Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) is calling on Big Tech to censor alleged election misinformation, conveniently ignoring his own history of propagating the debunked Trump-Russia collusion narrative.
Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff is now demanding that major tech companies take aggressive action to combat the spread of so-called “misinformation” and “disinformation” ahead of the 2024 election. However, Schiff’s sudden concern about election integrity rings hollow given his prominent role in spreading one of the most damaging political conspiracy theories in recent memory — the Trump-Russia collusion hoax.
In a letter sent this week to the CEOs of Meta, X (formerly Twitter), TikTok, Google and others, Schiff and several Democratic colleagues expressed alarm about the “threat” of false and misleading online content to the upcoming election. The lawmakers pressed the tech giants on how they plan to alter their content moderation policies to crack down on users who share “mis- and disinformation.”
“As the technology on social media platforms rapidly expands, companies must redouble their efforts to combat issues that threaten our democracy,” the letter stated, citing a study claiming online misinformation poses a risk to the election.
Yet Schiff’s sudden role as a crusader against election disinformation is deeply ironic and hypocritical given his own record. For years, Schiff weaponized his position as the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee to push unsubstantiated claims and misleading innuendo about alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Despite a lack of concrete evidence, Schiff repeatedly went on cable news to declare there was “more than circumstantial evidence” and “damning” proof of a Trump-Russia conspiracy. He falsely asserted the FBI had not abused the FISA warrant process to surveil Trump aide Carter Page.
When the Nunes memo revealed the FBI’s misconduct, Schiff launched a pressure campaign on social media companies to “expose” and “deactivate” accounts sharing the memo, baselessly claiming they were linked to Russia. But Twitter executives found no significant Russian activity behind the “Release the Memo” hashtag.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation ultimately found no evidence of a Trump-Russia conspiracy, thoroughly debunking Schiff’s years-long stream of allegations and insinuations.
Schiff’s letter also comes on the heels of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s admission that Facebook limited distribution of the Hunter Biden laptop story in 2020 after FBI warnings about Russian disinformation. Zuckerberg now says suppressing the story was a mistake.
As Breitbart News reported:
In a letter to Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Zuckerberg wrote that after being warned by the FBI about a possible “Russian disinformation operation” regarding President Joe Biden’s family, Facebook went on to kill an article from the New York Post.
In response to the article about “corruption allegations” about the Biden family, Facebook “sent that story to fact-checkers” and had it “temporarily demoted.”
“It’s since been made clear that the reporting was not Russian disinformation, and in retrospect, we shouldn’t have demoted the story,” Zuckerberg added. “We’ve changed our policies and processes to make sure this doesn’t happen again — for instance, we no longer temporarily demote things in the U.S. while waiting for fact-checkers.”
Breitbart News will continue to report on Silicon Valley’s election interference.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.
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