(RepublicanNews.org) – For those who’ve been following what many feel are the federal government’s efforts to censor speech on social media, the issue just became even more complex than it already was. After Representative Jim Jordan’s House Judiciary Committee got their hands on email exchanges between tech titans and Biden administration officials that appeared to show collusion, U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty forbade the interactions from continuing.
Doughty’s July ruling was overturned by the Supreme Court only one month later. The original emails that Rep. Jordan’s committee uncovered appeared to show federal officials making requests that certain posts and topics be censored, and in some cases removed altogether.
Some of the topics that were mentioned in back-and-forth emails were related to what officials said was vaccination “misinformation” and election fraud. In spite of the Supreme Court’s ruling, the House Judiciary continued investigating the matter and their latest findings may or may not come as a shock to some.
On November 6, the committee released yet another email from October 2020 in which an agent with the FBI described the “mandate” his employer had given him to flag particular internet-based speech that could be considered critical of certain federal narratives. Elvis Chan, the agent in question, specialized in foreign influence operations and was tasked with coordinating censorship efforts with social media providers.
The Judiciary’s report showed how Department of Homeland Security officials allegedly cooperated with third-party actors to manipulate, redirect, or “shadow ban” election-related speech during the 2020 presidential race. According to the report, Agent Chan scheduled in-person meetings with representatives from a number of federal departments and tech providers where they discussed how to go about pursuing the issue.
Despite being subpoenaed by the Judiciary twice, Chan declined to appear. He was however deposed in a separate but related First Amendment lawsuit in Missouri. During his deposition, he denied having a hand in censoring stories about Hunter Biden.
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