America First Legal (AFL) has released new documents obtained through litigation against the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The documents include a slide deck from a presentation by the United Kingdom’s Counter Disinformation Unit (CDU) to the Biden-Harris National Security Council (NSC) Interagency Policy Committee on August 10, 2021. This release follows calls from House Cybersecurity Subcommittee Chairwoman Nancy Mace to protect the 2024 election from censorship.
The White House hosted the CDU in 2021 as part of regular NSC meetings on censoring COVID-related speech in the U.S. High-level staff from various government agencies attended this meeting, including representatives from the White House, NSC, Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Departments of State, Treasury, Defense (DOD), Homeland Security (DHS), Health and Human Services (HHS), U.S. Agencies for International Development (USAID) and Global Media (USAGM), and high-ranking officers in the Army, Navy, and Air Force.
During this meeting, CDU shared its censorship strategies with recommendations such as creating a dedicated hub for government-wide censorship efforts, passing legislation to coerce social media companies, and partnering with foreign allies to coordinate global censorship. The CDU coordinates British government censorship programs with private companies like social media platforms and non-profits.
Separate AFL litigation revealed that similar public-private censorship partnerships were established by the Biden-Harris Administration into 2024. For instance, AFL succeeded in dissolving the Homeland Intelligence Experts Group that labeled Trump supporters as “Domestic Terrorism Threats.”
In their presentation, CDU proposed direct coercion of social media platforms through new legislation empowering British regulatory agencies to demand content removal deemed harmful by the government. The U.K. Online Safety Act came into force in October 2023 under which U.K. law enforcement officials have threatened to extradite and jail U.S. citizens.
An AFL investigation confirmed that policy recommendations were solicited from the British-based Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH). These recommendations included holding companies accountable through DOJ prosecutions and FTC enforcement actions for allowing “online harassment” on their platforms.
The CDU also relies on "trusted flagging relationships," where governments direct social media companies to censor specific posts or individuals. This led AFL to file a lawsuit resulting in these document releases central to Missouri v. Biden case.
The presentation indicates collaboration between left-wing authoritarian governments globally to promote massive government censorship of social media. In 2021, close working relationships were noted between the U.K., U.S., Australia, Canada, and bilateral relationships with 20 additional countries.
AFL recently launched investigations into potential involvement by the Biden-Harris Department of State in retribution against Telegram and X for refusing platform censorship.
The CDU highlighted multilateral institutions' roles such as G7’s Rapid Response Mechanism and United Nations Interagency Platform on Culture for Sustainable Development in countering disinformation internationally.
Gene Hamilton, America First Legal Executive Director stated: “With no apparent appreciation for the irony that the First Amendment to our Constitution was adopted following our independence from Great Britain...Freedom of speech is essential...We will continue to expose those who oppose free speech.”