Yesterday Vice President Kamala Harris announced the creation of a new White House task force to address online harassment and abuse. Critics of the administration quickly pointed out the striking similarity between the new task force and the short-lived Disinformation Governance Board which was negatively compared to the Ministry of Truth from George Orwell’s 1984.
The Convention of States Project previously reported: “It may be hard to pinpoint what exactly caused the [Department of Homeland Security] to walk back its Disinformation Governance Board, but one thing is clear: the American people protested the existence of Orwellian measures for policing free speech and such measures failed.”
COS also added that, however, just “because this current Orwellian effort failed does not mean future ones will too. Nor does it mean that the federal government is not already in close cahoots with big tech and other major disseminators of public information.”
Just as predicted, the White House is now “developing programs and policies to address online harassment, abuse, and disinformation campaigns targeting women and LGBTQI+ individuals.”
According to the official task force memorandum, “In the United States and around the world, women and LGBTQI+ political leaders, public figures, activists, and journalists are especially targeted by sexualized forms of online harassment and abuse, undermining their ability to exercise their human rights and participate in democracy, governance, and civic life.”
Clearly, this is a slippery slope and there’s no telling just how far it will lead.
What exactly does “disinformation campaigns targeting… LGBTQI+ individuals” mean? Does this mean online users can’t make factual statements about sex and biology, including, for example, that men can’t become pregnant? Does “disinformation… targeting women'' include the claim that women shouldn’t have a “right” to abortion?
Obviously, harassment and abuse are wrong, but to get the federal government involved in monitoring what people say online is opening Pandora’s Box, especially when the government’s definition of “disinformation” is questionable.
We can’t afford to put up with this or we may find our fact-based opinions censored or criminalized. We need to take power away from Washington and the only way we can do it is by calling a Convention of States.
To urge your state legislator to support COS and return power to the people, sign the petition below!
Ministry of Truth 2.0? Kamala Harris launches "disinformation" task force
Published in Blog on June 17, 2022 by Jakob Fay
