Republican Senators Condemn Possible Revamp of Disinformation Board

Earlier this year, the Biden administration received major pushback after considering the implementation of the “Disinformation Governance Board.” The institution’s main goal was to stop the spread of false information online, but many believe that it would be heavily politicized. With rumors of the board being reinstated, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and other Republican Senators have come out against the establishment of it once again.

In a letter to President Joe Biden (D), the Senators reintroduced their case against the board.

“When the federal government colludes with social media platforms behind closed doors to censor Americans’ speech, it sets a dangerous precedent that cannot be easily undone. Without transparency, authoritarians masquerading as elected officials will continue their campaign of pressuring social media platforms to censor content that is not government approved, chilling free speech and causing irreparable damage to democratic institutions in the process,” wrote the Senators.

Many on the right have equated this “Misinformation Board” to something Orwellian, likening it to the Ministry of Truth in the famous novel 1984.

In late April, Rubio said in a tweet, “Nothing else we are working on will matter if we don’t put an end to the Biden’s Ministry of Truth.”

“It is clear that this has been a coordinated effort throughout your administration,” continue the Senators. “In April, your administration announced the creation of the ‘Disinformation Governance Board,’ whose mission was to discredit and remove speech that it deemed disinformation. Thankfully, due to bipartisan pressure, DHS officially dissolved the Disinformation Governance Board in August. However, instead of heeding extensive criticism of the board, it appears efforts to censor Americans’ speech have only been driven further underground, where the censorship campaign has continued free from public scrutiny and without transparency,” the letter stated.

Alongside Sen. Rubio, U.S. Senators Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), Roger Wicker (R-MS), Bill Hagerty (R-TN), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Jim Risch (R-ID), and Ted Cruz (R-TX) all cosigned the letter.