Lawmakers Expand Investigations Into Feds’ Censorship Cutouts

In the last 24, hours members of Congress sent two letters seeking information on different ways government employees commandeer private organizations to censor Americans’ speech online.

On Thursday, Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., asked executives at Google, Instagram, Meta, Microsoft, Snapchat, TikTok, and X (formerly Twitter) to disclose government demands for removing Americans’ speech from their platforms. On Friday, the House Oversight Committee sought additional records from NewsGuard, a federally funded company that works to eliminate readership and revenue for outlets that report information that contradicts Democrat narratives.

Schmitt’s letter asks the social media monopolies to disclose if their companies have “experienced any pressure from government actors to censor user content in recent weeks,” to indicate whether they have “changed any policies in the last twelve months related to election integrity,” and to share any records these companies keep of when public officials and political parties ask the companies to limit or remove social media posts or hashtags.

Investigative journalism such as the Twitter Files and litigation in Murthy v. Missouri have revealed that dozens of federal agencies all the way up to the White House constantly pressure social media monopolies to remove posts and hashtags sharing government-disfavored ideas. The platforms now also deploy artificial intelligence to limit politically disfavored speech online. These disfavored ideas include observations that men and women are different, concerns about election integrity, or information that indicates people from different cultures sometimes live differently.

The Supreme Court failed to stop this government commandeering of private companies, which even involved direct White House threats of prosecution and bankruptcy if they didn’t comply. Now Murthy is back in a lower federal court awaiting further discovery.

Schmitt’s letter responds to an October demand from Spygate hoaxer Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and seven other Democrat representatives that social media monopolies increase censorship leading into the 2024 election. Schmitt notes that former Democrat presidential candidate John Kerry told the World Economic Forum weeks ago that “our First Amendment stands as a major block” to suppressing speech that Democrats dislike.

Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer noted in his committee’s letter that federal agencies have dramatically increased their use of counterterrorism tools against Americans’ speech in recent years, falsely describing disagreement with the government as “misinformation” and “disinformation.” It’s common for federal agencies to task allegedly private nonprofits and companies such as NewsGuard with such efforts. Such entities are not subject to the First Amendment or open records laws.

“For example, one search of government grants and contracts from 2016 through 2023 revealed that there were 538 separate grants and 36 different government contracts specifically to address ‘misinformation’ and ‘disinformation,’” Comer wrote. 

From Newsguard the House committee seeks “documents and communication … related to all past and present contracts with or grants administered by federal government agencies or any other government entity, including foreign governments.” The Federalist, along with The Daily Wire and the state of Texas, has sued the State Department for devoting counterterrorism funding to NewsGuard’s censorship tools, which it deployed against Americans’ speech. These tools have directly targeted The Federalist and The Daily Wire.

10.24.2024 – Big Tech CEO Letter – Final by The Federalist on Scribd

Joy Pullmann is executive editor of The Federalist. Her new book with Regnery is “False Flag: Why Queer Politics Mean the End of America.” A happy wife and the mother of six children, her ebooks include “Classic Books For Young Children,” and “101 Strategies For Living Well Amid Inflation.” An 18-year education and politics reporter, Joy has testified before nearly two dozen legislatures on education policy and appeared on major media including Tucker Carlson, CNN, Fox News, OANN, NewsMax, Ben Shapiro, and Dennis Prager. Joy is a grateful graduate of the Hillsdale College honors and journalism programs who identifies as native American and gender natural. Joy is also the cofounder of a high-performing Christian classical school and the author and coauthor of classical curricula. Her traditionally published books also include “The Education Invasion: How Common Core Fights Parents for Control of American Kids,” from Encounter Books.