The new US administration has its work cut out for it in order to reverse some of the damage done to free speech, including through the Biden era Big Tech-government collusion and misconduct of intelligence officials.
On his first day in office, President Trump signed a flurry of executive orders, a number of which deal with these problems.
Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship seeks to at once expose the previous administration’s role in the collusion, and what the order calls trampling of free speech rights of Americans, including censorship and deplatforming.
“Under the guise of combating ‘misinformation’, ‘disinformation’, and ‘malinformation’, the Federal Government infringed on the constitutionally protected speech rights of American citizens across the United States in a manner that advanced the government’s preferred narrative about significant matters of public debate,” the order slams the previous administration’s record.
As government-driven censorship is “intolerable in a free society,” the order outlines a number of steps to remedy the current situation, but crucially make sure this does not happen again.
Thus, the Attorney-General is instructed to investigate the government’s activities during the last four years “that are inconsistent with the purposes and policies of this order.”
The document establishes that government employees are now prevented from engaging in or facilitating censorship and using taxpayer funds to promote censorship.
Another, Ending the Weaponization of the Federal Government, concerns in particular the intelligence community.
The Director of the National Intelligence is to review the activities of this community over the past four years, report to the president, and make recommendations, in order to take “appropriate action to correct past misconduct by the Federal Government related to the weaponization of the Intelligence Community.”
Yet another order targets the 51 intelligent officials by revoking their security clearance for signing a letter that “falsely suggested that the (Hunter Biden laptop) news story was part of a Russian disinformation campaign.” The Director of National Intelligence is instructed to investigate and within 90 days report “on inappropriate activity related to the 51 former intelligence officials who signed the letter.”
The order – Holding Former Government Officials Accountable for Election Interference and Improper Disclosure of Sensitive Governmental Information – treats this as an instance of breach of trust – that saw the officials engage in misleading and inappropriate political “coordination” – fit for “a third world country.”
Going forward, those issued with government security clearance are prohibited from engaging in activities that could influence elections in the US.
The executive order concerning TikTok’s continued operations in the US addresses the application of an act seeking to ban the app and instructs the Attorney-General and DOJ not to enforce it for at least 75 days.
