07/20/2021 / By JD Heyes
As you likely know, the U.S. Constitution specifically prevents the federal government from censoring, banning or otherwise preventing Americans from speaking and expressing themselves freely.
The founders thought that protections for speech and expression, along with freedom of religion, the right to assembly and to petition government, were so vital to the new republic they put them in the Constitution’s very first amendment.
But now, some 245 years later, we actually have a regime in power that is working to undermine those protections through direct threats.
No doubt aware that the administration would lose in federal court big time, and at the Supreme Court, if Joe Biden’s handlers simply had him sign an executive order outright banning certain speech and information, the regime is doing the next best thing: It’s holding its vast executive powers over Facebook (and, truth be told, other social media platforms as well) as a threat if the sites don’t do what they are instructed to do.
In short, the Biden regime isn’t actually censoring information; it is threatening Facebook and others with action if they don’t censor information the regime feels needs to be hidden.
What’s more, the regime has openly admitted what it’s doing.
“We’ve increased disinformation research and tracking,” Press Secretary Jen Psaki told the press last week regarding the COVID-19 pandemic that never seems to die.
“Within the Surgeon General’s Office, we’re flagging problematic posts for Facebook that spread disinformation. We’re working with doctors and medical professionals to connect medical experts with people, who are popular with their audiences with accurate information and boost trusted content. So, we’re helping get trusted content out there,” she said.
“Helping” — as in, ‘you’d better get rid of these posts we have flagged or else.’
“The Biden administration is telling Facebook which posts it regards as ‘problematic’ so that Facebook can remove them,” investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald said on Twitter in response to Psaki’s admission. “This is the union of corporate and state power — one of the classic hallmarks of fascism — that the people who spent five years babbling about fascism support.”
“If you don’t find it deeply disturbing that the White House is ‘flagging’ internet content that they deem ‘problematic’ to their Facebook allies for removal, then you are definitionally an authoritarian,” Greenwald continued. “No other information is needed about you to know that. There is no circumstance — none — in which it’s acceptable for the White House or any other agency of the government to be providing lists to Facebook of ‘problematic’ content it wants removed, yet that’s exactly what Psaki says they’re doing.
“The White House is admitting that they’re compiling lists of people who they claim are posting content they regard as ‘problematic’ and that constitute ‘misinformation’ and are demanding Facebook remove them. This is authoritarianism,” he added.
He’s not the only one, thankfully, that is finding all of this unacceptable.
In a letter to Biden last week after Psaski’s announcement, Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., demanded a briefing on the situation and made clear that what is being suggested by the regime is unacceptable.
“These revelations are deeply concerning,” the Tennessee Republican wrote in her letter. “The blatant actions by your administration to work with Big Tech companies to censor Americans’ free speech are shocking — and arguably a violation of the First Amendment.”
“What criteria are you directing social media platforms to use to flag and remove posts?” she demanded to know. “What criteria are you directing social media platforms to use to ban users?”
“What is the legal basis for your Administration’s decision to direct social media platforms to flag and remove posts from their sites?” she asked. “Does the White House have staff dedicated to searching social media for content to flag for removal?”
This is blatant in-your-face censorship by the federal government — by proxy.
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Tagged Under: banned, Biden regime, Big Tech, Censorship, coronavirus, covid-19, Facebook, First Amendment, Joe Biden, misinformation, tech giants, Twisted, unconstitutional, White House
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