Well, this is very on-brand.

Two nonprofit groups that work to censor information are hiding basic information on their IRS Form 990s, which are supposed to be available to public scrutiny.

The censorship includes the names of donors and officers to the groups, which is required to be public information. Having run a nonprofit I can assure you that there is (usually) legal liability and scrutiny attached to withholding such information.

But not, apparently, if you engage in an activity that the powers that be approve of.

The Washington Examiner has the story, and it is exactly what you would expect of a group that exists to hide inconvenient information from the public:

EXCLUSIVE — Two U.S. nonprofit groups tied to the Global Disinformation Index, a British entity blacklisting conservative media outlets, are refusing to disclose key details about their operations, citing an obscure federal exemption law on “harassment,” according to a Washington Examiner investigation.

The private AN Foundation, also known as the Disinformation Index Foundation, and its affiliated public charity, Disinformation Index Inc., provided the Washington Examiner with heavily redacted copies of their 2021 IRS tax returns. A lawyer for the two entities is alleging that these redactions were made because the groups are the target of a coordinated “harassment campaign,” a claim that multiple tax experts warn does not allow them to hide information on officers, board members, and, in the case of one group, omit the source of a donation.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a 990 that excludes the names of officers and directors,” said Alan Dye, a partner at Webster, Chamberlain, & Bean who has specialized in nonprofit law since 1975. “And I’ve looked at hundreds.”

I, thankfully, have NOT looked at hundreds of 990s, but I have had to sign them and provide them to members of the public when requested. It is a basic requirement of running nonprofits.

It is particularly ironic that these groups are claiming to be targets of harassment campaigns because, you know, that is precisely their remit. They harass others and work hard to silence anything that violates the Narrative™. That is literally what they exist to do. They label people misinformers, disinformers, Russian agents, and the like.

The lack of transparency on tax forms filed by the GDI groups could result in lawmakers and watchdog groups propelling their investigations into the purported “disinformation” tracking network, which has come under fire ever since a Washington Examiner report on Feb. 9 detailed its efforts to feed blacklists of conservative websites to advertisers. Several Republican members of Congress, including House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY), have demanded answers from the State Department for steering grant money to GDI between 2020 and 2021.

On March 31, the Washington Examiner obtained physical copies of 2021 tax forms filed by the AN Foundation and Disinformation Index after a written request to GDI was made. But the documents, which combined total 56 pages, redact or omit various information that is raising major legal and ethical red flags among a handful of lawyers specializing in nonprofit groups.

Ironically, when I ran a group called the Taxpayers League of Minnesota and then the Taxpayers League Foundation I was regularly the target of actual harassment. I was accosted regularly, threatened by union leaders, and physically intimidated a couple of times at speaking engagements.

It is part of being in the public eye. I am sure you have seen the videos of what Leftist groups do on a daily basis. Remember Maxine Waters egging people on to harass Trump officials, driving them out of public places?

I hate these tactics with a passion. But they are unfortunately a part of life when you enter the public sphere. Generally speaking, this does not empower one to break the laws which govern the country, such as full disclosure.

Further, the claims are undoubtedly BS. I have yet to hear of one incident regarding harassment of GDI, and no doubt we would have if it occurred. It is not impossible, but hardly plausible that any of the leaders have been endangered, and it is ridiculous to assert that donors are at risk of anything. They are the most privileged people in the world.

No, this is simply an excuse to hide the ball.

There is something both precious and ridiculous about this. Precious, because the offenders are claiming to be victims, and ridiculous because it highlights how invested they are in controlling the flow of true information.

Presumably, their own 990s are filled with true information, or else they would be fraudulent; these documents are by law supposed to be public; the only reason to hide the ball is that they think you don’t deserve to know.

This is how they actually define disinformation: true information that is not helpful to their cause.