(MENAFN) A report published by the House Judiciary Committee on Monday alleges that the Election Integrity Partnership (EIP), an online "disinformation group" established by the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), was deliberately formed with the intent of censoring conservative speech during the 2020 campaign season. The report contends that the EIP primarily targeted "true information, jokes, and political opinions" shared by conservative social media users, while overlooking false information posted by liberals. The partnership's purported aim, according to the report, was to censor Americans engaging in essential political discourse leading up to the 2020 election.
The report highlights several notable figures, including then-President Donald Trump, Senator Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina), Republican Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene (Georgia) and Thomas Massie (Kentucky), as well as the satire site the Babylon Bee and conservative media outlet Newsmax, whose posts were flagged as "misinformation."
Although the DHS acknowledged in May 2020 that it could not openly endorse a disinformation flagging system, discussions about establishing a Misinformation Reporting Portal took place in a call with Facebook two months prior to the launch of the EIP. The partnership was initiated on DHS orders and operated under the auspices of Stanford University's disinformation center, known as the Stanford Internet Observatory.
The report also highlights that at least four students working at the EIP through the Stanford Internet Observatory concurrently held positions at the Cybersecurity and Internet Security Administration, a subsidiary of the DHS. They even used their government email accounts to correspond with other individuals involved in the partnership. Furthermore, a senior director from the pro-NATO think tank Atlantic Council, whose Digital Forensics Research Lab was also part of the EIP, confirmed that his organization assisted in establishing the EIP at the request of the DHS.
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