On Dec. 5, the state of Texas, along with conservative media outlets The Daily Wire and The Federalist, filed a lawsuit in federal district court against the U.S. State Department, claiming in the suit that the agency funded and backed censorship efforts aimed at bankrupting media outlets with conservative views
Daily Wire And The Federalist Sue Biden State Department Over Censorship Effort https://t.co/XW6RITFSD2 pic.twitter.com/aibm23aBhB
— Daily Wire News (@DailyWireNews) December 6, 2023
The State Department is tasked with foreign relations and has no authority over domestic affairs, yet it took a government office designed for countering foreign terrorist propaganda, the Global Engagement Center (GEC), and unleashed it against Americans engaged in what it claimed was 'disinformation,' according to the lawsuit, filed in federal court in the Eastern District of Texas on Tuesday night by the New Civil Liberties Alliance.
It was 'one of the most audacious, manipulative, secretive, and gravest abuses of power and infringements of First Amendment rights by the federal government in American history,' said the suit, which also names Secretary of State Antony Blinken and five other officials as defendants.
The suit asks that the State Department's actions be declared illegal and 'to permanently bar it from developing, promoting, or encouraging others to use technology to de-amplify, shadow ban, or restrict 'the lawful speech of the American press and Americans.'
Our initial reaction can be summed up in one word: BOOM.
Daily Wire CEO Jeremy Boreing chimed in with a simple, but very direct statement about the suit early in the morning on Dec. 6.
Enough is enough. https://t.co/klBzZeQzNf
— Jeremy Boreing (@JeremyDBoreing) December 6, 2023
News of the lawsuit was applauded by many on Twitter/X.
https://t.co/CmP6vLwOKc pic.twitter.com/B0tEuq5kJO
— 🕆🇺🇸🇮🇱Christmastime Lionheart (@The_Lionheart) December 6, 2023
Get em coach
— Cdfairch (@MTuggernuts) December 6, 2023
'Coach' is a reference to Boreing's lead role in the recently released Daily Wire comedy 'Lady Ballers,' which takes on the problem of men playing in women's sports and transgender issues in general.
— The Traveling Scientist (@TheTravelingPhD) December 6, 2023
Good for you!
— ~DeTheBrat~ (@DeTheBrat) December 6, 2023
Let’s go!! Can’t wait for another win!
— Olivia Claire ✨ (@OliviaaaClairee) December 6, 2023
'Another' win. Absolutely. As Twitchy readers may recall, in 2021, when the Biden administration tried to impose vaccine mandates on private businesses, The Daily Wire was the first major private company in America to challenge the mandate in court. Eventually, other businesses and organizations joined with similar suits, they were all consolidated into National Federation of Independent Business v. Department of Labor, and in January 2022, the mandate was struck down by the United States Supreme Court.
— Google has deleted the internet💀 (@NotEpps) December 6, 2023
Yes, we think this lawsuit would bring a big smile to Andrew Breitbart's face.
The censorship actions from the GEC, and the organizations it created, such as NewsGuard and the Global Disinformation Index, adversely impacted all conservative news outlets, including us here at Twitchy. So, we are also applauding this lawsuit and will be following its progress closely.
Free speech, after all, does not mean 'speech the government approves of.'
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