The Lacuna Project

lacuna (n.) a gap in a record where something should be

Independent research. Not affiliated with any government, agency, or company.

Agency

Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency

Findings that rest on exhibits naming this entity

  • INF-4.1: FBI, DHS and ODNI officials met regularly with platform staff about election content from 2017 and 2018, under the Trump administration, and the meetings continued through the 2022 midterms under the Biden administration.
  • INF-4.2: The FBI agent who ran the Bureau's platform contacts testified, from recollection, that about half of the items the FBI flagged led a platform to act under its terms of service. Twitter told a court in 2023 that its employees reviewed the FBI's flagged tweets independently.
  • INF-4.3: CISA's head of its misinformation team testified that CISA forwarded election officials' reports about posts to platforms in the 2020 election, and the record differs on whether it did so in 2022. The district court wrote in 2023 that no evidence produced in the case tied the Trump administration to the switchboarding, and a 2025 Senate Commerce majority report dates DHS's election-disinformation task force to March 2018.
  • INF-4.7: No public dataset states how many government reports to platforms from 2017 to 2024 led to removal, by agency, platform and administration. The only figure in the record is the FBI agent's recollection of about half.
  • INF-4.12: Executive Order 13925 (Trump, 28 May 2020) was revoked by Executive Order 14029 (Biden, 14 May 2021). Executive Order 14149 (Trump, 20 January 2025) directs that no federal officer, employee or agent engage in or facilitate conduct that would unconstitutionally abridge the free speech of any American citizen.
  • INF-4.13: The 2026 consent decree in Missouri v. Biden bars the Surgeon General, the CDC and CISA from threatening platforms with punishment unless they remove or reduce protected speech, and records no admission (para. 17). The Ninth Circuit held in O'Handley (2023) that compliance with a California office's flag was optional for Twitter, with no intimation of adverse consequences, and that Twitter's moderation was not state action. Twitter's 2023 brief in Trump v. Twitter, a litigation position, argues that coercion requires the threat of a government sanction and that the FBI's emails were advisory.
  • POL-7.11: On 4 July 2023 the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana preliminarily enjoined officials of the White House, the Surgeon General's office, CDC, FBI, CISA, NIAID and the State Department, finding the plaintiffs likely to succeed on the claim that the government coerced or significantly encouraged platform moderation. The court wrote that the alleged censorship "almost exclusively targeted conservative speech" and that the issues "go beyond party lines."
  • POL-7.12: The Fifth Circuit on 3 October 2023 agreed with the district court "but only as to some of those officials" and removed NIAID and the State Department from the injunction. On 26 June 2024 the Supreme Court held 6-3 in Murthy v. Missouri that "no plaintiff has carried that burden" and so "none has standing to seek a preliminary injunction."

Exhibits naming this entity

  • Exhibit 865 4 July 2023. U.S. District Court, Western District of Louisiana (Judge Terry A. Doughty): Missouri v. Biden, No. 3:22-cv-01213 (W.D. La.), Memorandum Ruling on Request for Preliminary Injunction, Doc. 293
  • Exhibit 866 3 October 2023. U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit: Missouri v. Biden, 83 F.4th 350 (5th Cir. 2023) (revised opinion), No. 23-30445
  • Exhibit 1116 29 November 2022. U.S. District Court, W.D. La. (deposition taken by plaintiffs, 29 November 2022; filed 3 March 2023): Deposition of Elvis Chan (FBI San Francisco), Missouri v. Biden, No. 3:22-cv-01213 (W.D. La.), Doc. 204-1
  • Exhibit 1117 12 January 2023. U.S. District Court, W.D. La. (deposition taken 12 January 2023; filed 4 March 2023): Deposition of Brian J. Scully (CISA), Missouri v. Biden, No. 3:22-cv-01213 (W.D. La.), Doc. 209-1
  • Exhibit 1118 25 March 2026. U.S. District Court, W.D. La. (Judge Terry A. Doughty), entered on the consent of the plaintiffs and the federal defendants: Consent Decree, Missouri v. Biden, No. 3:22-cv-01213 (W.D. La.), Doc. 478
  • Exhibit 1132 26 June 2023. House Committee on the Judiciary and Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government (majority staff): The Weaponization of CISA: How a "Cybersecurity" Agency Colluded with Big Tech and "Disinformation" Partners to Censor Americans (interim staff report)
  • Exhibit 1136 September 2025. U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation (Chairman Ted Cruz, majority): The Mechanics of Government Censorship: How the Biden Administration Converted the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency into the Thought Police (report)