ANALYSIS – As many Americans shudder at Big Tech social media platforms’ censoring everything from legitimate news stories to innocent comments, many have argued that they are private companies. As long as the government doesn’t censor – it is ok.
Well, ignoring the fact that there is a very good argument that Big Tech is often – at least seemingly – colluding with some in government to censor dissenting views, the government now is also doing it as well.
Welcome to the dangerous, unconstitutional, and Orwellian world of the federal government combatting ‘disinformation’ and ‘election interference.’
Last week the Justice Department’s (DOJ) Office of Public Affairs released an announcement: “Social Media Influencer Charged with Election Interference Stemming from Voter Disinformation Campaign,” read the headline of a press release from the DOJ’s Eastern District of New York.
The DOJ press release explained:
A Florida man was arrested this morning on charges of conspiring with others in advance of the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election to use various social media platforms to disseminate misinformation designed to deprive individuals of their constitutional right to vote.
However, as Daniel Horowitz notes, this is not a case of actual voter fraud or election tampering, it is a case of someone sending satirical election-related memes. Horowitz asks:
Did this guy throw out ballots or engage in mail-in fraud like endless witnesses said in sworn affidavits and in testimony before legislatures? No, the DOJ is not interested in tangible fraud that involves an action; in fact, it is investigating any DOJ official who might have sought to investigate such fraud. It only prosecutes speech.
Horowitz continues: “After several paragraphs of DOJ officials bloviating about constitutional rights to vote, they finally announced his crime.” DOJ said:
As alleged in the complaint, between September 2016 and November 2016, in the lead up to the Nov. 8, 2016, U.S. Presidential Election, Mackey conspired with others to use social media platforms, including Twitter, to disseminate fraudulent messages designed to encourage supporters of one of the presidential candidates (the “Candidate”) to “vote” via text message or social media, a legally invalid method of voting.
This sounds vague and idiotic enough, but what were the specifics? And how was this fraud? DOJ explains in embarrassing detail:
For example, on Nov. 1, 2016, Mackey allegedly tweeted an image that featured an African American woman standing in front of an “African Americans for [the Candidate]” sign. The image included the following text: “Avoid the Line. Vote from Home. Text ‘[Candidate’s first name]’ to 59925[.] Vote for [the Candidate] and be a part of history.” The fine print at the bottom of the image stated: “Must be 18 or older to vote. One vote per person. Must be a legal citizen of the United States. Voting by text not available in Guam, Puerto Rico, Alaska or Hawaii. Paid for by [Candidate] for President 2016.”
As Horowitz notes:
Folks, this is very scary. No, not the alleged crime, but that the feds are going after such behavior while ignoring sworn allegations of mass fraud. While what is alleged appears to be mean and spiteful, at the end of the day, there is no way to actually steal a vote with this subterfuge. Not unless someone thought that, based on a random internet tweet, they could vote via text, and without verifying anything thereafter, would have sent their text and then stayed home. By this standard, every governor who violated election law and actually facilitated the casting of ballots not pursuant to law should be in jail.
We are now witnessing the beginning of a very slippery slope for the government to prosecute people for saying anything that the government believes is harmful.
Moving forward, as Horowitz rightly argues, it is not that hard to envision an FBI agent knocking on your door and saying, “You just wrote information telling people masks don’t work and to stop wearing them. You are engaging in fraud and are an accessory to murder.”
Dammit
Defund and disband the FBI, they are a tool of the Dems and their far-left wing. Ditto the CIA. The vaunted body of workers at the FBI and CIA have done nothing over the last four years to help average Americans; instead, they are arresting average Americans under false pretenses and letting Dem elites walk on their crimes.Speak up or quit.
Obama the Communist politicized the FBI and most of the other bureaucracies in the Federal Government. Trump’s big error as a Newbie Politician was to not fire all of them and then advocate to clean up all of the past political crimes that were just stalled waiting for the statute of limitations to run out and we see most of the worst are still walking free. Now the FBI is ignoring the First Amendment of the Constitution and OUR BILL OF RIGHTS of ordinary folks who just wanted to show their chagrin peacefully on Jan 06,2021.over a stolen fraudulent well planned by Demomarxists a Presidential election Nationwide with some of the costs being born by the usual Clinton Foundatio, George Soros, Stacy Abrams, the DNC etc.
This is THE DEMOCRAT COMMUNIST PARTY of AMERICA, in action.
B.L.M. = “BLUE LIVES MATTER”. Period
Old Man Biden is just a Figurehead for Turing America into Communism: Read the Communism Manifesto. Liberal Democrats Are Following it to a T. Control Job, Control Healthcare, What To Say, No Guns, No Police. Control the Media. Control Travel etc.
The latest– Our Government is getting rid of our National Heritage.. Part of the Communist Putsch and the cancel culture and the USA sinking into the slime and stink of COMMUNISM the Totalitarian dictatorship kind of Dictatorship–ex. the CCP of China. Joe thiks they are pretty good folks since he and his Clan of Grifters are in business with them and on their payroll..
Joe Bidens bank account mysteriously got a $50,000,000 deposit from China on the day he announced he was going to run for President
How is this not collusion like the $4,000,000 Russian deposit into Hillary Clinton’s bank account in 2016??????????
Why is this claim not widely known?
It appears that my reply to James McDermott is awaiting approval–I called Obama a Communist which is true.. He was a card carrying member of the NEW PARTY. of Chicago.. Chicago was the original home of the Communist Party in the USA CPUSA.. Congress outlawed communism in the USA in the early 1950’s but it is still active and alive.. Ask your search engine how many communists are in the Senate and the House of Representatives and you may get the shock of your life. Communists feel that only when the entire world is under the yoke of communism will there be peace in the World. .He was introduced to Communism by Frank Marshall Davis a former Chicago Journalist and a COMMUNIST who fled to Hawaii while it was still a Territory of the USA.. FMD was thought to be Frank that Obama wrote about in his books. FMD was such a threat had he stayed in the USA the FBI was to detain him and incarcerate him until after World War2.
Raymond. Excellent commentary. BUT. You forgot the most important “control” element – the nation’s schools. Hitler gained a lot of his control of the German people in the 1930s by starting to control the German youth in 1933. By 1939, the entire nation was his to command.
Ever noticed how much the Antifa are patterned like the Hitler “Brown shirts”? Wonder how many /Vazis are in America? Then, again, the Bernie Bros think a Gulag is similar to a Spa. They intend to round up all Conservatives and put them in Gulags. Something like 18 million people died in Stalin’s Gulag and it wasn’t a “SPA”. More like a hell hole. This little tidbit came from one of the Bros caught by Veritas which, of course, the FBI wants to shut down.
See 50 USC Chapter 23, SUBCHAPTER IV: COMMUNIST CONTROL.
The FBI agents better stand up against their political leaders or the entire FBI will be closed after the 2024 election.
FBI will Not be closed as long as they have acted and still act to further Democrat edicts. They will remain and maybe be changed into Hitler like SS officers.
The illusion of idolizing agencies and propaganda that they are infallible is crashing down before our eyes. Nothing more hurtful than being jilted by those we thought acted only in protecting American values and interests.
That’s seems to be the new mantra of the FBI crime syndicate these days , destroy the Bill of rights and the whole constitution in one bang !
If this case came to my desk for prosecution, I would roll out of my swivel chair in gales of laughter. A defense counsel would defend this for free just for the fun of seeing the government make absolute fools of themselves.
The DOJ was weaponized by the Obutthead regime, and now it’s being weaponized by the Joebama regime. What did we think would happen?
the controls we must have start with all the agencies that government has created and list their actual powers. ———–Grampa
Grampa –
This has already happened. The American Constitution was written as a rule book of permitted actions the federal government could take, and they could take no other actions that were not specifically listed in that rule book. The problem is, we, the people, have NOT held the politicians to those restrictions. There is no possible document that will, in and by itself, guarantee American liberty. It takes a well-stated and specific document, and a people willing and able to hold the politicians to what that document says.
And so it begins… or continues…. Hang on, folks, it will get worse…
I can’t wait for the Rapture!
Well there ya go! I didn’t really know how the second largest criminal organization in the world would arrest innocent citizens, but this is their plan to round up all conservatives!
Where has free speech gone in this country. They are using all Federal agency to block it. Censor ship will only build support against them. It’s idiotic.
What is wrong with these FBI agents, don’t they have any ounce of patriotism in them. Very say day for the country that the FBI has turned into the KGB or worse. I can understand the leadership being corrupt, it seems everyone in DC is now corrupt but these field agents, can’t quite understand that so many have gone to the dark side.
What we need is a band of Freedom Fighters to establish a petition party to impeach every member of the Demons party to smithereens!
You see how well the FBI investigated jailed had a trial 4 months later and are now incarerating U.S.A. citizens for attending the Trump Rally on Jan 06,2021.The Looters, murderers and arsonists and their accomplices are still running free in the gangs called BLM and Antifa from last summers city burnings. No one from Portland Or has been punished and they still raise raise hell there daily now.
ONCE GOOD, NOW REAL BAD! TIME TOO WEED OUT THE HEADS OF THE BUREAU FROM TOP TO BOTTUM STARTING WITH WRAY!
The fact is that telling lies hurts others and in some cases causes death to others. The law in fact does not let people tell lies to incite riots or any violent confrontation. Politician are immune from prosecution in most cases but not all the time but citizens are not as Guiliana, nd Powell are finding out.
The law enforcement bodies of this USA, have made mistakes same as any human has done , but on the average there are so many checks and cross checks in these organizations, wrong doing is caught in house before damage is done. Now BLM according to the law enforcement in the areas were not the ones causing problems it was out side groups like the Boogaloo Boys and White Supremists and militia members doing the damage trying to start a Civil Race war.
Well said Robert. The down votes are funny, people don’t like their propaganda bubble invaded with critical thought.
I hope you like Joe’s inflation gas will hit 4 dollars soon you can pay for it with your extra unemployment money since you want free stuff get a Life.
Educate yourself
Video doesn’t lie unless it is scripted by hollyweird wannabes. Neither does live TV lie.
FBI HAS FALLEN TO BEING A “FULL OF BULL AGENCY” FROM THE PREMIER LAWENFORCEMENT AGENCY WHEN TRUMP IS REELECTED HE SHPULD DEMAND RESIGNATIONS FORM ALL OF THE PEOPLE THERE AND IF THEY WANT TO STAY REAPPLY AND BE INTERVIEWED
Unconstitutional.
The Heads who are appointed are not civil service can be fired and should as a courtesy to a new President voluntarily offer their resignation… They are a protected breed because they usually have something on all of the rest of the appointees.
The only solution is to storm the palace and start over with Americans and “drain the criminals from our government “! The traitors should all be punished accordingly.
Call & write your representatives. That always works. Oh and be sure to vote. That worked really well too.
I can hear your sarcasm– over the phones that are always busy–the letters never answered and if they are it is a form letter and never addresses what you wrote to them about. They are so busy junketing and living it up on the taxpayers and insider trading and the meetings with lobbyists with the quiet little gifties and envelopes TERM LIMITS
We all know that the FBI is very Corrupted just like the administration.
This is outrageous. Impeach Democrats!
Thank you. That statement has been ignored by most. She SPECIFICALLY stated that WE-as in THIS administration-are flagging posts FOR Facebook. That statement CONFIRMS that it is the government looking for and ordering the censorship of posts on Facebook etc. for what it considers ‘misinformation about Covid.’ They are doing this claiming they want to save lives. What happens when an administration, any administration, decides to use that claim to censure information on say, climate change? This is a slippery slope and makes one wonder if it is a modern version of what took place in 1930’s Germany.
Didn’t the FBI take part in some not so legal interference in the 2016 election themselves? And all they got out of it was a slap on the wrist and a note asking them to resign. They are free as the breeze after what they did, who could ask for anything more?
Do far it seems that the FBI and CIA are the ones engaging in disinformation. In my opinion they have become the democrats secret police.
The FBI and DOJ are two of the most corrupt organizations in the entire world as evidenced by the Russia Hoax and even further back to the assassination of JFK. Disband them and prosecute the corrupt operatives.
You should really not be giving them ideas…
You can bet the swamp beasts in the FBI won’t go after the thousands of Democrats that actually criminalized the last election.
The FBI has always been a political tool from hoover and on. They are totally useless and need to have a complete make over or , well another true law enforcement organzation needs to take over. Going after these people that send these obvious hoaxes out, well is a waste of time. The fbi ingnors true crimes to investigate people that talk against the dems, who have bought and paid for the FBI. I used to have respectfor the fbi but I can see now that was a total mistake,
Sadly the FBI is becoming very much like the Gestapo of Germany in the 1930’s and 40’s and the DOJ is enabling these people to do the dirty work of the Deep State/NWO… It all boils down to the fact the Deep State/NWO aka the Leftist Democrats want ‘Power and Control’ that will do almost anything to attain it which means stripping rights away from the people so we can’t fight back…. A former Politician once said the US would be destroyed from within and this is exactly what is happening….
THE F B I CANNOT DESIGNATE ANY SUCH THING! THAT WOULD HAVE TO COME FROM ” CONGRESS”!
Nephilim and other evil doers are taking control of all governments. And the same support them. Interesting… just watched the end of humanity video… a bit scary, but easy to see what is going on…
The American FBI has been crooked for a LONG time – at least ever since they conspired to, and actually covered up the John Kennedy assassination. President Dwight Eisenhower’s warning against the military/industrial complex definitely includes the FBI and, unfortunately, the entire DOJ. Is it now time for the Jeffersonian solution to a failed government?
What they did was WRONG. Whether it is a crime I DO NOT KNOW. There should be some penalty. HOWEVER, DOJ’s and the FBI’s ignoring of the dems 2020 election fraud is CRIMINAL. Unless something is done, THERE SHOULD BE NO 2024 elections.
It’s LONG past time to disband the corrupt as h-ll FBI.
stop sending me messages on my computer or I’ll report to Verizon.