The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) cybersecurity agency allegedly has repeatedly engaged in censorship of so-called mis-, dis- and malinformation (MDM), but it would be banned from doing so if a new appropriations bill passes.
The Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) previously worked to censor content related to elections and the COVID-19 pandemic on social media platforms. The language in the Thursday appropriations bill granting funding to CISA would block the DHS agency from engaging in numerous censorship actions against protected speech if it passes.
CISA would not be allowed to use the funding to support “directly or indirectly, under color of countering mis-, dis-, or mal-information or otherwise, for instructing, influencing, directing, or recommending that private companies censor, prohibit, or obstruct lawful and constitutionally protected speech of United States persons on social media platforms,” according to the bill.
The bill calls out specific censorship methods including social media bans and suspensions, speech-related warning and strikes, “shadowbanning,” demonetization, warning labels and more. Furthermore, CISA would no longer be able to collaborate with nonprofits or other organizations to push social media censorship of protected speech.
Moreover, if any government employee whose salary is provided by this act engages in censorship, they would be fired, according to the bill.
CISA collaborated with a nonprofit called Center for Internet Security (CIS) to report 2020 election misinformation through a “portal” for social media platforms to censor, according to a CIS report obtained by independent journalist Lee Fang.
CISA also has a panel called the Protecting Critical Infrastructure from Misinformation and Disinformation Subcommittee, which gave recommendations in June 2022 on how to handle threats to “critical functions” of democracy, including elections and public health. It advised CISA to identify “informational threats” and collaborate with “non-governmental” entities to dispel mis- and disinformation.
CISA and DHS did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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