‘Digital Brownshirts’ at CCDH Claim to Be ‘Nonpartisan,’ Whine at Congressional Accountability

August 18th, 2023 5:53 PM

One of the left’s favorite censorship groups is attempting to defend and downplay its vehemently anti-free speech efforts after Congressional scrutiny.

In an August 3 letter, the House Judiciary Committee requested information on potential censorship collusion between the federal government and the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH). The latter group was originally based in the U.K. and is a leftist organization that advocates for online censorship. A lawyer representing the CCDH, Andrew Herman, has penned a letter trying to claim CCDH is also “nonpartisan” and simply trying to stop online “hate.” The letter did not address evidence of CCDH’s leftist bias and pro-censorship efforts that caused MRC President and Founder Brent Bozell to call the non-profit “digital brownshirts.”

In his letter, Herman claimed, “CCDH seeks to communicate robustly and candidly with social media companies to identify how their algorithms and poor enforcement of their own community standards might cause harm.” The letter boasted of CCDH’s meetings with X (formerly Twitter) and Meta and claimed that the organization does not receive donations from social media companies. This confirms CCDH’s objectionable anti-free speech efforts, however.

The lawyer representing CCDH asserted that the group receives no government funds, but did not address the fact that Democrat politicians have used CCDH research to attack political opponents. The House Judiciary accused CCDH of “appear[ing] to have played a role” in Joe Biden’s “censorship regime by advising the government and social media companies on so-called ‘misinformation’ and other types of content— sometimes with direct or indirect support or approval from the federal government.”

The letter from Herman, though, ended with the unapologetic comment, “[P]lease be assured that CCDH will not be dissuaded from pursuing its vital mission by litigation, governmental inquiry, or public pressure.”

But there is plenty of evidence to expose CCDH’s true colors. For instance, the non-profit was found to be receiving funding from a leftist eco-group that financed a “greening” scheme for Communist China’s Belt and Road initiative. Hardly coincidentally, CCDH released a report called “The Toxic Ten,” which attempted to shut down ten outlets, including the Media Research Center, for supposed “climate change denial.”

CCDH has also displayed a pro-abortion bent in attempting to suppress pro-life content. A CCDH report in 2022 targeted pro-life pregnancy centers, falsely labeling them “anti-abortion fake clinics,” as CCDH along with Democrats pushed Google to censor the centers. CNN cited CCDH in June in an article attempting to pressure Google to censor pro-life pregnancy centers.

Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on so-called “hate speech” and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.