While serving as Arizona’s Secretary of State, Katie Hobbs colluded with big tech companies to drive politically motivated censorship on social media platforms.
Documents submitted in the discovery phase of the historic case, Missouri v. Biden found that Hobbs and her office had reached out to the Center for Internet Security (CIS), a nonprofit organization that acts as a middleman between government institutions and social media companies, requesting a “review” of Twitter posts alleging that her state’s voter registration system was owned and operated by foreign actors.
“This is an attempt to further undermine confidence in the election institution in Arizona,” stated Hobbs’ office as a justification to censor the post.
Just after 30 minutes of receiving the request, CIS requested that Twitter “escalate” actions with the posts and seven hours later, Twitter responded to CIS informing that they have deleted the post in question. This exchange took place on January 7th, 2021, just a day after the infamous Capitol protest.
“Both Tweets have been removed from service,” responded Twitter.
More pic.twitter.com/KgTW30qF3y
— George (@BehizyTweets) December 4, 2022
And just months after engaging in online censorship, Hobbs went public demanding more censorship in the name of “disinformation.”
“Lies, conspiracy theories, and disinformation pose a real threat to our democracy,” She tweeted in April 2021 and bragged about censoring free speech during her campaign event last September.
Lies, conspiracy theories, and disinformation pose a real threat to our democracy.
Until the legislature is willing to commit to funding robust public education efforts around our elections, open and transparent partnerships like this will continue to be vital. https://t.co/GBs33qlGQW
— Secretary Katie Hobbs (@SecretaryHobbs) April 7, 2021
“I’ve fought against misinformation and even death threats to defend Arizona’s elections,” wrote Hobbs. “I’ll always fight the spread of misinformation and never back down from telling the truth. We can’t let the conspiracy theories win.”
After the discovery phase exposed her role in online censorship, the Hobbs team worked with their friends in the liberal media to discredit the story.
Allie Bones, Hobbs’ assistant secretary of state and incoming chief of staff, told various news outlets it was Hobbs’s job as Secretary of State to inform voters, and hence she got rid of what she deemed as false. Bones further dismissed concerns about the government’s overreach to control online speech and instead that their collaboration with the CIS was the norm.
Secretary of State @katiehobbs directs Arizonans to monitor election-related speech and suppress conspiracies. Fascinating timing given the recent discovery that Hobbs' office effectively controlled election-related speech online. pic.twitter.com/W7nskWV63s
— Corinne Murdock (@CorinneMurdock) December 6, 2022
“One of the ways we [make sure that voters are informed] is by working to counter disinformation online that can confuse voters,” stated Bones.
“This email exchange is from January 2021, as shown in the screenshot. Not only was it taken entirely out of context, it has nothing to do with this year’s midterm election,” Bones alleged. “This is yet another example of conspiracy theorists trying to create chaos and confusion by casting doubt on our election system. It’s unfair to Arizona voters and it’s harmful to our democracy.” She further attempted to explain.
And showing complete ignorance, Bones further told Axios about her wishes for additional censorship in “seeking the removal of verifiably false information is not silencing dissent.”
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