House Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Jordan, in a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray on Tuesday, demanded answers regarding testimony by a bureau analyst that suggests officials used a “software tool” to track election-related speech on social media.
The analyst claimed during a discussion with the Committee and the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government that the Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF) division of the FBI was using the tool to “search open-source databases about content indicative of criminal conduct.”
“According to the analyst’s testimony, the FBI uses this tool to monitor social media posts by users, regardless of whether the users are American citizens or foreign actors, to search for ‘content indicative of criminal conduct,’” Jordan wrote.
“The analyst further testified that the FBI shares its findings, such as the specific ‘user name and the content’ of the posts, with social media companies to censor such content accordingly.”
Was the FBI using a software tool to spy on you during election season?
Seems like it. pic.twitter.com/C0eo4A9mti
— House Judiciary GOP 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 (@JudiciaryGOP) November 12, 2024
The phrase “content indicative of criminal conduct” was explored further during the testimony, and when asked how broad the scope of the searches was, the bureau’s legal team interjected.
“Although the analyst testified that the FBI uses this tool to pursue ‘criminal conduct,’ when questioned about the nature of the software tool and the scope of the FBI’s use of it, agency counsel repeatedly prevented the analyst from fully answering the Committee’s questions,” Jordan wrote.
“Therefore, we write to obtain additional information in order to understand whether the FBI has or could use this software tool to censor or infringe upon lawful speech, particularly Americans’ political speech.”
House Judiciary Committee Republicans posted a copy of the letter on X asking, “Was the FBI using a software tool to spy on you during election season?”
“Seems like it,” they concluded.
Jordan’s letter to Director Wray can be read below.
House Judiciary Committee chair Letter to FBI RE: Potential Spying on Election Speech by grusbf5 on Scribd
Americans will recognize this example of the FBI spreading its tentacles of election interference into social media and squeezing the hell out of free speech as the norm, not an exception.
They tipped the scales of the 2020 presidential election by intimidating Facebook and Twitter (now X) to censor stories regarding the New York Post’s bombshell Hunter Biden laptop story.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg dropped jaws by admitting Facebook throttled information about the laptop scandal in the days leading up to that election thanks in part to the FBI coming to them with a message having all the subtleties of a mob boss meeting.
Facebook limited exposure to the laptop news after receiving a warning from the bureau to be on the lookout for Russian propaganda at around the same time this particular story was coming out. *Wink, wink*
Zuckerberg told podcaster Joe Rogan that the visit from the FBI, which he called a “legitimate institution,” prompted him to take their warning “seriously” and subsequently admitted that Facebook had algorithmically throttled the reach on any posts involving the laptop.
He said that while they were not specifically instructed to focus on the Hunter Biden story, they did so anyway because “it basically fit the pattern” that they had been warned about.
Former White House press secretary Jen Psaki flat-out admitted during the pandemic that the administration was working with Facebook to flag “disinformation” regarding vaccines and COVID-19.
Psaki’s startling admission, a coordinated effort by the government to control information in tandem with a major private social media company, seemed at the time like something you might hear out of a country that utilizes state-run media.
“We are in regular touch with the social media platforms and those engagements typically happen through members of our senior staff and also members of our COVID-19 team,” Psaki told reporters.
“We’ve increased disinformation research and tracking within the Surgeon General’s Office,” she added. “We are flagging problematic posts for Facebook that spread disinformation.”
.@PressSec: “We’re flagging problematic posts for Facebook that spread disinformation.” pic.twitter.com/xTCvg3tyFQ
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) July 15, 2021
Blatant censorship. Far too many documented examples. And now the FBI is again being accused of “spying” on Americans to censor election-related content.
If Russia themselves had acted the way the Justice Department has throughout the past two presidential election cycles, they wouldn’t have been more pleased with the interference efforts.
Jordan’s letter demands that Wray and the FBI provide a briefing as to the bureau’s use of the “software tool” by November 26th.
RedState will update readers if there is any response.
