WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd September, 2022) A network of officials across the US Federal government have been engaging with major social media companies to censor speech in an effort to address purported misinformation, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt and Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry said on Thursday in a joint statement.
Materials provided so far demonstrate that a so-called "Censorship Enterprise" exists within the federal government, composed of officials in the White House, Department of Homeland Security, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the State Department, FBI and Election Assistance Commission, according to the joint statement.
"This 'Censorship Enterprise' is proven by the Department of Justice's productions thus far, but the full extent of federal officials' collusion with social media companies on censorship is unknown until the Department of Justice produces further communications requested by Missouri and Louisiana," the joint statement said.
The Justice Department has objected to producing some of the most "relevant and probative information" in their possession, the statement added.
A total of 45 federal officials across the interagency were identified as having communicated with social media platforms about censoring alleged misinformation, the joint statement said.
The attorneys general in the joint statement provided current examples of communications between the federal officials and social media companies, including an email between a senior Facebook (banned in Russia as an extremist organization) official and the Surgeon General about misinformation, a scheduled meeting between Twitter and the White House on misinformation and a proposal from the CDC to Facebook to provide a monthly "debunking" meeting.
The attorneys general have filed a Joint Statement on Discovery Disputes, asking the Louisiana District Court to compel the Justice Department to turn over communications between the Biden administration and social media companies, the statement said.
