Multiple left-wing advocacy organizations called on President Joe Biden to create a federal task force to combat “disinformation” on Monday.
“Urgent action is needed to ensure that our democracy does not continue to be overrun by disinformation, be it domestic or foreign in origin,” stated a letter obtained by Axios. The letter requested a “Disinformation Defense and Free Expression Task Force” that would be chaired by the Executive Director of the Domestic Policy Council, among other things. (RELATED: Biden Recommended To Appoint ‘Reality Czar’ To ‘Tackle Disinformation’)
The groups that signed the letter include PEN America, Voto Latino, Common Cause, the Center for Democracy and Technology, Access Now, SimplySecure, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Center for American Progress and Free Press.
A coalition of groups is calling on President Biden to create a task force that can explore ways to crack down on deliberate disinformation campaigns in ways that don’t unduly limit free expression. https://t.co/Pjt7NzCA4K
— Axios (@axios) April 29, 2021
Common Cause is a 501(c)4 organization that has endorsed HR1 — which would nationalize elections and ban voter ID laws — and a constitutional amendment to overturn the Citizens United Supreme Court case. Individuals associated with Common Cause donated more than $35,000 to Democrats during the 2020 election cycle, according to Open Secrets.
“It’s critically important that the #ForThePeopleAct remain big, bold and together,” said @aaronscherb via @nytimes. This bill is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build an inclusive #democracy where all of us can thrive and be heard. Read more: https://t.co/GSfTEqjGBg
— Common Cause (@CommonCause) April 28, 2021
Voto Latino endorsed Biden during the 2020 election cycle, describing Trump as “an existential threat to the future of the Latinx community.” The group spent $33 million registering Democratic voters in swing states during the 2020 election and recently announced that it would participate in a drive to promote Biden’s policies to Latino voters.
The Center for American Progress is a think tank run by long-time Democratic operative Neera Tanden. Biden nominated Tanden to serve as Director of the Office of Management and Budget but withdrew her nomination after tweets in which she trashed Republican senators and Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders surfaced.
While the groups claim that they want to “to combat disinformation while safeguarding freedom of expression,” the policies they endorse would necessarily chill free speech. They argue that policies must “blunt the impact of disinformation on Black, Latino, Indigenous, AAPI, rural, and immigrant communities that are deliberately and disproportionately targeted by disinformation” while employing the “investigatory, disclosure, and information collection powers of federal agencies.”
Many liberals blamed “disinformation” campaigns for Trump’s improved performance among minority voters during the 2020 election cycle. A New York Times article described Latino Trump voters as motivated by “conspiracy theories claiming … that Black Lives Matter protests caused widespread violence.” (RELATED: Riots, Protests In Portland Cost The City More Than $30 Million)
A pro-Biden group that targets Vietnamese Americans characterized an article describing Biden’s opposition to a bill — which would have granted Vietnam War refugees residency in the United States — as “misleading.” Meanwhile, VietFactCheck, run by the Progressive Vietnamese American Organization, pitches itself as “combat[ing] the onslaught of misinformation that is circulating widely in our Vietnamese American communities.”
Surveys have shown that Democratic voters are more susceptible to misinformation related to COVID-19 and police-involved shootings. A Brookings study found that Democrats are much more likely than Republicans to overemphasize the severity of COVID-19. 41% of Democrats believed that more than half of COVID-19 patients had to be hospitalized, compared to 28% of Republicans. 26% of Republicans in the survey correctly identified that between one and five percent of COVID-19 patients had to be hospitalized, compared to only ten percent of Democrats.
Liberals are also more likely than conservatives to overstate the number of police-involved shootings and the number of unarmed African-Americans killed by police. A study conducted by the Skeptic Research Center found that 53.5% of individuals who consider themselves “very liberal” believed that 1,000 or more unarmed African-American men are killed by police every year. In comparison, only 20% of individuals who consider themselves “very conservative” believed that 1,000 or more unarmed African-American men are killed by police every year. According to The Washington Post police shooting database, only thirteen unarmed African-American men were killed by police in 2019. The study of 980 adults was conducted in September and October of 2020.
