Disinformation Governance Board puts our freedoms of religion and speech in peril by Fr. Michael P. Orsi for Life Site News
If this effort isn’t opposed by Congress — if it’s allowed to stand — we will be facing very dangerous times indeed. I would go so far as to say this is the most dangerous threat to our democratic system, and to our personal freedom, the nation has ever faced.
There are times in history when events coalesce to create moments of great national importance. I think we’re at such a moment.
Three significant developments have occurred within the course of days:
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First, tech entrepreneur Elon Musk purchased the online messaging platform, Twitter, with the intention of taking it private and restoring the free-speech character it abandoned in favor of ideology-based news manipulation.
Then, the Biden Administration announced establishment of a Disinformation Governance Board under the Department of Homeland Security. Its purported mission is to protect us from “fake news” generated by Russia and other foreign players.
Third, an unprecedented leak occurred at the Supreme Court, making public a draft of an opinion suggesting that the infamous Roe v. Wade decision is about to be overturned.
I realize that organizing new government offices takes time, and so the Disinformation Governance Board isn’t a response to Musk’s Twitter move, as such. Nevertheless, those two events will be paired in the public mind, since it’s likely Musk would clash with this new board over allegations that his reworking of Twitter promotes “fake news.”
The Supreme Court leak brings to mind a personal incident of a couple years back. I had submitted an election commentary to a certain Catholic journal, in which I disagreed with the U.S. Bishops.
Their Excellencies had maintained that the key issue in the election was abortion. My take was that, while abortion was certainly of critical importance, the key issue was really freedom of religion, which is linked in the First Amendment to freedom of speech.
I saw what was being done to the First Amendment by Twitter and other online outlets, along with the malignant growth of so-called “Cancel Culture.” And my argument was that if we can’t rely on our right to speak freely in defense of religious principles, then we won’t be able to preach on the evils of abortion, or the evils of genocide, or the evils of unjust imprisonment, or the evils of denying human beings their basic rights and dignity.
In short, we won’t be able to uphold any point of Judeo-Christian morality that might diverge from government policy.
Ironically, I was canceled for my effort. The essay never ran.
