Tyler Cross
Published on: June 28, 2023 
The Critical Infrastructure and Cybersecurity Agency (CISA) has been accused by a GOP-led House committee of violating citizens’ privacy rights.
The House Judiciary Committee and Subcommittee on Weaponization of the Federal Government believes that CISA has been “exceeding its statutory authority,” in the fight against cybercrime after ramping up its monitoring of citizens following the 2016 election in order to combat misinformation and disinformation.
The 41-page report highlights in great detail how the agency changed after 2016 when it was found that Russia attempted to influence America’s presidential election. It alleges that the committee’s attempt to crack down on misinformation is in turn, a restriction of American civil liberties.
“Labeling speech ‘misinformation’ does not strip it of First Amendment protection. That is so even if the speech is untrue, as “[s]ome false statements are inevitable if there is to be an open and vigorous expression of views in public and private conversation,” the report argues.
“(Russia) demonstrated a significant escalation in directness, level of activity, and scope of effort compared to previous operations,” a report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence says. It’s worth noting that the report doesn’t directly state the impact of Russian activities in the election.
The report that was published was riddled with politically charged language, including misrepresenting the words of Dr. Kate Starbird, co-founder of the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public.
“It’s only a matter of time before someone starts asking about our work… I’m not sure this keeps until our public meeting in June,” she said in the report.
Dr. Starbird has since come forth to correct the record.
“This report disregards clarifying information within the broader record of our subcommittee’s communications and final recommendations — as well as my voluntary testimony to this Committee — to push a misleading narrative of censorship,” said Dr. Starbird.
“Our subcommittee played no role in censoring any speech, nor did we advocate for the social media platforms to take any action to limit the spread of speech.”
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- Source: https://www.safetydetectives.com/news/gop-accuses-cisa-of-violating-citizens-civil-liberties/
