America First Legal (AFL) filed a landmark federal class-action lawsuit against private entities that conspired with the federal government to monitor and censor conservative speech on social media. The defendants include the Stanford Internet Observatory, University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public, Graphika, and the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab). These organizations collaborated closely with government officials to flag and suppress millions of posts on platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube under the guise of the “Election Integrity Partnership” and “Virality Project.”

The plaintiffs, Jill Hines and Jim Hoft, are conservative activists and commentators whose voices and messages were targeted and suppressed by this secretive censorship operation. This scheme violated the First Amendment rights of millions of Americans by using private entities to carry out government-directed suppression of disfavored viewpoints, particularly related to election integrity and COVID-19. America First Legal represents the plaintiffs in pursuing compensatory and punitive damages for the harm caused by this unconstitutional scheme. The court denied the defendants’ motion to dismiss, allowing this significant free speech lawsuit to proceed. The case is currently being litigated in federal court.