Referencing a report this week from the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, committee member Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo., told Newsmax that the federal government worked to silence Americans on social media — violating their First Amendment rights.
Hageman told "America Right Now" that her committee is "disclosing" instances in which the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) censored speech.
"We're identifying situations where they worked with third parties, such as the organization that is housed at Stanford University [the Election Integrity Project (EIP)] to suppress speech that they disagreed with. So the fact is that the federal government has engaged in a violation — a broad violation — of our First Amendment rights in an effort to suppress our ability to communicate," she said.
The report found that "during the 2020 election cycle, the CISA-funded entities could — and did — send in reports of alleged misinformation to the EIP. Members of EIP, such as Alex Stamos, the director of the Stanford Internet Observatory, would send purportedly problematic content directly to social media platforms with recommendations on what content moderation steps the platforms should take."
But it wasn't just CISA that was pushing social media companies to censor speech; the congresswoman said that during the testimony of journalists Matt Taibbi and Michael Shellenberger, it was revealed that over 70 federal agencies were responsible for censoring speech.
Hageman said that going forward, the subcommittee will continue to expose instances of the federal government censoring speech and that House Republicans will draft a law to hold responsible people in the government who violate the First Amendment.
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