UPDATE: White House Shuts Down 'Flagging' Operation

August 18:  The White House now confirms that it has indeed pulled the plug on the controversial email 'flagging' program that urged Americans to report 'fishy' comments to flag@whitehouse.gov . The White House confirms that it shut down that email address and that flag@whitehouse.gov "is now closed" and no longer operational. That's exactly what we asked President Obama to do when we sent him a letter days after the White House began this troubling program. You can read our letter to President Obama here.  And, you can read the Washington Times story on this development here.

August 17:  There are encouraging reports today that the White House email 'flagging' operation has been disabled.

As you know, we've been opposed to this troubling program since it began in early August and sent a letter to President Obama urging him to rescind this citizen reporting program.

Now, comes news reports that the program is no longer operational and that the emails sent to flag@whitehouse.gov now bounce back with this message:  The email address you just sent a message to is no longer in service. We are now accepting your feedback about health insurance reform via:http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck.

Politico.com reports that the email reporting program was shut down by the White House.

As you recall, Macon Phillips, the White House Director of New Media, claimed that [t]here is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there both on the web and floating around in chain emails.  Phillips stated that [s]ince we cant keep track of all of them here at the White House, were asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.

This program was problematic from the very beginning.  This flagging operation was nothing more than an attempt to stifle free speech and intimidate those who did not agree with the President.  It raised significant First Amendment concerns and countered core principles that our nation was founded on a belief in the necessity of free and open discourse on the important policy and political issues of our day.  Were hopeful the White House got the message the flagging operation created constitutional concerns and needed to be withdrawn.

In our letter to President Obama, we argued:  The citizen reporting program raises significant First Amendment concerns Creating a program that requests individuals to report on their neighbors, co-workers, family members, and friends who express personal opinions to your policy choices is not the way to encourage openness and transparency.  It is tantamount to policing ideas.  Such a program will only stifle free and open debate among the citizens of this great country We respectfully request that the program be withdrawn.

We're extremely pleased this citizen reporting program is no longer operational and we'll keep you posted on additional developments as they unfold.