A federal agency with a record of online censorship is working with private groups to stop so-called “misinformation” ahead of November’s presidential election.
The Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) – the federal government’s hub for online censorship — has been working with private groups since 2018 in an initiative dubbed the Election Infrastructure Subsector Coordinating Council (SCC), and boasts that its “collaboration” with “private sector partners is unprecedented.”
“CISA coordinates support for these election infrastructure partners across the federal government, with our state and local partners, and with the private sector to help them reduce cyber, physical, and operational security risks to election infrastructure,” a CISA representative said to The Federalist.
The SCC uses a “unified government and private sector approach,” working with a Government Coordinating Council (GCC) for “information-sharing and risk mitigation” before the election, according to a 2024 update on the councils’ work hosted by CISA online.
The document warns of “risks” from “false or misleading information about election administration.”
CISA noted so-called “misinformation campaigns” in 2022, and claimed they “exacerbated” a “threat environment for targeted violence.” A 2024 “Homeland Threat Assessment” by CISA’s parent agency warned that such unapproved speech would carry the “potential for violence or threats directed at government officials, voters, and elections-related personnel and infrastructure.”
The SCC and GCC have been telling “election stakeholders” to do things like create websites to “provide accurate information” and “dispel false information,” according to CISA’s 2024 update, which noted these efforts are “expected to
