In George Orwell’s classic dystopian novel 1984, the Ministry of Truth produces government propaganda and censors information deemed a threat to Big Brother. Words in novels are changed, and historical facts are altered to erase the past. Government agencies vet any information available to citizens.

During the Biden years, this fiction became far too close to frightening reality.

“Remember the Biden Administration’s Ministry of Truth?” writes Ed Morrissey at Hot Air. We do. We wrote about it at the time. But Morrissey continues, “Almost exactly two years ago, Joe Biden attempted to launch a ‘Disinformation Governance Board’ within the Department of Homeland Security. The mission would focus on correcting what the Biden administration’s bureaucrats consider[ed] ‘disinformation’ and demand that tech platforms intervene to remove it.”

The DHS created the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), which partnered with private companies and organizations to monitor information posted online during the 2020 election.

The Biden administration coerced “large companies, namely Meta (parent company of Facebook), Alphabet (parent company of YouTube), and Amazon, to censor books, videos, posts, and other content online,” according to a report by the Committee on the Judiciary and the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. “By the end of 2021, Facebook, YouTube, and Amazon changed their content moderation policies in ways that were directly responsive to criticism from the Biden Administration.”

The report adds, “While the Biden White House’s pressure campaign largely succeeded, its effects were devastating. By suppressing free speech and intentionally distorting public debate in the modern town square, ideas and policies were no longer fairly tested and debated on their merits.”

Another piece of the DHS’s broad plan to silence dissenters or anyone else who wanted to speak truth to power was the Disinformation Governance Board. If that doesn’t sound Orwellian, then nothing does. Missouri Senator Josh Hawley published memos back in 2022 revealing the DGB worked in conjunction with the State Department and with Big Tech platforms.

At the time, Senator Hawley’s office released a statement explaining:

In June, whistleblower documents obtained by Senators Hawley and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) revealed a first-look at DHS’s internal plans for the Disinformation Governance Board, including a potential partnership with Twitter and a public-facing “Rumor Control Program.”

New documents now show that, despite DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’s testimony in May that the Board hadn’t met, the Disinformation Governance Board Steering Group had begun meeting on a weekly basis as early as February 2022 and already had operational authorities.

We now know even more. As Jonathan Turley writes, “Now we have a glimpse into the chilling scope of the Homeland Security’s efforts to target opposing viewpoints. From racial justice to Covid to Ukraine, these subjects involve core political speech. Yet, the Biden Administration felt that it had the right to monitor and combat opposing views in these areas.”

Facing increasing pressure and document requests, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas shuttered the disinformation board. However, writes Brianna Herlihy at Fox News Digital, “in November 2022, leaked documents published by The Intercept revealed that while DHS disbanded the disinformation board, the agency was still working to combat disinformation on a range of topics, including COVID-19, vaccines, racial issues, the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan and Ukraine aid.”

How did the Department of Homeland Security suddenly wield so much authority over speech? In the name of “safety,” department censors decided they had the right to do so, and it was done, making themselves the arbiters of what was true and what was not. To make matters worse, this only stopped when they were called out by brave whistleblowers, and intrepid investigative reporters kept shining the spotlight on them to reveal the truth.

But closing the Disinformation Governance Board wasn’t enough. Bolder steps were needed to protect our free speech rights and to keep agencies like DHS from rearing their ugly heads again. Fortunately, President Trump didn’t sweep this under the rug.

Among a wave of executive orders Trump signed on his first day in office was one titled “Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship.” The purpose of the order is to “ensure that no Federal Government officer, employee, or agent engages in or facilitates any conduct that would unconstitutionally abridge the free speech of any American citizen,” “ensure that no taxpayer resources are used to engage in or facilitate any conduct that would unconstitutionally abridge the free speech of any American citizen,” and “identify and take appropriate action to correct past misconduct by the Federal Government related to censorship of protected speech.”

While Americans should be relieved the Trump administration has forcefully stopped the federal government from violating our First Amendment rights, the fact that it happened at all should be a giant red flag. It’s one thing when government overreach occurs in the open, but the Biden White House and federal agencies planned to keep their censorship program behind closed doors while denying its existence.

Ironically, it was the search for truth that brought Biden’s Ministry of Truth to an end. As The Patriot Post’s motto states, “The truth will set you free.” Let’s hope and fight for future administrations, Democrat or Republican, to continue to respect the right of Americans to speak freely and openly in the public square, whatever form that “square” may take.