{"id":1721063,"date":"2022-11-02T08:31:23","date_gmt":"2022-11-02T12:31:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1721063"},"modified":"2022-11-02T08:36:05","modified_gmt":"2022-11-02T12:36:05","slug":"dhs-censorship-lead-believes-big-tech-has-moral-obligation-to-censor-the-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/dhs-censorship-lead-believes-big-tech-has-moral-obligation-to-censor-the-right\/","title":{"rendered":"DHS Censorship Lead Believes Big Tech Has &#8220;Moral Obligation&#8221; to Censor the Right"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdhs-censorship-lead-believes-big-tech-has-moral-obligation-to-censor-the-right%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1721063&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h4>Dr. Kate Starbird, a researcher who claims social media platforms have a \u201cmoral and ethical obligation\u201d to suppress content supporting \u201cright-wing populism,\u201d is leading the\u00a0Department of Homeland Security\u2019s efforts to counter \u201cmisinformation and disinformation,\u201d internal documents reveal.<\/h4>\n<p>Starbird also worked with the Election Integrity Partnership, which played a key role in pushing social media platforms to censor conservative users and posts \u2013 even at the request of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) \u2013 during the 2020 election cycle.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cisa.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/publications\/CSAC_Kickoff_Meeting_Summary_Open_Session-508.pdf\">uncovering<\/a> of Starbird\u2019s aversion to right-wing populism and affiliation with left-leaning groups follows a bombshell report from\u00a0<em>The Intercept\u00a0<\/em>detailing the comprehensive operations carried out by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), an operational component of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), to censor Americans on a wide variety of topics.<\/p>\n<p>Additional documents <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cisa.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/publications\/CSAC_Kickoff_Meeting_Summary_Open_Session-508.pdf\">uncovered<\/a> by WarRoom.org reveal the lead of CISA\u2019s \u201cProtecting Critical Infrastructure from Misinformation &#038; Disinformation\u201d subcommittee, which is responsible for spearheading most of the agency\u2019s censorship work.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-14732\" src=\"https:\/\/warroom.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Screen-Shot-2022-11-01-at-6.11.18-PM-300x183.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"554\" height=\"338\" srcset=\"https:\/\/warroom.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Screen-Shot-2022-11-01-at-6.11.18-PM-300x183.png 300w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Screen-Shot-2022-11-01-at-6.11.18-PM-1024x624-1.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Screen-Shot-2022-11-01-at-6.11.18-PM-768x468-1.png 768w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Screen-Shot-2022-11-01-at-6.11.18-PM-750x457-1.png 750w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Screen-Shot-2022-11-01-at-6.11.18-PM-1140x695-1.png 1140w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Screen-Shot-2022-11-01-at-6.11.18-PM.png 1224w\" \/><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hcde.washington.edu\/starbird\">Starbird<\/a>, the leader of the seven-person team which includes Twitter\u2019s former \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/technology\/2022\/05\/09\/twitter-lawyer-censor-musk\/\">Chief Censor,\u201d<\/a> is a University of Washington Professor who co-founded the school\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cip.uw.edu\/\">Center for an Informed Public.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Starbird\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cip.uw.edu\/\">Center for an Informed Public<\/a> is a leading member of the Election Integrity Partnership, a consortium that coordinated <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/tech\/2022\/10\/03\/report-election-integrity-project-worked-with-feds-to-censor-news-sites-in-2020\/\">closely<\/a> with the federal government and Democrats to help social media platforms censor stories during the 2020 election. She has repeatedly dismissed claims that the 2020 election was <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/katestarbird\/status\/1537151304413245440?s=20&#038;t=UH7noGS9sdwO4_sQInY2qg\">plagued<\/a> with <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/katestarbird\/status\/1531387642260074496?s=20&#038;t=UH7noGS9sdwO4_sQInY2qg\">fraud<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">These \u201crepeat spreaders\u201d played a significant role in the spread of false rumors &#038; conspiracy theories that metastasized as \u201cthe big lie\u201d and motivated the violent events of January 6, 2021. I\u2019ve described those dynamics here (and in papers under review): <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/AK7dD5kXIu\">https:\/\/t.co\/AK7dD5kXIu<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Kate Starbird (@katestarbird) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/katestarbird\/status\/1578067865265090561?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 6, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The Election Integrity Partnership has come under scrutiny for assembling a system that allowed state actors including the DHS and State Department to flag news stories, subsequently allowing social media platforms to either censor or attach prominent warning labels to the specified stories.<\/p>\n<p>Among the other groups filing reports through the system were the <a href=\"https:\/\/stacks.stanford.edu\/file\/druid:tr171zs0069\/EIP-Final-Report.pdf\">Democratic<\/a> National Committee as well as left-wing groups such as\u00a0Common Cause and the NAACP.<\/p>\n<p>As a result, news outlets targeted by the Election Integrity Partnership included conservative sources such as Breitbart News, Fox News, the <em>New York Post,\u00a0<\/em>and the Epoch Times, as well as the social media profiles of prominent conservatives Charlie Kirk, Mark Levin, James O\u2019Keefe, Sean Hannity, and more.<\/p>\n<p>Posts from President Donald Trump were also frequently flagged by the group, in addition to his sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr.<\/p>\n<p>Starbird has also appeared to call for broader efforts to censor \u201cmisinformation and disinformation\u201d as part of a campaign to suppress the spread of right-wing populism.<\/p>\n<div class=\"css-1dbjc4n\">\n<div class=\"css-1dbjc4n r-1s2bzr4\">During an April 2021 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thirteen.org\/openmind\/media\/how-to-demolish-the-disinformation-infrastructure\/6919\/\">interview<\/a> with Alexander Heffner on \u201cThe Open Mind,\u201d Starbird was asked about how companies including Twitter and Facebook should navigate political advertisements following the events of January 6th.<\/div>\n<p>In response, Starbird suggested that social media platforms have a \u201cmoral and ethical obligation\u201d to suppress content leading to \u201cright-wing populism\u201d:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cWe can look at a lot of the decisions that have been made by a platform like Facebook over the last four to six years and say, okay, maybe you\u2019re within the legal, you know, your legal obligations, but certainly your moral and ethical obligations are not necessarily being met by some of the actions that you\u2019re taking. [\u2026] It\u2019s not just the fact that they\u2019re monopolizing, it\u2019s the fact that they, I mean, they have this immense amount of power on a global scale in terms of shaping discourse and seems to be, we have pretty good evidence that there\u2019s some relationship to the, to, to this platform and the rise of sort of right-wing populism and some radicalization and authoritarianism in different kinds of places.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Starbird has tweeted similar sentiments, linking the spread of disinformation to the spread of right-wing populism.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are all vulnerable to disinfo. However, if we look globally at this particular moment, disinformation campaigns (no matter who they target or what particular narrative they push) are functioning to lift and support right-wing populism (&#038; authoritarian power) around the world,\u201d she tweeted in August 2019.<\/p>\n<div class=\"css-1dbjc4n\">\n<div class=\"css-1dbjc4n r-1s2bzr4\">\n<div id=\"id__wfgczu92wp\" class=\"css-901oao r-18jsvk2 r-37j5jr r-1blvdjr r-16dba41 r-vrz42v r-bcqeeo r-bnwqim r-qvutc0\" dir=\"auto\" lang=\"en\" data-testid=\"tweetText\"><span class=\"css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0\">\u201cThese two-way grievance feedback loops seem to lead to some very dark places. In addition to powering the influencers dynamics in our new media spaces, they seem to be powering (or at least supporting) the rise of populism around the world,\u201d she tweeted in <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.ph\/6rqXN\">May<\/a>.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"css-1dbjc4n\">\n<div class=\"css-1dbjc4n r-1s2bzr4\">\n<p>\nWhen asked about how to \u201cderadicalize\u201d Americans, Starbird insisted \u201cI really think we\u2019re going to have to look further, more broadly in society in terms of how and how we might go about de-radicalization or just like bringing people back together\u201d during the interview.<\/p>\n<div dir=\"auto\" lang=\"en\" data-testid=\"tweetText\">\n<h4>Watch:<\/h4>\n[embedded content]\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dr. Kate Starbird, a researcher who claims social media platforms have a \u201cmoral and ethical obligation\u201d to suppress content supporting \u201cright-wing populism,\u201d is leading the\u00a0Department of Homeland Security\u2019s efforts to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1721067,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[547],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1721063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-bongino-report"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1721063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1721063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1721063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1721067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1721063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1721063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1721063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}