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Tag: Disinformation
April 23, 2024
William Upton
1A

Biden’s Failed Censorship Czar Nina Jankowicz Now Runs a Think-Tank Named After a Venomous Snake.

Nina Jankowicz, the former and brief executive director of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)’s Disinformation Governance Board, has a new non-profit group called the American Sunlight Project (ASP). The group aims to combat what it believes is a concerted campaign by conservatives to target and discredit disinformation researchers like Jankowicz. The former DHS employee was the subject of blistering criticism in 2022 over her embrace of pro-Biden government propaganda narratives on social media.

The new organization, led by Jankowicz and Carlos Álvarez-Aranyos, has hit the ground running — already accusing several House Republican committee chairmen of using their constitutional subpoena power to silence think tanks and disinformation researchers. “These tactics echo the dark days of McCarthyism, but with a frightening 21st-century twist,” Jaknowicz and Álvarez-Aranyos wrote in a letter published yesterday, leveling a series of hyperbolic accusations against House Republican leaders.

Despite her concerns about ongoing disinformation operations, Jankowicz participated in at least two such initiatives herself in 2020.

The former DHS employee publicly praised the discredited Steele dossier author, Christopher Steele, on social media. After an appearance by the British spy on the Infotagion podcast, Jankowicz posted to X (formerly Twitter), “Listened to this last night — Chris Steele (yes THAT Chris Steele) provides some great historical context about the evolution of disinfo. Worth a listen.” The alleged disinformation expert also dismissed the Hunter Biden laptop — confirmed by the Department of Justice and FBI as authentic — as “a Russian influence op.”

The American Sunlight Project–whose acronym ASP recalls the name of several venomous snake species found in the Nile region of Africa and the European vipera aspis — has a board comprised of several notable figures — including NeverTrumper Katie Harbath, a former Facebook executive and Republican operative; Ineke Mushovic, who leads a think tank that tracks “threats to democracy” and gay, lesbian, transgender movements; and Benjamin Wittes, the resident Deep State apologist at the Brookings Institute, which was primarily backed by the government of Qatar until 2017.

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Nina Jankowicz, the former and brief executive director of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)'s Disinformation Governance Board, has a new non-profit group called the American Sunlight Project (ASP). The group aims to combat what it believes is a concerted campaign by conservatives to target and discredit disinformation researchers like Jankowicz. The former DHS employee was the subject of blistering criticism in 2022 over her embrace of pro-Biden government propaganda narratives on social media. show more
April 19, 2024
William Upton
Corruption
Media

Wikipedia Founder Says Website Is Corrupted By NPR’s Katherine Maher, Who May Have Worked With Intel Agencies.

Larry Sanger, the co-founder of Wikipedia, says the massive open-source online encyclopedia is likely ideologically corrupted due to the efforts of its former chief executive, Katherine Maher. Maher led the Wikimedia Foundation, which oversees the online resource, before she was hired as the CEO of NPR.

“For the ex-CEO of Wikipedia to say that it was somehow a mistake for Wikipedia to be ‘free and open,’ that it led to bad consequences—my jaw is on the floor,” Sanger told the Manhattan Institute’s Christopher F. Rufo. He added: “I can’t say I’m terribly surprised that she thinks it, but I am surprised that she would say it.”

Maher, during her tenure as the head of the Wikimedia Foundation, told the Atlantic Council that she “took a very active approach to disinformation” and “through conversations with government” targeted what she deemed misinformation. Sanger, responding to Maher‘s claim, acknowledged that she likely worked with U.S. intelligence agencies to suppress political dissenters.

‘PROBABLY THE CIA.’

“We know that there is a lot of backchannel communication and I think it has to be the case that the Wikimedia Foundation now, probably governments, probably the CIA, have accounts that they control, in which they actually exert their influence,” Sanger said, continuing: “And it’s fantastic, in a bad way, that she actually comes out against the system for being ‘free and open.'”

He added, regarding the state of Wikipedia: “When she says that she’s worked with government to shut down what they consider ‘misinformation,’ that, in itself, means that it’s no longer free and open.”

Sanger lamented Wikipedia’s ideological capture, telling Rufo: “[It] has not just been taken over by the Left, but that it has been co-opted by and working with the government, is just—that’s not a thing I would’ve imagined happening 20 years ago.”

Concerns regarding Maher’s ideological bias and the Left’s capture of important media institutions were first raised by former NPR editor Uri Berliner. The veteran journalist resigned from the taxpayer-funded media outlet yesterday after being suspended by Maher.

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Larry Sanger, the co-founder of Wikipedia, says the massive open-source online encyclopedia is likely ideologically corrupted due to the efforts of its former chief executive, Katherine Maher. Maher led the Wikimedia Foundation, which oversees the online resource, before she was hired as the CEO of NPR. show more
March 27, 2024
Election 2024

Biden’s DHS Using Taxpayer-Funded Comic Books to Fight Perceived Election ‘Disinformation.’

The Biden government is deploying taxpayer-funded comic books to combat what it considers ‘disinformation’ ahead of the 2024 presidential election in November. Produced by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the comic books are intended to educate voters on how foreign governments try to influence U.S. elections. Backed by CISA’s parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the government-produced comic books also raise civil liberties concerns as they position the government agency as the final determinant of ‘truth.’

Several lawmakers on Capitol Hill have criticized the DHS program. Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC) called the comic books another avenue for the government to “trample on the First Amendment” and label any dissident as ‘disinformation.’ Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) joked earlier this year, “D.C. Comics won’t be adding these taxpayer-funded comic books… to their repertoire anytime soon.”

The CISA-produced “Resilience Series” comic books have gone relatively unnoticed by the American Public. On X (formerly Twitter), the CISA page hosting the com books has been linked less than a dozen times. Furthermore, two high-production videos promoting the comic books on YouTube have only pulled 4,000 and 6,000 views.

Former FBI agent Clint Watts — who now works as a contributor to MSNBC — wrote the comic book series along with his co-author, Farid Haque. Haque, the CEO of London-based Erly Stage Studios, previously served as the head of former British Prime Minister David Cameron’s StartUp Britain campaign.

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The Biden government is deploying taxpayer-funded comic books to combat what it considers ‘disinformation’ ahead of the 2024 presidential election in November. Produced by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the comic books are intended to educate voters on how foreign governments try to influence U.S. elections. Backed by CISA’s parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the government-produced comic books also raise civil liberties concerns as they position the government agency as the final determinant of ‘truth.’ show more
March 1, 2024
Media

MSNBC Legal Analyst Says 1st Amendment is U.S.’s Achilles Heel.

The First Amendment is a vulnerability that opens the United States to an onslaught of ‘disinformation,’ MSNBC legal analyst Barbara McQuade has argued. Promoting her new book, Attack from Within: How Disinformation is Sabotaging America, McQuade was questioned by Rachel Maddow regarding the susceptibility of the United States to so-called ‘disinformation‘ relative to other nations.

McQuade said the legal right to free speech in the U.S. posed a potential threat to the country’s democracy. “Actually, Rachel, I think we’re more susceptible to it than other countries, and that’s because some of our greatest strengths can also be our Achilles heel,” McQuade said.

The former U.S. Attorney, appointed by Barack Obama, claimed there were nuances when considering free speech and its ‘unintended consequences.‘ She explained that despite the cherished nature of free speech and its importance in democracy, the reflexive reaction to any attempts at regulation is dismissed as censorship, thereby contributing to America’s vulnerability. McQuade also referenced the Supreme Court’s stance that permits limitations on fundamental rights, including free speech, under specific conditions deemed important by the government.

Furthermore, McQuade voiced her belief that the U.S. needs more constructive conversations and practical solutions to combat the issue of ‘disinformation.’ She expressed concern over the rampant use of political labels and the retreat to positional ‘extremes’ when discussing censorship and limiting First Amendment rights. In addition to her media roles, McQuade is a law professor at the University of Michigan.

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The First Amendment is a vulnerability that opens the United States to an onslaught of 'disinformation,' MSNBC legal analyst Barbara McQuade has argued. Promoting her new book, Attack from Within: How Disinformation is Sabotaging America, McQuade was questioned by Rachel Maddow regarding the susceptibility of the United States to so-called 'disinformation' relative to other nations. show more
germany afd
February 13, 2024
Ed Kozak
World

Germany Wants to Track ‘Right-Wing’ Financing.

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser announced Tuesday plans to trace individuals who donate to so-called “right-wing extremists” and establish an “early recognition system” to detect so-called “disinformation campaigns.”

The new measures include a law to allow the monitoring of financing to so-called extremist groups, a ban on so-called “far-right extremists” from owning weapons, a general ban on semi-automatic weapons, easier dismissal of public servants who are “far-right,” and a detection system for alleged bots that “attempt to manipulate the free formation of opinions.”

“We want to use all the instruments of the rule of law to protect our democracy,” Faeser said in an official statement. “We want to break up extreme right networks and take away their income streams and their weapons,” she said, adding: “No one who donates to a right-wing extremist organization should be able to rely on remaining undiscovered.”

Faeser further claimed that: “German right-wing extremists and foreign autocrats have one thing in common: They want to stoke rage and divide, above all through disinformation.”

The announcement comes as the German nationalist populist party AfD (Alternative for Germany) continues to surge in the polls. Last year, it was reported that a third of Europeans are voting for populist parties, and right-wing populist parties are predicted to sweep the 2024 European elections.

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German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser announced Tuesday plans to trace individuals who donate to so-called "right-wing extremists" and establish an "early recognition system" to detect so-called "disinformation campaigns." show more
November 7, 2023
Jake Welch
Election Integrity
Media

REPORT: Feds Censored Conservatives Ahead of 2020 Election.

United States federal government agencies co-ordinated with so-called “disinformation” experts at Stanford University to actively monitor and censor the speech of conservative writers and commentators in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election, according to an interim staff report from the House Committee on the Judiciary and the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, published on Monday evening.

The report reveals the federal government “effectively outsourced” mass online censorship to the Election Integrity Partnership (EIP), led by academics at the Stanford Internet Observatory (SIO), which pressured social media companies into labeling truthful information, political opinions, and even jokes as “misinformation.”

The EIP, established in the summer of 2020 at the request of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), operated in tandem with the Department of Homeland Security and the Global Engagement Center, a multi-agency entity within the State Department, to allow the federal government to censor information while bypassing public scrutiny and the First Amendment.

Federal agencies and organizations funded by the U.S. government submitted “misinformation reports” directly to the EIP, who would then contact major social media platforms, such as Twitter (now known as ‘X’), YouTube, TikTok, Reddit, and Facebook, with recommendations as to how posts should be dealt with. This included reducing the information’s “discoverability,” temporarily suspending accounts, monitoring particular accounts, as well as removing posts.

The taxpayer-funded federal agencies were quick to justify their actions, arguing they have a responsibility to combat potential interference in American elections by hostile foreign actors.

However, the EIP disproportionately targeted conservatives. Vast quantities of truthful information posted by those on the right was marked as disinformation while “false information posted by Democrats and liberals was largely unreported and untouched by the censors.” Those actively censored included Jack Posobiec, Charlie Kirk, Benny Johnson, and even former President Donald Trump, among a large number of others.

“The pseudoscience of disinformation is now — and has always been — nothing more than a political ruse most frequently targeted at communities and individuals holding views contrary to the prevailing narratives,” the report argues. Yet, the unjust surveillance of conservatives by the federal government or agencies thereof is not merely limited to 2020 as the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) has begun weaponizing its resources to target supporters of Donald Trump and the MAGA movement in the run-up to November 2024.

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United States federal government agencies co-ordinated with so-called "disinformation" experts at Stanford University to actively monitor and censor the speech of conservative writers and commentators in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election, according to an interim staff report from the House Committee on the Judiciary and the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, published on Monday evening. show more

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RAHEEM J. KASSAM Editor-in-Chief
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