Gov't to CENSOR dissent and all "wrong" info

Larry Mantle (AirTalk, scpr.org); Seth Auberon, CC Liu, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

How can the Biden administration block all dis- and mis-information and inconvenient truths?

Me! I'll decide what's true and what's disinfo.

(AirTalk on KPCC, 2/25/21) "Conspiracy" theories and things the government calls hoaxes have been around for a long time, well before the advent of the internet.

In recent years it seems more and more North Americans are willing to openly embrace alternatives to government truth, particularly as high-ranking government officials, including the a president, amplify the voices of those spreading information the government dislikes.

Greg Palast investigates (gregpalast.com).

Whether it’s false claims about election fraud (which happens in every election according to investigative journalist Greg Palast), conspiracy theories like those attributed to QAnon, or evidence this coronavirus is man-made, unpopular information is having its moment in the national media.

Don't look up. There's nothing there.

But the Biden administration has said it plans to censor and stamp it out. It is taking steps to fight whatever it labels "disinformation" (excluding government propaganda and hand-selected "expert" opinions) at the federal level.

Some congressional Democrats want to get in on the effort, too: In December, members of The Congressional Task Force on Digital Citizenship sent a letter to the then-Biden transition team proposing a blueprint for how Joe's administration can combat the flow of disinformation, which includes:

• 

  Big Gov't and the Thought Police are watching.

  creating a multi agency "task force" whose job would be to better "educate" Americans [by sending them to "reeducation or labor camps" if necessary] on disinformation and ensure that centralized power federal agencies have tools to fight it.

"Expert" Joan Donovan, Harvard

But how do government agents fight information in a deeply divided society where many individuals have chosen to trust their own understanding of what's real real over what they're told by government is real?

This is a society where individuals who would most likely benefit from a centralized campaign against disinformation are the same people who distrust anything the federal government says or does. 

"Expert" Ilya Somin, George Mason

AirTalk explores some of the things the Biden administration might do to combat information the government doesn't want citizens to know.

How can Biden fight information he doesn't like at the federal level as well as the challenges, legal and policy-wise, that he might face along the way to shutting down dissent and debate. More + MP3 AUDIO

• GUESTS: Joan Donovan, adjunct lecturer in public policy and research director of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy at Harvard U. Tweets @BostonJoan 
• Ilya Somin, professor of law at George Mason U. (Antonin Scalia Law School). where his research areas include constitutional law, democratic theory, and federalism. Tweets @IlyaSomin