A recent House Weaponization Subcommittee report suggested the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) partnered to censor social media posts. Representative Kat Cammack (R-FL) appeared on Fox Business's Evening Edit to discuss, calling the operation "horrific" and "violating American civil liberties."
Rep. Cammack stated the FBI compromised its own objective of countering foreign influence, doing the SBU's "dirty work" by targeting the social media accounts of journalists, everyday Americans, and even an official State Department account to censor information.
"The FBI is supposed to counter foreign influence, not facilitate it. And this report is Exhibit A as to how they are furthering the mission of agents, and in some cases, double agents, of the SBU... and actually taking and violating American civil liberties. As you said, American journalists; their posts have been taken down; and the State Department posts. All across social media, channels were targeted by Ukraine and the FBI did the dirty work of taking it down," said Rep. Cammack.
More troubling, as the Weaponization Subcommittee's report suggested, was the infiltration of the SBU by Russian sympathizers and double agents. As a result, the content of social media posts censored by the SBU and FBI was "all over the map," and the FBI did not vet posts flagged for censorship.
"It was everything from questions about the engagement that is happening there, the war in Ukraine, everything from pro-Russia, anti-Russia, it was all over the map. And that is why we know that these posts were not vetted because there was not a singular agenda that had been flagged. You would think the FBI would have done the courtesy of checking the posts that they were telling social media platforms to take down, but they did not. Some of them were pro-Ukraine, anti-Ukraine. That is what is so messed up about this entire situation," Cammack continued.
Florida Republicans have frequently criticized and expressed skepticism toward American involvement in Ukraine, with Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL) recently announcing his cosponsoring of an NDAA amendment prohibiting cluster bombs from being sent to the Ukrainian war effort.
