A newly released tranche of documents shows senior Biden-Harris administration officials gained pointers from British “disinformation” officials about partnering with social media companies and establishing an all-of-government effort for fighting disfavored content that includes elections and COVID-19.
The revelation, which comes as Congress investigates potential censorship efforts by the executive branch in the lead-up to the 2024 election, has prompted a House Republican to propose legislation to prevent U.S. tax money going to countries that regulate online speech.
The National Security Council held a private meeting with the U.K. government’s Counter Disinformation Unit on Aug. 21, 2021. The Counter Disinformation Unit is part of the British government’s Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
America First Legal, a conservative watchdog group, obtained a slide deck shown at the meeting through a larger Freedom of Information Act lawsuit with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The slides were part of hundreds of pages of documents obtained from the CDC.
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The Biden-Harris administration has a troubling record of looking to partner with social media outlets to manage if not censor speech, critics say. (Getty Images)
The document release comes shortly after Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., chair of the House Oversight Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation, wrote President Biden and Vice President Harris to request information on suppression campaigns the administration might be engaged in regarding political speech.
Mace is also pushing free speech abroad. Last week, she introduced the No Funds for Fascists Act, a proposal to prohibit taxpayer funds from assisting foreign governments that abridge free speech and bars aid to governments that coerce social media platforms or news outlets to block speech.
The NSC meeting with the British unit was “over-the-top,” Mace said.
“The Biden-Harris administration is so desperate to control speech and information they’re actually taking advice from foreign governments on how to violate our core constitutional rights,” Mace said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “It’s extreme, over-the-top, and un-American. We introduced our ‘No Funds for Fascists’ bill in response to this.”
A congressional probe into censorship and meetings with foreign governments “that have taken place and are likely still taking place” would be helpful, said Michael Ding, counsel to America First Legal.
“Whether it’s election misinformation or COVID-19 disinformation, you can trace these actions to a web of international NGOs pushing to police free speech, whatever the cause of the day might be,” Ding told Fox News Digital.
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Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., is seeking to address social media censorship with new legislation she’s calling the No Funds for Fascists Act, which prohibits taxpayer funds from assisting foreign governments that abridge free speech. (Courtesy of U.S. Senator Tim Scott)
Although the stated focus of the NSC conference was about combating lies regarding COVID-19, the British presentation veered into elections.
“We’ve previously stood up an operational response to counter disinformation during the 2019 European elections, the 2019 UK general election, and the local and devolved UK elections in May of this year,” the Counter Disinformation Unit slides said.
For elections, the unit shows it connects with the “central election cell,” the social media companies, strategic communication teams, and the monitoring and analysis teams.
The 2021 NSC-British meeting on disinformation included officials from the Defense Department, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Department of Health and Human Services, the CDC, CIA, FBI and other agencies.
The America First Legal lawsuit with the CDC aimed to investigate federal government efforts to block certain information related to COVID-19.
A CDC spokesperson declined to comment for the story.
Spokespersons for the NSC and the White House did not respond to inquiries for this story.
The Counter Disinformation Unit is a British “cross-departmental” entity that includes the foreign policy and domestic policy agencies as well as intelligence services. According to the slides, it is intended to “support formulation of a coordinated government response” to misinformation.
The Houses of Parliament in London (Chris J. Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The British slide deck included suggestions such as establishing a unit to lead a multi-department government-wide effort to stop “disinformation,” similar to the Counter Disinformation Unit.
The slides suggest legislation to regulate misinformation and disinformation policies of tech companies, including fines and penalties, similar to Britain’s Online Safety Act. The slides say of the Online Safety Act: “The bill delivers the government’s commitment to make the U.K. the safest place in the world to be online, whilst defending the freedom of expression.”
This was only a selling point to get the law passed, Ding said.
“The gaslighting the pro-censorship side engages in is ridiculous,” he said.
As a more serious matter, he said U.S. policymakers should consider the First Amendment implications of extradition policy with Britain in circumstances when Britain seeks to arrest a violator of speech laws.
The British law also references a “duty of care” that would be imposed on tech companies under the act.
“The duty of care will require companies to address harms to individuals on their online platforms, including misinformation and disinformation,” one slide says.
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Further, the British officials suggested using the State Department to partner with international allies and use multilateral institutions such as the United Nations, G7 and NATO to fight what it designates as misinformation or disinformation.
The slides say an international effort provides a “Clear message that the international community is prioritising (sic) this policy area, encouraging cooperation from platforms.”
