The Censorship Complex Isn’t A ‘Tinfoil Hat’ Conspiracy, And The ‘Twitter Files’ Just Dropped More Proof

“It may be possible — if we can take off the tinfoil hat — that there is not a vast conspiracy,” Democrat Colin Allred from Texas Scoffed At independent journalist Matt Taibbi’s hearing before the House Judiciary Subcommittee. Allred was busy making fun of Taibbi’s fellow witness, journalist Michael Shellenberger. The public was still digesting the latest installment. “Twitter Files” — which contained just further proof that the government funds and leads a sprawling Censorship Complex.

Taibbi Dropped This Twitter thread appeared just one hour before the House Judiciary Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government began. The 17-or so earlier installments of this series revealed the depth and breadth of the players. “Twitter Files,” Thursday’s reporting revealed more government-funded entities pushing Twitter to censor speech. 

But yesterday’s thread is titled “The Censorship-Industrial Complex,” The study did more than just increase the knowledge of actors. It also revealed that government-funded organisations sought to censor truthful speech by ordinary Americans. 

Shellenberger gave a prepared testimony for the subcommittee and spoke about the censorship slide that he had seen while looking at internal Twitter communications. “The bar for bringing in military-grade government monitoring and speech-countering techniques has moved from ‘countering terrorism’ to ‘countering extremism’ to ‘countering simple misinformation.’ Otherwise known as being wrong on the internet,” Shellenberger Testimony. 

“The government no longer needs the predicate of calling you a terrorist or an extremist to deploy government resources to counter your political activity,” Shellenberger continued. “The only predicate it needs is the assertion that the opinion you expressed on social media is wrong.”

Being “wrong” However, it is not a requirement for censorship requests. The Stanford Internet Observatory has the Virality Project. reportedly Pushing “multiple platforms” Censure “true content which might promote vaccine hesitancy.” 

This verboten category was shown in an excerpt “viral posts of individuals expressing vaccine hesitancy, or stories of true vaccine side effects,” These are the things that disinformation experts might have admitted to “not clearly” Be “mis or disinformation, but it may be malinformation (exaggerated or misleading).” 

Silencing such speech would be enough. However, the Virality project “Additional “To this bucket” “true content” Not censorable: “true posts which could fuel hesitancy, such as individual countries banning certain vaccines.” 

This should be a thought for a while. The Virality Project — more on that shortly — pushed “multiple platforms” to take legal action against those who publish true news reports from countries that have banned certain vaccines. Why? Because it could make people happier “hesitant” Get a Covid shot

Who is the Virality Project’s overlord of information?

The Stanford Internet Observatory Reports It launched the Virality project in response to the pandemic. “a global study aimed at understanding the disinformation dynamics specific to the COVID-19 crisis.” The project was expanded by Stanford in January 2020. “with colleagues at New York University, the University of Washington, the National Council on Citizenship, and Graphika.”

The Virality project, which is its own words, goes beyond collaboration with state-funded Universities. “built strong ties with several federal government agencies, most notably the Office of the Surgeon General (OSG) and the CDC, to facilitate bidirectional situational awareness around emerging narratives.” According to the Virality Pro’s 2022 report Report, “Memes, Magnets, and Microchips Narrative Dynamics Around COVID-19 Vaccines,” “the CDC’s biweekly ‘COVID-19 State of Vaccine Confidence Insights’ reports provided visibility into widespread anti-vaccine and vaccine hesitancy narratives observed by other research efforts.”

The Virality Project’s report also championed its success in engaging six Big Tech platforms — Facebook (including Instagram), Twitter, Google (including YouTube), TikTok, Medium, and Pinterest — using a “ticket” system. The social media platforms would “review and act on” Reports from The Virality Project “in accordance with their policies.” 

The CDC and surgeon general worked closely with the Virality Project, which resulted in the provision of excellent care. “vaccine hesitancy narratives” The Stanford team provides censorship requests for the tech giants to the Stanford team. Thus, the circle of government-censorship is closed. 

Censorship requests were not limited to Covid-19, however, with the Stanford Internet Observatory’s Election Integrity Partnership playing a similar role in providing Twitter — and presumably other Big Tech companies — requests to remove supposed election disinformation. 

Earlier “Twitter Files” The Election Integrity Partnership has been established Served It serves as a conduit for censorship request to Twitter for other government funded entities like the Center for Internet Security. The Center for Internet Security received millions of dollars in government grants during the 2020 election. Partner with the Cyber and Infrastructure Security Agency at the Department of Homeland Security — again completing the circle of government censorship we saw at play during the 2020 election cycle.

Government funding also connects the groups involved in the Election Integrity Partnership as well as the Virality project. The Election Integrity Partnership claimed that it was a “virality project”. “brought together misinformation researchers” From four organizations: the Stanford Internet Observatory and the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public. Graphika is also part of the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab. Graphika, the University of Washington and individuals from New York University also partnered with Stanford in the Virality Project.

Graphika also received funding from the taxpayer-funded state Universities that were involved in the projects. Numerous Contracts from the Department of Defense and a 3 million dollar award Grant For a 2021-2022 research program, please contact the DOD Related To “Research on Cross-Platform Detection to Counter Malign Influence.” Graphika is also available Received The DOD granted a grant of nearly $2million for “research in Co-Citation Network Mapping”. Researched “network mapping,” or the tracking of how Covid “Disinformation” spreads through social media.

The Atlantic Council likewise receives federal funding, including a grant from the State Department’s Global Engagement Center awarded to its Digital Forensics Research Lab. And Stanford rakes in millions in federal grants as well.

The government funding of these censorship conduits is not the only scandal exposed by the “Twitter Files Twitter Files” Rest on bogus research. 

That is really nothing when compared to Thursday’s Twitter Files” revealed: a request for the censorship of truthful information, including news that certain Covid shots had been banned in some countries. And that censorship request came from a group of so-called disinformation experts closely coordinating with the government and with several partners funded with government grants — just as was the case during the 2020 election.

This all goes to show that sometimes there is a vast conspiracy at play and that the problem is not that someone is donning a tinfoil hat, but that he’s buried his head in the sand.

Margot Cleveland is The Federalist’s senior legal correspondent. She is also a contributor to National Review Online, the Washington Examiner, Aleteia, and Townhall.com, and has been published in the Wall Street Journal and USA Today. Cleveland is a lawyer and a graduate of the Notre Dame Law School, where she earned the Hoynes Prize—the law school’s highest honor. She later served for nearly 25 years as a permanent law clerk for a federal appellate judge on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Cleveland is a former full-time university faculty member and now teaches as an adjunct from time to time. As a stay-at-home homeschooling mom of a young son with cystic fibrosis, Cleveland frequently writes on cultural issues related to parenting and special-needs children. Cleveland is on Twitter at @ProfMJCleveland. The views expressed here are those of Cleveland in her private capacity.