The FBI is ramping up its censorship efforts ahead of the 2024 presidential election by increasing its coordination with social media companies after having started a quiet operation in February to censor information, according to a recent memo.
A Department of Justice (DOJ) memo dated July 12, 2024, from Associate Deputy Attorney General George D. Turner, states that following the Supreme Court’s decision in Murthy v. Missouri, the Biden administration has sought to censor information it deems to be “foreign malign influence” (FMI) information. That June decision obliterated the First Amendment’s right to free speech.
Following the Supreme Court’s stay in October 2023 of a 5th Circuit injunction restricting the FBI’s collaboration with Big Tech, the DOJ “began developing a standardized approach for sharing FMI information with social media companies that continued to appropriately account for First Amendment considerations,” the memo states.
The FBI began using the standard operating procedure in “early February 2024” and “actively sharing FMI threat information with social media companies on a continuing basis,” the memo explains, adding, “As part of that strategy, FBI will resume regular meeting in the coming weeks with social media companies to brief and discuss potential FMI threats involving the companies’ platforms.”
The memo further states that the DOJ’s Justice Manual includes a “framework” for the DOJ to follow when deciding whether to “disclose FMI operations” — such as if alleged “foreign influence operations” are purportedly spreading “covert foreign government propaganda or disinformation.”
But alleged “foreign malign influence” often isn’t so.
