A clear majority of American voters are more concerned about government crackdowns on free speech than so-called “disinformation,” a national survey reportedly found.
According to the new Scott Rasmussen survey, fifty-nine per cent of U.S. citizens are concerned that government can decide which news is permitted and not. This was based on a national poll by The National Desk. This is significant in light of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) recently established Disinformation Governance Board (DGB), which was nicknamed the “Ministry of Truth,” in reference to George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984. Forty-eight percent of survey respondents said they thought the censorship board “will be used mainly to silence opposing viewpoints,” reported The National Desk.
The survey as seen on TND asked which of two issues concerned each voter more: “Government choosing what’s allowed” or “Disinformation and fake news.” A majority of voters were more concerned about government interference with speech, while 28 percent were “more worried about disinformation and fake news,” according to The National Desk. 13 percent of respondents were unsure.
Freedom-of-speech activists have condemned the DGB. Former President Donald Trump critiqued those trying to downplay the censorship board’s power, saying, “That’s where it all began. I guess that’s what they used to say in Russia. That’s what they said in the Soviet Union, right? ‘We’re just going to do a little bit’ — uh, no, we can’t do that,” Trump insisted. “We can’t do that. That’s a horrible thing.”
Brendan Carr, Federal Communications Commission Commissioner, appeared on Fox News to criticize the DGB. “This is Orwellian; it’s un-American; it’s unconstitutional,” Carr said. “The very best time to shut this down was before the DHS ever announced it, the second best time is right now.”
Americans for Prosperity Foundation (AFP) filed a Freedom of Information Act request (FOIA), to clarify the DGB’s function. AFP said that it’s one thing for a private organization to “fact-check,” but “[i]t’s something entirely different for an enormous powerful government agency to broadly step into the game, asserting that it will go beyond merely engaging in counter-speech and step forward to ‘safeguard’ the country.”
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