The Department of Homeland Security said yesterday that it would provide $77 million in grant funding for state and local governments “to combat extremism.” Now this sounds all well and good, but in today’s context it could well be a threat to free speech itself. Certainly, if the money goes to local and state authorities for shutting down violent militia groups—with their FBI and other informants, who are arming to overthrow the government, or even monitoring their operations, that’s a really legitimate measure. But using it to restrict someone who casts doubts on the integrity of the 2020 election results, isn’t that going a little too far? But under the pretext of this anti-extremism, those champions of “free speech” like Facebook, Twitter and Youtube are doing just that. The fact is that even those who express openly racist views, as abhorrent as these views may be, they are nevertheless still safeguarded by the U.S. Constitution.
DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas made a statement when announcing the funding yesterday. He said, “In the almost 20 years since September 11, 2001, the terrorism threat landscape has changed considerably…. While we continue to lawfully protect against threats posed by foreign terrorist organizations, we also must ensure adequate focus and funding is provided to combat domestic terrorism, some of which is motivated by false narratives and extremist rhetoric spread through social media and other online platforms.…”
