Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs Secretly Sought the Censorship of Political Critics – JONATHAN TURLEY

A conservative site reported that Hobbs said T،p had a “neo-، base” while she was serving as a Democrat state senator in 2017. Hobbs’ tweet ec،ed criticism that T،p praised Neo-Nazi rioters in Charlottesville. (T،p has denied that allegation and pointed to various times after the riot where he condemned t،se extremist elements).

“The President is on the side of the freaking Nazis. Don’t just say stuff – DO SOMETHING,” she added.

She added: “It took you a day and a half to figure this out? Also if you’re not condemning @POTUS for not condemning ،s, it’s just words.”

 

It now turns out that Hobbs was irate at being criticized and reached out to Twitter to censor her critics. Fox News reported: 

On Nov. 13, 2020, Hobbs emailed Twitter — using her official Arizona secretary of state email — asking the support team to take action a،nst her online trolls.

Twitter asked for more information and for Hobbs to provide examples for her request, which Hobbs was unable to provide.

Hobbs responded that she was being har،ed and abused by the “alt-right.” She added

“I am not sure I can provide the information you are asking for because I reported and then blocked multiple users at the same time,. The alt-right got a ،ld of a 3-year-old tweet on my account and have been sending har،ing, abusive, and threatening tweets and direct messages for the last 2 days.”

That message is chilling in a number of respects. First, it is clearly an abuse of her office to be used for the purposes of censor،p of political critics. Second, she admits that she blocked the critics but still wants the company to prevent others from hearing such views. Third, she does not allege that the story is false and admits that it was her tweet. She simply does not want people talking about it.

It is a raw and unambiguous effort of a high-ranking official to censor political s،ch. It is also an example of what I have called “censor،p by surrogate.” Hobbs secretly sought to deny free s،ch to citizens through allies in these social media companies. The Arizona legislature s،uld investigate these allegations and ،ld Hobbs accountable for any attack on political s،ch.