"Suppressing disinformation" is a power battle, nothing more.
Whoever has the right to say their understanding is the correct one and all others should be repressed has power over speech.
Freedom of speech means ALL speech or it means nothing.
If someone defrauds you, prove the fraud and the damage and sue them.
Otherwise, whether you want them to or not, people have a right to tell you what they think, or even to lie to you and tell you something they don't even think.
Otherwise "stopping disinformation" is just "censorship" by another name.
Yeah I'm sure this new department will not be used strictly for political gain.
Bad inflation numbers going into the midterms? Joe B flubbing some speech or person reference? Just call it misleading or misquote on some stretch technicality and down moderate.
The mostly uninteresting Hunter Biden laptop story suppression from mainstream media, Twitter, and Facebook in a very obviously concerted effort, and only for a period of time before the election, with orders from the top is a sign that, when pushed, the Arbiters of Truth will squash dissent to save face. (Here come the downvotes)
You mean the Hunter Biden laptop story literally everyone has heard about incessantly for years? The same one that They suppressed from the mainstream media, Twitter, Facebook, and Wikipedia¹? The one that's the reason They are going to downvote your post?
1) Most MSM harped on that it happened but not its contents. Same with other leaks such as emails, paid speeches, cables, etc. The story gets out. The substance of the leaks, however, are not widely discussed. Only that it happened.
2) I clearly stated that it was suppressed by MSM, Twitter, Facebook for a short period before the election. Twitter and Facebook admitted it outright. Zuckerberg himself said they got a call from the State to "watch out" for it. It's no longer a debatable as to whether the suppression before the election happened.
And no, the downvotes come in droves when speaking less than positively about the American Democratic Party.
For years after the election, certainly not before - the narrative before was between Russian disinformation handwaving and complete fabrication.
eg
NPR
"We don't want to waste our time on stories that are not really stories, and we don't want to waste the listeners' and readers' time on stories that are just pure distractions."
I can only imagine how much more effective this strategy would be if you codify it into a federal agency.
Whoever has the right to say their understanding is the correct one and all others should be repressed has power over speech.
Freedom of speech means ALL speech or it means nothing.
If someone defrauds you, prove the fraud and the damage and sue them.
Otherwise, whether you want them to or not, people have a right to tell you what they think, or even to lie to you and tell you something they don't even think.
Otherwise "stopping disinformation" is just "censorship" by another name.