Senator Wagner pushes for more censorship and Big Tech-government collusion to silence the voices of Americans
By bellecarter // 2024-02-11
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Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and Virginia Senator Mark Warner wants to "reinterpret the First Amendment" while facilitating censorship, critics observed, by supporting the collusion between Big Tech and President Joe Biden's administration. During a recent interview of Warner with NPR's A. Martinez, he raised concerns about foreign powers who want to "attack U.S. democracy," Americans who deny election results and the new tools, such as artificial intelligence (AI), that make it easy to sow doubt. "I think when you are talking about true misinformation or disinformation, or when you're talking about utilization of deepfakes where an image…is put up and it's not us, but it looks like us and sounds like us, I don't think those are First Amendment protections," Wagner said. Moreover, he suggested that information labeled as disinformation be treated as malicious and banned like manipulation is banned from the stock market, bringing market rules into the world of fundamental rights and free speech. He also slammed 2020 "election deniers" while denying the integrity of the 2016 election, by once again fear-mongering about the supposed impending doom, "a perfect storm in terms of election interference." He wants to keep the current administration in power by strengthening Biden's regime's ability to censor and keep the collusion with Google and Facebook intact, if not stronger. This was the reason why he wrote an amicus brief to get the Supreme Court to reverse an injunction concerning the government and Big Tech collusion, brought up in the NetChoice, LLC v. Paxton case and issued by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. In the dialogue with NPR, the lawmaker also pointed out that he "doesn’t believe" collusion of that kind has to do with free speech suppression. He said, "It has to do with the ability of the government to be able to at least talk to Facebook and Google to say, 'hey if you see misinformation – or can we share evidence of Russian activity? How do we cooperate together?'" He was also pushing the "very timid" White House to be a little more aggressive when it comes to the United States legal system. To critics, he was firm not only with surveillance and suppression of free speech, he was bluntly pushing for tyranny and totalitarianism. (Related: Attack on free speech: House Democrats ignore First Amendment, issue letter to X (formerly Twitter) demanding MORE CENSORSHIP.)

Warner proposes legislation to further surveil citizens via the use of drones

In line with his efforts to fully encroach on Americans' privacy, Warner, together with South Dakota Senator John Thune, announced a bill that would develop cybersecurity guidelines for the federal government's use of drones by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). According to the "DETECT Act," also known as the "Drone Evaluation to Eliminate Cyber Threats," drones would have the ability to collect and store sensitive information. "Drones and unmanned systems can transform the way we do business, manage our infrastructure, and deliver life-saving medicine, and as drones become a larger part of our society, we must ensure their safety and security," said Warner. "This legislation will establish sensible cybersecurity guidelines for drones used by the federal government to ensure that sensitive information is protected while we continue to invest in this new technology." It also has other components, including directions for the Office of Management and Budget to test those guidelines with one federal agency and to implement reporting guidelines for drone security vulnerabilities. ​​Federal agencies would also be forbidden from buying drones that don’t meet these guidelines without a waiver. "As the capabilities of drones continue to evolve and be utilized by both the federal government and the private sector, it's critically important that they operate securely," Thune said in a statement. "This common-sense legislation would require the federal government to follow stringent cybersecurity guidelines and protocols for drones and unmanned systems." The two lawmakers said that a previous proposal called the "Increasing Competitiveness for American Drones Act," which was aimed at improving the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA's) process for dealing with the technology, was opaque and sluggish. "If we want the drones of tomorrow to be manufactured in the U.S. and not in China, we have to start working today to integrate them into our airspace," Warner said in a statement issued back in February 2023. Both of the mentioned proposals were supported by the unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) industry. Visit FirstAmendment.news for more stories related to the suppression of the freedom of speech and censorship.

Sources for this article include:

ReclaimTheNet.org NPR.org WFXRTV.com 1 WFXRTV.com 2 FedScoop.com
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