Missouri’s junior senator is demanding national organizations provide information related to their renewed attempts to delete online comments they claim have “disinformation” ahead of the 2024 election.
Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt demands that FBI Director Christopher Wray and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas release details that they believe is in conflict with their organizations ‘ efforts to silence data that government staff deem hostile to the federal government in a May 22 email obtained by The Federalist. The demand makes reference to remarks made by Virginia Democrat Sen. Mark Warner, the Senate Intelligence Committee head, earlier this month. Warner let it slip that the FBI and DHS’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency ( CISA ) are working with social media companies to, as NextGov/FCW described, “remov]e ] disinformation on their sites as the November presidential election nears”.
The Federalist was later informed by an FBI agent that the organization had resumed communication with Big Tech programs. A CISA spokesperson declined to comment on the situation.
Schmitt wrote that” the government’s behavior and that of social media companies contradicts the fundamental values of our country.” Resuming this obscene exercise demonstrates the insatiable desire of this Administration to violate the free speech of millions of Americans in order to maintain power.
Schmitt cited numerous instances of the censorship-industrial complex of the federal government, including the infamous Election Integrity Partnership ( EIP ). The EIP is a” consortium of disinformation ‘ academics” spearheaded by the Stanford Internet Observatory, which collaborated with DHS to “monitor and censor Americans ‘ online speech” in the run-up to the 2020 election, according to a November interim report released by House Republicans.
Created “at the demand” of CISA— which critics refer to as the “nerve core” of the federal government’s censorship businesses —the EIP allowed provincial officials to “launder]their ] censorship activities in hopes of bypassing both the First Amendment and open scrutiny”. As documented in the interim report, this operation , attempted , to censor” true information, jokes and satire, and political opinions” and sent targeted posts from prominent conservative figures to Big Tech companies for censorship.
The government censorship campaign targeted The Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway and Sean Davis, two of whom.
Schmitt also cited how the federal government was” significantly entangled itself to influence and pressure social media companies ‘ decisions” prior to the 2022 elections. He cited the FBI’s role in “establishing ] a’command’ process that it used to flag posts and content that it deemed disinformation with social media companies, which he noted “often targeted the voices of American citizens and their posts about the 2022 election.”
The senator writes,” It is beyond comprehension for this Administration to resume efforts with social media companies to control constitutionally protected speech months before the 2024 election.”
Prior to representing Missouri in the U. S. Senate, Schmitt served as the Show Me State’s attorney general. He filed a lawsuit in that capacity along with the then-Louisiana AG and the current-Gov. Jeff Landry in 2022 alleging that the Biden administration’s collusion with Big Tech to suppress Americans ‘ online speech violates the First Amendment. U. S. District Court Judge Terry Doughty agreed,  , issuing , a preliminary injunction on July 4, 2023, barring federal agencies from colluding with Big Tech to censor posts they do n’t like.
If the allegations made by Plaintiffs are accurate, the present case arguably represents the most extensive attack on free speech in American history, according to Doughty in his ruling.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld , Doughty’s injunction in September. The court later issued a correct ruling  to also prevent CISA from colluding with Big Tech to stop free speech online, despite the initial ruling not including CISA.
The U. S. Supreme Court, however,  , lifted , the Fifth Circuit’s injunction in October, effectively allowing the federal government ‘s , censorship operations , to resume while it considers the merits of the case. SCOTUS is expected to issue a final ruling on the merits of , Murthy v. Missouri , this summer.
Schmitt demanded from Wray and Mayorkas to provide information about the agency’s recent collusion with Big Tech companies, including the precise date when those communications resumed,” all and any safeguards established by the Administration to protect the First Amendment rights of American citizens,”” all and any safeguards to protect the political speech of potential political opponents of President Biden,” and” a list of topics that the Administration deems misinformation or disinformation,” among other records.
Wray and Mayorkas have until June 3 to fulfill Schmitt’s requests, according to the letter.
5- 22- 24 Sen. Schmitt Corres … by The Federalist
Shawn Fleetwood is a University of Mary Washington graduate and a staff writer for The Federalist. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClear Health, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood
