America First Legal (AFL) filed the lawsuit against key persons and entities involved in the so-called "Election Integrity Partnership" and the "Virality Project" on behalf of Jill Hines, the co-director of Health Freedom Louisiana, and Jim Hoft, founder of the news website The Gateway Pundit.
Defendants named in the lawsuit include the Stanford Internet Observatory and its director, Alex Stamos; and research manager, Renée DiResta; as well as Dr. Kate Starbird of the University of Washington, Graphika; and the Atlantic Research Council's Digital Forensic Lab.
Among their views that got them censored, the defendants alleged election fraud against Donald Trump and questioned the safety of COVID-19 vaccines.
According to AFL, the Election Integrity Partnership and the Virality Project surveilled 859 million and tracked 22 million posts as "misinformation" on Twitter alone.
That backdoor censorship at Twitter has since been uncovered thanks to new owner Elon Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur. After taking ownership and vowing transparency, he shared internal documents known now as the "Twitter Files" with independent journalists.
"Today, America First Legal is striking at the heart of the censorship-industrial complex for our clients,” Stephen Miller, president of America First, said on the day the lawsuit was filed in a Louisiana federal court.
"These are organizations that were conspiring hand-in-glove with the federal government over the last few years to censor people's free speech and violate the First Amendment," says John A. Zadrozny, AFL's deputy director of investigations.
AFL hopes the lawsuit will reveal the interactions, the pressure over what and who to censor, and who engaged in the censorship, he tells AFN.
Lawsuit alleges 'middlemen' worked with Feds
Reacting to the lawsuit, Media Research Center spokesman Michael Morris tells AFN the plaintiffs are accusing Election Integrity Partnership and Virality Project of acting as the federal government’s “middlemen” in a backdoor censorship campaign in 2020 and 2021.
“Government may not accomplish through private industry,” Morris argues, “what is constitutionally forbidden to accomplish on its own…”
As far as the speed of the lawsuit, Zadrozny says federal litigation moves slowly so he predicts a "slow burn" that is worth watching.
AFN has reached out to Election Integrity Partnership for comment. Efforts to find a contact method for Virality Project were not successful.
