Former New York Republican Representative Lee Zeldin, who lost the 2022 gubernatorial election to Democrat Governor Kathy Hochul, is accusing the Governor of “assembling her thought police to conduct surveillance of the online content of New Yorkers, collect their data, and send the gov’t after people who say things she doesn’t like.”
Zeldin is responding to Hochul’s announcement, which she made last week, that the state has “expanded State Police monitoring of social media” in response to increased antisemitism and Islamophobia incidents in New York after the Hamas terror attacks on Israel on October 7.
Hochul said: “We’re very focused on the data we’re collecting from surveillance efforts, what’s being said on social media platforms. We have launched an effort to be able to counter some of the negativity and reach out to people when we see hate speech being spoken about on online platforms. Our social media analysis union has ramped up its monitoring of sites to catch incitement to violence, direct threats to others.”
The Governor’s office reports: “The total number of bias incidents investigated by the NYPD Hate Crime Task Force increased by 124 percent in October, led by a 214 percent spike in anti-Jewish incidents. Anti-Muslim incidents increased in October from 0 to 8 incidents.”
Zeldin (who was one of two Jewish Republicans in Congress when he served) appeared on Fox News and claimed Hochul is using a fight against anti-Semitism as a cover for surveillance of Republicans and those who don’t agree with her.
Zeldin claims Hochul’s move is “really about hoarding power and being able to target political opposition.” While Zeldin spoke on Fox News, the screen read: “The Left Wants to Control Your Speech.”
Kathy Hochul is assembling her thought police to conduct surveillance of the online content of New Yorkers, collect their data, and send the gov’t after people who say things she doesn’t like. No details have been provided on limits or oversight. Just an incredibly bad idea. pic.twitter.com/JPcGr9IaLY
— Lee Zeldin (@LeeMZeldin) November 15, 2023
Note: In November 2022, online surveillance conducted by the Jewish group The Community Security Initiative of the UJA-Federation of New York uncovered a plot to “shoot up a Manhattan synagogue” and worked with local and federal law enforcement to arrest the two men behind the plot.
Zeldin, who hasn’t decided yet if he’s going to run for governor again in 2026, has been trying to help elect other New York Republicans, including Mark Assini who ran for Monroe County Executive in this past off-year election season. (Assini lost to Democrat incumbent Adam Bello, and Democrats won control of Monroe County after decades of GOP control.)
