The Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway and Sean Davis were among several prominent conservatives targeted by a federal censorship operation carried out during the 2020 election, according to a new bombshell congressional report.
Released by the Sean Davis on Monday, the interim report documents how the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and Global Engagement Center (GEC), which fall within the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department, respectively, colluded with Stanford University to pressure Big Tech companies into censoring what they claimed to be “disinformation” during the 2020 election.
According to the analysis, this operation aimed to censor “true information, jokes and satire, and political opinions,” with prominent conservatives such as Hemingway and Davis being among the prime targets. Other notable targets include the social media accounts of former President Donald Trump, Newsmax, Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Harmeet Dhillon, and Charlie Kirk, to name a few.
As The Federalist previously reported, CISA, which is often called the “nerve center” of the federal government’s censorship operation, “facilitated meetings between Big Tech companies, and national security and law enforcement agencies to address ‘mis-, dis-, and mal-information’ on social media platforms.” Ahead of the 2020 contest, the agency ramped up its censorship efforts by flagging posts for Big Tech companies it claimed were worthy of being censored, some of which called into question the security of voting practices such as mass, unsupervised mail-in voting.
Meanwhile, as The Federalist’s Margot Cleveland reported, GEC “funded the development of censorship tools and used ‘government employees to act as sales reps pitching the censorship products to Big Tech.’” One of these GEC-funded nongovernmental entities is the Global Disinformation Index, a so-called “disinformation” tracking organization “working to blacklist and defund conservative news sites,” including The Federalist.
At the heart of the federal government’s censorship apparatus, however, was the Election Integrity Partnership (EIP), “a consortium of ‘disinformation’ academics led by Stanford University’s Stanford Internet Observatory” that coordinated with DHS and GEC “to monitor and censor Americans’ online speech in advance of the 2020 presidential election.” According to House Republicans’ Monday report, the initiative was developed “at the request” of CISA during the summer of 2020 and effectively allowed federal officials to “launder [their] censorship activities in hopes of bypassing both the First Amendment and public scrutiny.” (Read more: The Federalist, 11/7/2023) (Archive)
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
Who was targeted? Americans of all political stripes, but especially conservatives: @realDonaldTrump@SenThomTillis@newtgingrich@GovMikeHuckabee@mtgreenee@seanhannity@MZHemingway@pnjaban@charliekirk11@RealCandaceO@JackPosobiec@bennyjohnson@TomFitton@TheBabylonBee
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) November 6, 2023
What speech was targeted for censorship?
-True information
-Jokes
-Political opinionsHere are a few examples: pic.twitter.com/j5l6pf5kMF
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) November 6, 2023
Who did we miss? Did you have a social media post that was targeted by the EIP?
It’s clear why @Stanford tried only produced these after @JudiciaryGOP and @Weaponization threatened contempt. pic.twitter.com/eNhWzQgQ9q
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) November 6, 2023
As always, more to come.
Read our report here: https://t.co/h69JCsqLCh
Stay tuned…
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) November 6, 2023
From House Judiciary Report, 11/6/2023