At today's House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, Rep. Will Self (R-TX) questioned Nina Jankowicz, former DHS Executive Director of the Disinformation Governance Board, about free speech.
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NewsTranscript
00:00With that, Mr. Chairman, I'll yield back.
00:02The gentleman yields back.
00:04The representative from Texas, Mr. Self, is recognized for five minutes.
00:08Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
00:13You really have to admire the opposition here
00:18diverting our attention from the issue at hand to the current days
00:27because we are trying to do oversight on the Biden administration
00:32that did do the work of our adversaries for four years
00:36and ruined our credibility around the world.
00:41So, given your recent testimony, Ms. Jankovic,
00:49and you were in the government.
00:52For 11 weeks.
00:54Should the government have a part in enforcing free speech, law enforcement?
01:02Should the government have some role in it?
01:05Congressman, I believe the First Amendment is sacrosanct.
01:08I am the granddaughter of a man that was in a gulag,
01:12deported to a gulag by the Soviet Union,
01:14so I am pretty intimate with these things and they're a part of my bread and butter.
01:19I don't think that we should be arresting people for exercising their speech,
01:25and I think that's something that you all should be exercising your oversight over.
01:30So, on April 16, 2022, you said we need platforms to do more
01:35and we frankly need law enforcement and our legislatures to do more as well.
01:42So, if we move past that to the right of the state, the mission of the state,
01:49the state to form public opinion,
01:53where would you stand on that, given your role in what you've been involved in?
02:01Thank you, Congressman.
02:02I believe that quote, judging by the time frame, was about responses to online harms,
02:07which I'm happy to talk about here today, not the subject of the hearing,
02:10but a lot of people for expressing their First Amendment-protected speech online deal with threats.
02:16I've dealt with them myself.
02:17My family and I were doxed.
02:19We were threatened.
02:20I was advised to leave my home.
02:22And you know what?
02:23That's why I was talking about law enforcement, Congressman.
02:25But that is a quote from you.
02:27Yes, talking about online harms and threats against people online for exercising their speech.
02:33Would you answer my next question, because I have a limited time.
02:34Sure.
02:35Please answer my next question.
02:38Your next question is?
02:39I've given you.
02:40You haven't addressed it yet.
02:41Please repeat it, sir.
02:42What is the mission of the state, the right of the state to form public opinion?
02:47Because we're talking about our government has been involved in doing that for the last few years.
02:54In my opinion, the government has a First Amendment right to free speech as well,
02:59and SCOTUS has just affirmed that with a case last June.
03:02We just heard a case that came in federal court in New York
03:05that actually showed that NewsGuard was not acting as an envoy of the state as well.
03:10So what is the role of the government?
03:12The role of the government can express its free speech, right?
03:15And citizens have a right to their free speech as well.
03:18I don't really understand your question, sir.
03:20I'm not sure of the point.
03:24I'm asking you, what is the role of government in public opinion?
03:28Because we're talking about actions here that have tried to form public opinion.
03:33On the Hunter laptop, on the Russia disinformation, all of that.
03:38I'm asking you, what is the role of government in that matter?
03:42Absolutely, Congressman.
03:43So the government is allowed to express its own opinions, its viewpoints,
03:47as we're seeing this administration do, as we saw the previous administration do.
03:51What is their role when it is absolutely wrong?
03:54The Hunter laptop is probably the best example we could roll out here.
03:57I actually disagree with that, because when Twitter decided to add friction
04:02to the Hunter Biden laptop case, it actually got more views.
04:05You've also heard Mr. Taibbi talk about 22 million tweets,
04:09millions of things censored through the GEC to the Election Integrity Partnership.
04:14You know how many emails went between the GEC and the EIP?
04:18Fifteen.
04:19You can look it up in Chairman Jordan's documents that he released at the end of last year.
04:23Fifteen emails.
04:24I've sent more text messages to my husband about our toddlers' potty training in the last week
04:28than emails went from the GEC to the EIP.
04:31And those were all about overt Russian propaganda, RT and Sputnik,
04:35except for one when the GEC analyst said to the folks there,
04:39I can't comment on this one because I'm a government employee,
04:42but I think you should check it out.
04:43That's all that happened, sir.
04:45So I'm going to leave you, and I'll yield back a little bit of my time,
04:48a direct quote from Joseph Goebbels.
04:52It is the absolute right of the state to supervise the formation of public opinion,
04:56and I think that may be what we're discussing here.