Eye on Jacksonville was shut down from Twitter in 2020. We could not find out why. There was no indication we had done anything wrong. They just shut us down.
Now we believe we have discovered the truth behind the matter.
It appears Eye “may” have been a victim of the Election Integrity Partnership (EIP). We can’t say for sure and can only make this assumption based on the information that has broken this week in a report by the House Judiciary.
The Election Integrity Partnership, a consortium led by Stanford University’s Stanford Internet Observatory (SIO), emerged as a key player in the federal government’s efforts to combat misinformation. Created in the summer of 2020 at the request of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the EIP aimed to provide a mechanism for the government to influence online speech while bypassing both the First Amendment and public scrutiny.
As the 2020 presidential election approached, the public engaged in heated debates over unprecedented changes to election procedures, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. These discussions unfolded on major social media platforms, effectively serving as the modern town square for political discourse. However, as Americans exercised their First Amendment rights on these platforms, their constitutionally protected speech was intentionally suppressed. The federal government collaborated with third-party organizations, including universities and social media platforms, to achieve this suppression.
The EIP’s operation involved external stakeholders, including federal agencies and organizations funded by the government, submitting misinformation reports directly to the EIP. Analysts from the EIP then scoured the internet for similar content on various social media platforms, compiling a list of offending links. This list was subsequently sent to major tech companies with specific recommendations on how to censor the posts, including reducing discoverability, suspending accounts’ tweeting abilities, monitoring influencer accounts, and outright removal of posts.
While the government and proponents of these censorship efforts justified their actions by citing the need to combat foreign influence, investigations have revealed that the primary focus was on targeting American citizens themselves. Rather than targeting foreign or inauthentic accounts, the EIP disproportionately targeted conservatives, including political candidates and commentators. This resulted in a lopsided censorship regime, where true information, jokes, satire, and political opinions from Republicans and conservatives were labeled as “misinformation,” while false information from Democrats and liberals largely went unreported and untouched.
The list of individuals and entities affected by this censorship is extensive and includes prominent figures such as President Donald J. Trump, Senator Thom Tillis, Speaker Newt Gingrich, Governor Mike Huckabee, Congressman Thomas Massie, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, Newsmax, The Babylon Bee, Sean Hannity, and many others. Everyday Americans of all political affiliations were also subjected to censorship.
While combating disinformation and foreign interference is a legitimate concern, the erosion of Americans’ constitutional rights is equally troubling. The First Amendment’s protections must be upheld, ensuring that political discourse remains robust and uninhibited, even in the face of evolving challenges. Please take time to read the report about this horrible abuse of Free Speech within the walls of our country. Knowledge is power. Use your power, friends.
