State-Sponsored Suppression of Private Citizen Speech via CIS Tipline (AZ)

The Arizona Secretary of State’s Office, under then-Secretary Katie Hobbs, monitored the private Facebook page of a private Arizona citizen and submitted a formal censorship request to the CIS misinformation tipline. The report was forwarded through CIS to CISA and the EIP, and then to Facebook to effectuate content removal. A state government official thus used official resources to initiate the deplatforming of a private citizen’s constitutionally protected political speech about Arizona’s election administration – with no notice, no hearing, and no opportunity to contest the removal.