A report released on Monday by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan reveals that the collaboration among the federal government, major tech companies and academia in censoring conservatives was more extensive than initially understood.
BOMBSHELL REPORT ON THE CENSORSHIP-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX
HUNDREDS of secret reports show how @DHSgov’s @CISAgov, The GEC (@StateDept), @Stanford and others worked together to censor AMERICANS before the 2020 election, including true information, jokes, and opinions.
🧵 THREAD:
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) November 6, 2023
The report was put together by the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.
The report exposes the collaboration between the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the Global Engagement Center (GEC) within the State Department, Stanford University and other organizations in establishing the Election Integrity Partnership (EIP).
According to the report, the EIP was aimed at restricting Americans’ freedom of speech in the run-up to the 2020 election.
The report discloses that the formation of the EIP, in the summer of 2020, intended to provide a means for the federal government to conceal its censorship efforts in an attempt to circumvent both the First Amendment and public scrutiny.
Additionally, the report discloses internal emails from EIP members indicating that the EIP was created “at the request of DHS/CISA.”
As per the report, the EIP focused on various forms of content, including accurate information, humor and political viewpoints from Americans spanning the political spectrum, with a particular emphasis on conservatives.
This encompassed individuals like President Trump and Senator Tillis, organizations like Newsmax and the Babylon Bee, as well as conservative pundits such as Sean Hannity, Mollie Hemingway and Charlie Kirk.
The report reads, “Following the 2016 presidential election, a sensationalized narrative emerged that foreign ‘disinformation’ affected the integrity of the election. These claims, fueled by left-wing election denialism about the legitimacy of President Trump’s victory, sparked a new focus on the role of social media platforms in spreading such information. ‘Disinformation’ think tanks and ‘experts,’ government task forces, and university centers were formed, all to study and combat the alleged rise in alleged mis- and disinformation. As the House Committee on the Judiciary and the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government have shown previously, these efforts to combat so-called foreign influence and misinformation quickly mutated to include domestic—that is, American—speech.”
The report continues, “Enter the Election Integrity Partnership (EIP), a consortium of ‘disinformation’ academics led by Stanford University’s Stanford Internet Observatory (SIO) that worked directly with the Department of Homeland Security and the Global Engagement Center, a multi-agency entity housed within the State Department, to monitor and censor Americans’ online speech in advance of the 2020 presidential election. Created in the summer of 2020 ‘at the request’ of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the EIP provided a way for the federal government to launder its censorship activities in hopes of bypassing both the First Amendment and public scrutiny.”
Earlier this year, a federal judge directed the Biden administration to halt communication with major tech firms following a lawsuit filed by the former Missouri Attorney General, Eric Schmitt.
The case is now progressing to the Supreme Court.
