How CISA Became America's Domestic Censorship Agency

A 2023 congressional investigation takes on new significance as Congress considers reauthorization of the cybersecurity agency that transformed into a tool for silencing American citizens

This story is from The Big Con. If you like it, hit the like button, subscribe, comment, and recommend us. It really helps get the newsletter to more people.

In June 2023, the House Judiciary Committee dropped a political bombshell. Their investigation revealed that a little-known government agency had been secretly running one of the most extensive domestic censorship operations in American history – all while claiming to protect national security.

The agency? The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), buried deep within the Department of Homeland Security. Created in 2018 to guard America's power grids and computer networks from foreign hackers, CISA had quietly transformed itself into something far more sinister: a sophisticated machine for silencing American citizens' political speech.

The 37-page report reads like a political thriller—except it's all true. As Congress now weighs CISA's budget and future, these explosive findings reveal exactly what American taxpayers have been funding: their own censorship.

The Great Mission Creep

CISA's metamorphosis began almost immediately after its creation. What started as protection against foreign cyber threats quickly morphed into policing what Americans could say online. The turning point came when Director Jen Easterly revealed the agency's true vision in a chilling 2021 statement:

"One could argue we're in the business of critical infrastructure, and the most critical infrastructure is our cognitive infrastructure."

In other words, CISA decided that controlling American minds was just as important as protecting American power plants.

By January 2021, CISA had formally abandoned any pretense of focusing solely on foreign threats. The agency "transitioned" to targeting "Mis-, Dis-, and Malinformation"—government bureaucrat-speak for "speech we don't like"— regardless of whether it came from Russia or your neighbor down the street.