{"id":1748337,"date":"2022-11-22T14:55:33","date_gmt":"2022-11-22T19:55:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1748337"},"modified":"2022-11-22T15:03:05","modified_gmt":"2022-11-22T20:03:05","slug":"republican-senators-warn-biden-admin-running-covert-censorship-operation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/republican-senators-warn-biden-admin-running-covert-censorship-operation\/","title":{"rendered":"Republican Senators Warn Biden Admin Running Covert Censorship Operation"},"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\">18<\/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%2Frepublican-senators-warn-biden-admin-running-covert-censorship-operation%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=1748337&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--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/US-NEWS-USUKRAINE-ABA-scaled-e1663100355359.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Sens. Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and five other Republican senators <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rubio.senate.gov\/public\/index.cfm\/press-releases?id=7705DA07-4708-45E0-8555-2A116C778D6F\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">warned<\/a> that President Joe Biden\u2019s administration is running a covert \u201cgovernment censorship\u201d operation even after the controversial launch and then collapse of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Disinformation Governance Board.<\/p>\n<p>In the letter send to Biden on Monday, the senators wrote that they have \u201cgrave concern regarding recent reports of actions taken by your administration to collude with social media platforms to censor Americans\u2019 speech under the guise of \u2018misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation.&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYour administration has actively pursued an end-run around of the First Amendment in a coordinated effort that has culminated in social media platforms censoring Americans\u2019 speech at the request of the government and through backdoor channels, without regard for Americans\u2019 civil liberties,\u201d the letter stated. \u201cIt is not, and should not be, the responsibility of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), or any government agency, to be the final arbiters of what speech can be deemed true or acceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The senators highlighted the Biden administration\u2019s Disinformation Governance Board, which was dissolved following bipartisan pressure. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cHowever, instead of heeding extensive criticism of the board, it appears efforts to censor Americans\u2019 speech have only been driven further underground, where the censorship campaign has continued free from public scrutiny and without transparency,\u201d the letter continued. <\/p>\n<p>The senators warned that \u201cdespite the dissolution of the Disinformation Governance Board, the censorship operation actually expanded to other agencies, including at the newly minted \u2018Misinformation, Disinformation and Malinformation\u2019 team within the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), whose mission is to \u2018counter all types of disinformation, [and] to be responsive to current events.&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The senators also accused the administration of \u201csystematically and improperly\u201d pressuring social media companies to achieve its censorship goals through moderating content, limiting free speech and controlling what Americans see online. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn fact, <a href=\"https:\/\/americanmilitarynews.com\/2022\/10\/facebook-has-special-govt-censorship-portal-for-govt-to-request-takedowns\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Facebook developed a portal<\/a> specifically designed to identify and process content that officials of the U.S. government flag as problematic,\u201d the letter noted. <\/p>\n<p>In October, The Intercept <a href=\"https:\/\/12ft.io\/proxy?q=https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2022\/10\/31\/social-media-disinformation-dhs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reported<\/a> that the Disinformation Governance Board was only the most visible part of escalating government efforts to monitor and manipulate online discussion, including some mentioned in the senators\u2019 letter. These efforts are especially growing in the Department of Homeland Security as its \u201cwar on terror\u201d mandate concludes, according to the Intercept.<\/p>\n<p>The Republican senators\u2019 letter also highlights the Office of Digital Engagement under the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Personnel there are determining whether information being spread about CBP \u201cthrough social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter is accurate,\u201d according to the letter.<\/p>\n<p>Other counter-disinformation teams are working at the Secret Service, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Science and Technology Directorate, according to the letter. The Intercept\u2019s reporting also indicates those agencies have expanded to encompass handling disinformation.<\/p>\n<p>The senators asked Biden in the letter for detailed transparency into his administration\u2019s work against so-called misinformation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen the federal government colludes with social media platforms behind closed doors to censor Americans\u2019 speech, it sets a dangerous precedent that cannot be easily undone,\u201d the senators added. \u201cWithout transparency, authoritarians masquerading as elected officials will continue their campaign of pressuring social media platforms to censor content that is not government approved, chilling free speech and causing irreparable damage to democratic institutions in the process.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sens. Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and five other Republican senators warned that President Joe Biden\u2019s administration is running a covert \u201cgovernment censorship\u201d operation even after the controversial launch and then<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1748341,"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-1748337","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\/1748337","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=1748337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1748337\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1748341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1748337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1748337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1748337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}