Tags: Banking, China, Iran, Lauren Boebert, Mark Kelly, North Korea, Russia, Silicon Valley Bank, U.S. Treasury Department
Sen. Mark Kelly says tweets claiming he asked the Treasury Department about a program to censor information on social media about bank runs are false. On Sunday, the Treasury Department held a briefing for members of Congress about Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse and the FDIC’s takeover. Kelly told Straight Arrow News his question was specifically about foreign adversaries.
Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz.: “The question I asked was with regards to foreign adversaries. So I said “hey our foreign adversaries out there may have an interest in trying to undermine our banking system. Have we put in any protections, have we reached out to social media companies to see if this is something they’re thinking about.” So that’s the question I asked.”
When the briefing was over, Congressman Thomas Massie tweeted:
“A Democrat Senator essentially asked whether there was a program in place to censor information on social media that could lead to a run on the banks.”
Congresswoman Lauren Boebert tweeted in part: “a member asked if the they [sic] were reaching out to Facebook and Twitter to monitor misinformation and “bad actors.” And this administration AGAIN just committed the federal government to interfere with free speech. Unacceptable!”
But Kelly says he was inquiring about countries like Russia, Iran, North Korea and China.
Sen. Mark Kelly: I mean think about this for a second. If the Russians wanted to help, and we know they have been involved in our social media platforms before, if they wanted to undermine our banking system at this critical moment, probably would not be hard for them to do that. So it’s something we just need to be aware of. And I think that it’s important that Treasury reaches out to social media companies to say do see any of this activity.
Senator Kelly says he is still waiting to hear from the Treasury Department about possible protections or processes to block foreign interference. Straight Arrow News will be sure to follow up, with unbiased, straight facts.
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