Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas struggled to answer Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul’s questions on social media censorship during a Senate hearing Tuesday.
Paul asked Mayorkas if his agency is still meeting with social media companies to “discuss content moderation,” during the Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing. Several doctors have alleged that DHS and Big Tech companies worked together to censor Americans discussing the COVID-19 pandemic.
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“Ranking member Paul, you and I have discussed this before. We do not meet with social media companies for the purpose of instructing them to take down content.”
Paul pressed Mayorkas again on the same issue.
“What we have done in the past, Ranking Member Paul, as I shared with you previously, is we, along with other federal agencies, have met with social media companies in a public-private partnership to speak of the threats to the homeland so that those companies are alert to them. We do not instruct them.”
“Do you think a threat to the homeland is a discussion of vaccine efficacy?” Paul asked.
Mayorkas said he doesn’t think talk of vaccine efficacy is a threat.
“If you’ll have your staff read and I think it would be good for you to read the Missouri v. Biden case, it lists time and time again discussion of constitutionally protected speech that has nothing to do with national security. So when you say you didn’t meet to do that that, yes, you were meeting, you just disagree with the characterization of it. Were you meeting with social media companies to discuss content moderation? And your answer to that is no,” Paul said.
“That’s a specific question: did you meet with them and were you meeting with them to discuss content on the internet?” Paul asked.
Mayorkas responded that DHS previously held meetings with social media companies.
“My answer remains the same, Ranking Member Paul, that we met on a periodic basis with other federal agencies and a group of social media companies to speak with them about the threat environment that the homeland faced,” Mayorkas responded, adding that DHS is no longer participating in such meetings.
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