Print By Joseph Clark - The Washington Times - Thursday, March 9, 2023 Two independent journalists given access to Elon Musk’s Twitter Files vault warned lawmakers Thursday of a sprawling “censorship industrial complex” that has eroded Americans’ freedom of speech. Matt Taibbi and Michael Shellenberger appeared before the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government in an explosive hearing focused on what Republican lawmakers allege is a sweeping overreach by the federal government to silence disfavored views. Mr. Shellenberger harkened President Dwight Eisenhower’s warning of a ballooning military complex that would one day “endanger our liberties” in describing what he said is a current-day web of government-funded and private efforts to monitor online speech to squelch disfavored views. “Today, American taxpayers are unwittingly financing the growth and power of a censorship industrial complex run by America’s scientific and technological elite, which endangers our liberties and democracy,” he told the panel. “The Twitter Files, state attorneys, general lawsuits and investigative reporters have revealed a large and growing network of government agencies, academic institutions and nongovernmental organizations that are actively censoring American citizens, often without their knowledge, on a range of issues,” he said. In a sprawling Twitter thread released in the final hour before appearing before the panel, Mr. Taibbi detailed what he said was a vast web of censorship that included online speech monitoring programs spearheaded by nongovernmental organizations, some of which had direct access to Twitter’s platform monitoring system to flag posts and accounts that fell outside the mainstream. He said those efforts centered on silencing disfavored views regardless of whether the posts were true. “This, ultimately, is the most serious problem with the censorship industrial complex,” Mr. Taibbi said. “Packaged as a bulwark against lies and falsehood, it is itself often a major source of disinformation, with American taxpayers funding their own estrangement from reality. ” Mr. Taibbi told the panel that while reviewing the internal documents, he “learned Twitter, Facebook, Google and other companies developed a formal system for taking in moderation requests from every corner of government. ” He added, “This is a grave threat to people of all political persuasions. The First Amendment and the American population accustomed to the right to speak is the best defense left against the censorship industrial complex. If there’s anything that Twitter Files show is that we’re in danger of losing this most precious right, without which all democratic rights are impossible. ” In December, the two journalists began exposing the extent to which the FBI worked with Twitter company executives to moderate content on the platform. Those efforts included weekly meetings with Twitter executives before the company suppressed the New York Post’s 2020 report on Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop computer. During those meetings, which included officials from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Homeland Security, Twitter executives were cued to rumors that Mr. Biden would be the target of a “hack and leak operation. ” The Post’s report, which ran on Oct. 14, 2020, set off an avalanche of embarrassing emails, photos and text messages pulled from the laptop computer. It revealed details about Mr. Biden’s struggles with addiction and his hugely profitable foreign business dealings that critics say smack of influence peddling. The emails also refuted President Biden’s claims that he never spoke with his son about overseas business deals. The elder Mr. Biden’s campaign branded the now-authenticated laptop as Russian disinformation, citing a claim being peddled by more than 50 former U. S. senior intelligence officials in an open letter to the public. The steady drip of internal documents has also revealed Twitter’s left-wing bent that led to the censorship of conservative viewpoints and the unprecedented decision to ban then-President Donald Trump from the platform. Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, Ohio Republican, focused on the laptop censorship in his opening remarks. “Our government built a cozy relationship with Big Tech,” he said. “They primed him for a hacking leak operation. ” Mr. Jordan added, “The information op was run on us, run on we the people. And if that’s not … a weaponization of government, I don’t know what is. ” The top Democrat on the committee, Rep. Stacey Plaskett of the U. S. Virgin Islands, pushed back, accusing Republicans of “cherry-picking” evidence to attack the Biden administration. She chided Mr. Taibbi and Mr. Shellenberger as “Elon Musk’s public scribes,” whom she accused of spreading a “false narrative” of widespread government censorship. “This is a new Republican playbook, apparently: Risk American safety and security to score political points,” she said. • Joseph Clark can be reached at jclark@washingtontimes. com . Copyright © 2023 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission . 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