Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz, said tweets claiming he asked the Treasury Department about a program to censor information on social media regarding bank runs are false. Kelly told Straight Arrow News his question was specifically about foreign adversaries.
On Sunday, the Treasury Department held a briefing for members of Congress about Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse and the FDIC’s takeover.
“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,” Sen. Kelly said.
When the briefing was over, two members of the House of Representatives accused him of asking about censorship.
“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,” Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., tweeted.
Just got off of a zoom meeting with Fed, Treasury, FDIC, House, and Senate.
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.
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) March 13, 2023
“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!” Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., tweeted in part.
But Kelly said his inquiry was specific to countries like China, Iran, North Korea and Russia.
“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 they see any of this activity,” Sen. Kelly said.
Sen. Kelly told SAN he is still waiting to hear from the Treasury Department about possible protections or processes to block foreign interference.
