Calling Out Private Censors, Weaponization Committee Signals It Won’t Stop With FBI-Twitter Collusion

The second hearing of the Select Committee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government was held Thursday. It centered on the “Twitter Files” This exposed corporate-government collusion in Twitter’s censorship regime. The three-hour hearing revealed that the public-private partnership extends far beyond the major platforms based in Silicon Valley.

Substack journalists Matt Taibbi (independent) and Michael Shellenberger (independent), gave evidence to lawmakers. They were the primary reporters that published the series following Elon Musk’s takeover of the platform. They shared their views on how the federal government uses private tech firms to regulate speech.

“We learned Twitter, Facebook, Google, and other companies developed a formal system for taking in moderation requests from every corner of government, from the FBI, the DHS, the HHS, DoD, the Global Engagement Center at State, even the CIA,” Taibbi spoke in his Opening statement. “A focus of this fast-growing network, as Mike noted, is making lists of people whose opinions, beliefs, associations, or sympathies are deemed ‘misinformation,’ ‘disinformation,’ or ‘malinformation.’ That latter term is just a euphemism for ‘true but inconvenient.'”

Taibbi outlined how an entire industry has been created to suppress dissident speech through the use of labels “misinformation.”

[RELATED: Democrats Desperate To Implement Censorship Regime Disregard Free Speech In Weaponization Hearing]

“For every government agency scanning Twitter,” Taibbi said: “there were perhaps 20 quasi-private entities doing the same, including Stanford’s Election Integrity Project, NewsGuard, the Global Disinformation Index, and others, many taxpayer-funded.”

The Global Disinformation Index (GDI), a British group, compiles secretive lists from news organizations. This index encourages large corporations to boycott. Advertisers seeking to advertise their products online should contract with such organizations. “disinformation” For advice on which websites you should hire, please contact the groups. The index maintains a list of websites that are available for hire. Blacklisted websites that include The Federalist, The American Spectator, Newsmax, The American Conservative, One America News, The Blaze, The Daily Wire, RealClearPolitics, Reason, and the New York Post.

GDI came under the spotlight last month when The Washinton Examiner’s Gabe Kaminsky published a series on the index’s Finance U.S. State Department

“The Department of State has funded a deep-pocketed ‘disinformation’ tracking group that is secretly blacklisting and trying to defund conservative media, likely costing the news organizations vital advertising dollars,” Kaminsky reportedGDI has brought in $330,000 in American taxpayers dollars.

NewsGuard is another group for censorship that is funded by federal tax dollars. It aims at discrediting websites critical of establishment narratives. While GDI works closely with advertisers to help them decide where to spend their marketing budgets. NewsGuard is a browser extension which rates the credibility and legitimacy of news organizations. This software is currently being used in schools across the country to downgrade conservative websites and offer other useful features. perfect scores To legacy outlets that failed to pick up the Hunter Biden laptop story. NewsGuard received a nearly $250,000 grant in September 2021. Contract worth $750,000 From the Department of Defense

Thursday’s hearing saw lawmakers examine the influence of two disinformation groups. While Big Tech was still the main focus of Thursday’s hearing, Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz indicated that the panel would look into disinformation beyond major platforms.

“What is NewsGuard and how are they part of the censorship industrial complex?” asked Gaetz.

“NewsGuard and the Disinformation Index are both U.S. government-funded entities who are working to drive advertiser revenue away from disfavored publications and towards the ones that they favor,” Shellenberger answered.

“What you’re describing now, is literally the directing of revenue to certain media companies over other media companies, designed and implemented with U.S. government funding and support,” Gaetz described the effort as “unspeakable”, “astonishing.”

“If we do not take a look at NewsGuard, we have failed,” Gaetz added.

Tristan Justice, western correspondent of The Federalist, is also the author and editor of Social Justice Redux (a conservative newsletter about culture, health and wellness). He also wrote for The Washington Examiner as well as The Daily Signal. His work was also featured in Real Clear Politics, Fox News and Fox News. Tristan is a graduate of George Washington University. He majored and minored both in journalism and political science. Follow him on Twitter at @JusticeTristan or contact him at [email protected]. Get Tristan’s email newsletter Here.