Daily Wire co-founder and national radio host Ben Shapiro said Tuesday that he is vehemently opposed to private companies colluding with the federal government to quash free speech.
On Monday, The Intercept reported that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is quietly broadening its efforts to censor free speech it considers dangerous.
“When the government offers incentives and disincentives to quash speech this is a violation of First Amendment principle,” Shapiro said.
The report gathered facts from an ongoing lawsuit filed against DHS and several leaks. It states that behind closed doors the government has used its power to shape public discourse.
“The work, much of which remains unknown to the American public, came into clearer view earlier this year when DHS announced a new “Disinformation Governance Board,” the report said.
“We have seen this from some credit card companies who refuse to allow you to use their credit cards to purchase firearms, legally under the Second Amendment,” said Shapiro. “This sort of effort to cut people out of the regular modes of conversation and indeed market, it’s nefarious.”
“The Biden administration did try to make this part of the public infrastructure by announcing that disinformation board but eventually it was scrapped,” added Shapiro. “It seems like DHS is going to bring this back under another heading.”
