9-13-2024 WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, America First Legal released new documents exclusively obtained in its litigation against the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). AFL obtained the slide deck used in a presentation by the United Kingdom’s “Counter Disinformation Unit,” to the Biden-Harris National Security Council (NSC) Interagency Policy Committee (IPC) on August 10, 2021. This release comes on the heels of calls from House Cybersecurity Subcommittee Chairwoman, Nancy Mace, to ensure that the 2024 election is protected from the deep state censorship that was prevalent in the 2020 election.
As a part of the NSC’s regular interagency meetings on censoring COVID-related speech in the United States, the White House hosted the Counter Disinformation Unit (CDU) from the U.K. government in 2021 to learn about their most effective censorship techniques. Some of the UK’s recommendations to the Biden-Harris Administration included:
- Establishing a dedicated unit to lead government-wide censorship efforts;
- Enacting legislation for the government to regulate the misinformation and disinformation policies of tech companies, and punish them if they refuse to comply with government censorship demands;
- Create and maintain partnerships with companies to “flag” disfavored content;
- Use the foreign policy apparatus to coordinate this shared agenda between aligned governments and multilateral institutions;
- Leverage its control over social media to “counter disinformation” and promote leftist dogma.
This meeting was attended by high-level staff from the White House, the NSC, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Departments of State, Treasury, Defense (DOD), Homeland Security (DHS), and Health and Human Services (HHS), the U.S. Agencies for International Development (USAID) and Global Media (USAGM), as well as high-ranking officers in the Army, Navy, and Air Force.
At this meeting, the CDU outlined how they have been censoring the British public, and these documents expose how left-wing authoritarian governments across the globe are working together to attack free speech.
During the censorship meeting, the Biden-Harris NSC invited the British government to share its censorship playbook. They recommended creating a dedicated hub to lead government-wide censorship efforts, passing legislation to enable the government to coerce social media companies, and enlisting the Department of State to partner with foreign allies and multilateral institutions to coordinate the global censorship agenda.
- A centralized hub to lead government-wide censorship efforts
The Counter Disinformation Unit (CDU) is a British “cross-departmental” body that coordinates censorship programs across the whole of the British government. They “support formulation of a coordinated Government response” to the “threat” of misinformation (anything the government deems false).
The CDU coordinates the British censorship program with private companies such as social media platforms and non-profits. The CDU includes components of the U.K.’s foreign policy apparatus, domestic and foreign intelligence services, and individuals working directly for the Prime Minister in the Cabinet Office’s National Security Unit.
Separate AFL litigation uncovered that the Biden-Harris Administration convened similar public-private censorship partnerships in the U.S. well into 2024. For example, AFL succeeded in dissolving the Orwellian Homeland Intelligence Experts Group in litigation that labeled Trump supporters as “Domestic Terrorism Threats.”
Around election time, the CDU stood up a “Central Election Cell” to kick censorship efforts into overdrive.
During the U.S. 2022 Midterm elections, the Biden-Harris Administration similarly set up a National Election Command Post within the FBI.
- Enacting censorship laws
In the meeting, the CDU shared how their proposal would allow them to directly coerce social media platforms to ensure that the government’s censorship demands were followed. By creating a new duty of care, the proposed legislation empowers a British regulatory agency to demand the censorship of content that the U.K. government deems harmful. The U.K. Online Safety Act came into force in October of 2023 and is the basis under which U.K. law enforcement officials have threatened to extradite and jail U.S. citizens. The law parallels recently resurfaced comments made by then Senator Kamala Harris in 2019, which called for the DOJ to punish social media companies that allowed “disinformation” and “misinformation.”
A separate AFL investigation has confirmed that the Biden-Harris White House solicited policy recommendations from the British-based Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH)—the group behind the U.K. Online Safety Act—and adopted commitments to hold companies accountable through DOJ prosecutions and FTC enforcement actions for allowing “online harassment” on their platforms.
- Establish regular lines of communication between government and social media platforms.
The CDU also relies heavily on “trusted flagging relationships.” Effectively, this means when the government directs social media companies to censor specific posts and individuals. This behavior of flagging posts led AFL to initially file the lawsuit, which resulted in the production of these documents and is at the heart of the Missouri v. Biden case, in which AFL filed two key amicus briefs on behalf of dozens of members in the House of Representatives. Prior releases obtained by AFL in this litigation revealed that the Biden-Harris Administration had also engaged in this sort of “trusted relationship” partnership with social media companies even before this meeting.
- International government pressure
The presentation appears to show that the U.K. government engages its foreign policy apparatus to further its censorship agenda and encouraged the U.S. to do the same. One of the so-called “significant benefits” of this approach would be, according to the presentation, that this unified front of government pressure would “encourag[e] cooperation from platforms.”
The U.K. Foreign Office and the U.S. Department of State appear to play important similar roles in this international government censorship partnership. By coordinating across left-wing authoritarian governments, they can manipulate the global population into believing that there is no alternative to massive government censorship of social media, and “industry” would “efficiently implement[] new systems and processes.” In 2021, the U.K. boasted of a close working relationship with the U.S., Australia, and Canada, as well as bilateral relationships with 20 additional countries. This begs the question: how many nations have come on board with this initiative by now? To explore the depths of these censorship partnerships, AFL recently launched investigations into potential involvement by the Biden-Harris Department of State in heavy-handed retribution against Telegram and X for refusing to censor their platforms.
The CDU presentation also highlights the role of multilateral institutions in this international engagement, specifically identifying the G7’s Rapid Response Mechanism and the United Nations Interagency Platform on Culture for Sustainable Development (IPCSD) under the heading: “Multilateral cooperation to counter disinformation.” The logos of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the International Criminal Court (ICC), and the European Center for Excellence of Countering Threats are visible under the heading, “International training and capability.”
- Promote leftist dogma
Part of the U.K. government’s presentation included a description of a U.K. initiative called the “Counter Disinformation and Media Development Programme,” which was active in Eastern Europe from 2016 to 2021. According to their “Theory of Change,” one of the outcomes of this scheme was that the targeted populations would “reduce identification with pre-existing social biases” and increase “support for gender equality” and “liberal democratic values.” These terms may sound innocuous, but in practice, they are covers for left-wing social re-engineering experiments. For instance, money from the CDMD Programme was used to fund the “Global Disinformation Index,” which runs an “advertising blacklist” for websites that they allege push “anti-trans narratives.”
These slides expose the Biden-Harris Administration’s cooperation with ideologically aligned leftist allies to push woke progressive dogmas while monitoring and censoring what Americans think and say. America First Legal will keep fighting tirelessly to protect and defend freedom of speech.
Statement from Gene Hamilton, America First Legal Executive Director:
“With no apparent appreciation for the irony that the First Amendment to our Constitution was adopted following our independence from Great Britain, these records show that the Biden-Harris regime apparently engaged with representatives from the United Kingdom on ways to more effectively censor the speech of Americans across the country. The Biden-Harris Administration’s desire to silence speech and control what information Americans are able to obtain is so extreme, so pervasive, and so over-the-top that they are willing to listen to foreign governments explain ways to better violate core constitutional rights of the American people. Freedom of speech is essential to the success of our democratic republic, and for the continued betterment of humanity. We will continue to expose those who oppose free speech, and will continue to fight for the rights of all Americans,” said Gene Hamilton.
See the full slide deck here and AFL’s previously obtained CDC documents here.
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