Rep. Thomas Massie clarified the record in an exchange with Olivia Troye on the house floor. She was a former advisor to Vice President Mike Pence who had claimed that government-sponsored censorship is a “politically-motivated fantasy detached from reality.”
During a Federal Government hearing on Weaponization, Massie disputed Troye’s arguments by pointing to a specific instance in which one of his posts on X, formerly known as Twitter, was flagged by the Stanford Internet Observatory, a government-funded entity. The social media company later censored the post.
Massie asked Troye if one of the conspiracies she was referring concluded that “government-funded agencies flagged official congressional accounts on Social Media in an attempt to censor them. ”
“I would have no knowledge of that. I’m not aware of that,” Troye responded.
Shellenberger, who was involved in The Twitter Files’ release, said that Twitter was flagged for misinformation by the “Vitality project of Stanford Internet Observatory”, and that the tweet had been “censored another way.”
Massie pointed out the fact that the project had been funded by the federal government. Troye then asked Massie whether he felt the project should have been flagged. Massie replied: “It all depends on if you’re spreading false information.”
Massie pointed out that the tweet referred to a study conducted in Israel, which showed that immunity against COVID-19 is due to “previous infection”. This also applies to the Pfizer vaccine.
Troye insisted that Massie’s tweet was “flagged for some reason”, to which the legislator responded.
It is to prove that you were lying.
Government-funded organizations were flagging official congressional accounts, including mine, to get posts censored on social media. If the government will attempt to censor a member of Congress’s communications to his constituents, the government will censor anyone. pic.twitter.com/kvD3s9XlMv
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) November 30, 2023
The crux is this: taxpayers fund Stanford Internet Observatory, and other organizations to help social media companies to censor content that is contrary to government policy on coronaviruses or other issues. This problem was brought to light by Elon Musk revealing inside information about the company’s management before he became the CEO.
In spite of Troye’s denials, and those from others who try to mislead the public, it is obvious that the government pays entities to muzzle dissenting digital voices. This is a shocking example of how the government has been weaponized for political purposes.
