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The federal government coordinated with an array of entities to censor Americans’ speech online, a newly released report from the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government shows. In particular, the report shows that the Department of Homeland Security worked with Stanford and the Global Engagement Center, which works across agencies but sits under the State Department to create a streamlined process for identifying and censoring posts. These groups formed the Election Integrity Partnership, which the report shows worked to censor and limit certain posts going into the 2020 presidential election. The report argues the federal government was “heavy-handed” with universities and social media companies and censored conservative viewpoints. |
Washington DC, June 28.– Judicial Watch announced on June 17 it received 110 pages of heavily redacted records from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit that shows state election officials in the days before and after the 2020 election flagging online content deemed “misinformation” and sending it to the Center for Internet Security (CIS), a DHS-funded nonprofit, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the Election Integrity Partnership (EIP), and others.
The records were obtained in response to a November 2022 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit for records of communications between the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), a division of DHS, and the Election Integrity Partnership (EIP), which was created to suppress online election content for censorship and suppression (Judicial Watch Inc. vs. U.S. Department of Homeland Security (No. 1:22-cv-03560 )). Judicial Watch filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia after DHS failed to respond to an October 2022, FOIA request.
The newly obtained records include a November 4, 2020, email report from CIS “Misinformation Reports” to Brian Scully, head of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Mis-, Dis-, Malinformation (MDM) branch, a division of DHS. The report originated in the Washington State Secretary of State’s office and states: 
> I wanted to flag the following tweet: [handle redacted]. There is no evidence for the claim being made of a widespread mail-in fraud operation to benefit Democrats in swing states.
The flagged tweet reads:
> A note to ALL CONSERVATIVE media people projecting Trump victories in swing states:
> Yes, Republican turn out may be strong!
> From a mail in state veteran: The Democrats will wait to know how many votes they have to “find”, then, they will magically appear.
On November 12, 2020, Scully sends an email with subject line “Hammer and Scorecard Tweets” to individuals whose names are redacted ...
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