Through intermediaries, the government is engaged in illegal censorship of what it calls disinformation. Now the censored are fighting back. From Matt Taibbi at racket.news:
Bookending the historic Consortium News suit, conservative news outlets take on the Global Engagement Center for funding “censorship enterprises” and blacklisting
In late October, the liberal anti-establishment investigative site Consortium News filed a historic suit against the United States of America and Newsguard,* describing a state-funded effort to label, defame, and stigmatize “media organizations that oppose or dissent from American foreign and defense policy.”
Now, a pair of conservative media outlets, The Federalist and The Daily Wire, have filed a bookend suit to match the Consortium News action. This time the defendant is the Global Engagement Center, the State Department organization ostensibly dedicated to countering “foreign state and non-state propaganda.” Much as Consortium News alleged the Pentagon funded Newsguard to censor its critics, the Federalist/Daily Wire action alleges the State Department sponsored Newsguard and the U.K.-based Global Disinformation Index as “censorship enterprises” targeting domestic speech, in direct violation of its charter.
Although the 1947 Smith-Mundt Act barring agencies like the State Department from engaging in propaganda at home was “modernized” through legislation passed in 2012, the broad ban on intelligence or diplomatic services meddling in the domestic news landscapes remains. Even the “modernized” Smith-Mundt Act declares bluntly that no State Department funds shall be “used to influence public opinion in the United States.” Additionally, as the Federalist/Daily Wire action cites, the law governing State Department conduct, 22 U.S. Code § 2656, says unequivocally that its mandate is limited to “matters respecting foreign affairs.” For the State Department to fund organizations that up and down-rank domestic media organizations is a ludicrously obvious no-no.
