Weaponization panel details government collusion with universities to censor speech

The House Weaponization Subcommittee on Monday published an interim report detailing the operations of the federal government and self-styled disinformation experts that allegedly worked to censor political speech ahead of the 2020 presidential election.

The 104-page report, published Monday, details the operations of the Election Integrity Partnership (EIP), which worked with the Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies to monitor online political speech and allegedly censor disfavored viewpoints.

"In the lead-up to the 2020 election, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the American public and lawmakers debated the merits of unprecedented, mid-election-cycle changes to election procedures. These issues, like all contemporary discourse about questions of political import, were extensively discussed on the world’s largest social media platforms—the modern town square," the report stated. "But as American citizens, including candidates in these elections, attempted to exercise their First Amendment rights on these platforms, their constitutionally protected speech was intentionally suppressed as a consequence of the federal government’s direct coordination with third-party organizations, particularly universities, and social media platforms."

"Speech concerning elections—the process by which Americans select their representatives—is of course entitled to robust First Amendment protections. This bedrock principle is even more critical as it relates to speech by political candidates. But as disinformation 'experts' acknowledge, the labeling of any kind of speech is 'inherently political' and itself a form of 'censorship,'" it continued.

The report further highlighted the litany of prominent individuals and organizations whom the EIP worked to monitor and allegedly censor, including former President Donald Trump, satire website The Babylon Bee, Newsmax, Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, and conservative influencer Jack Posobiec, among many others.

"Today, as a result of the Committee’s and Select Subcommittee’s investigation, political candidates, journalists, and all Americans have the opportunity to see if they were targeted by their government and what viewpoints DHS, Stanford, and others worked to censor," the panel continued. "While the EIP disproportionately targeted conservatives, Americans of all political affiliations were victims of censorship."

You can read the full report here:

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter.