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Bombshell documents show the United States Government colluded with Big Tech to censor right-leaning political opponents.

An interim report for the Committee of the Judiciary and the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government exposed a coordinated campaign to repress speech about the 2020 election and COVID-19.

The key players included two federal agencies, Trump-hating NGOs, and multiple social media platforms.

Posting a summary of the oversight committee’s findings on X, Republican committee chair Jim Jordon confirmed,

‘US government, disinformation “experts” at universities, Big Tech, and others worked together through the Election Integrity Partnership (EIP) to monitor and censor Americans’ speech.’

Topping the list of those censored was Donald Trump.

Candace Owens, Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee, Marjorie Taylor Greene, James O’Keefe, Benny Johnson, Sean Hannity, Newsmax, and The Babylon Bee were also targeted.

Inbuilt Bias

Digging deeper, Real Clear Investigations (CRI) inferred that the list of those targeted wasn’t all that surprising.

Groups like the Stanford Internet Observatory (SIO), an allegedly non-partisan NGO, ‘mainly consist of those outraged over Trump’s 2016 victory, which they believe social media platforms enabled.’

The NGOs are also driven by the now-debunked belief Trump was working for Russia.

SIO’s founder Alex Stamos – for example – ‘has been publicly critical of Trump,’ CRI noted.

Additionally, he ‘called for the President to be booted from social media re: January 6.”

Stamos is also Facebook’s former chief security officer.

Furthermore, SIO’s research manager Renée DiResta was an active participant in the Russia Hoax investigation.

DiResta, CRI said, has direct ties to ‘New Knowledge, a cybersecurity company,’ who has engaged in [pro-Democrat] disinformation for the purposes of election interference.

‘DiResta helped raise money for, then served as research manager for the company.’

New Knowledge, CRI explained, led ‘a social media disinformation campaign in 2017, aimed at defeating Alabama Senate Republican candidate Roy Moore by framing him as Kremlin-backed.’

It’s no wonder Stanford resisted releasing its archived data.

‘Although subpoenaed, Stanford only produced the information on the threat of contempt,’ the oversight committee said.

Information suppressed by the communications cabal (aka the Election Integrity Partnership) ranged from factual posts to jokes, satire, and political commentary.

Masquerading as Election Integrity monitors, the EIP was, in fact, policing political speech to force through – as well as protect – its preferred political agenda.

‘The true focus and purpose of the censors’ “election integrity” work was to target the very Americans they claim to protect,’ the oversight committee reported.

‘Instead of targeting foreign or inauthentic accounts, the EIP targeted Americans, disproportionately candidates and commentators with conservative viewpoints.’

Corruption

Hiding behind fighting ‘disinformation and misinformation’, Big Tech, partisan NGOs, and Big Gov have cast a long and sinister Neo-Marxist shadow over both freedom of speech and representative democracy.

The “partnership” appears to be a lot like what Robert F. Kennedy Jr exposed in January as the truth police: a communications COVID cabal formerly known as the Trusted News Initiative (TNI).

At the tip of that spear sits legacy news media, which Kennedy alleges formed a pseudo-PAC with Big Tech to stomp out competition from new media.

TNI smashed smaller news organisations justifying the “anti-competition subterfuge” by saying they were fighting COVID-19 disinformation/misinformation.

Even if the two groups are not one and the same, the main players are.

What we know is that Big Tech is consistently involved in the active censorship of those not aligned with Silicon Valley’s preferred political/ideological agenda or narrative.

This isn’t just confirmed by the oversight committee’s findings.

We have Elon Musk’s Twitter Files and Kennedy’s revelations about a COVID communications cabal.

Lessons for Us

Aptly nicknamed by The Federalist as the “censorship industrial complex”, these bombshell revelations from the United States should inform Australia’s march down the same road.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s “we will be your single source of truth” Misinformation/Disinformation Bill is just as sinister.

The 64-page Labor Party nanny-state Communications Legislation Amendment (Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill 2023 loosely defines its terms.

For instance, the umbrella term “harm” and its extensions:

1. Hate speech: a term that generally only applies to any truth or anyone the Leftist hegemony hates.
2. Disruption: which could be read as disagreement, debate, and/or dissent.
3. Criticism: could mean any questioning of scientific “consensus,” a public health order, and or mandate.

Consider the Yes23 campaign’s “debate is hate” approach to the Voice referendum.

On this corrosive cultural safetyism note, I don’t think it’s a stretch to argue that disinformation/misinformation laws are akin to enforcing blasphemy laws.

By extension, look at the example of Ramy Kamel.

A Coptic Egyptian, he was incarcerated in Egypt for two years without trial, on the false accusation of spreading “misinformation.”

He was also charged with “domestic terrorism.”

Kamel’s arrest was related to his outspoken opposition to the widespread persecution and systemic discrimination of Egyptian Christians.

My point? The dangers any Department of Disinformation, speech police, or “Ministry of Truth” pose for Australia are as plain as day.

Lawfare labelling like this is ripe for abuse.

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Photo by Gianfranco Marotta.