Republican Senators Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Josh Hawley of Missouri are searching for the truth within the “Ministry of Truth,” aka the Disinformation Governance Board, from the Department of Homeland Security.
On Tuesday, a letter from the senators requested that the Department of Homeland Security “provide additional clarity regarding its policies and procedures for identifying (mis-, dis- or mal-information), as well as its efforts to ‘operationalize’ public-private partnerships and the steps it is taking to ensure it does not infringe on the constitutional rights of American citizens.”
Additionally, the term “mal-information,” according to Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency, is information “based on fact, but used out of context to mislead, harm, or manipulate.”
According to a tweet from Hawley, a whistleblower came forward with information about a “Big Tech – Administration Alliance” that would ultimately track the speech of law-abiding American citizens.
Thanks to a patriotic whistleblower, we now know the Biden DHS was planning to coordinate with Big Tech to track Americans’ speech with its unconstitutional Disinformation Board pic.twitter.com/3GUU066SMC
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) June 9, 2022
Requests about the DHS suggesting Big Tech companies and platforms censor, flag, add/subtract content or context of social media posts, or the suspension of accounts that the platforms thought were sharing dis – mis – mal – information. In addition, the letter requested documents, notes, writing and electronic memorandums concerning the Board and its operations.
Additionally, the letter requested an explanation of “why, in your public statements and testimony before Congress, you have not fully explained the key role that the DGB was designed to play in coordinating among DHS components and engaging the assistance of the private sector.”
Hawley said Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas had yet to respond to his questions on whether there was contact between the DHS and the Big Tech companies. Hawley continued that the draft responses to his question were in the whistleblower’s documents.
“They continue the same misleading, half-truths,” Hawley said. “We now know they were discussing the operation of the board with Big Tech companies.”
The letter requested a response from DHS no later than June 21.