A “misinformation” researcher's closed-door testimony to Congress regarding his group's efforts to curb speech prior to the 2020 election appears to conflict with documents discovered by lawmakers.
Alex Stamos, who previously held senior positions at Facebook and Yahoo, served as the director of the Stanford Internet Observatory until 2023. The group, located at Stanford University, is currently under congressional scrutiny for its collaboration in 2020 with the University of Washington's Center for an Informed Public on the Election Integrity Partnership (EIP).
The EIP worked in conjunction with the U.S. government, including the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, to pressure social media companies into addressing “misinformation” on their platforms leading up to the presidential election. This information is based on internal emails and Stanford data that have been released since, shedding light on the EIP's Jira system, which was utilized to flag alleged misinformation reports to the platforms.
When presented with numerous records last year by the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee during a June 23 transcribed interview, Stamos seemed to consistently minimize the role that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) appears to have played in the Election Integrity Partnership (EIP). A copy of the transcript, which was reviewed by the Washington Examiner and has not been previously reported on, reveals Stamos's attempts to downplay the DHS's involvement in the EIP.
Due to their roles within the Election Integrity Partnership (EIP), both Stamos and University of Washington researcher Kate Starbird, who heads the school's Center for an Informed Public, have come under increased scrutiny from the House Judiciary Committee and its Weaponization of the Federal Government Subcommittee.
The subcommittee, in a June 2023 report, accused the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) of collaborating with major tech companies and “disinformation” partners to suppress the speech of Americans leading up to the 2020 election. The EIP specifically targeted “misinformation” posts made by several prominent Republicans, including former President Trump, Senators Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Ted Cruz (R-TX), as well as various right-of-center media outlets and commentators. These findings were detailed in a report released by the subcommittee in November of the same year.
The report cited an email from senior director Graham Brookie for the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, a left-leaning think tank and founding partner of the Election Integrity Partnership (EIP), to his colleagues in July 2020. Republicans obtained this email through a subpoena. In the email, Brookie stated that the EIP was established “at the request of DHS/CISA.” However, during testimony last year, Stamos asserted that neither DHS nor any other agency suggested the formation of the EIP to him. He testified that the concept was solely “his idea.”
During the transcribed interview, congressional investigators provided Stamos with apparent evidence indicating that the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) had close access to a system called Jira, which the Election Integrity Partnership (EIP) utilized to collect “misinformation” posts and notify social media platforms. Stamos, who currently holds a senior position at a California-based cybersecurity company alongside former CISA Director Chris Krebs, testified that he did not “believe” CISA had ever requested access to the system. He also stated that he did not believe CISA had “the ability to see what was on a Jira ticket,” as per the transcript of the interview.
“So to be clear, no agencies had direct access to everything,” Stamos testified, emphasizing that “the only two” entities with close access to Jira were the State Department's Global Engagement Center and the Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center (EI-ISAC), which operates under the CISA-funded Center for Internet Security nonprofit organization.
However, key software records and emails raise doubts about the precise role of CISA in the Election Integrity Partnership. This includes an exchange between Stamos and Reddit official Jessica Ashooh, a former fellow at the Atlantic Council.
In November 2020, Stamos urged Ashooh to consider Reddit joining the platform, although she expressed reluctance, as revealed by emails examined by the Washington Examiner.
Stamos mentioned in the email, “It would be great if we could get somebody from Reddit on the JIRA, just like Facebook, Google, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, CISA, [and] EI-ISAC.” Ashooh replied one minute later on November 3, 2020, saying, “Thanks. Unfortunately, as we mentioned at the beginning of this project, we are unable to participate in external JIRAs, but we are happy to receive info over email.”
When confronted with this exchange, Stamos informed Congress that he likely made a spelling error and did not intend to mention CISA, the DHS agency, according to the transcript.
For Republicans, the notion of CISA potentially having direct access to Jira would suggest the U.S. government's explicit involvement in extensive censorship, which they argue violates the First Amendment.
On November 4, 2020, a ticket was created in the Jira system by a staffer in Georgia's Secretary of State office. The Jira system is designed to allow stakeholders to provide insights on misinformation that should be addressed with platforms. The ticket was related to a Twitter post, now X, about mail-in ballots in Georgia, which was subsequently removed by Twitter.
According to a redacted Jira notification reviewed by the Washington Examiner, the ticket was shared with various platforms including TikTok, Facebook, EI-ISAC, Twitter, CIS Misinformation Reporting, and CISA CFITF.
The mention of CISA CFITF likely refers to the Countering Foreign Influence Task Force under the Department of Homeland Security. This task force, led by Brian Scully, reportedly flagged alleged misinformation to social media companies before and after the November 3, 2020, election, according to emails obtained by America First Legal, a group involved in litigation against individuals associated with the EIP and Stanford Virality Project.
During the June 2023 interview with the House Judiciary Committee, Stamos was asked about why CISA's CFITF was listed on the ticket. Stamos expressed confusion or a lack of awareness regarding how the EIP, which he led, operated.
He testified that he didn't know why CISA was listed on the ticket and speculated that they might have been individually forwarded or cc'd, but he wasn't sure why they were specifically added to the ticket. When asked how CISA could be specifically added to the ticket, Stamos replied that he wasn't sure.
Scott McConnell, a spokesman for CISA, stated that the agency “did not found, fund, or have any role in the management of the EIP.”
A spokesperson for the university directed the Washington Examiner to an amicus brief filed in December 2023 in Murthy v. Missouri, a case currently before the Supreme Court, which addresses the legality of the federal government's communications with social media platforms. The brief stated that “CISA did not coordinate EIP's flagging of potentially violative material to the platforms, never gave EIP instructions about how the project should be conducted, and never pressured or directed EIP's conduct in any way.”
Other EIP Jira tickets also mentioned CISA, including one created in October 2020 and logged by an email account associated with the state of Washington's secretary of state office. This particular ticket was related to a post by then-President Donald Trump, which is still available on Twitter.
The post reads, “Strongly trending (Google) since immediately after the second debate is CAN I CHANGE MY VOTE? This refers changing it to me. The answer in most states is YES. Go do it. Most important Election of your life.”
It seems that at the time, the Washington secretary of state's office requested Twitter to take action to prevent the alleged disinformation from spreading on the platform, as mentioned in the Jira ticket.
Trump's post was also made on Facebook and was referenced in the ticket. In a 2020 ‘fact check’ by CNN regarding the post, it was deemed “misleading at best.” However, CNN also noted that in several swing states, there are laws that potentially permit people to change their votes.
In late October 2020, the EIP noted in the ticket that they received a response from Twitter through CISA, with Twitter asserting that the post in question was not in violation of their Civic Integrity Policy, according to the data.
However, Republicans questioned Stamos during the June 2023 interview about why the EIP was not directly informed of Twitter's decision by the platform itself but rather through CISA, a government body.
Stamos testified that it was uncertain whether companies would inform them directly about their actions, stating, “They, generally companies, it was a crap shoot whether or not they would tell us what they were doing.”
Another instance where CISA was mentioned in connection to the software occurred in a 2020 Jira ticket logged by a top staffer for the office of Connecticut's secretary of state, according to data.
The staffer raised concerns about misinformation related to absentee ballots and fraud, and the EIP escalated the ticket to Facebook. The post was subsequently removed, and Facebook confirmed through CISA that action was taken on the case, as per the data.
Stamos testified to the House Judiciary Committee that they did not engage in censorship, had no authority to censor, and did not receive requests from CISA, as per the transcript.
News of the transcribed interview with Stamos emerges shortly after the Washington Examiner reported that Starbird testified in June 2023 about her past advisory role in guiding social media platforms on content moderation policies.
Source: The Washington Examiner
