Internet Accountability Project

Internet Accountability Project "Our Mission is to lend a conservative voice to the calls for federal and state governments to rein in Big Tech before it's too late."
Name
Abbreviation	IAP
Nationality
Founded	2019
Founder	Mike Davis
Staff	President: Mike Davis Senior Counsel: Will Chamberlain Senior Advisor: Rachel Bovard
Type	501(c)(4) nonprofit organization
Location	United States
Areas served	United States
Description	Dark money group
Known for	disinformation Disruptive influencer dark money group
Similar views	Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) Garrett Ventry, Chief of Staff, Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO)
Associations
Affiliations
Funders	Oracle Corporation
Website	theIAP.org

Background

Staff

Mike Davis

Mike Davis, Founder & President, Internet Accountability Project

Will Chamberlain

Will Chamberlain, Senior Counsel, Internet Accountability Project

Will Chamberlain serves as Senior Counsel to the Internet Accountability Project. He is also the owner and editor-in-chief of Human Events. Prior to relaunching Human Events, Will worked as an attorney at the Competitive Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC, focusing on class action litigation. Before that, he was an associate at Quinn, Emanuel, Urquhart & Sullivan LLP in Los Angeles, where he practiced complex commercial litigation. Will graduated from the University of the Pacific in 2010 with a B.A. in Economics, and received his J.D., magna cum laude in 2015 from Georgetown University Law Center. Will is an active member of the State Bar of California and the District of Columbia Bar.

Rachel Bovard

Rachel Bovard, Senior Advisor, Internet Accountability Project

Rachel Bovard, a conservative policy leader and former top U.S. Senate and House aide, will serve as the Senior Adviser to the Internet Accountability Project.

Mike Davis, who spearheaded IAP, said in a statement, "For far too long, Big Tech companies like Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Twitter have gotten away with profiting from human-sex trafficking, revenge-porn, the opioid epidemic and drug addiction, terrorism, and other forms of human misery, along with engaging in egregious business practices like snooping, spying, political bias against conservatives, employee abuses, and anticompetitive conduct."

Rachel Bovard added, "Big Tech should not be allowed to become the arbiters of communication in America without input from citizens and policy makers. "It is important for those on the Right to begin discussing whether our public policy has kept pace with Big Tech, who now owns our data, much of our privacy, and in many cases, is pulling the levers of our political communication. IAP is here to help facilitate that conversation."

Rachel Bovard sometimes fills in for The Hill's Rising - an American daily news and opinion web series produced by Washington, D.C. political newspaper The Hill - host Colin Rogero, when Rogero is unavailable.

Funding

When the Internet Accountability Project (IAP) popped up late last year [2019] and joined the growing crusade against Big Tech, the nonprofit group refused to say who was financing it. Turns out, at least one of its benefactors is Oracle Corp. The Internet Accountability Project group calls itself a conservative nonprofit advocating for tougher privacy rules and stronger antitrust enforcement against the internet giants. The IAP financing is just one part of an aggressive, and sometimes secretive, battle Oracle has been waging against its biggest rivals, including Amazon.com Inc. and Alphabet Inc.'s Google. Oracle spent years fighting to unseat Amazon as the front-runner for a lucrative Pentagon cloud contract, which was awarded to Microsoft Corp. in October, 2019.

The Internet Accountability Project (IAP) appeared late in 2019, joining a growing crusade against Big Tech, that includes Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO). While IAP, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit group refused to say who was financing it, at least one of its benefactors is Oracle Corporation. Oracle donated between $25,000 and $99,999 to IAP in 2019, according to a political donations information Oracle reported on its website.

The IAP is a Section 501(c)(4), known as a "social-welfare" organization. That designation means it isn't required to disclose donors, as long as it doesn't spend more than half of its money on campaign advertisements or activities to sway an election.

Lobbying Activity

Lobbyist For Oracle Corporation

The Internet Accountability Project group calls itself a conservative nonprofit advocating for tougher privacy rules and stronger antitrust enforcement against the internet giants. The IAP financing is just one part of an aggressive, and sometimes secretive, battle Oracle has been waging against its biggest rivals, including Amazon.com Inc. and Alphabet Inc.'s Google. Oracle spent years fighting to unseat Amazon as the front-runner for a lucrative Pentagon cloud contract, which was awarded to Microsoft Corp. in October, 2019.

In 2020-02 IAP filed an amicus brief supporting Oracle's position in the case. IAP said that it wants to "ensure that Google respects the copyrights of Oracle and other innovators." Internet Accountability Project (IAP) President Mike Davis said in a statement the group doesn't disclose its financial backers but specified that Oracle didn't fund its Supreme Court brief.

Among other policies, IAP supports curtailing Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 (CDA), which shields tech companies from liability for content that users post on their platforms. The clause saves tech companies from having to review content before it's published online, and then shields them from lawsuits if that content turns out to be problematic.

In interviews and on social media, IAP has supported Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri, who has proposed that tech companies lose the legal immunity unless they can prove to the Federal Trade Commission that they treat their content in a politically neutral manner.

Since September 2019, IAP has tweeted at least 11 times about Hawley's legislative efforts against Google and other tech companies. Other IAP tweets highlight instances in which Google-funded groups fought on the internet giant's behalf.

"Holy smokes you guys, D.C. is awash in @Google money," Rachel Bovard tweeted in September [2019].

Additional Reading

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