Lawmakers form panel to examine 'government censorship' as Hobbs' requests draw scrutiny

Republican lawmakers in the Arizona House of Representatives have launched a committee to probe concerns of "government censorship" on social media, bringing a national conservative issue to the forefront in the Grand Canyon State.

The Ad Hoc Committee on Oversight, Accountability and Big Tech announced Thursday by House Speaker Ben Toma, R-Glendale, will “examine government censorship and conduct of state executive officials.”

It was announced the same day that a newly launched conservative website alleged Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs tried to “censor” social media posts when she was the secretary of state. The website detailed public records showing about a dozen posts that Hobbs and her staff reported as misinformation.

Hobbs dismissed the claims as “ridiculous” Friday, and a representative for one former Hobbs staffer said the posts were flagged in line with a process set up by various groups, including secretaries of states around the nation.

“Nobody's trying to censor anyone,” Hobbs said, saying she reported harassment through proper channels just like any other person targeted on social media can do. She also spoke of a broader struggle between First Amendment rights to free speech and battling rampant misinformation online.

“Free speech does not come without consequences, and that's what they're having to deal with right now,” the governor said.

The interplay between government, social media and technology has been pushed to the forefront in recent months by conservatives across the country. Conservatives have seized on a federal court case in Louisiana, where an appeals court last week heard arguments and will determine whether the Biden administration's requests to social media companies about controversial posts crossed a line from communication to censorship.

Many Democrats, including Hobbs, say some are confusing legitimate reporting of misinformation with fears of government overreach.

"I, like any other person who is harassed on Twitter, reported that harassment through the proper channels and asked for them to follow their guidelines in terms of harassment," the governor said. “This was back in 2020. As you remember, I was having death threats. I had armed protesters outside my house."

New committee of state lawmakers to examine issue

State Rep. Alex Kolodin, R-Scottsdale and a member of the Legislature’s farthest-right Arizona Freedom Caucus, will lead the latest committee created by Toma. Other committee members will include Rep. Neal Carter, R-San Tan Valley, and a Democrat who hasn’t yet been named.

The committee will study and consider potential legislation related to “emerging legal and constitutional issues surrounding censorship by government officials and social media interference, big tech manipulation of internet platforms, and the use of artificial intelligence,” according to a news release.

Kolodin said in an interview he had been asking for the committee for months, and while the timing of allegations against the governor were a coincidence, those claims could come up at committee meetings. The first meeting is Sept. 5.

Kolodin cited the rapid evolution of technology, importance of social media in political discourse, and the “evolving censorship regime of these social media companies and the government actors who take advantage of that” as reasons for the committee’s work.

"As conservatives, we've always thought that the private sector was one thing and the government is another thing,” Kolodin said. “And in the past couple of years, it has become increasingly hard to tell where one ends and the other begins. I think in conservative legal thought, this is something that we're having to work through.”

Hobbs, asked to comment on the new committee, called it a distraction from other issues facing the state.

“I'm glad we've solved water, the housing crisis and fixed public education and have time for this sideshow,” she said with sarcasm.

There’s a tinge of irony tied to the committee’s launch, too.

When the House Republican caucus shared news of the committee on X, the social platform formerly known as Twitter, it limited who could reply to the message. A review of posts shows the official account regularly limits who can reply to news releases only to people who are tagged or to who the Arizona House Republicans account follows.

Kolodin said it could be worth looking into if this behavior on the House Republicans account creates a First Amendment issue or isn’t in line with the “spirit of the committee.”

“Maybe it's something that we have to consider,” he said, noting that someone could still comment by retweeting the post.

Republican lawmakers at the Capitol, drawn to the right by members of the Freedom Caucus and with limited power to pass new laws with a Democrat in the Governor’s Office, have launched several committees this year to examine and publicize conservative issues.

Committees were formed to investigate the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and to probe free speech on public university campuses. A special hearing in February on election issues aired unfounded allegations of a cartel-backed bribery scheme that ultimately led lawmakers to vote to expel Rep. Liz Harris, R-Chandler.

Republican committees: Arizona Rep. Liz Harris expelled from House for 'disorderly behavior'

The allegations made by conservative website against Hobbs

The committee was formed against a backdrop of concern among conservatives that their views are being censored by Democrats like Biden and the mainstream media, concerns often amplified by GOP politicians.

A new conservative website, Arizona Capitol Oversight, on Thursday echoed those concerns when it published a report claiming Hobbs tried to censor political opponents when she was secretary of state.

The website is run by Brian Anderson, a former staffer to Republican Gov. Doug Ducey and who has a history of creating websites to publish opposition research and generate bad headlines for Democrats. Anderson said he launched Arizona Capitol Oversight to focus on accountability through public records requests. It is a solo venture not funded by any outside people or groups, he said.

The website and a public records request made by Anderson show about a dozen different times between 2020 and 2022 that Hobbs or her staff reported misinformation or harrassment on social media to a national nonprofit or social media platforms themselves.

In many of the cases, the secretary of state’s office cited state law that contradicted the claims in the posts as evidence that the posts were misinformation and should be removed. As one example, officials flagged a proliferation of claims that the use of Sharpies invalidated ballots, a claim that was later widely debunked by election workers and independent fact checkers.

Sometimes the posts were taken down, but others were not found to violate social media policies, according to the records obtained by Anderson and reviewed by The Arizona Republic.

One that was not taken down was a 40-second video and tweet shared on Aug. 3, 2022, by the Arizona Republican Party, which was then under the helm of Trump ally Kelli Ward.

The tweet sought to pin a shortage of ballots in Pinal County on Hobbs, who was Arizona’s election administrator and a candidate for governor. In the video, a Pinal County election official chalks the shortage up to human error and references "formulas" from the secretary of state’s office about how many ballots to print.

“Hobbs is failing at her current job ... How can she ask anyone to give her a promotion" to the governor’s office?" the state Republican party asked on social media.

Hobbs' former chief of staff flagged the post as disinformation to the Center for Internet Security, a nonprofit that works to combat misinformation and works with federal election officials. The staffer cited two sections of state law that make counties responsible for calculating how many ballots to order. The election procedures manual, the guide to running elections published by Hobbs' office, directs counties how to decide how many ballots they need.

Another time, Hobbs responded with her official secretary of state email account to a message from Twitter’s support team that sought more information about a flagged post. It is unclear what the original flagged post was.

But a day earlier, another former Hobbs aide flagged a post from former state Sen. Kelly Townsend, a supporter the state’s widely panned 2020 ballot review, that included a link to a 2017 tweet from Hobbs’ personal account on Twitter. The staffer sent the Facebook post twice; once it actually redirects to Hobbs’ personal tweet.

That tweet, written when Hobbs was a state senator, said former president “@realDonaldTrump has made it abundantly clear he's more interested in pandering to his neo-nazi base than being @POTUS for all Americans.”

Hobbs' tweet from six years ago became a headline and focus of a story on Fox News’ website last week, as the news organization with a conservative bent featured the work of the Arizona Capitol Oversight group.

Hobbs said Friday her Twitter post was taken out of context.

The tweet was sent just days after a deadly “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, over which Trump was widely criticized for not condemning white supremacists at the rally. Hobbs’ tweet is still online, and Hobbs said “none of my reports were related to that specific tweet.”

"I stand by that tweet,” the governor said.

Reach reporter Stacey Barchenger at stacey.barchenger@arizonarepublic.com or 480-416-5669.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: AZ lawmakers form panel to examine 'government censorship'