The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) repeatedly met with Big Tech platforms to coordinate a wide-scale internet censorship operation ahead of the 2020 election, leaked documents reveal.
According to years worth of internal DHS memos, emails and documents obtained by The Intercept, an “expansive effort” was conducted by the agency to “influence” tech platforms online in 2020 and is “quietly” being broadened to “curb speech it considers dangerous” today.
Facebook and Twitter reportedly collaborated with DHS and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to police whatever they deemed to be “disinformation” and currently aims to “expand censorship” on subjects including Joe Biden’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, and information that “undermines trust in financial institutions,” The Intercept journalist Lee Fang reported on Monday.
FBI agent Laura Dehmlow was in communications w Facebook that led to the suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story in 2020 over the false allegation that it was “disinfo.” This year, she met w/ Twitter/DHS to stress “we need a media infrastructure that is held accountable.” pic.twitter.com/17LqhEyMN0
— Lee Fang (@lhfang) October 31, 2022
The Intercept additionally reported that Facebook and Twitter even created online portals that would allow the U.S. federal government to “rapidly request takedowns of content.” According to the newly obtained documents, these portals were used to censor “obvious parody accounts” and separate content published by individuals who disagreed with the government’s COVID-19 policies.
According to the emails and documents, Twitter’s former head of legal policy Vijaya Gadde would routinely have monthly meetings with the federal government to “discuss censorship plans.”
As revealed in a lawsuit filed by Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, former Microsoft executive and DHS official Matt Masterson was also revealed to have informed a DHS director in February of this year that Big Tech “platforms have got to get comfortable with gov’t. It’s really [sic] interesting how hesitant they remain.”
The emails and documents show close collaboration b/w DHS & private sector. Twitter's Vijaya Gadde (fired by @elonmusk last week) met monthly with DHS to discuss censorship plans. Microsoft exec texted DHS: "Platforms have got to get comfortable with gov't" pic.twitter.com/Z19yLM3miB
— Lee Fang (@lhfang) October 31, 2022
Subsequent reporting about the DHS leaks have revealed that the U.S. government has “had its fingers all over social media companies” since 2020.
“DHS would tell social media companies what they wanted off the platforms via ‘takedown requests,’ and then the platforms would submit reports to government. They would be ‘called on to ‘process reports and provide timely responses, to include the removal of reported misinformation from the platform where possible’,” reported the Post Millennial.
“This was specifically done with election information, which would be flagged by state election officials, submitted to DHS, which would then tell social media companies to pull it.”
Draft DHS quad review, which plans agency policy, leaked to us shows growing focus on MDM (misinfo, disinfo, malinfo) to protect homeland against spread of “toxic narratives.” How the agency defines false info and what narratives are prioritized isn’t clear. pic.twitter.com/DEopECw6sh
— Lee Fang (@lhfang) October 31, 2022
Pundits online have accused the federal government of egregiously violating the First Amendment rights of American citizens through their extensive efforts at internet censorship and information control.
“This may be the biggest story of our lives. The direct violation of law and the constitution on a scale designed to subvert our elections and control the population,” tweeted Timcast founder, podcaster, and former Vice journalist Tim Pool.
This is because of ELon buying twitter
He got all the evidence holy fuck this is huge https://t.co/GoQtJVCWpC
— Tim Pool (@Timcast) October 31, 2022
News of the DHS-Big Tech censorship operation has since resulted in “#DHSLEAKS” trending to number five on Twitter.
This news and commentary by Andrew White originally appeared on Valiant News.
