How To Sue The Federal Government and Win

Summary

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Podcast Summary: "How To Sue The Federal Government and Win"

The Ben Shapiro Show • April 3, 2026
Host: Ben Shapiro (The Daily Wire)
Guests/Co-hosts: Michael Knowles, Matt Walsh

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Main Theme

This episode centers on The Daily Wire’s recent legal victory against the U.S. State Department—a “landmark” First Amendment case challenging government efforts to censor conservative media. Ben Shapiro and his colleagues break down how they sued, why it mattered, and the implications for free speech going forward.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Background: Government-Funded Censorship (01:17–03:49)

• Summary:
  Ben Shapiro outlines how the Biden administration’s State Department, particularly through its Global Engagement Center (GEC), directed funds to organizations including Park Capital Investment Group and News Guard. These groups labeled conservative outlets as "disinformation," influencing advertisers to blacklist them and social media platforms to deplatform or deprioritize them.

• Key Points:

  • GEC was created (2016) to combat foreign disinformation but shifted to targeting domestic, often conservative, speech.
  • Companies like News Guard and GDI developed “blacklists” affecting ad revenue and reach.
  • Social media giants were encouraged to act on these lists, massively increasing enforcement against outlets like the Daily Wire.

• Notable Quote:
  “The State Department cannot fund censorship of Americans, full stop. Equally important, it must prove to us every year, regardless of who the President is, that it is complying.”
  —Ben Shapiro [02:46]

2. The Lawsuit and Its Legal Context (03:50–06:30)

• Summary:
  The team describes filing suit (with the Federalist) in December 2023, outlining how the State Department’s actions violated precedent: the government may not outsource censorship to private entities.

• Key Points:

  • The government cannot pressure private companies to suppress speech—it’s still a First Amendment violation.
  • Daily Wire saw a 1,000% increase in YouTube “content enforcements” in two years.
  • Many censored or demonetized statements were factual or standard political commentary (e.g., gender and crime statistics).

• Notable Quote:
  “There's only two kinds of speech. There's free speech and there's speech determined by the powerful, because the weak don't have the power to censor speech.”
  —Matt Walsh [05:39]

3. The Scope and Mechanisms of Censorship (04:22–06:30)

• Summary:
  Specifics about which organizations were involved, how blacklists worked, and the role of international groups (e.g., GDI).

• Key Points:

  • Disinfo Cloud (2018–2021) and GDI (funded with $300,000) compiled blacklists for advertisers.
  • These “disinformation” ratings strongly impacted conservative outlets’ income.
  • GARM set global standards for advertisers, pushing demonetization for a broad range of content.

• Notable Quote:
  “Basic facts were very often being censored as insensitive or as harmful.”
  —Ben Shapiro [06:30]

4. Why the Legal Win Matters (08:19–10:05)

• Summary:
  The hosts discuss philosophical foundations: the law teaches society, and only by challenging overreach can conservatives (or any minority) preserve rights.

• Key Points:

  • It’s not just about politics being downstream of culture—law shapes behavior.
  • The victory compels the government to acknowledge their wrongdoing and changes future policy in a significant way.
  • The relief was injunctive (to stop behavior), not financial.

• Notable Quotes:

  • “When the law incentivizes a behavior, you get more of that behavior. When a law punishes a behavior, you get less of that behavior.”
    —Michael Knowles [08:19]
  • “To win against the government is not an easy thing. They've got all the cards, they've got all the power... and this is saying, no. There's something here that goes beyond the government of the moment that was violated.”
    —Matt Walsh [09:27]

5. The Settlement and Its Requirements (08:57–10:45)

• Summary:
  Under the new administration (Trump/Rubio, 2025), the State Department settled, agreeing to shut down the GEC and cease funding censorship proxies.

• Key Points:

  • State Department can no longer fund or use outsourced censorship, including via technology or foreign/outside NGOs.
  • They must conduct annual First Amendment trainings and provide yearly compliance certifications directly to the plaintiffs.

• Notable Quote:
  “The State Department now has to disarm. They have to stop funding NGOs, foreign governments, and other organizations that seek to censor Americans domestically... [and] has to prove to us every year... they have, in fact, upheld the consequences of this judgment.”
  —Michael Knowles [10:05]

6. The Larger Importance of Free Speech (10:45–11:59)

• Summary:
  Matt Walsh reflects on the cultural and creative importance of free expression, particularly for artists.

• Key Points:

  • Free speech is core not only to politics but to the development and sharing of culture, art, and knowledge.
  • Suppressing speech would doom future generations to ignorance and repeated rediscovery.

• Notable Quote:
  “To silence art, then each generation has to rediscover what the meaning and experience of being human is—it would be an absolute disaster.”
  —Matt Walsh [11:34]

7. Looking Ahead (11:59–end)

• Summary:
  The episode closes with Shapiro emphasizing vigilance: this battle is part of a larger, ongoing fight for free speech. The Daily Wire calls for continued support to keep covering stories “the media won’t touch.”

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

| Timestamp | Speaker | Quote | |-----------|----------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------| | 02:46 | Ben Shapiro | “The State Department cannot fund censorship of Americans, full stop.”| | 05:39 | Matt Walsh | “There's only two kinds of speech. There's free speech and there's speech determined by the powerful…” | | 08:19 | Michael Knowles| “When the law incentivizes a behavior, you get more of that behavior. When a law punishes a behavior, you get less of that behavior.”| | 09:27 | Matt Walsh | “To win against the government is not an easy thing. They've got all the cards, they've got all the power…”| | 10:05 | Michael Knowles| “The State Department now has to disarm. They have to stop funding NGOs, foreign governments, and other organizations that seek to censor Americans domestically.” | | 11:34 | Matt Walsh | “To silence art, then each generation has to rediscover what the meaning and experience of being human is—it would be an absolute disaster.” |

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Timeline of Key Segments

• 01:17–03:49: Background on State Department and anti-conservative censorship strategies.
• 03:49–06:30: The nature and scope of suppression; legal principles involved.
• 08:19–10:05: Why the lawsuit mattered (“law is a teacher”); summary of injunctive relief.
• 08:57–10:45: Details of the settlement and future State Department obligations.
• 10:45–11:59: Philosophical discussion on the irreplaceable value of free speech, especially in the arts.
• 11:59+: Call to continue the fight and support uncensored reporting.

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Tone and Style

• Direct, urgent, principled: The hosts’ language is brisk, no-nonsense, and rooted in constitutional values.
• Defiant and optimistic: The team portrays their victory as both deeply significant and a springboard for ongoing activism.
• Philosophical: They offer not just analysis but normative claims about freedom’s role in American life and culture.

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Summary Takeaways

• The Daily Wire’s lawsuit stopped the State Department from funding or indirectly outsourcing censorship of U.S. citizens.
• The victory led to new governmental obligations for transparency, compliance, and First Amendment training.
• Hosts frame this not only as a legal win, but as a critical culture war battle over the future of free speech and American values.
• The team urges vigilance and continued supporter engagement to keep defending and reporting on free expression.

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Transcript

[Ben Shapiro]

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[Michael Knowles]

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[Ben Shapiro]

This week, the Daily Wire didn't just win a lawsuit. I mean, we did win a lawsuit. But this week we won a First Amendment showdown with the federal government in a landmark victory for free speech. The State Department has settled a lawsuit that we brought alongside the Federalist in 2023, ending government involvement in the censorship of American media outlets and placing the burden squarely on the government to prove it will never do that again. This didn't come out of nowhere. Let me recap for you what the Daily Wire has been fighting behind the scenes. So under the Biden administration, the State Department's Global Engagement center funded companies like Park Capital Investment Group and contracted News Guard to bankrupt conservative news outlets by deeming those outlets disinformation. Companies like News Guard weren't just rating the news, they were helping advertisers decide whom to blacklist. So we sued them. It was only earlier this week that a judge entered a consent decree that placed the Daily Wire and the Federalist, our co plt in charge of ensuring that future State departments never do anything like this again. Check it out. Right now, Daily Wire versus State Department discussing the whole thing.

[Michael Knowles]

The Daily Wire has sued the federal government again and again. We have won. The Biden administration wielded the full force of the federal government to censor us. And not just us, many, many American conservatives.

[Ben Shapiro]

We're working to expose, to disrupt, to

[Matt Walsh]

determine disinformation through the State Department Global Engagement Center.

[Michael Knowles]

And we decided we weren't just going to back down, we fought back.

[Ben Shapiro]

How? Well, we filed a lawsuit against the State Department over its involvement in censoring Americans. The result? The State Department cannot fund censorship of Americans, full stop. Equally important, it must prove to us every year, regardless of who the President is, that it is complying.

[Michael Knowles]

Now, before we get to the celebration, we have to go back to the beginning.

[Ben Shapiro]

In 2016, the Obama administration created, created something called the Global Engagement center, which was designed to supposedly fight foreign disinformation or extremism online. That was then used by the deep state over at the State Department in order to basically target, in many cases, conservative outlets, including the Daily Wire. The State Department ended up tossing hundreds of thousands of dollars at a variety of entities whose sole job, it seems, was to label and then discriminate against conservative outlets and recommend them as bad brands or untrustworthy brands. And then once that information had sort of filtered into public, social media giants were encouraged to deplatform or reduce the reach of those various brands, including the Daily Wire.

[Matt Walsh]

So this attempt to silence us through using social media, it was unprecedented in the sense that it involved social media, which was our bread and butter. This entire business was built on social media. That was the business model, but it was also illegal because the Supreme Court has already said that the government cannot get companies to do its censoring for them. That's violating the First Amendment. And it was unprecedented in its scope and in its power because this was a new media enterprise and social media was the new media through which we were establishing ourselves.

[Ben Shapiro]

The Global Engagement center funded one group called Disinfo Cloud, which was a platform that ran between 2018 and 2021. It was used by the Department of Defense, energy, treasury, the FBI. They also spent $300,000 on a London based group called the Global Disinformation Index gdi, which fed basically a blacklist of sites to advertisers so that advertisers would want to pull their money. And all of these groups were providing information to other groups like News Guard, which was a news rating organization that again, was designed to tell advertisers where to put their money and where not to put their money. And News Guard would set up these rating systems that again were fed by groups that had themselves been fed by the State Department in order to discriminate in many cases against conservative groups. This deprived groups and organizations like the Daily Wire of legitimately millions of dollars in advertising. All of this sort of found its apotheosis in the Global alliance for Responsible Media Garm, which again was used as a global standard by advertisers in order to demonetize players. And a lot of the material that was removed or that was demonetized or that was discriminated against was sort of normal political material. Anything that they deemed hate speech or harassment or misinformation or insensitive or irresponsible or harmful treatment of debated, sensitive social issues.

[Matt Walsh]

What's so destructive about social media? Joining the government in censorship and accepting the idea that the government should be the people who determine what misinformation is, is that it's a betrayal of the very principle on which the First Amendment stands. There's only two kinds of speech. There's free speech and there's speech determined by the powerful, because the weak don't have the power to censor speech. It's only the powerful who have the ability to censor speech. And they are going to do it in their favor. Because you might be saying, you probably are saying, that government, the powerful are doing a bad job. And so once you violate that principle that the individual has a right to speak his mind without the powerful deciding whether it's hateful or misinformation or anything else. If you abandon that, you've abandoned the First Amendment altogether.

[Ben Shapiro]

So people would get demonetized for saying, for example, boys are not girls, or for talking about racial statistics with regard to crime. Basic facts were very often being censored as insensitive or as harmful. And Garm was pushing this. And again, the information that was being provided to Garm was being provided in many cases by organizations that themselves were funded by the federal government. And the State Department, in particular Daily Wire and the Federalist, among other outlets, ended up filing a lawsuit in December of 2023 against the State Department. We had seen a 1,000% increase in content enforcements on YouTube over the course of a two year period. And that was again thanks in part to State Department provided money to these groups and also by Democrats who are touting these sorts of Censorship complexes designed to shut down conservative outlets. We'll get to more on this in a moment. First, let's be honest. Buying seafood that feels like a gamble. That's why I'd like to tell you about our sponsor, Wild Alaskan Co. It's the easiest way to get wild caught. Perfectly portioned seafood delivered straight to your door. Not only is it convenient, it's also delicious. Wild Alaskan company is 100% wild caught, never farmed fish, no antibiotics, no GMOs, no additives, just real fish. Producer Phil he's been cooking through these boxes like nobody's business. They've got everything from sockeye salmon to Pacific cod to Pacific rock fish. It's all frozen right off the boat to lock in that amazing flavor and texture. Plus, every order supports sustainable fishing practices in Alaska, so you can feel great about what you're eating. They also offer 100% money back guarantee on your first box. If you're not satisfied, they'll refund you, no questions asked. Not all fish are the same. Get seafood you can trust. Go to wildalaskan.com Shapiro for 35 bucks off your first box of premium wild caught seafood. That's wildalaskan.com Shapiro For 35 bucks off your first order. Thanks to wild alaskan company for sponsoring this episode. And again, it's wildalaskan.com shapiro for 35 bucks off your first box.

[Michael Knowles]

For a long time we heard this phrase, we've all said it, that politics is downstream of culture. However, there's another political truth that goes back even further, namely that the law is a teacher. When the law incentivizes a behavior, you get more of that behavior. When a law punishes a behavior, you get less of that behavior. And when only one side of that political order is wielding the law and holding people to account and the other side totally rolls over, you are going to get that political order go totally out of balance. The only option was to go in there, get in the fight and wield the law for Good.

[Ben Shapiro]

Well, in September 2025, the Trump administration part two was in. The State Department came in and settled this lawsuit and they also got rid of the Global Engagement center entirely. Secretary of State Rubio ripped into the GEC and talked about how they never should have funded technologies like News Guard or gdi. The relief that we were seeking all along, by the way, was injunctive, not financial, because the goal was to get the government to stop funding censorship routines in violation of the First Amendment. Even backdoor censorship routines like the one that the State Department had engaged in for years.

[Matt Walsh]

Well, the success of this lawsuit is obviously urgently important because it calls the government to account. It makes them say we should not have done this. To win against the government is not an easy thing. They've got all the cards, they've got all the power, They've got all the appointments of judges. And this is saying, no. There's something here that goes beyond the government of the moment that was violated. It is essential to American life. And so this is a major victory for the Daily Wire, for the Federalists, for everybody involved. This is a major step in preserving the most precious right we have, and a right that came very close to being extinguished during the Biden administration.

[Michael Knowles]

So what did we win? The State Department now has to disarm. They have to stop funding NGOs, foreign governments, and other organizations that seek to. To censor Americans domestically. It's insane that this even needs to be stated. Then the State Department cannot use technology to censor speech. Then the State Department will be subjected to annual trainings on the First Amendment. And then finally, the State Department has to prove to us every year they have to send us certifications, that they have, in fact, upheld the consequences of this judgment. Great, great victory.

[Matt Walsh]

You know, I think as an artist, maybe I feel more how important it is for free speech to be defended. No matter what anybody tells you, artists write through some kind of outside power that flows through them. The artist's most important job is to get out of the way and let that voice come through them, in my case, onto the page. But it might be into music, it might be into painting. Whatever it is that you are doing that an artist is doing, nobody has a right to silence that, including the artist. Even the artist shouldn't be able to shut it up. It's got to come because it is the encapsulated experience of human life shared from mind to mind. And without that, it would be like silencing math. If you couldn't teach math and each generation had to rediscover math, that's the same thing as if you silence art. Then each generation has to rediscover human nature, has to rediscover what the meaning and experience of being human is, it would be an absolute disaster. Artists, more than anyone, should be free to do what they do and to speak the words that come into their heads. And we feel more than anybody, I think, or as much as anybody, just how important it is to be free to do that.

[Ben Shapiro]

While our victory against the Biden State Department is important, we here at the Daily Wire, we're not resting on our laurels. This battle was just one of many to come in the fight against censorship, and so we have to remain vigilant to win that war. But in order to continue reporting on stories that the media won't touch, we do need your support. That's why I'm asking you to head on over to Daily Wire and subscribe right now. That way, we can bring you the uncensored truth.

[Michael Knowles]

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