The global censorship regime has gone underground under Donald Trump.
They’re planning to make a spectacular comeback.
And Jim Jordan exposed this scary global plot against free speech.
Stanford's censorship machine never actually shut down
When Stanford's Internet Observatory supposedly closed its doors in 2024, conservatives breathed a sigh of relief.
The notorious censorship operation had been caught red-handed flagging millions of Americans' social media posts about elections and COVID-19 for removal – working hand-in-glove with Biden's Department of Homeland Security.
House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan's investigation revealed the Internet Observatory used a ticketing system to alert Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms to suppress speech the government didn't like – even when that speech was factually true.¹
Frank McCourt, the left-wing billionaire who'd been funding the operation, pulled his money and walked away.
Everyone assumed Stanford learned its lesson.
They assumed wrong.
Secret meeting exposed Stanford's global censorship coordination
On September 24, 2025, Stanford's Cyber Policy Center hosted a confidential dinner that brought together 21 censorship officials from the European Union, United Kingdom, Australia, and Brazil.²
The meeting wasn't publicly announced.
Nobody outside Stanford's inner circle knew it happened – until a whistleblower leaked internal materials to congressional investigators.
Here's the kicker: Frank McCourt's new organization, the Project Liberty Institute, paid for the entire event.³
The same donor who supposedly distanced himself from Stanford's censorship work just funded a secret international gathering to coordinate speech restrictions across borders.
Among the attendees was Julie Inman-Grant, Australia's eSafety Commissioner, who's spent years pushing for worldwide coordination of online speech restrictions.⁴
The guest list read like a who's who of foreign censorship advocates – officials from entities with some of the worst track records of suppressing speech outside their own borders.
Stanford brought them together under its academic credibility to strategize how to regulate American online speech through foreign laws.
Jordan demands answers about Stanford's censorship schemes
When Jordan learned about the secret meeting, he fired off a formal demand letter to Jeff Hancock, head of Stanford's Cyber Policy Center.⁵
"By hosting this event, designed to encourage and facilitate censorship compliance with regulators from Australia, Brazil, the EU, and the UK, Stanford is working with foreign censorship officials to vitiate the First Amendment," Jordan wrote.⁶
The letter ordered Stanford to preserve all records and communications related to the September gathering.
Jordan gave Stanford until November 5 to respond with full documentation – or face a subpoena.
It wouldn't be the first time Jordan had to threaten Stanford with congressional enforcement.
When the Internet Observatory stonewalled his initial investigation in 2023, Jordan issued a subpoena that forced Stanford to cough up documents revealing the extent of their censorship-by-proxy operation.⁷
Those documents showed the Internet Observatory's Election Integrity Partnership boasted that Twitter, Google, Facebook, and TikTok had a 75% or higher response rate to their censorship requests.⁸
The censorship industrial complex just changed its name
Jordan's investigation revealed a disturbing pattern.
Stanford didn't shut down its censorship operations – they just rebranded.
The Internet Observatory morphed into the Cyber Policy Center and Social Media Lab, operating under the same Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies.⁹
They're running the same playbook with a fresh coat of paint.
The Internet Observatory employed an army of Stanford students to flag "problematic" content during COVID-19, suppressing information they knew was factually accurate – like reports of vaccinated individuals contracting the virus.¹⁰
Social media platforms removed roughly a third of the millions of posts the Observatory flagged.¹¹
Now Stanford's Cyber Policy Center is coordinating with foreign governments to build international censorship infrastructure under the guise of "safety" and "combating misinformation."
They're hosting secret dinners to link foreign censorship regimes with the U.S. technology ecosystem.
Jordan noted the alarming pattern in his letter to Stanford: "This collaboration with foreign censorship officials is even more alarming in light of Stanford's past efforts to facilitate domestic government censorship of lawful speech."¹²
The congressman pointed out that his previous investigations exposed how the Internet Observatory and its Election Integrity Partnership "laundered government censorship requests to social media platforms."¹³
Foreign censorship laws threaten American free speech
Stanford's coordination with foreign regulators creates a dangerous end-run around the First Amendment.
The European Union's Digital Services Act and similar laws in the UK, Australia, and Brazil allow foreign governments to demand content removal from American tech platforms.
Stanford is serving as the institutional node connecting these foreign censorship regimes with U.S. companies.
By providing academic legitimacy and convening power, Stanford helps foreign governments pressure American platforms to censor speech that would be protected under the First Amendment.
The Project Liberty Institute's funding adds another troubling dimension.
McCourt committed $500 million to "strengthen democracy" and "foster responsible technology" – but his blueprint calls for a "US-EU Digital Relationship" focused on "regulatory interoperability" to create "a single unified market."¹⁴
That's code for letting European censorship standards control American speech.
Jordan's committee has spent two years uncovering the censorship industrial complex that linked federal agencies, tech platforms, and academic institutions to suppress Americans' lawful opinions.
Evidence shows Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other platforms faced relentless pressure from government offices to remove content critical of Biden administration policies.¹⁵
Mark Zuckerberg admitted in a letter to Jordan that Biden officials "repeatedly pressured" Facebook "for months to censor certain COVID-19 content, including humor and satire."¹⁶
Google sent a similar letter acknowledging the Biden White House "demanded censorship of legal content."¹⁷
Now Stanford is helping foreign governments do what the First Amendment prevents American officials from doing directly.
Stanford spokesperson responses have been predictably evasive.
The university refuses to explain the September meeting or release details about its censorship coordination activities.
Eighteen of the 21 attendees refused to comment when contacted by investigators.¹⁸
The European Union claimed it needed "several days" to respond – then went silent.¹⁹
When investigators visited Stanford's Cyber Policy Center seeking comment, an employee claimed the organizers were all in "back-to-back" meetings and couldn't speak.²⁰
That's classic stonewalling behavior from an institution that knows it got caught doing something it can't defend in public.
Your free speech is their target
Here's what this means for every American who posts online.
Right now, Stanford is helping foreign governments build the infrastructure to flag your social media posts for removal – the same posts protected by the First Amendment.
That meme criticizing Biden's border policy? Flagged as "misinformation" under EU standards.
Your doubts about COVID vaccine mandates? Censored as "harmful content" under Australian law.
Your concerns about election integrity? Suppressed as "dangerous speech" under Brazilian regulations.
Stanford gives these foreign censorship schemes academic credibility so U.S. tech platforms cave to the pressure.
They're doing to your speech what the Constitution prevents American officials from doing directly.
Jordan's investigation threatens to blow the lid off the entire operation.
If Stanford refuses to comply with his document demands, Jordan made clear he'll issue another subpoena and drag every detail into the light.
The censorship industrial complex thought they could rebrand and keep operating in the shadows.
Jim Jordan just proved them wrong.
¹ House Judiciary Committee, "Secret Reports Reveal How Government Worked to Censor Americans Prior to 2020 Election," November 2023.
² Public News, "House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan Demands Stanford Turn Over Documents Relating To Foreign Censorship Scheme," October 2025.
³ Ibid.
⁴ Ibid.
⁵ Ibid.
⁶ Ibid.
⁷ House Judiciary Committee Republicans, "Chairman Jordan Presses Stanford on Subpoena Compliance for Censorship Investigation," June 2023.
⁸ Ibid.
⁹ Stanford Review, "BREAKING: Stanford's Cyber Policy Center Coordinates International Internet Censorship," October 2025.
¹⁰ Ibid.
¹¹ Ibid.
¹² Public News, "House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan Demands Stanford Turn Over Documents Relating To Foreign Censorship Scheme," October 2025.
¹³ Ibid.
¹⁴ Stanford Review, "BREAKING: Stanford's Cyber Policy Center Coordinates International Internet Censorship," October 2025.
¹⁵ Public News, "House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan Demands Stanford Turn Over Documents Relating To Foreign Censorship Scheme," October 2025.
¹⁶ Ibid.
¹⁷ Ibid.
¹⁸ Stanford Review, "BREAKING: Stanford's Cyber Policy Center Coordinates International Internet Censorship," October 2025.
¹⁹ Ibid.
²⁰ Ibid.
