Official Stanford University announcements or press releases

Stanford Internet Observatory Shuts Down After Five Years of COVID-19 and Election Censorship

Jun 14, 2024, 12:05 AM

The Stanford Internet Observatory (SIO) is winding down after five years of pioneering research into the abuse of social platforms. The decision follows revelations from the 'Twitter Files' that SIO actively collaborated with Twitter to suppress information they knew was factually true. The Observatory was also involved in COVID-19 and 2020 election censorship, as part of the Election Integrity Partnership (EIP) along with the University of Washington, Graphika, and the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab. The DHS outsourced censorship to the EIP. While SIO will no longer conduct research into future elections, Stanford may retain its branding.