Judicial Watch: Documents Show California State Officials Coordinated with Big Tech and Biden Campaign to Censor and Remove Americans’ 2020 Election Posts

 

How many times have we heard the argument that social media censorship is not an attack on the First Amendment because “it’s not the government doing the censorship”??

We have more than enough proof that (Democrat) government officials are indeed calling the shots and silencing Americans with whom they politically disagree.

Conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch on Tuesday announced it received 540 pages and additional documents from the California Secretary of State revealing how state officials pressured and coordinated with Big Tech to censor and remove Americans’ 2020 election posts to help the Biden campaign.

“Included in these documents were “misinformation briefings” emails that were compiled by communications firm SKDK, that lists Biden for President as their top client of 2020,” Judicial Watch said.

“The Office of Election Cybersecurity in the California Secretary of State’s office monitored and tracked social media posts, decided if they were misinformation, stored the posts in an internal database coded by threat level, and on 31 different occasions requested posts be removed. In 24 cases, the social media companies agreed and either took down the posts or flagged them as misinformation, according to Jenna Dresner, senior public information officer for the Office of Election Cybersecurity,” the watchdog group wrote.

“We don’t take down posts, that is not our role to play,” Dresner said. “We alert potential sources of misinformation to the social media companies and we let them make that call based on community standards they created.”

The California Secretary of State actually flagged a video from Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton discussing dirty voter rolls and ballot harvesting schemes.

The newly uncovered document shows California state officials contacted YouTube directly and told them to remove Fitton’s video. YouTube responded by deleting Fitton’s video on September 27, 2020.

More from Judicial Watch:

A 30-page “Misinformation Tracking Sheet” lists social media posts that the office disagrees with and has asked social media companies to remove.

In an internal email on January 12, 2021, Deputy Secretary of State and Chief Communications Officer Paula Valle emails Chief Counsel Steve Reyes and Jenna Dresner in the Office of Cybersecurity, as well as Press Secretary Sam Mahood stating that she is uncomfortable with CalMattersreporter Fred Brewster’s questions about the office’s tracking and censoring efforts:

 Hi Steve – Please see below – the reporter at Cal Matters who PRA’d us is doing a follow-up story. We asked him to send us his questions. I am not necessarily comfortable with his line of questions and the additional doors that this will open. I want to get your feedback I would simply like to give him a statement about what our goal is and leave it at that. Thoughts?

Brewster’s questions, which include concerns from citizens who were targeted by the “Misinformation Tracker,” were sent on January 12, 2021:

I reached out to the users on page 7 and page 21 of the Misinformation Tracker request I received. Both individuals wanted to know how their posts ended up being labeled misinformation and how, given their relatively small following, they came to the attention of the Office of Election Cybersecurity?

Another user named “DC O’Bryan” had his post taken down (page 5 of the Misinformation Tracker). In an email, you highlight a report sent to the state that says, “I don’t know if this is hot air meant to provoke. If it is, a call from an official might get the point across that you don’t joke about election fraud.” Was O’Bryan called to confirm that his post was a joke?

How does the Office of Election Cybersecurity differentiate between parody and satire and misinformation?

Did CISA, Facebook, or any other partners provide guidance on how to spot and define misinformation? If someone has their posts in the Misinformation Tracker, are there plans to contact those individuals and is there a way for them to petition the state to delete them?

The Secretary of State’s Office emails Facebook and Twitter on April 25,2019, with requests from the Office to remove tweets and posts for what they have labeled “misinformation.”

“These new documents suggest a conspiracy against the First Amendment rights of Americans by the California Secretary of State, the Biden campaign operation, and Big Tech,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “These documents blow up the big lie that Big Tech censorship is ‘private’ – as the documents show collusion between a whole group of government officials in multiple states to suppress speech about election controversies.”

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