Congressman Andy Biggs (R-AZ) took to the House floor to call out the federal government’s collusion with Big Tech to silence free speech.
“Censorship is an authoritarian tool used to keep power by suppressing dissent,” Biggs said. “It is done in our case by pretense of keeping Americans safe. Conservatives, though, are playing against a stacked deck. This administration is doing the stacking.”
Biggs pointed out that years ago, both parties would have been unified in protesting big government, big business, and big tech. But now, big government is colluding with corporations and social media companies to silence dissent among the American people.
In his speech, Biggs brought up several examples of how the federal government has worked to suppress freedom of speech in just the last year. He mentioned the attempt to create a “disinformation” board (compared to an Orwellian Ministry of Truth), a Facebook portal for government officials to restrict content, and the Hunter Biden laptop story suppression.
While many Americans may remember the recent Twitter Files revelation, the examples Biggs mentioned may be less fresh on their minds.
Last year, the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) attempted to establish a Disinformation Governance Board.
Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) released documents in June 2022 showing that DHS planned to use the Disinformation Governance Board with potential partnerships with companies like Twitter. The documents showed that the board was formed to curb free speech about “conspiracy theories” as well as statements about COVID-19, vaccines, and masks.
In October 2022, leaked documents showed that DHS worked with Facebook to create a portal where the government and law enforcement could request censorship of specific posts and accounts.
In 2022, it was also confirmed that Twitter worked with the federal government to censor the Hunter Biden laptop story and ban it from being shared, prior to the 2020 Presidential Election.
Meanwhile, Iran’s Supreme Leader still has a Twitter account and is allowed to post violent and misleading tweets.
Earlier this month, he tweeted:
Some ask why we are antagonizing the US government! We are antagonizing them?! The US has been thirsty for our blood for 40 years now. We are confronting their animosity.
However, a New York Post story about a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden was banned from being shared on social media.
Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC) spoke on government censorship as well, saying that there has been a “shocking, coordinated attempt by progressives in business and in government to suppress dissent, stifle debate, and threaten free speech.”
Amid the ongoing revelations of federal censorship, Republican leadership is taking action.
One of the first actions taken by the House in the 118th Congress was to establish the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, tasked with investigating government corruption.
Rep. Thomas Massie, one of the committee’s leading members, said regarding the need for the committee:
If [government agencies] have grown so big that they are no longer accountable to the branch of government that created them, that funds them, and is responsible for their oversight, then they need to be hemmed in.
Bishop said:
When members of government take it upon themselves to declare certain speech illegal or undesirable, they effectively silence opposition. This isn’t the American way. We’ve seen this kind of censorship in China, Russia, we never want to see it in America.
Among other priorities, including freedom of speech for conservatives, Republican leadership has stated that they will investigate the Biden Administration, the Hunter Biden laptop story, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ actions at the border, the withdrawal from Afghanistan, and Dr. Fauci’s handling of COVID-19.
