MRC Free Speech America update summary: Approximately one third of the employees (about 1,000) at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency have been fired or taken buyout offers since President Donald Trump has entered office and implemented pro-free speech policies, including his day one executive order curbing censorship policies at the federal level.
The following article is a supplement to the MRC Report: The Biden Administration Waged War on Free Speech with 57 Censorship Initiatives.
Initiative #23
The Election Integrity Partnership
Type of Censorship: Partnership
Agencies Involved:
- Department of Homeland Security
- Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)
- Department of State
- Bureau of Global Public Affairs
- Global Engagement Center (GEC)
- Bureau of Global Public Affairs
Summary:
COVID-19 was not the only subject the Biden administration declared verboten. The administration acted aggressively to suppress concerns related to election integrity.
The State Department’s Global Engagement Center (GEC) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)’s Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) created the Election Integrity Partnership (EIP) with academic institutions such as Stanford University and the University of Washington. The EIP would search for and flag posts on subjects such as mail-in balloting and Zuckerbucks.
The EIP would then pressure Big Tech platforms, such as Facebook (now Meta) and Twitter (now X), to censor the speech. Though founded during the 2020 election, the EIP’s censorship continued into the Biden era, and the Biden administration fought to keep the extent of the alliance secret. After the agreement was finally exposed, CISA continued to silence dissent, paying over $1.2 million to the consulting group Guidehouse to flag speech it considered “misinformation, disinformation and mal-information” for censorship (or, as CISA called it, “risk mitigation”).
Key Individuals:
- Elizabeth Allen, Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy & Public Affairs
- Jen Easterly, CISA Director
- Chris Krebs, CISA Director
- James Rubin, GEC Special Envoy & Coordinator
- Brandon Wales, Acting CISA Director
