WEEK 6, Pt. 1: EOTO Terms & Concepts The Smith-Mundt Act

 What is the Smith Mundt Act?

    The Smith Mundt Act A bill that was passed during the Cold War era signed by Harry S. Truman in 1945. The Act was developed to regulate broadcasting of programs for foreign audiences produced under the guidance by the State Department, and it prohibited domestic dissemination of materials produced by such programs as one of its provisions. In short the United States government created propaganda for foreign nations showing what the United States wanted to portray themselves like. Now it was not pushed to be viewed by the American public, nor it was targeted for them anyway. The United States and the Soviet Union the United States government wanted to show their superior strength, so other nations do not fall to communism. 

Smith Mundt Act Mondernizion

In 2012 The Smith Mundt Modernization Act of 2012 (signed into law by Barack Obama as a part of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2013). Changes to the act were that the American people can view the “Programs” the government was broadcasting. Proponents said this is a step for more “transparency” from the government while critics worried that it could be weaponized for the government to interfere with the free marketplace of ideas. Which in turn violates the 1st amendment raising red flags from Libertarians from Libertarian institute concerned about the possibility of the government censoring speech that they do not like. 

    From the past few year's censorship has been on the rise from social media companies and then the Disinformation Governance Board was created by the Biden administration to combat “misinformation” and flag content on social media to be banned. The backlash to this governance board was eminence from the right-hand side that the government was going to get involved in controlling speech. Furthermore we know that the United States government has been giving orders to twitter to censor post they flagged from the Twitter Files. Luckily the board was disbanded after 4 months of its creation, but It's still concerning that the board was created in the first place and the administration thought it was a good thing. Another thing that I found interesting that the American government does not like certain citizens that vote and think differently that express their views. Another symptom of Americans being so divided that they spy on the other political pond it does remind me of all the CIA, FBI spying during the Cold War on foreign adversary's not on domestic citizens. 

Impact of Society

  The Public does not know the full details on how much the data government has on Americans the American people we will probably know when the sun becomes a red giant and consume the earth in a blazing inferno. When government is given the power to do something it will do it I'm afraid that this could impact whistleblowers like the Edward Snowden leaks. They say It's for transparency but is it transparency if the government makes propaganda for its on citizens that go against our founding fathers? I just can't wrap my head around why anyone would support that the government interfering with the marketplace of ideas for  “national security”.