FBI official connected to Hunter Biden laptop story suppression still advising Big Tech

An FBI official whom Republicans claim was directly involved in advising social media companies to clamp down on the Hunter Biden laptop story, is reportedly still advising Big Tech firms on disinformation, despite the story ultimately proving accurate.

Widely regarded as a potential election game changer, the New York Post story, which included damaging information on the Biden family recovered from the personal laptop of now-first son Hunter Biden, was heavily throttled by social media giants. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg revealed that the FBI was directly involved in warning them about potential disinformation campaigns ahead of the 2020 presidential election. The story was ultimately verified, but not before President Joe Biden won the election.

Attorneys general from Louisiana and Missouri previously identified FBI Foreign Influence Task Force section chief Laura Dehmlow as an involved party in the briefing of Facebook on disinformation, per the Washington Examiner. Leaked notes from a later briefing with social media and financial executives revealed that Dehmlow is still providing briefings and advice to establishment entities on such matters.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Cybersecurity Advisory Committee and the Protecting Critical Infrastructure from Misinformation and Disinformation Subcommittee met on March 1 to receive a briefing from Dehmlow "regarding the FBI's roles and responsibilities in combating foreign influence," the leaked meeting notes, obtained by The Intercept, read.

"Ms. Dehmlow was asked to provide her thoughts or to define a goal for approaching MDM [misinformation and disinformation] and she mentioned 'resiliency.' She stated we need a media infrastructure that is held accountable; we need to educate the populace; and that today, critical thinking seems to be a problem," they continued.

The news comes amid reports that the Department of Homeland Security met regularly with Twitter and Facebook to provide guidance on censorship efforts.