EXCLUSIVE: The Biden administration has conducted “the largest language censorship operation in recent history,” working with social media companies to suppress and censor information later recognized as truthful,” said the former Missouri Attorney General, Eric Schmitt, to the House Weaponization Committee on Thursday.
Schmitt is expected to testify alongside Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry and former Missouri Assistant Attorney General D. John Sauer.
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The three witnesses will discuss the results of their censorship lawsuit against the federal government, Louisiana and Missouri vs. Biden et al.—which they filed in May 2022 and which they describe as “the most important free speech lawsuit of this generation”.
President Joe Biden speaks at the Democratic National Committee winter meeting Friday, February 3, 2023, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) (AP)
The testimony comes after Missouri and Louisiana filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration alleging that President Biden and members of his team “collaborated with social media giants Meta, Twitter and YouTube to limit free speech in the… Names to censor the fight against so-called ‘disinformation’ and ‘misinformation’.”
The lawsuit alleges that the coordination led to the suppression and censorship of truthful information “on an unprecedented scale” using examples of the COVID lab leak theory, information about COVID vaccinations, Hunter Biden’s laptop and more.
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The lawsuit is currently under investigation, and Thursday’s hearing is expected to include testimony detailing evidence showing that the Biden administration “forced social media companies to censor unfavorable language.”
“The discovery obtained from Missouri and Louisiana has shown that the Biden administration’s coordination with social media companies and collusion with nongovernmental organizations to censor speech was far more pervasive and destructive than ever,” Schmitt said in a statement to Fox News Received Prepared Testimony Digital.
This aerial view shows laboratory P4 (middle L) at the campus of Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, central China’s Hubei Province, May 27, 2020. (Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images)
Missouri and Louisiana were able to collect documents and testimonies from federal officials as part of the discovery process — including a testimony from Dr. Anthony Fauci, in which they quizzed him on the COVID lab leak theory, the effectiveness of masks, vaccines and more.
Social media companies have flagged all COVID posts from users warning about receiving vaccines; discussed the laboratory leak theory; or reduced the effectiveness of masks.
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The FBI and Department of Energy have since admitted that COVID-19 may have originated in a leak at a Chinese lab, despite outrage during the pandemic that dismissed the theory as a conspiracy.
Missouri and Louisiana also fired an FBI agent over the Hunter Biden laptop story, which revealed that the FBI “deliberately planted false information about ‘hack and leak’ operations prior to the Hunter Biden laptop story, to fool social media platforms into censoring Hunter Biden’s laptop story.”
Hunter Biden’s lawyers have gone on the offensive against his critics. (Getty Images)
Fox News first reported the existence of some type of investigation involving Hunter Biden in October 2020, ahead of the 2020 presidential election. At that time it became known that the FBI had subpoenaed the laptop allegedly belonging to Hunter Biden as part of an ongoing money laundering investigation.
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Hunter Biden confirmed investigation into his “tax affairs” in December 2020 after his father was elected president. The investigation is being led by Trump-appointed US Attorney David Weiss of Delaware.
Meanwhile, in his prepared testimony obtained and reviewed by Fox News Digital, Landry wrote that through the lawsuit they “uncovered a censorship enterprise so extensive that it spans a dozen major government institutions.”
Republican Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry speaks during the 2022 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Texas conference at the Hilton Anatole. (Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)
According to Landry, these government institutions include the White House, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the FBI, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the National Institutes of Health.
“Publicly, these federal actors have justified their actions in the name of protecting the public from ‘misinformation’ and ‘disinformation,’ when in reality this is being done to suppress unfavorable views,” Landry will say.
Government officials “cannot circumvent the First Amendment by inducing, threatening and/or colluding with private entities to suppress protected speech,” Landry will say.
Senator Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., will participate in the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation hearing entitled “Strengthening Airline Operations and Consumer Protection” at the Russell Building on Thursday, February 9, 2023. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
“Frighteningly, that’s exactly what happened at the hands of this federal censorship agency,” he will explain.
And Sauer is expected to say that the evidence collected shows White House officials “privately harass social media platforms to censor speech that contradicts the White House’s preferred narratives.” and federal officials regularly “flag” social media posts by ordinary Americans for censorship.”
Sauer will tell the committee that evidence shows federal officials are “enacting sophisticated deception schemes to trick platforms into censoring unpopular speech” and engaging in meetings with content moderation officials from major social media platforms to ban disinformation and censorship argue.
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Sauer will also testify that federal officials have “relentlessly” pressured social media platforms, “threatening them with ruinous legal consequences if they don’t step up censorship of disadvantaged speakers and viewpoints.”
“Federal censorship is stifling the voices of ordinary Americans and putting the ‘modern public space’ under the control of the elite,” Sauer will say. “And freedom of speech does not harm people. On the contrary, censorship does lasting harm to Americans by distorting and impeding the search for truth in a free marketplace of ideas.”
Source : www.foxnews.com