Arizona’s Democratic governor-elect Katie Hobbs is under fire for her efforts to censor social media while serving as secretary of state. This startling revelation came in the discovery process of the current case Missouri v. Biden, which concerns federal vaccine mandates.
The documents reveal that Hobbs’ office contacted the Center for Internet Security (CIS), which acts as a non-profit conduit between government agencies and social media platforms.
Her office requested a review of Twitter posts alleging Arizona’s voter registration apparatus was foreign-owned and operated. The request claimed that the posts were “an attempt to further undermine confidence in the election institution in Arizona.”
One of the offending tweets asked if “our entire election system (is) foreign-owned” and asserted that the company controlling the voter registration database was foreign.
Another said the company in question has a “foreign subcontractor.” The account that posted the tweets had only 21 followers but is still suspended.
Interestingly, the request was filed — and responded to — on Jan. 7 last year. That’s the day after the Capitol incident that led to the Jan. 6 House select committee and seemingly endless prosecutions of protesters.
Calls for investigations grow over Katie Hobbs’ alleged use of Twitter censorship, 1A issues | Just The News https://t.co/Opb0pB26Ql
— John Solomon (@jsolomonReports) December 6, 2022
Either way, Twitter told CIS almost immediately that the reported “issue” would be escalated. It was only seven hours later when the platform informed CIS that the tweets in question were removed.
Assistant Secretary of State Allie Bones defended the action by saying that facts are not debatable, and deleting false information is not stifling free speech. She reported that it is common for her office to ask for tweets to be removed, though she said most are due to threats.
Hobbs reiterated on Monday that false election claims are still widely dispersed and that these statements undermine U.S. democracy.
She claimed that Arizona just finished a “successful election” despite “powerful voices proliferate(ing) misinformation that threatened to disenfranchise voters.”
Hobbs added that the next election cycle in 2024 will present “a host of challenges from the election denial community” that must be countered.
Meanwhile, both Kari Lake and Abraham Hamadeh, GOP candidates who fell short in their bids for governor and attorney general, have announced they will file lawsuits challenging their election results.
