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FIRST ON FOX: Sen. Ted Cruz stated the Biden administration “funneled” greater than $66 million in taxpayer {dollars} to nonprofits and tutorial establishments for “misinformation analysis,” in what he calls an effort by the federal authorities to “censor Individuals” whereas trying to “absolve” itself of “legal responsibility for infringement of Individuals’ First Modification rights.”
Cruz, R-Texas, is now demanding the State Division, FBI, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Safety Company (CISA), and the Nationwide Science Basis flip over info relating to their function in “serving to facilitate the censorship of Individuals’ constitutionally protected speech on-line.”
Sen. Ted Cruz attends a Senate Judiciary Committee markup within the Hart Constructing on Could 11, 2023. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Name, Inc through Getty Photos)
The transfer comes as a part of Cruz’s months-long investigation into Huge Tech’s content material moderation and alleged censorship practices. Cruz’s workplace says the continued investigation has “uncovered the extent to which suppression of free speech on social media has been pushed by authorities businesses and non-governmental third events that obtain funding from taxpayers.”
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In letters to the State Division, FBI, CISA, and NSF, Cruz stated the Biden administration “straight” flagged content material to social media firms, but in addition “funneled cash to private-sector third events, together with nonprofits and tutorial establishments that then pressured social media firms to take away content material and accounts.”
“By laundering taxpayer {dollars} via third events, authorities businesses tried to absolve themselves of legal responsibility for infringement of Individuals’ First Modification rights,” Cruz wrote.
Cruz supplied examples, together with one by which the State Division made an effort to “counter international state and non-state propaganda and disinformation efforts” and despatched social media firms lists of people that they recognized as “inauthentic.” However Cruz’s investigation revealed that these lists included not solely international actors however “on a regular basis Individuals.”
Cruz additionally stated the Nationwide Science Basis despatched thousands and thousands of {dollars} to fund “Election Integrity Partnerships” at Stanford College and the College of Washington. Cruz stated these applications efficiently influenced social media firms into “moderating” thousands and thousands of tweets flagged by CISA and the FBI.
Cruz pointed to a 2021 interview with the chief of the Stanford College program. Cruz stated the lead researcher instructed taxpayer {dollars} have been “deliberately channeled via a 3rd occasion in order that the federal government might evade First Modification legal responsibility.”
“Simply because the federal government hires a hitman to kill speech doesn’t absolve the federal government of guilt,” Cruz wrote within the letters. “Regrettably, the examples described above seem like only a handful of quite a few situations of third events being awarded taxpayer {dollars} and different authorities assist to suppress speech.”
Cruz added: “It has additionally develop into obvious that our nation’s increased training establishments have been usually used as conduits via which the federal government might police speech on-line.”
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Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., signed onto Cruz’s letter to the FBI.
Cruz asks the businesses to supply detailed info relating to their taxpayer-funded grant-making and non-governmental partnerships processes. The deadline for the businesses to reply is Dec. 19, 2023.
The letters come amid Cruz’s months-long investigation. Because the onset of the probe, Senate Commerce Committee Republican workers have recognized greater than 100 Nationwide Science Basis grants between 2021 and 2023, which totaled greater than $66 million in taxpayer funding towards “misinformation” analysis.
The committee discovered that NSF despatched $5 million to the College of Washington to create a “digital dashboard” in order that public officers might determine “trending misinformation” and “strategically right” misinformation on social media; $5 million to George Washington College to create a remedy toolkit and digital reporting assistant for journalists who believed they have been the targets of “misinformation-driven harassment campaigns”; greater than $100,0000 to Georgia Tech to create a program that writes posts for social media customers to counter “misinformation”; and extra.
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In the meantime, Cruz’s investigation comes amid an identical Home Weaponization Subcommittee probe. In June, that panel additionally stated CISA had “facilitated the censorship of Individuals straight” and thru third-party intermediaries in the course of the Biden administration.
Sen. Ted Cruz and President Biden (Getty Photos)
CISA Government Director Brandon Wales, in a press release to Fox Information Digital in June, stated the company “doesn’t and has by no means censored speech or facilitated censorship; any such claims are obviously false.”
“Each day, the women and men of CISA execute the company’s mission of lowering danger to U.S. vital infrastructure in a manner that protects Individuals’ freedom of speech, civil rights, civil liberties, and privateness,” Wales stated. “In response to issues from election officers of all events relating to international affect operations and disinformation that will influence the safety of election infrastructure, CISA mitigates the danger of disinformation by sharing info on election literacy and election safety with the general public and by amplifying the trusted voices of election officers throughout the nation.”
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CISA, which was based in 2018, was supposed to be an company targeted on defending vital infrastructure and guarding towards cybersecurity threats.
Brooke Singman is a Fox Information Digital politics reporter. You’ll be able to attain her at [email protected] or @BrookeSingman on Twitter.
