Biden State Dept blacklists conservative news outlets, lawsuit claims: ‘Censorship regime’
December 6, 2023
The State Department is facing a lawsuit for funding a “censorship regime” built by technologies that blacklist conservative media outlets.
In a suit filed by the New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA), the State Department is accused of “funding and promotion of censorship technologies and private censorship enterprises that blacklist” conservative news sites The Federalist and The Daily Wire, which negatively impacts the platforms’ “ability to circulate and distribute their publications to both current and potential audiences.”
… “The State Department’s use of tax dollars to fund the silencing of a segment of the American press is appalling — and terrifying. A free and open press is foundational to our constitutional Republic, which is precisely why the Bill of Rights guarantees freedom of speech and freedom of the press in the First Amendment,” Margot Cleveland, counsel at NCLA, said in a statement.
According to the lawsuit, the State Department uses its Global Engagement Center (GEC) to finance the development and promotion of censorship technology and enterprises, including NewsGuard and the Global Disinformation Index.
“These entities generate blacklists of ostensibly risky or unreliable American news outlets for the purpose of discrediting and demonetizing the disfavored press and redirecting money and audiences to news organizations that publish favored viewpoints,” the lawsuit states.
Mark Chenoweth, president and general counsel at NCLA said, “The federal government cannot do indirectly what the First Amendment forbids it from doing directly. The chilling censorship machinations alleged in this complaint will frighten all liberty-loving Americans to the core.”
… “George Orwell, call your office: The Disinformation Governance Board is back!” said Peggy Little, senior litigation counsel at NCLA, referring to a now-shuttered controversial office within the Department of Homeland Security.
“Worse, it was here all along quietly operating out of the State Department through three presidential administrations with the admitted intent of cutting off advertising dollars and viewership from conservative media outlets,” she added….
Originally Published in Fox News