Following many revelations of the Biden administration’s shocking assault on the First Amendment, Biden’s Secretary of State is disingenuously giving lip service to the cornerstone of democracy, the freedom of speech.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken unironically tweeted Sept. 15 on how democracy cannot survive without freedom of expression. “Democracy depends on the free and open exchange of ideas, including online. On this International Day of Democracy, I call on governments around the world to protect citizens’ access to information that allows them to make informed decisions.”
But the Biden administration has been credibly accused of engaging in extensive censorship collusion with Big Tech.
“Blinken should shut down his own censorship regime if he wants anyone to believe he supports democratic elections and free speech rights,” said MRC Free Speech America VP Dan Schneider. “This administration’s assault on the Constitution shocks the conscience. The silence of the legacy media to it shows that their real agenda is political, not reporting the news.”
The Biden administration has been exposed repeatedly for its actions in coordination with Big Tech to undermine Americans’ First Amendment rights online.
Blinken’s own State Department has been implicated in the attack on free speech. For instance, the State Department-backed National Endowment for Democracy helped fund the Global Disinformation Index (GDI), which purportedly urged ad companies to drop news sites that reported information counter to the left’s preferred narrative on COVID-19 and its origins. Not only that, America First Legal (AFL) obtained documentation through a lawsuit showing the Biden administration used the State Department’s foreign intelligence tools to censor Americans domestically. Yet now Blinken pretends to champion free speech?
The State Department isn’t the only government agency that has been credibly accused of violating the First Amendment. In fact, in July, U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty of Louisiana had granted an injunction against government-Big Tech censorship collusion due to an ongoing lawsuit from the Republican Missouri and Louisiana attorneys general. Doughty rebuked the government for seemingly attempting to be an “Orwellian ‘Ministry of Truth.’”
The lawsuit had uncovered a “vast censorship enterprise” between the federal government and Big Tech companies. The Biden administration submitted an emergency filing with the Supreme Court requesting time to prepare before filing an official appeal, insisting on the necessity of its censorship efforts.
Furthermore, MRC Free Speech America, as part of its Freedom of Information Act investigations, uncovered how the Biden administration weaponized a government-funded anti-terrorism grant program. This program blatantly targeted conservatives, Christians and the Republican Party. The “Targeted Violence & Terrorism Prevention Grant Program” (TVTP) was revamped under Biden to include the administration’s political opponents under labels of extremism or terrorism.
But that’s not all. The Twitter Files, published by independent journalists chosen by X (formerly Twitter) owner Elon Musk after Musk bought the platform, also revealed the federal government’s election interference and extensive censorship efforts. The Facebook Files, information obtained by the House Judiciary Committee, exposed federal censorship pressure too.
Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand the State Department be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on so-called hate speech and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us at the Media Research Center contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.