On Thursday, October 31st, a conservative advocacy group, America First Legal (AFL), filed a formal complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), urging an investigation into the UK-based Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH). The AFL accuses CCDH of engaging in a foreign influence campaign to curtail free speech in the United States and allegedly acting as an unregistered foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).
“Our investigation has uncovered shocking details about a foreign organization’s influence over the Biden-Harris Administration and numerous state governments,” said Gene Hamilton, Executive Director of AFL. He claimed CCDH’s activities are designed to “stop Americans from exercising a fundamental right guaranteed against governmental interference by the First Amendment.”
According to AFL, CCDH has coordinated with various U.S. governmental entities, sharing data and research to push censorship policies. CCDH’s CEO, Imran Ahmed, has previously advocated for actions such as the “defund racism” campaign, which pressured companies like Google to withdraw advertising from sites such as The Federalist and ZeroHedge.
The AFL’s complaint further emphasizes CCDH’s involvement in publishing the “Disinformation Dozen” report in March 2021, which labeled critical critics of COVID-19 lockdowns as significant sources of misinformation. Following the report, 12 Democratic state attorneys general called on major social media platforms to de-platform the individuals named. AFL claims that CCDH provided an early draft of the report to the Connecticut Attorney General’s office, suggesting potential coordinated efforts to enforce censorship.
Hamilton stated that the DOJ “appears to have looked the other way” regarding CCDH’s activities, but insists “the time to investigate is now.”
