WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the House Judiciary Committee and the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government released an interim staff report detailing how the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) — an agency within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) originally intended to protect pipelines and other critical infrastructure from cyberattacks — expanded its mission to surveil and censor Americans’ speech on social media. The report entitled, “The Weaponization of CISA: How a ‘Cybersecurity’ Agency Colluded with Big Tech and ‘Disinformation’ Partners to Censor Americans,” outlines collusion between CISA, Big Tech, and government-funded third parties to conduct censorship by proxy and cover up CISA’s unconstitutional activities.
The Committees have been conducting an investigation into how the federal government coerced and colluded with private companies and other third-party groups to censor speech, including subpoenaing CISA for documents and communications on April 28, 2023. The Twitter Files and other public reporting have exposed how the federal government has pressured and colluded with Big Tech and other intermediaries to censor certain viewpoints in ways that undermine First Amendment principles.
Although the investigation is ongoing, information obtained to date has revealed that the CISA has facilitated the censorship of Americans directly and through third-party intermediaries. The report also details how:
- CISA considered the creation of an anti-misinformation “rapid response team” capable of physically deploying across the United States.
- CISA moved its censorship operation to a CISA-funded non-profit after CISA and the Biden Administration were sued in federal court, implicitly admitting that its censorship activities are unconstitutional.
- CISA wanted to use the same CISA-funded non-profit as its mouthpiece to “avoid the appearance of government propaganda.”
- Members of CISA’s advisory committee agonized that it was “only a matter of time before someone realizes we exist and starts asking about our work.”
- In response to mounting public scrutiny, CISA scrubbed its website of references to its domestic surveillance and censorship activities.
Read the full interim report here.
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