The biggest fear among Democrats heading into the 2024 presidential election is the freedoms Americans enjoy under the Constitution. Americans’ personal experiences under the Biden administration and their ability to decide who they want for president has Democrats twisted in knots.
Democrats haven’t been able to sway Americans the way they want despite trying everything they can to control voters. Democrats have even used the power of the White House to create new ways to suppress Americans’ rights.
Biden’s administration even tried to create a special team to censor free speech. He appointed leftist allies to a new panel that worked with big tech in never-before-seen ways to stifle free discussion of ideas in America. The depth of the censorship was revealed in private meetings before Congress.
From the Washington Examiner:
A left-wing researcher who chaired a since-dissolved Department of Homeland Security “misinformation” panel accused of facilitating censorship directly advised social media companies on content moderation policies, Kate Starbird testified to Congress behind closed doors.Starbird, a professor leading the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public to investigate “disinformation” and “misinformation,” has faced heightened scrutiny from House Republicans for her roles with the Election Integrity Partnership, which worked to suppress speech before the 2020 election, and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) defunct Misinformation and Disinformation Subcommittee.
The depth of Starbird’s direct involvement in the Big Tech content moderation attempts was exposed with the revealing of the transcript from an interview last summer. She provided the information to the House Judiciary Committee, which has not been publicly released. The Washington Examiner gained exclusive access to the details.
Starbird agreed to testify voluntarily to the GOP-led panel. Afterward the committee published a report through its Weaponization of the Federal Government Subcommittee accusing CISA of having “colluded with Big Tech and ‘disinformation’ partners to censor Americans.” The report referenced Starbird 41 times related to her role on the CISA panel. The report also included ex-Twitter executive Vijaya Gadde, who was credited with the digital suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story.
Starbird went public last week to describe the concerted efforts to censor Americans’ free speech. The former professional women’s basketball player spilled her spin during a 60 Minutes segment on CBS.
Republicans slammed the liberal-leaning network for not disclosing Starbird’s role on the CISA panel. They also pointed out that her University of Washington program was given $2.25 million in 2021 from the National Science Foundation “to mitigate online disinformation.”
Starbird’s efforts to influence censorship within social media fall into a web of connections with federal agencies. This includes CISA working with the U.S. State Department-housed Global Engagement Center flagging “misinformation” reports to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other platforms in 2020, according to data reported by the Washington Examiner. The FBI also collaborated with the EIP and the panel under CISA.
CISA in 2020 began “notifying social media platforms or appropriate law enforcement officials when voting-related disinformation appeared in social media,” according to the inspector general’s office for the DHS.
According to the congressional transcript, Starbird said, “No,” to a question on whether she ever drafted any social media content moderation policies. She did state that she will “have a conversation with almost anybody.”
Starbird, in a statement to the Washington Examiner, said the House committee has not made her testimony available to the public and she could not comment on the “accuracy of your description of the interview.”
Republicans on the House committee weren’t buying her explanation of how censorship was being pursued against Americans by CISA and others involved.
“Congress is still exposing the extent of the detailed coordination platform between Big Tech platforms and the Censorship Industrial Complex,” Issa said. “Rather than promote free speech and free expression, this partnership was dedicated to denying it to those it did not favor.”
Key Takeaways:
- Federal agencies were exposed for suppressing free speech during the last election.
- A University of Washington professor was linked to advising Big Tech on censorship.
- A leading Republican said federal agencies worked to deny free speech and expression.
Source: Washington Examiner
