setting a person’s house on Fire . Acts of INTIMIDATION . I literally had somebody behind me at the grocery store . I wasn’t saying a thing , and she told me “ You need to shut the F’k up “
FUSION CENTERS PATRIOT ACT etc ALL ABOUT CENSORSHIP .
Some people may not know this , but some of us really have their attention; HYPER – SURVEILLANCE , their DRONES are zeroed in on us , they can even hear us breathe ( possibly ) , so I use this as a platform to preach ; and tell my story over and over and over and over and over and o v e …………. FORCED ILLEGAL ADOPTION of CHILDREN .
This by persons associated with the DEEP STATE / Freemasons ( my children ) , arranged by my ex wife’s parents ( by way of Adoption ) , their background UNKNOWN ? ¿
People coming from all walks of life are working at this , being paid for these ‘ stunts ‘ , COLLEGE STUDENTS , CHURCH PEOPLE , HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS , LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS etc….. it’s quick $$$$$$ is my guess , or getting some fine or criminal offense reduced
I am now in Pensacola , my children ? T I Williamfdraper at skiff dot com