The Fight For Free Speech Continues

A shocking interview on the US government's attempt to control speech.

A few weeks ago Joe Rogan hosted Mike Benz on his podcast in an explosive interview. Mr. Benz is a former official with the US State Department and is currently Executive Director of the Foundation for Freedom Online.

During a nearly three hour discussion, Mr. Benz laid out how the US government sought to control free speech in the US following the 2016 election of Donald Trump and populist movements elsewhere such as Brexit and Brazil’s election of Jair Bolsonaro.

According to Mr. Benz, the US government justified these extraordinary measures out of concern that the movements sought to destroy the institutions-based world order created by the US following World War II.

He described how the government funded and worked through universities and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to label speech it deemed as harmful to the institutions-based order as “disinformation” or “Russian interference,” as well as to advise the media on how to respond.

In one remarkable clip, a government funded NGO led a training exercise with journalists and fact checkers to train them on how to cover President Trump’s tweets and Brexit advertisements (see 1 hour 24 minutes).

Misinformation in public speech has existed since the beginning of civilization. In a free society, the government should not get to decide what is the truth.

Misinformation Has a Rich History

Perhaps the world’s earliest disinformation campaign was Octavian’s efforts against his rival Antony, around 31 BCE. Seeking to reclaim the legacy of his great uncle Julius Caesar and become sole ruler, Octavian painted Antony — who was having an affair with Cleopatra — as a drunkard who was not loyal to Rome.

Prior to the Battle of Actium in which Octavian defeated Antony to become emperor, Octavian told his men that Antony had, “abandoned all his ancestors’ habits of life, [had] emulated all alien and barbarian customs…. and finally [had] taken for himself the title of Osiris or Dionysus…. Let no one count him a Roman, but rather an Egyptian, nor call him Antony, but rather Serapeion” (a Greco-Egyptian deity).

Following Octavian’s defeat of Antony at the Battle of Actium, a commemorative coin from battle showed Octavian with a laurel wreath and an inscription that said, Libertatis Populist Romani Index (savior of the freedom of the Roman people).

The invention of the printing press in 1439 made disinformation all the easier to create and harder to track. By the 16th century, citizens interested in the truth came to rely on leaked Venetian ambassador reports detailing foreign service, called relazioni. But soon fake relazioni made even that strategy difficult to follow. By the 17th century, historians began citing their sources as footnotes, to verify authenticity.

The US has a rich tradition of disinformation, too. As far back as in 1782, Benjamin Franklin became concerned about a potential reconciliation with Great Britain. To stir anti-British sentiment, he fabricated a story that American forces had found packages containing the scalps of women and children taken by Native Americans; he then forged a letter from a US naval commander urging independence from Great Britain due to their alliance to the “savages.”

The signing of the US Constitution did not abate disinformation. The War of 1812 created a true constitutional crisis. The newly formed US, highly vulnerable, found itself at war with Great Britain again. Following failed US offensives in Canada, Britain entered Washington DC and burned down the White House and Capitol.

Federalists in New England states were furious. They strongly opposed the war effort and were bearing the brunt of an economic blockade; they also bemoaned their lack of influence in the federal government relative to the southern states.

So, in 1814, 26 Federalists from 5 New England states met for 3 weeks in Hartford, CT to plan a course of action. During the Hartford Convention they discussed secession and creating a New England Confederacy.

The press was aflame with propaganda. The Boston Centinel spoke of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut as the first three pillars “in a new Federalist edifice” that would make a separate treaty with England.

The attendees ultimately rejected secession and came up with more moderate demands. But more remarkably, during the whole ordeal, President Madison did not limit free speech rights. In a feeble nation that had won its independence barely 30 years prior, with their foe again on their doorstep, and the press fanning the flame of secession rumors, he decided that civil liberties should prevail.

But there was vindication. In the public’s eyes, the convention became synonymous with treason, and led to the downfall of the Federalist Party.

Government Censorship is Not the Answer

So what is the answer to disinformation?

This newsletter has argued that governments — whether directly or via funding NGOs and universities — should not get to decide what is the truth.

The reason is simple. The “truth” is often an expression of a broader idea, and ideas should be battled in the open for citizens to make their independent judgements. That is how the best ideas win.

In the clip shown by Mike Benz to Joe Rogan, one tweet the government funded NGO discussed with US media was President Trump claiming the Russia investigation was a “WITCH HUNT.” The NGO focused on how the media should combat this tweet to maintain the legitimacy of the investigation in the public’s eye.

But what is the truth? Was the investigation warranted or was it actually a witch hunt? Well, a four year investigation by special counsel John Durham, documented in a 300 page report, concluded the FBI should have never opened its probe because it lacked concrete evidence of collusion.

Perhaps it is worth turning back to James Madison, who so eloquently said,

“A popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or, perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.”

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