Judicial Watch Announces Premiere of ‘Censored and Controlled,’ a Four-Part Documentary on Government and Social Media Censorship Featuring Senator Eric Schmitt, Congressman Jim Jordan, and Journalist Matt Taibbi

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced the release of “Censored and Controlled,” a four-part documentary that details the coordinated effort by the government and Big Tech to censor and suppress information on topics such as Hunter Biden’s laptop, Covid-19, and election debates. The first episode will premier Monday, October 16, 2023, at 7 p.m. ET on the Judicial Watch website, X/Twitter, Rumble, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. A new episode will be available each day through Thursday, October 19, 2023. A trailer for the documentary is available here: https://youtu.be/prrHmQSoc6A 

The series features interviews with people who have taken leading roles in exposing the collusion between government and social media to control what Americans see and hear. Included in the lineup of experts is: 

• Senator Eric Schmitt (R-MO) who as attorney general of Missouri filed a lawsuit in 2020 against President Biden and other administration officials, alleging they were working with social media platforms to censor information related to COVID-19 and other topics.
• Congressman Jim Jordan (R-OH), who is chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. Jordan’s committee is leading the House investigation into government-led censorship on social media.
• Journalist Matt Taibbi, one of the journalists who covered the release of the “Twitter Files,” which exposed government involvement in Twitter and other Big Tech censorship of Americans. Taibbi testified before Congress about what the “Twitter Files” revealed about the partnership between government and social media to censor information and opinions.
• Chris Nelson, senior investigator at Judicial Watch, formerly a career counterintelligence officer with the U.S. Government.
• And, Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, which has filed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits and other litigation concerning government and Big Tech censorship.

The premiere episode, The Hearing, looks at Taibbi’s experience exposing the “Twitter Files:”

Today, American taxpayers are unwittingly financing the growth and power of a censorship-industrial complex run by America’s scientific and technological elite, which endangers our liberties and democracy.

What we found in the [Twitter] Files was a sweeping effort to reverse that promise and use machine learning and other tools to turn the internet into an instrument of censorship and social control. Unfortunately, our own government appears to be playing a lead role.

The Twitter Files, state attorneys general lawsuits, and investigative reporters have revealed a large and growing network of government agencies, academic institutions, and nongovernmental organizations that are actively censoring American citizens, often without their knowledge, on a range of issues.

Elon Musk took ownership of Twitter, now X, in October 2023. On December 2, 2023, the New York Post reported Taibbi posted the first Twitter thread containing what became known at the “Twitter Files.” This first installment contained documents related to Twitter’s internal discussions related to moderating content on the Hunter Biden laptop story which the Post broke shortly before the 2020 presidential election.  

Nineteen installments of the “Twitter Files” would be released through March 2023. These included internal communications related to the suspension of former President Donald Trump from the platform, exchanges between the FBI and Twitter’s Trust and Safety Team regarding suppressing election misinformation, and moderation of COVID-19 content.

The second episode, The Hunter Biden Problem, addresses the pre-election censorship of the Hunter Biden laptop story. From the suppression of the initial and subsequent reporting on the laptop to the promotion of the letter signed by 51intelligence officials calling the laptop “Russian disinformation,” the episode details the coordinated effort to suppress Americans’ access to stories exposing the contents of the laptop while promoting stories denying the authenticity of the laptop. Congressman Jordan responded to this coordination saying:

The guy who put the whole letter together, Mike Morrell, former acting director of the CIA, said “we” did it because we wanted Joe Biden to have something to use against President Trump in the final debate on October 22^nd, 2020. And we wanted that because we want Joe Biden to win.

In The Censorship Industrial Complex, the third episode, Jordan, Taibbi, and Fitton warn of the partnership among government, traditional and social media to control Americans’ access to information. Taibbi states:

Civil society organizations are supposed to watch the government. The news media is supposed. to watch both. The tech platforms are supposed to have different interests from the government. But what we see in the center in the censorship industrial complex is they’re all working together in what you know and what they call the shared endeavor. And, so it’s a consolidation of power.

Fitton adds:

I think we just have to come to terms with the fact that the Big Tech companies or social media companies are partisan leftist ideologues, and they’ve been lying about the reasons they’ve been quote, “moderating content.” They’ve been censoring content, not following a set of rules, but following government dictates and their own ideological predilections and political biases.

The series finale, COVID, Censorship and Consequences, examines the organized censorship of debate about the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, mask mandates, and Dr. Anthony Fauci’s efforts to control the narrative surrounding the pandemic. Senator Eric Schmitt notes:

[I]n the lead up to the 2020 election, we saw this massive effort by the federal government to work with big tech to suppress dissenting views. And that’s an un-American thing to do. And so, we filed the lawsuit, which was a landmark lawsuit. And what we uncovered in that lawsuit was a vast censorship enterprise, broader and bigger than anybody could have ever imagined. 

“This new Judicial Watch documentary series exposes how the censorship partnership between government and Big Tech is a dire threat to our First Amendment and other freedoms,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “Judicial Watch will seek to hold the ‘censors’ accountable – working with elected officials, journalists, and other leaders to protect free speech.” 

This documentary series was directed by Joe Weasel of Full Story Films LLC., and produced by Tom Fitton, Paul Orfanedes and Chris Farrell.

Judicial Watch is deeply involved in the investigation of censorship by government entities and Big Tech.

 In April 2023, Judicial Watch filed two FOIA lawsuits against the DOJ and other federal agencies for communications between the agencies and Facebook and Twitter regarding the government’s involvement in content moderation and censorship on the social media platforms.

 In June 2023, Judicial Watch sued DHS for all records of communications tied to the Election Integrity Partnership. Based on representations from the EIP (see here and here), the federal government, social media companies, the EIP, the Center for Internet Security (a non-profit organization funded partly by DHS and the Defense Department) and numerous other leftist groups communicated privately via the Jirasoftware platform developed by Atlassian.

In February 2023, Judicial Watch sued the U.S. Department Homeland Security (DHS) for records showing cooperation between the Cybersecurity and Information Security Agency (CISA) and social media platforms to censor and suppress free speech.

Judicial Watch in January 2023 sued the DOJ for records of communications between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and social media sites regarding foreign influence in elections, as well as the Hunter Biden laptop story.

In September 2022, Judicial Watch sued the Secretary of State of the State of California for having YouTube censor a Judicial Watch election integrity video.

In May 2022, YouTube censored a Judicial Watch video about Biden corruption and election integrity issues in the 2020 election. The video, titled “Impeach? Biden Corruption Threatens National Security,” was falsely determined to be “election misinformation” and removed by YouTube, and Judicial Watch’s YouTube account was suspended for a week. The video featured an interview of Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. Judicial Watch continues to post its video content on its Rumble channel (https://rumble.com/vz7aof-fitton-impeach-biden-corruption-threatens-national-security.html).

In July 2021, Judicial Watch uncovered records from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which revealed that Facebook coordinated closely with the CDC to control the COVID narrative and “misinformation” and that over $3.5 million in free advertising given to the CDC by social media companies.

In May 2021, Judicial Watch revealed documents showing that Iowa state officials pressured social media companies Twitter and Facebook to censor posts about the 2020 election.

In April 2021, Judicial Watch published documents revealing how California state officials pressured social media companies (Twitter, Facebook, Google (YouTube)) to censor posts about the 2020 election.

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