A Republican representative stated that at least one Democrat feels that censorship should be a part of the government’s reaction to the bank failures, which have caused widespread dread in America.
“Just got off of a zoom meeting with Fed, Treasury, FDIC, House, and Senate. A Democrat Senator essentially asked whether there was a program in place to censor information on social media that could lead to a run on the banks,” Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky posted on Twitter.
Massie stated in retrospect that the response was “we will get back to you on that” without identifying the speaker.
Just got off of a zoom meeting with Fed, Treasury, FDIC, House, and Senate.
A Democrat Senator essentially asked whether there was a program in place to censor information on social media that could lead to a run on the banks.
Just got off of a zoom meeting with Fed, Treasury, FDIC, House, and Senate.
A Democrat Senator essentially asked whether there was a program in place to censor information on social media that could lead to a run on the banks.
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) March 13, 2023
And what was the response? 🤔
— Safing Sector (@Gplavallee72) March 13, 2023
CNBC reported that Silicon Valley Bank failed on Friday, two days after Silvergate, a key lender in the cryptocurrency industry, announced it would voluntarily liquidate and cease operations.
Sunday marked the closing of Signature Bank, the third-largest bank failure in U.S. history. Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse was the second-largest.
Signature, which had $110.36 billion in assets and $88.59 billion in deposits as of December 2022, was acquired by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, according to the New York State Department of Financial Services and Reuters. Signature has substantial links to the cryptocurrency industry.
Massie and others discussed efforts to prevent social media from addressing problems in the banking industry.
I’m as anti-censorship as it gets, but spreading unfounded rumors to promote a run on a bank is one of the VERY few instances where the “yelling fire in a crowded theater” analogy actually DOES apply.
— Rick Hinshaw (@RickHinshaw) March 13, 2023
On a briefing with Biden Under Secretary of the Treasury Nellie Liang regarding the SVB BAILOUT they are working towards and a member asked if the they were reaching out to Facebook and Twitter to monitor misinformation and “bad actors.”
And this administration AGAIN just… https://t.co/rJbG5gR36G
— Rep. Lauren Boebert (@RepBoebert) March 13, 2023
Rep. Massie: DHS efforts are already underway to add censorship of "financial misinformation" to CISA's portfolio of "critical infrastructure" domains it can classify tweets as a cyber attack on, & thus censor. See, e.g., link below:https://t.co/M1FzQuUtv8 https://t.co/dPJQdpd7sf pic.twitter.com/37sy70744K
— Mike Benz (@MikeBenzCyber) March 13, 2023
One thing about social media is that it lets VCs who lost money in a bank run go around screaming about how everyone is going to lose faith in all banks, everywhere, unless there’s a bailout.
Another thing about social media is that you can see that this is not really happening
— Will Stancil (@whstancil) March 12, 2023
Monday saw a decline in stock prices, with the magnitude of the closures’ repercussions undetermined.
“When a step (is taken) this big, this quickly, your first thought is crisis averted. But your second thought is, how big was that crisis, how big were the risks that this step had to be taken?” said Rick Meckler, a partner at Cherry Lane Investment, according to Reuters.
"Can you assure Americans that there won't be a ripple effect? Do you expect other banks to fail?"
BIDEN: *shuts door* pic.twitter.com/CNuUhPbJAi
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 13, 2023
Reuters reported that as of Monday mid-morning, the share prices of First Republic Bank, Western Alliance Bancorp, PacWest Bancorp, and Charles Schwab had declined by 65,1 percent, 75,9 percent, 41 percent, and 19 percent, respectively, with trading regularly interrupted due to volatility.