Sen. Tillis 2020 Victory Announcement Flagged by Gov. "Disinformation" Efforts - Weaponization Subcommittee Report

House Judiciary Committee and the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government released an interim report this week

Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) is one of a number of politicians, public figures, and journalists whose speech was revealed to have been targeted by the Electronic Integrity Partnership (EIP), a federally backed "consortium" to flag "disinformation" in the leadup to the 2020 election, according to an interim report released this week by the House Judiciary Committee and its Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.

According to the report, the following tweet from celebrating Tillis' victory on election night 2020 was flagged by EIP analysts because "the group deemed his declaration of victory to be premature":

When Tillis declared victory that election night, he led his opponent Cal Cunningham by nearly 2%, or 96,000 votes. At the time, approximately 117,000 absentee ballots were outstanding. Cunningham eventually conceded the election after an entire week had passed, and Tillis was reelected to a second term in the US Senate.

Although the EIP itself was a non-government entity, it was formed "at the request of [the Department of Homeland Security/Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency]" according to an email obtained by the Committee. The report describes the censorship "laundering" operation conducted by the EIP on behalf of federal agencies and federally funded organizations:

The EIP’s operation was straightforward: “external stakeholders,” including federal agencies and organizations funded by the federal government, submitted misinformation reports directly to the EIP. The EIP’s misinformation “analysts” next scoured the internet for additional examples for censorship. If the submitted report flagged a Facebook post, for example, the EIP analysts searched for similar content on Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, Reddit, and other major social media platforms. Once all of the offending links were compiled, the EIP sent the most significant ones directly to Big Tech with specific recommendations on how the social media platforms should censor the posts, such as reducing the posts’ “discoverability,” “suspending [an account’s] ability to continue tweeting for 12 hours,” “monitoring if any of the tagged influencer accounts retweet” a particular user, and, of course, removing thousands of Americans’ posts.

This public-private partnership allowed the federal government to skirt constitutional limitations and/or oversight and public records requirements. Other politicians whose speech was flagged by EIP include President Donald J. Trump, Speaker Newt Gingrich, Governor Mike Huckabee, Congressman Thomas Massie, and Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene.