Mike Benz

"The History of the Intelligence State" -- an essential 40 min lecture on the origin story of The Blob. Thanks to @Hillsdale for a beautiful event. Timestamps in tweet below

“We faced a thousand years of darkness over this.” @MikeBenzCyber underscored at ADF Summit 2026 the high stakes if we don’t stop the spread of politically and economically institutionalized censorship.

Receiving some media queries about a draft joint statement on free expression which my office circulated in the margins of OECD — so I thought I’d address this directly: When it comes to freedom of speech, there’s a lot of attention paid to viral controversies dividing America and Europe. But face-to-face conversations tell a different story: allied democracies support free expression, disclaim any intent to censor political debate, and emphasize that except for edge cases such as swastikas, their internet regulations aim to protect consumers and kids rather than chill speech. We love hearing this, and wanted to memorialize it. So in the margins of productive OECD talks, we drafted a joint statement with the aim of promoting transparency and driving consensus. The statement is intended as an expression of comity and common values, and also as a source of interpretive guidance for American speech companies complying with overseas laws. A diplomatic statement can’t override laws like the DSA — and this one doesn’t try. But it does provide color regarding countries’ values and concerns. Signatories affirm that they don’t intend to censor, e.g., satire (like the Charlie Hebdo cartoons), statistics about topics like crime or mass migration, or nonviolent dissent against government policy. American companies deserve to know this — so they don’t over-comply by suppressing the exact speech everyone agrees is protected. Stay tuned!

Digital Trade: Brazilian courts have issued secret orders directing U.S. technology companies, including X, Meta, and Google, to remove certain political content, suspend accounts belonging to U.S. residents, and prohibit the platforms from disclosing these orders to profile owners. To enforce compliance, Brazilian courts have also subjected U.S. technology companies to daily non-compliance fines or required them to cease operations in Brazil.

Today, President Trump directed USTR to impose a 25% tariff on most Brazilian imports. Let there be no confusion about why: President Lula and his government have not negotiated with the US in good faith. His economic policies are bad for Americans and bad for Brazilians. For the past year, Lula has put his own ego ahead of making a deal for the welfare of the Brazilian people, and these tariffs are the price for that.

NEW: Chairman @Jim_Jordan sent a letter to U.K. Secretary of State for Culture, Media, and Sport Lisa Nandy requesting a briefing on the U.K.’s proposed social media reforms. Europeans are trying to censor American speech on American social media companies again. Now, the U.K. government wants to require American social media platforms to boost government-approved news sources while stifling smaller and independent ones. Read more: judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-subs…

Congress warns British social media changes are an attack on free speech telegraph.co.uk/gift/0672a1b16…

@Real_CMcCormack You realize this lawsuit seeks to put Gavin Newsom and USAID's disinformation chief in charge of the algorithm right

@MikeBenzCyber Terrible take on this, the algorithm is the problem. There should be no programmable algorithm on social media and you know that. Why pretend otherwise?

Sympathy For The Zuck Devil - Why This Trillion Dollar Facebook Lawsuit IS A DISASTER For Conservative Free Speech Online

@DebraMoge This is basically a USAID lawsuit punishing him for not doing it in 2024. This is not karma. This is castration of conservatives, and in your zeal to see someone's balls get cut off, you don't yet see that it's cutting off our own.

@MikeBenzCyber He did so much to overthrow the government with his participation in the 2020 election with his drop boxes for mail in ballots. Karma.