A House Judiciary subcommittee report published Monday reveals that the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) outsourced “the censorship of Americans” to a third-party nonprofit agency.
Titled “The Weaponization of CISA: How a ‘Cybersecurity’ Agency Colluded With Big Tech and ‘Disinformation’ Partners to Censor Americans,” the report published by House Judiciary Committee Republicans outlines an “ongoing investigation” of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which was created during the Trump administration.
The report notes that CISA, which was founded in 2018, was intended to be “an ancillary agency designed to protect ‘critical infrastructure’” and provide protection against threats to cybersecurity.
“In the years since its creation, however, CISA metastasized into the nerve center of the federal government’s domestic surveillance and censorship operations on social media,” House Republicans stated. “By 2020, CISA routinely reported social media posts that allegedly spread ‘disinformation’ to social media platforms.”
The report claims the CISA developed categories for misinformation, disinformation and malinformation by 2021.
“In 2022 and 2023, in response to growing public and private criticism of CISA’s unconstitutional behavior, CISA attempted to camouflage its activities, duplicitously claiming it serves a purely ‘informational’ role,” the report stated.
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First reported by Just the News, the House Judiciary report outlines how the Department of Homeland Security’s CISA team outsourced censorship activities to third parties after the department received backlash over the Biden administration’s Disinformation Governance Board, which was quickly disbanded in response to the outcry of American citizens.
After Missouri and Louisiana filed a lawsuit against the government for working with technology companies to censor Americans online, CISA reportedly financed the Center for Internet Security as part of the outsourcing of censorship activities.
The report states, “CISA moved its censorship operation to a CISA-funded non-profit after CISA and the Biden administration were sued in federal court, implicitly admitting that its censorship activities are unconstitutional.”
Also included in the House Judiciary report is an email from Suzanne Spaulding, a CISA advisory board member, to Kate Starbird, another CISA board member, warning that it was “only a matter of time before someone realizes we exist and starts asking about our work.”
While the interim report explains that the investigation remains ongoing, the report concludes that evidence reveals CISA, under the leadership of DHS, “has facilitated the censorship of Americans directly and through third-party intermediaries.”
