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After it was exposed as a quasi-government "disinformation" academic research center, and several lawsuits later, the Stanford Internet Observatory (SIO) is being shuttered after founding director Alex Stamos left his position in November, and research director Renee DiResta left last week after her contract was not renewed.

SIO notably led a project initiated by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) called the virality project, which sought to censor those who questioned government Covid-19 policies. The Virality Project primarily focused on so-called "anti-vaccine" "misinformation," and pushed social media platforms to censor "true stories," according to journalist Andrew Lowenthal, who added that the censorship was "often done incompetently and without even a cursory investigation of the original sources."

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In one instance, the Virality Project reporters told platforms that reports of a child injured in a vaccine trial were “false” due to the timing; citing the dates of a Moderna trial when in fact the child had been in a Pfizer trial, Lowenthal noted in March;

After this insidious relationship was exposed, a lawsuit was filed in May of last year in Louisiana against SIO and key players, including Stamos and DiResta, as well as the Atlantic Council, the group's Digital Forensics Research lab, and senior lab director Graham Brookie, who is said to have played a "leading role in the censorship activities."

The lawsuit, filed by Jim Hoft, founder of The Gateway Pundit, and Jill Hines, the co-director of Health Freedom Louisiana, a consumer and human rights advocacy organization, alleges that the defendants caused the censorship of Hines, Hoft and others based on their viewpoints over the 2020 election and Covid-19. As The Federalist noted at the time;

CIA-Linked

Renee DiResta, CIA Fellow turned Stanford Internet Observatory research manager

Of course, much like the aborted DHS 'Disinformation Governance Board' headed by Nina Jankowicz – who has since registered as a foreign agent to combat 'influence operations' in the UK…

…we're sure SIO is just going to grow another tentacle, at another institution, and continue doing the exact same thing.

Oh…