{"id":2284132,"date":"2024-06-26T16:38:02","date_gmt":"2024-06-26T20:38:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/scotus-lets-the-foreign-interference-crowd-keep-peddling-hoaxes\/"},"modified":"2024-06-26T16:38:02","modified_gmt":"2024-06-26T20:38:02","slug":"scotus-lets-the-foreign-interference-crowd-keep-peddling-hoaxes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/scotus-lets-the-foreign-interference-crowd-keep-peddling-hoaxes\/","title":{"rendered":"SCOTUS Lets The &#8216;Foreign Interference&#8217; Crowd Keep Peddling Hoaxes"},"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%2Fscotus-lets-the-foreign-interference-crowd-keep-peddling-hoaxes%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=2284132&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--><p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The federal government and its allies have lost all credibility in determining what constitutes foreign election interference after using their \u201cfindings\u201d to trample on free speech. But thanks to the Supreme Court\u2019s decision in <em>Murthy v. Missouri<\/em> on Wednesday, the federal government can resume shutting down Americans\u2019 speech under the guise of preventing \u201cforeign disinformation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Missouri and Louisiana <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/06\/26\/scotus-green-lights-feds-big-tech-censorship-scheme-ahead-of-2024-election\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">argued<\/a> the Biden administration\u2019s collusion with Big Tech companies to silence disfavored speech violated the First Amendment. Among other things, the Biden administration <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/07\/27\/emails-biden-white-house-pressured-big-tech-censors-to-remove-vaxx-memes-tucker-carlson-videos\/\">as<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/07\/27\/emails-biden-white-house-pressured-big-tech-censors-to-remove-vaxx-memes-tucker-carlson-videos\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">k<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/07\/27\/emails-biden-white-house-pressured-big-tech-censors-to-remove-vaxx-memes-tucker-carlson-videos\/\">ed<\/a> Big Tech to censor posts that went against the government\u2019s narrative about Covid-19. <\/p>\n<p>The high court ruled 6-3  that the plaintiffs lacked standing. <\/p>\n<p>As CNN <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2024\/06\/26\/politics\/social-media-disinformation-supreme-court-ruling\/index.html\">explained<\/a>, \u201cthe decision means that the Department of Homeland Security may continue to flag posts to social media companies such as Facebook and X that it believes may be the work of foreign agents seeking to disrupt this year\u2019s presidential race.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The opinion itself, authored by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, uncritically <a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/opinions\/23pdf\/23-411_3dq3.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">referred<\/a> to Facebook\u2019s \u201cmeasures to counter foreign interference campaigns\u201d and the FBI\u2019s communications to Big Tech firms warning of \u201cpernicious foreign influence campaigns that might spread on their sites.\u201d Even though those warnings actually served to censor an American newspaper\u2019s accurate reporting about then-presidential candidate Joe Biden\u2019s influence-peddling, the court concluded that such censorship may continue.<\/p>\n<p>It wasn\u2019t just the bombshell story sourced to Hunter Biden\u2019s laptop that the censors \u201cgot wrong.\u201d Recent memory offers several examples of media, government, and tech gatekeepers weaponizing false claims of \u201cforeign interference\u201d to malign \u2014 and sometimes silence \u2014 opponents.<\/p>\n<h2>Hamilton 68<\/h2>\n<p>The Hamilton 68 <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/04\/10\/corporate-media-hate-anonymous-online-posts-because-they-hate-free-speech\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">dashboard<\/a> purported to track \u201cRussian influence activities\u201d on Twitter \u2014 but what it actually did was smear hundreds of <em>real <\/em>right-leaning users as fake Russian accounts. Twitter\u2019s former head of trust and safety, Yoel Roth, told colleagues in 2018 that \u201cthe Hamilton dashboard \u2018falsely accuses a bunch of legitimate right-leaning accounts of being Russian bots,\u201d as reported by <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/mtaibbi\/status\/1619029780179075073\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Matt Taibbi<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The Washington Post in 2018 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/business\/technology\/indictment-shows-how-russians-conspired-to-disrupt-us-politics--but-not-how-to-stop-them-next-time\/2018\/02\/16\/b56b08a2-1355-11e8-8ea1-c1d91fcec3fe_story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">published<\/a> an article citing Hamilton 68 to claim that a Twitter movement to \u201c#ReleaseTheMemo\u201d regarding the FBI\u2019s surveillance on the Trump campaign was driven by \u201cRussian disinformation\u201d bots. As it turned out, the accounts were \u201cneither strongly Russian nor strongly bots.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Speaking with the Post, Director of UT-Austin\u2019s Propaganda Research Lab Samuel Woolley hinted at a need for Big Tech censorship, using the dashboard\u2019s erroneous findings to claim social media companies need to \u201cdesign for democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Notably, Woolley\u2019s work has been <a href=\"https:\/\/mediaengagement.org\/team\/samuel-c-woolley\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">funded<\/a> by Open Society Foundations, which was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.influencewatch.org\/non-profit\/open-society-foundations\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">founded<\/a> by George Soros and gives grants to left-wing advocacy groups.<\/p>\n<h2>Hunter Biden Laptop<\/h2>\n<p>Weeks before the 2020 election, 51 \u201cintelligence officials\u201d signed onto a letter falsely suggesting the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation. In part, the letter <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2020\/10\/19\/hunter-biden-story-russian-disinfo-430276\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">claimed<\/a> the laptop had \u201call the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Then-senior adviser to Biden\u2019s campaign Antony Blinken triggered the creation of that letter, according to former deputy director of the <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/04\/21\/ex-cia-official-blinken-prompted-infamous-intel-statement-calling-hunter-biden-laptop-russian-disinfo\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">CIA Michael Morell<\/a>, who also signed onto the infamous letter. Not only had the FBI <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/06\/22\/fbi-knew-hunter-bidens-laptop-was-authentic-a-year-before-pressuring-big-tech-to-censor-it\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">authenticated<\/a> the laptop as early as November 2019, but the laptop has since been <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/06\/12\/hunter-biden-trial-is-a-conviction-of-every-deep-state-lie-about-hunters-laptop\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">used as evidence<\/a> against Hunter Biden in a federal gun case.<\/p>\n<p>Still, before the story dropped, the FBI had gone to social media companies warning them of so-called \u201cRussian propaganda\u201d and \u201chack-and-leak operations\u201d by \u201cstate actors.\u201d Like clockwork, both <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/12\/03\/twitter-files-confirm-big-tech-leftists-suppressed-hunter-biden-laptop-story-ahead-of-2020-election\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Twitter<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/thefdrlst.wpengine.com\/2020\/10\/14\/facebook-is-now-officially-censoring-the-new-york-posts-hunter-biden-bombshell\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Facebook<\/a> throttled the reach of the story, with the latter\u2019s CEO Mark Zuckerberg <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/08\/26\/confirmed-fbi-colluded-with-big-tech-to-prevent-voters-from-learning-about-hunter-bidens-laptop\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">admitting<\/a> in 2022 that the company suppressed the story because of the FBI\u2019s warning.<\/p>\n<h2>Russiagate<\/h2>\n<p>Back in 2016, the media and intelligence apparatus used false claims of \u201cforeign interference\u201d to discredit Donald Trump and his election victory.<\/p>\n<p>The narrative falsely accused then-presidential candidate Donald <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/04\/23\/prosecutors-accuse-trump-of-criminal-scheme-to-corrupt-2016-election-while-russia-hoaxers-walk-free\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Trump<\/a> of being a Russian asset, after Hillary Clinton\u2019s campaign lawyers and the DNC commissioned a dossier of fake opposition research and then shopped it to the FBI. (The \u201cprimary sub-source\u201d on which former British spy Christopher Steele based his infamous \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/10\/12\/even-after-offering-1m-fbi-never-got-corroboration-of-russia-dossier-they-used-to-spy-on-trump\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Steele dossier<\/a>\u201d was an <em>actual<\/em> Russian, Igor Danchenko, who was later indicted for lying to the FBI.) <\/p>\n<p>The agency \u2014 which, thanks to the Supreme Court, can now resume its censorship operations \u2014 used the \u201cresearch\u201d to illegally spy on the Trump campaign. Then-chairman of the Intelligence Committee Devin Nunes released a report in 2018 <a href=\"https:\/\/thefdrlst.wpengine.com\/2019\/12\/10\/ig-report-confirms-schiff-fisa-memo-media-praised-was-riddled-with-lies\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">showing<\/a> the FBI obtained surveillance warrants against former Trump campaign staffer Carter Page via a secret FISA court. This report was later corroborated by Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>   Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The federal government and its allies have lost all credibility in determining what constitutes foreign election interference after using their \u201cfindings\u201d to trample on free speech. But thanks to the Supreme Court\u2019s decision in Murthy v. Missouri on Wednesday, the federal government can resume shutting down Americans\u2019 speech under the guise of preventing \u201cforeign disinformation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":2284133,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/49896915791_d8ab0ced45_k-e1719433565178.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2284132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/49896915791_d8ab0ced45_k-e1719433565178.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2284132","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\/74"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2284132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2284132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2284133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2284132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2284132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2284132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}