TPA Responds to Leaked DHS Documents Showing Plans to Monitor Online Content

For Immediate Release                                                                             Contact: Abigail Graham: (202) 417-7235

October 31, 2022                                                                                                                            

Washington, D.C. – The Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) is concerned with leaked documents from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) which revealed its push to censor content online.

In response, Director of Tech Policy, Dan Savickas, offered the following statement:

“The recently released documents from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) show dangerously anti-First Amendment conduct from a government agency. No entity has a monopoly on absolute truth, least of all the United States federal government. Content moderation decisions made by private companies should be made by these companies in conjunction with the desires of their user base. It is unacceptable for DHS to dedicate any amount of time and energy to dictating what is and is not true and silencing dissenting voices.

“It is also important for current lawmakers to recognize that government is the problem in this case. And, government will not be the solution. Responding to this threat to free speech by implementing strict government regulations on tech companies would be a mistake and counterproductive. This would only give the government more leverage to pressure private companies into censorship decisions. The less power the government has in content moderation, the better it will be for discourse and the economy.”

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Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to educating the public through the research, analysis and dissemination of information on the government’s effects on the economy.