This article was originally published on GreenMedInfo.com.
The multi-year long efforts of the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), a UK-based, dark money group masquerading as a “non-profit” research organization, to collude with the federal government and Big Tech companies to quash the First Amendment and medical rights of American citizens, came to screeching halt today.
Only minutes ago, chairman of the Judiciary Committee Jim Jordan (R-OH) announced that he is subpoenaing CCDH for failing to respond to the Committee’s August 3rd request to produce internal documents that were due on August 17th.
Instead of complying, CCDH’s legal representation wrote a strange letter, both refusing to cooperate and appearing to show that their CEO Imran Ahmed and the newly hired CEO of Twitter/X Linda Yaccarino recently shared secretive communications in obedience to the “Chatham house rule”; a code of secrecy named after the place it originated, namely, Chatham house, the London headquarters of the Royal Institute of International Affairs, and used by other highly secretive, powerful, elite organizations, around the world.
CCDH is a front-group funded by at least 7 UK-based charities, including two NGOs which receive UK government funding, and are now notorious for producing a fraudulent report called “The Disinformation Dozen” which defamed and essentially put on a digital hit list for deplatforming 13 American citizens (their work is so unprofessional and sloppy, they have trouble counting). The report contains statistical errors that are inaccurate by a factor of 300-fold, claiming that up to 2/3rds of all so-called “anti-vaccine” information on social media today can be tracked back to the “disinformation dozen,” yet Facebook’s own report showed that only .05% of content associated with these targeted individuals’ accounts had anything to do with vaccine content.
Despite this, CCDH managed to get the president of the United States, 14 Attorneys General, the US Surgeon General, and the majority of mainstream media outlets, nationally and internationally, to parrot their fake and extremely damaging ‘research’ and amplify it around the world. [Watch our mini-documentary on the topic here: Who’s Behind The Global Censorship Campaign of Natural Health News and Information?]
How did CCDH accomplish this, even while using a report that was full of lies? This is the question that recent investigations, including Jim Jordan’s, seeks to answer.
Below is August 30th, 2023 House Judiciary Committee Press Release:
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) subpoenaed the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) for documents and communications between CCDH and the Executive Branch as part of the House Judiciary Committee and the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government’s investigation into how the Biden Administration coerced and colluded with Big Tech to censor Americans.
On August 3, 2023, the Committee wrote to CCDH seeking its voluntary cooperation with the Committee’s oversight and requesting documents and communications concerning CCDH’s interactions with the Executive Branch about online censorship. To date, CCDH has failed to produce a single document, despite admissions to the Committee and to the press that part of CCDH’s work includes directly engaging with the Executive Branch and social media companies. CCDH’s counsel has informed the Committee that CCDH will not comply with voluntary requests, leaving the Committee with no choice but to subpoena.
The Committee and Select Subcommittee are authorized to conduct oversight of matters involving civil liberties and criminal law to inform potential legislative reforms, and to date, CCHD has failed to comply with the Committee’s request voluntarily.
Read the full subpoena cover letter to the Center for Countering Digital Hate here.
The subpoena addressed to CCDH CEO Imran Ahmed stated the following:
“The Committee on the Judiciary is conducting oversight of how and to what extent the Executive Branch has coerced and colluded with companies and other intermediaries to censor speech. To develop effective legislation, such as the possible enactment of new statutory limits on the Executive Branch’s ability to work with social media platforms and other companies to restrict the circulation of content and deplatform users, the Committee must first understand the nature of how the Executive Branch coerced and colluded with companies and other intermediates to censor speech. To this end, the Committee asked that the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) produce communications with the Executive Branch relating to the moderation of content online. In addition, we also asked for communications between companies including social media companies and the CCDH, to understand, among other things, the extent to which content moderation occurred as a result of the government’s influence. In response, your counsel has informed the Committee that CCDH will not comply voluntarily with our requests.
The Committee’s investigation, along with other public reporting, and publicized discovery in an ongoing federal court case, Missouri v. Biden, have exposed how the federal government has pressured and colluded with Big Tech and other intermediaries to censor certain viewpoints on social and other media in ways that undermine First Amendment principles. Numerous internal documents made publicly available reflect the weaponization of the federal government’s power to censor speech online directly and by proxy. For example, internal Facebook documents, obtained by the Committee, show that the Biden White House repeatedly relied on CCDH’s report titled “The Disinformation Dozen,” in its unconstitutional pressure campaign against social media platforms to censor Americans, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who CCDH maligned as “anti-vaxxers . . . responsible for almost two-thirds of anti-vaccine content circulating on social media platforms.”
It is necessary for Congress to gauge the extent to which the federal government or one of its proxies worked with or relied upon CCDH to censor speech. The scope of the Committee’s investigation includes intermediaries who may or may not have had a full understanding of the government’s efforts and motivations. On August 3, 2023, the Committee wrote to CCDH seeking its voluntary cooperation with our oversight.
In particular, we requested communications between the Executive Branch and CCDH, internal CCDH communications discussing communications from the Executive Branch, and CCDH communications with third parties that may have been working with the Executive Branch, in addition to other key information. To date, CCDH has failed to produce a single document, despite admissions to the Committee and to the press that part of CCDH’s work includes directly engaging with the Executive Branch and social media companies. CCDH’s counsel informed Committee staff that CCDH does not intend to supplement its perfunctory August 17 response with additional information and that CCDH will not voluntarily produce any documents requested by the Committee. By declining to produce anything of substance in response to the Committee’s request, CCDH is hindering the Committee’s ability to fulfill its constitutional oversight obligations. Pursuant to the Rules of the House of Representatives, the Committee has jurisdiction to conduct oversight of matters concerning “civil liberties” to inform potential legislative reforms. In addition, H. Res. 12 authorized the Committee’s Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government to investigate “issues related to the violation of the civil liberties of citizens of the United States.” Accordingly, given CCDH’s inadequate voluntary compliance, please find attached a subpoena. ” [emphasis added]
CCDH has somehow enjoyed almost unparalleled influence and access to power within the US political system over the past few years, and is an egregious example of how a foreign, influence operation uses its NGO status and astroturfing techniques to suppress the basic civil rights of American citizens. All of this, however, is finally being put under close inspection, as a series of investigations, lawsuits, and now this Congressional inquiry shed light on their malign activities.
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