Daily Wire Editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro opened his show Wednesday morning by announcing a lawsuit filed by his company along with The Federalist and the state of Texas against the U.S. State Department over its censorship effort.
The Daily Wire, conservative news outlet The Federalist, and the state of Texas filed a lawsuit Tuesday night against Biden’s State Department alleging that the government agency funded censorship technology designed to bankrupt conservative media outlets. The lawsuit says the case is “one of the most audacious, manipulative, secretive, and gravest abuses of power and infringements of First Amendment rights by the federal government in American history.”
“The U.S. State Department is funding the development, testing, and marketing of censorship technology used to suppress First Amendment-protected activity by American media outlets like The Daily Wire,” Shapiro said on his show. “The State Department uses its Global Engagement Center (GEC) to finance the development and promotion of censorship technology and enterprises, including organizations like NewsGuard and the Global Disinformation Index.”
MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT: Just like we sued the Biden administration over the pathetic and ridiculous OSHA vax mandate, we have now joined with @FDRLST to sue the U.S. State Department to stop their censorship regime from targeting the Daily Wire and other conservative media outlets. pic.twitter.com/5egyaxkisE
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) December 6, 2023
Founded in 2011 as the Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications, the GEC focused on countering foreign terrorist propaganda from groups such as Al Qaeda. It was renamed to the GEC in 2016 but continued to defend against terrorist propaganda. Congress even made clear that “none of the funds authorized” for the entity “shall be used for purposes other than countering foreign propaganda.”
Nonetheless, GEC turned its focus on Americans, the complaint alleges, using taxpayer funds to finance the development and promotion of censorship organizations such as NewsGuard and the Global Disinformation Index (GDI), which regularly target conservative media outlets such as The Daily Wire and The Federalist with the stated goal of limiting ad revenue.
“Their goal is to paint us as unreliable and therefore to push advertisers away from advertising on programs like this one, websites like The Daily Wire, websites like the Federalist,” Shapiro added. “That is being pushed by the State Department. That is an ongoing problem.”
Shapiro said the censorship effort from the State Department is just one aspect of how the federal government is interfering with free speech rights. This same type of censorship has also infected the FBI and other government organizations that have been “coordinating with social media in order to shut off particular stories,” according to Shapiro.
“We are suing, not for money,” the Daily Wire co-founder continued. “We are suing the State Department for an injunction so they will stop their censorship regime.”
In 2021, The Daily Wire sued the Biden administration over the OSHA vaccine mandate resulting in a major win for the company when in January of 2022, the Supreme Court blocked the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate for employers with at least 100 employees.
Luke Rosiak contributed to this report.