Missouri’s junior senator is demanding federal agencies provide records related to their renewed efforts to censor online comments they claim contain “disinformation” ahead of the 2024 election.
In a May 22 letter obtained by The Federalist, Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt demands that FBI Director Christopher Wray and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas divulge materials relevant to their agencies’ coordination with Big Tech to suppress information government employees deem unfavorable to the federal government. The request cites remarks earlier this month from Virginia Democrat Sen. Mark Warner, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee. 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.”
An FBI representative later confirmed to The Federalist the agency has, in fact, resumed communications with Big Tech platforms. A CISA spokeswoman declined to comment on the matter.
“This activity between the government and social media companies runs contrary to the fundamental beliefs of our nation,” Schmitt wrote. “…Resuming this egregious practice demonstrates this Administration’s insatiable desire to stop at nothing to trample the free speech rights of millions of Americans in order to maintain power.”
Schmitt cited numerous examples of the federal government’s censorship-industrial complex, including the notorious Election Integrity Partnership (EIP). According to a November interim report released by House Republicans, the EIP is a “consortium of ‘disinformation’ academics” spearheaded by the Stanford Internet Observatory that coordinated with
