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Editor’s note: This essay was first published on the author’s blog “Res ipsa loquitur – it speaks for itself.”
2025 has just begun, but for the first time in many years, free speech advocates have reason to celebrate.
With his retirement in 2024, we say goodbye to one of the most criticized offices of the Biden administration: the Global Engagement Center (GEC). In my recent book, “An Essential Right: Free Speech in an Age of Anger,” I discuss the center as one of the most active components of a massive censorship system funded by the Biden administration.
Retiring GEC is a good start. But much more will be needed if we are to restore free speech in the United States, much like the weight loss resolution. Now is the time for the ultimate solution to remove censorship from the government at its core.
In December, the Biden administration fought to maintain funding for the GEC, but Republicans refused to include it in the budget continuation resolution. But even if he closes this one office, Biden will leave behind the most comprehensive system of censorship in U.S. history.
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Over the past three years, many of us have been working on comprehensive programs that provide grants to academic institutions and third-party organizations to create blacklists and pressure advertisers to stop supporting targeted sites. I have explained the system in detail. Censorship targets range from election fraud to social justice to climate change.
I testified at the first hearing of the special committee investigating censorship programs funded or coordinated by the Biden administration. This is an unprecedented alliance of business, government, and academic groups opposing free speech in the United States. The Biden administration has set the record for the most opposition to free speech since the Adams administration.
A House of Commons investigation found that government officials play a key role in the “switchboard” that communicates requests for takedowns and bans on social media. Authorities circumvented First Amendment restrictions by using these groups as censorship proxies.
Even with the GEC's demise, other offices remain at various agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), which has emerged as one of the system's key control centers.
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CISA Director Jen Easterly declared that CISA's mission for critical infrastructure will also extend to “our cognitive infrastructure.” This includes not only “disinformation” and “misinformation,” but also information that is “based on fact but used out of context to mislead, harm, or manipulate.” This includes combating what is called “malicious information.”
These groups form censorship consortia and raise millions of federal dollars in suppressing speech. The Election Integrity Partnership (EIP) was created in conjunction with Stanford University “at the request of DHS/CISA.”
EIP provided a “centralized reporting system” for handling so-called “Jira tickets” targeted at unacceptable views. In addition to politicians, the list will include commentators, pundits, and even the satirical website The Babylon Bee.
The Biden administration has set the record for the most opposition to free speech since the Adams administration.
Stanford University's Virality Project pushed for censoring even true facts because “true stories…may incite hesitancy” against taking vaccines and other measures. According to emails, government officials stressed that this would not be considered “open support” of censorship, while other groups sought to minimize public scrutiny of their activities.
For example, one article featured the work of Kate Starbard, director and co-founder of the University of Washington Center for Public Information. In one communication, Starbird cautioned against citing examples of disinformation lest it be used by critics, saying, “Everything is politicized and disinformation is political in nature, so… Every example is bait,” he added.
Similarly, James Park of the University of Michigan is shown touting his school's WiseDex Fast Pitch program, saying, “Our misinformation service shifts the responsibility for difficult decisions to someone outside the company.'' assisting platform policymakers in their efforts to address the difficult responsibilities of censorship.
This system has interconnected layers of subsidies and systems. For example, EIP collaborated with the Global Engagement Center, which contracts with the Atlantic Council on censorship efforts.
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The censorship system included a scoring group through a grant from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) to the UK-based Global Disinformation Index (GDI). The index targeted 10 conservative and liberal sites, including sites like Reason that publish conservative legal analysis, as the most dangerous sources of disinformation. Conversely, some of the most liberal sites were ranked as the most trusted sites for advertisers.
This system still exists, but on December 23, 2024, GEC closed its doors. That is something to celebrate, but not something to be taken as great consolation. This is a redundant and redundant system created with just such attrition in mind.
Years ago, some of us wrote about the creation of the infamous Disinformation Control Board at the Department of Homeland Security under the so-called “disinformation nanny” Nina Jankowitz. When the Biden administration bowed to public outcry and dissolved the board, many celebrated. However, as I have previously testified, the Biden administration is concerned about much larger censorship efforts at other agencies, including an estimated 80 FBI agents secretly targeting citizens and groups with disinformation. He never told the people.
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The system has functioned like a many-headed hydra: if you cut off one head, you can only grow two more. These censors don't just walk away and become dentists or bartenders. They have a skill set in censorship, which is now a lucrative industry that supports large numbers of people who promote themselves as “disinformation experts.”
Closing GEC will result in a $61 million budget and 120 employee cuts. However, these employees can find ample opportunities in academia and state institutions as well as other institutions. There are also pro-censorship sites like BlueSky, which are becoming safe havens for liberals who don't want to be “triggered” by opposing views. (Notably, BlueSky hired former Twitter employees who were fired after Elon Musk wiped out what is now Company X).
They are not going anywhere unless the Trump administration and Congress make free speech a priority and eliminate each of these funding sources.
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As I wrote in my book, we need to get the United States out of the censorship business by passing legislation that prohibits the use of federal funds for censorship, including grants to academic and NGO organizations. .
Eradicating this system of censorship will require a comprehensive effort by the new Trump administration. Therefore, I have a resolution that I would like many people in the Trump administration to share. The idea is to get the US out of the censorship business by 2025.
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