Over the past year and a half, it has become apparent that the Biden administration has a serious problem with the First Amendment and the principle of free speech. The president and his team have done everything they can to suppress speech coming from their opponents without implementing any actual policy that would directly violate the Constitution. However, a recent development suggests they are getting as close to the line as possible without actually stepping over it.
The White House under President Joe Biden has been engaging in questionable conduct when it comes to free speech. This was especially apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic when this administration tried to bully social media companies into censoring viewpoints that contradicted the Democrat-approved narrative on the coronavirus and vaccines.
But a new report from the Washington Times suggests this effort runs deeper than originally thought.
According to the report, “In the 2020 election cycle, the deep state and Silicon Valley worked tirelessly to limit the reach of conservatives on social media platforms.” Today, the departments of Homeland Security and State are supporting the same cabal’s efforts to police social media platforms during the midterm election campaign.”
Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, who is currently running as a Republican for the Senate, released emails showing collusion between the Biden administration and Big Tech companies in Silicon Valley to suppress viewpoints online.
“The emails show that more than 45 officials at various federal agencies and numerous White House staffers are in regular conversation with social media companies about removing “undesirable” content from their platforms — content coming from the administration’s political opposition,” according to the Washington Times.
The Election Integrity Partnership (EIP), a supposedly nonpartisan coalition, was deeply involved in the 2020 election cycle. According to its website, the group’s aim is to “defend our elections against those who seek to undermine them by exploiting weaknesses in the online information environment.”
The group flagged social media accounts and postings that supposedly spread misinformation. It won’t come as a surprise that the organization focused primarily on posts coming from “right-leaning blue-check influencers” and “flagged more than 4,800 URLs that were shared more than 22 million times on Twitter,” according to the report.
So what’s the problem here? Can’t a private organization pretend to be combatting misinformation online if they want? Sure, but the issue is that this group is funded by federal grants.
“The constitutionality of this public-private partnership is questionable,” The Times noted. “But this hasn’t stopped EIP from raking in millions in additional grant money since the 2020 election.”
Essentially, the executive branch is throwing millions of dollars at a biased group dedicated to silencing opinions that contradict the president’s agenda.
The organization has targeted Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Paul Gosar (R-AZ) to have their posts flagged on Twitter. It did the same with conservative influencer Robby Starbuck, whose account was shadowbanned, making it difficult for his followers to find him on the platform.
EIP is a coalition of four different entities: Stanford University’s Internet Observatory, the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public, the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, and a social media analytics firm named Graphika, which is staffed by mostly former U.S. intelligence agents.
In other words, this is a recipe for left-wing bias.
The First Amendment prohibits the state from infringing on the right to freedom of speech. The government is not allowed to pass legislation or implement policies intended to prevent people from expressing certain viewpoints or punishing them for doing so.
However, we should not assume this doesn’t mean the government is not still capable of using its power to silence Americans. This story is one of several ways the government subverts the Constitution when it is convenient for them.
The notion that the state could pay an organization to ensure that certain political viewpoints are squashed on the internet is chilling. It demonstrates that the left does not need to find a way to repeal or alter the First Amendment as some have suggested. By using the private sector and their hold on Big Tech, they can essentially protect Biden and Democrats from opposing arguments in the digital public square. The question is: Can (or will) Republicans do anything about this when they have the federal government back in their control?
