Republicans tear into reports Biden is colluding with Facebook to monitor ‘disinformation’ 

Republicans and critics have condemned reports that the Biden administration is colluding with social media companies including Facebook to monitor ‘disinformation’ it deems ‘dangerous’. 

The GOP said this is further evidence that the White House wants to turn the U.S. into a ‘police state’ and carve out their own definition of the ‘truth’ called the move ‘totalitarian’. 

They also said Department of Homeland Security should be focusing its resources on other more pressing areas of concern such as securing the border. 

In a lengthy report on Monday citing internal documents that have emerged through leaks and court filings, The Intercept described what appears to be a growing focus within Department of Homeland Security on controlling online discourse.

Though the Biden administration earlier this year disbanded its controversial Disinformation Governance Board after furious backlash, the documents suggest that DHS has quietly maintained an intense interest in policing speech it deems false or dangerous.

The documents show that Facebook has a special online portal for DHS and other government officials to request content moderation, and that the federal department plans to target ‘inaccurate information’ on a wide array of topics. 

Those hot-button topics include ‘the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic and the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines, racial justice, US withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the nature of US support to Ukraine,’ according to a draft copy of DHS’s Quadrennial Homeland Security Review cited in the report.

Rep. John Katko (R-NY), Ranking Member of the House Committee on Homeland Security, told DailyMail.com that this is another ‘opaque’ effort for the Biden administration to define their version of ‘truth’. 

The new report describes a special portal that DHS officials can use to request content be removed or otherwise moderated from Facebook and Instagram

The portal, which is still active as of Tuesday evening, requires a pre-registered government email address to gain access to a priority ‘content request system’

‘Reports of DHS’ involvement in efforts to be the arbiter of truth on wide-ranging topics are extremely concerning,’ his statement read. 

‘This is not DHS’ role, as evident by the fierce backlash against and ultimate disbanding of the Disinformation Governance Board earlier this year. Simply put: The American People do not approve of the Department engaging in unclear, unaccountable, and opaque efforts led by the Biden administration’s ever-changing definition of “truth.” ‘

‘It is unfathomable to me how severely misplaced the Department of Homeland Security’s priorities continue to be. 

‘When the border crisis is reaching record-breaking levels daily, cyber-attacks from adversaries are threatening to cripple our critical infrastructure, the rise in violent crime is putting Americans across the country in danger, and disrupted supply chains are having devastating impacts on Americans, DHS cannot seem to let go of the desire to police Americans’ free speech. 

‘As for the critical DHS components involved in this underground effort, I would advise they avoid politicizing themselves any further at the risk of jeopardizing their ability to carry out their vital missions. Homeland Republicans continue to engage DHS to get answers and will continue to conduct intense oversight. We will continue to demand the highest levels of transparency by DHS with Congress and the public.’

‘There is nothing more “dangerous” than a government monitoring and shaping what its citizens say in public forums,’ Republican Congressman Andy Biggs told DailyMail.com

‘This report is just another example of the Biden Regime’s desire to turn our great nation into a police state. Its actions are totalitarian and un-American.

‘I can assure Biden’s DHS that my colleagues in Congress and I will be taking action to halt these censorship practices.’

Republican Congressman Kevin Hern also said: ‘A man who can’t remember where he went to college wants to fact-check you on social media. If it weren’t so corrupt and dangerous, the irony would be profound.’ 

‘The left has declared war on free speech, proven by their refusal to launch an investigation into the origins of the DHS disinformation board, but sunlight is the best disinfectant,’ Rep. Buddy Carter told DailyMail.com

‘House Republicans have committed to building a government that’s accountable when we retake the majority. Washington Democrats won’t be able to hide behind their shroud of secrecy much longer.’

James Czerniawski, a senior policy analyst in Technology and Innovation at Americans for Prosperity, told DailyMail.com: ‘We should be wary of seeking government solutions to issues surrounding social media when it is blatantly apparent the apparatus of government can be politically leveraged. In order to start tackling the problems of Big Tech, we need to start with tackling Big Government. 

‘They are the only institution with a monopoly on force and represent a true threat to companies via regulation or litigation or increased scrutiny. The sooner we revert to a government that respects the boundary between the public and private sectors, the better.’ 

The ambition of those plans, and the inherently political nature of some of the topics in question, such as the Afghan withdrawal, are drawing concerns from free speech advocates. 

They fear that DHS could stray over the line from policing foreign disinformation campaigns, and into censorship of opposing viewpoints. 

‘There is growing evidence that the legislative and executive branch officials are using social media companies to engage in censorship by surrogate,’ Jonathan Turley, a professor of law at George Washington University, told The Intercept. 

‘It is axiomatic that the government cannot do indirectly what it is prohibited from doing directly. If government officials are directing or facilitating such censorship, it raises serious First Amendment questions.’ 

CISA’s domain, and its definition of ‘infrastructure’, appears to have swiftly expanded under President Joe Biden’s appointee to lead the agency, Jen Easterly (above in 2021)

Spokespersons for Facebook’s parent company Meta, Twitter, and DHS did not immediately respond to requests for comment from DailyMail.com on Tuesday evening.

Twitter told The Intercept in a statement: ‘We do not coordinate with other entities when making content moderation decisions, and we independently evaluate content in line with the Twitter Rules.’ 

The new report describes a special portal that DHS officials can use to request content be removed or otherwise moderated from Facebook and Instagram, which are both owned by Meta.

The portal, which is still active as of Tuesday evening, requires a pre-registered government email address to gain access to a priority ‘content request system’.

The report indicates that most of the government’s work on disinformation is taking place within the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), a DHS sub-agency created during the Trump administration with a broad mandate to protect US infrastructure.

But CISA’s domain, and its definition of ‘infrastructure’, appears to have swiftly expanded under President Joe Biden’s appointee to lead the agency, Jen Easterly. 

‘One could argue we’re in the business of critical infrastructure, and the most critical infrastructure is our cognitive infrastructure, so building that resilience to misinformation and disinformation, I think, is incredibly important,’ Easterly said at a conference in November 2021. 

CISA officials have argued that it is vital to protect Americans from foreign campaigns to spread false or dangerous information.

Officials categorize that dangerous speech as misinformation (false information spread unintentionally), disinformation (false information spread intentionally), and malinformation (factual information shared with ill intent, often out of context).

And with the midterm elections looming in one week, defenders of crackdowns on disinformation point to a documented history of foreign influence campaigns attempting to trick Americans with phony social media accounts. 

Still, the dangers of such crackdowns were illustrated in the closing days of the 2020 election, when Twitter and Facebook limited or banned sharing of the New York Post’s reports on Hunter Biden’s international business dealings.

Initially described as foreign disinformation, the contents of the abandoned laptop that formed the basis of the reporting were later verified by DailyMail.com and other news outlets as authentic. 

Many of the documents cited by The Information came to light through a lawsuit filed last month by the attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana, who are both Republicans.

Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry (left) and Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt (right) filed a suit last month accusing the Biden administration of working with social media companies to censor disfavored viewpoints. Both AGs are Republicans 

Landry and Schmitt announced last month that they were adding 47 more defendants on top of the 20 that were already named in the wide-ranging suit

The suit accuses the Biden administration of having ‘worked hand-in-hand’ with social media giants to ‘censor’ news stories that reflect negatively on the White House .

‘Throughout this case, we have uncovered a disturbing amount of collusion between Big Tech and Big Government,’ Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry said in a statement announcing the suit.

‘This egregious attack on our First Amendment will be met with an equally full-hearted defense of the rights of the American people.’

Biden, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, Dr. Anthony Fauci and Nina Jankowicz, who was meant to head Biden’s now-defunct Disinformation Governance Board, are among the dozens of defendants listed in the suit. 

The suit alleges that the Biden administration actively worked with social media companies and encouraged them to censor ‘disfavored’ viewpoints and speakers in violation of the First Amendment rights of those individuals.