Intelligence agencies, including the FBI, have restarted their “communications” with social media companies in preparation to fight “disinformation” ahead of the 2024 election.
Senator Mark Warner, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, confirmed the action at the RSA Conference this week.
The announcement came amid the ongoing hearings at the Supreme Court regarding Murthy v. Missouri, a case focusing on allegations that federal agencies forced social media platforms to remove specific content during the 2020 presidential election.
The communications between government agencies and social media platforms resumed as several judges seemed inclined to support the executive branch’s position on the matter, the Post
Millennial reported.
Warner said the White House lawyers have been “too timid” in interpreting the Supreme Court case, and intelligence agencies have rolled back their communications with social media companies over the last six months.
“There seemed to be a lot of sympathy that the government ought to have at least voluntary communications with [the companies],” Warner said.
Warner also announced his senate committee will hold a hearing about election security, highlighting the potential risks associated with advancements in artificial intelligence (AI)
“If the bad guy started to launch AI-driven tools that would threaten election officials in key communities, that falls into the foreign interference category,” said Warner.
The FBI confirmed Warner’s comments.
“The FBI remains committed to combatting foreign malign influence operations, including in connection with our elections,” an FBI representative told The Federalist.
“That effort includes sharing specific foreign threat information with state and local election officials and private sector companies when appropriate and rigorously consistent with the law.”
“In coordination with the Department of Justice, the FBI recently implemented procedures to facilitate sharing information about foreign malign influence with social media companies in a way that reinforces that private companies are free to decide on their own whether and how to take action on that information.”
Election interference
The Media Research Center revealed last month that Facebook has interfered with U.S. elections almost 40 times since 2008
The group found that Facebook censored 2024 presidential candidates, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and 2022 Senate and House candidates on their platform.
According to the MRC’s analysis, the social media company also removed VirginiChase’snatorial cand”date Amanda Chase’s account and “shuttered political adverti”ing one week before the eleMRC’s” in 2020.
MRC also said there were at least three instances when Facebook leadership publicly voiced support for free online speech but took a different path afterward.
“Facebook/Zuckerberg voiced support for free speech online, but after the remarks, the Big Tech platform went in the opposite direction,” wrote MRC Free Speech America Vice President Dan Schneider and editor Gabriela Pariseau, who conducted the study.
“But following a series of so-called ‘civil rights’ audits conducted by the left, COO Sheryl Sandberg praised the leftist recommendations and committed to ‘put more of their proposals into practice,’ which she did,” they also wrote.
