Friday’s bombshell release of Twitter’s internal documents demonstrating how the Biden campaign and Twitter staffers connived to subvert the 2020 election is sucking most of the oxygen out of social media today (BREAKING: Elon Musk Spills the Tea on Twitter’s Suppression of the Hunter Biden Laptop Story). The revelations that confirm what conservatives have long claimed to be the case are a breath of fresh air. Unfortunately, they overshadow another investigation by Missouri Senator Josh Hawley and Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley that show that federal bureaucrats are working behind the scenes to limit what Americans can read and talk about.
The Hawley-Grassley investigation’s focus was not on social media, per se, but on the practice of some federal agencies becoming actively involved in suppressing content that was not helpful to their aims. The primary means of doing this started out as the Disinformation Governance Board run by the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency; see Creepy-Sounding ‘Disinformation Board’ Faces Heavy Criticism; Elon Musk Calls it ‘Discomforting.’
Thanks to Hawley, we found that social media outlets had created a “portal” where the FBI and other agencies could order the take-down of offending posts (Leaked Documents Show DHS, the FBI, and Social Media Platforms Worked Together to Stop Debate on COVID, Hunter’s Laptop, and Election Integrity). We also know that foreign governments had access to that portal, but we don’t know which ones.
https://twitter.com/BernieSpofforth/status/1598260779907973120
Thanks to the security, the “Disinformation Governance Board” was disbanded, at least in its current form (IN MY ORBIT: Nina Jankowicz Goes, ‘Bye Bye!’ as DHS Puts the Disinformation Board on Pause ) and its rather bizarre “director” (IN MY ORBIT: ‘Minister of Truth’ Nina Jankowicz Is as Dangerous, as She Is Ridiculous; You’ve Been Warned) went off to another career as a registered agent of a foreign government (Joe Biden’s Much-Hyped Disinformation Czar Becomes a Foreign Agent).
Senator Hawley sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security jefe Mayorkas with some pretty pointed questions concerning his agency’s role in suppressing free speech.
Sec Mayorkas told me under oath that the Disinfo Board hadn’t met yet back in May. But DHS emails reveal their Disinfo “Steering Group” held weekly meetings starting as early as February. The Board was up and running pic.twitter.com/YG5Z6ob8a6
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) November 30, 2022
Senator Hawley’s entire questioning of Mayorkas is in the video. It is cued up to the question to which Mayorkas lied about.
The documents show that coordination was underway between Jankowicz and colleagues and the Facebook official responsible for stomping on the Hunter Biden laptop story even as Mayorkas claimed the board was not yet functioning.
DHS's collusion with Big Tech went much deeper than we knew. The Board discussed an “analytic exchange” with Big Tech, and emails reveal plans for a meeting with the Facebook official who suppressed the @newyorkpost Hunter Biden story pic.twitter.com/rqUzllHoUs
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) November 30, 2022
The Disinformation Governance Board also coordinated directly with Democrat dark money groups about policy.
That’s not all. The Disinfo Board was partnering with Dem dark money groups too. The Omidyar Network, a dark money outfit that has funneled millions of dollars into Dem advocacy groups, sent the Board memos trying to shape Board policy pic.twitter.com/pmgLDWueK0
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) November 30, 2022
Omidyar’s influence is widespread on the left. It also funds that bastion of conserving conservatism, The Bulwark. I’ve been told he is the sugar daddy for another site run by some former writers at a prominent conservative publication, but that is just rumor.
The Twitter revelations need to be read side-by-side with Hawley’s investigation. The Twitter documents show how decisions were made inside that corporation. Hawley is showing how Twitter was just one of many social media outlets working as an unofficial arm of the federal government to censor the news available to Americans.
Senator Hawley’s Letter to Secretary Majorkas
2022-11-30 Senator Hawley Letter to DHS by streiff at redstate on Scribd
