Tag Archive for: disinformation

U.S. State Department Closes Censorship Office

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Big Brother is no longer watching Americans from Foggy Bottom. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday announced “the closure of the State Department’s Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (R/FIMI), formerly known as the Global Engagement Center (GEC),” an office which “spent millions of dollars to actively silence and censor the voices of Americans they were supposed to be serving.”

The State Department censorship office had “cost taxpayers more than $50 million per year,” according to the agency. It placed all 30 full-time staff on leave, eliminated all 50 full-time positions, and notified Congress of R/FIMI’s dissolution, with total savings of $65 million annually.

“GEC was supposed to be dead already,” Rubio declared in an op-ed for The Federalist. As TWS previously reported, the legislative authority for GEC expired on December 23, 2024, after the Republican-controlled House of Representatives “declined to enact several proposals to extend the GEC’s mandate,” according to the Congressional Research Service obituary.

Instead, the Biden administration merely staged a funeral and put the censorship apparatus into hiding. “When Republicans in Congress sunset GEC’s funding at the end of last year, the Biden State Department simply slapped on a new name. The GEC became the Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (R-FIMI) office with the same roster of employees. With this new name, they hoped to survive the transition to the new administration,” Rubio related. “Today, we are putting that to an end. Whatever name it goes by, GEC is dead. It will not return.”

President Barack Obama first “directed the Secretary of State to establish the GEC by executive Order” in March 2016 “to carry out U.S.-government-sponsored counterterrorism communications to foreign publics.” Congress later expanded that mission to include “counter[ing] foreign state and non-state propaganda and disinformation efforts,” as well as leading and coordinating inter-agency counter-propaganda efforts.

Progressive operatives lurking in the bureaucracy twisted this mission into a license to suppress any domestic political speech they disliked, even before the Biden administration made it official policy. Rather than censor Americans’ speech directly, which would raise obvious First Amendment concerns, GEC and other federal agencies “effectively outsourced to the newly emerging censorship-industrial complex” to private proxies, according to a report published by the U.S. House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government — as if that made the First Amendment problems go away.

Through a so-called Election Integrity Partnership (EIP), the GEC collaborated with private institutions to “monitor and censor Americans’ online speech in advance of the 2020 presidential election,” the report continued.

“Twitter, Facebook, Google, and other companies developed a formal system for taking in moderation requests from every corner of government, from the FBI, the DHS, the HHS, DOD, the Global Engagement Center at State, even the CIA,” testified journalist Matt Taibbi, after reporting on the Twitter files. “For every government agency scanning Twitter, there were perhaps 20 quasi-private entities doing the same thing, including Stanford’s Election Integrity Partnership, NewsGuard, the Global Disinformation Index, and many others — many taxpayer-funded.”

In fact, the GEC was responsible for much of that taxpayer funding, a U.S. House Committee on Small Business (HCSB) report found, providing start-up capital through a murky sub-award to NewsGuard, an American tech company that rates the trustworthiness of news outlets with a manifestly leftward bias. The HCSB report concluded that the GEC had “circumvented its strict international mandate by funding, developing, then promoting tech start-ups and other small businesses in the disinformation detection space to private sector entities with domestic censorship capabilities.”

But the GEC had problems beyond its ravenous appetite to censor domestic speech. A 2022 inspection by the State Department Office of the Inspector General (OIG) faulted the GEC for a poor internal structure, conflict with other units within the State Department, and competition with “counter-disinformation efforts housed in other government agencies” that did a better job of executing what should have been its main mission: countering propaganda from hostile foreign actors.

The problems with the GEC weren’t going to disappear simply by changing the office’s name. “Over the last decade, Americans have been slandered, fired, charged, and even jailed for simply voicing their opinions,” wrote Rubio. “That ends today.” Thus, for the second time in four months, the State Department has declared an end to its office engaging in domestic censorship. This time, it seems that the GEC is dead for good.

AUTHOR

Joshua Arnold

Joshua Arnold is a senior writer at The Washington Stand.

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2025 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

9 Ways Harris and Walz Built Their Campaign on Misinformation and Disinformation

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More than any time in history, the Democratic Party has spent the last eight years warning that politics runs the risk of being contaminated by the foul specter of “misinformation and disinformation.” Anyone conversant with politics knows “misinformation and disinformation” have long been synonymous with political campaigns from candidates of all backgrounds, but the Harris-Walz campaign wants to criminalize political differences.

In 2019, then-presidential candidate Kamala Harris promised the NAACP that she will “hold social media platforms accountable” if they “act as a megaphone for misinformation.” But if she did that, Harris might turn her own campaign into a federal case. She has frequently been guilty of what the head of her proposed federal disinformation board, Nina Jankowicz, called “information laundering”: repeating lies in a prominent political or media outlet. As we have noted, ABC News moderators let at least 10 Kamala Harris lies slide at her (apparently only) debate with Donald Trump on September 10, many of which she had made in her acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention and some of which the party had enshrined in the 2024 Democratic Party platform. Here are a few more:

1. Pro-Life Laws ‘Kill Women’

Harris has long claimed that “Trump abortion bans” kill women, and she recently felt invigorated that she had found one — in a swing state, no less. But the facts cannot hold the weight of her fact-defying narrative. The mother, 28-year-old Amber Thurman, died from the side effects of the abortion pill and medical negligence — perhaps reinforced by media misinformation about abortion “bans.”

Thurman ingested the two-drug chemical abortion cocktail of mifepristone and misoprostol but, as they frequently do, the pills failed to expel all of her aborted babies’ body parts from her womb. As she went into sepsis — alone, in her home, with no help from anyone in the industry — she sought medical care for her incomplete miscarriage. The standard of care would call for a dilation and curettage (D&C) procedure to remove her deceased children’s remaining fetal tissue. As one witness boldly testified to the U.S. Senate recently, no pro-life law in the nation prevents women from receiving appropriate care for a miscarriage, including a D&C.

Yet the media and Democratic politicians, Kamala Harris foremost among them, lie that pro-life protections bar doctors from administering emergency care. Doctors may be confused by these narratives and refuse to provide lifesaving care after a miscarriage, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy based on misinformation, disinformation, and unwarranted support for the abortion cartel.

It’s impossible to know for sure what would have happened if these states had managed to enact pro-life protections for unborn babies at all stages — including the abortion pill cartel’s often-illegal activities trafficking chemical abortion agents into pro-life states, efforts facilitated by the Biden-Harris administration and its blue state allies. But one can make an educated guess. If red states had abortion pill bans, Amber Thurman would be alive today, anticipating what it will feel like to hold her baby. Today, she’s a victim of the abortion industry’s neglect and the Democratic presidential candidate’s lies and distortions on its behalf.

2. Springfield Bomb Threats

After former President Donald Trump and his running mate Senator J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) reported Haitian migrants harming resident of Springfield, the media blamed them for a string of bomb threats against the city, especially its “migrant” population.

“Trump and Vance are still stoking fears of Haitian migrants, as Ohio community faces bomb threats,” claimed the Associated Press. “Vance continues fueling false rumors about migrants in Ohio as community receives threats,” said PBS (at your expense). “Bomb Threats Don’t Stop J.D. Vance From Attacking Immigrants in Ohio Town,” charged Rolling Stone.

As it turned out, all of those were “hoaxes,” said the state’s anti-Trump governor. “So 33 threats, 33 hoaxes,” summarized Ohio Governor Mike DeWine (R) on September 16. “None of them have panned out. We have people, unfortunately, overseas who are taking these actions. Some of them are coming from one particular country,” although he refused to specify which country made dozens of threats against the citizens of his state (as well as the tens of thousands of Haitians currently resident there). Multiple media reports, sometimes citing U.S. government whistleblowers, indicate that Iran has attempted to organization assassination plots against Trump and clearly wants Harris to remain in office.

Yet Harris continued to baselessly blame the bomb threats on “hateful rhetoric” from Trump and Vance, whom she claimed are “spewing lies … grounded in tropes.” Likewise, PBS twisted the governor’s explanation in a taxpayer-funded misinformation headline stating, “Springfield facing threats from overseas after Trump’s lies about Haitians, Ohio governor’s office says.”

Taking matters to their logical extension, a Haitian immigrant group known as the Haitian Bridge Alliance has demanded officials arrest Trump and Vance for allegedly having “wreaked havoc” against the “Haitian community” in Springfield. The group has received more than $1 million from the Open Society Foundations, a nonprofit founded by George Soros.

3. J.D. Vance: School Shootings Are ‘a Fact of Life’

During a September 5 speech, J.D. Vance addressed the issue of school shootings. “If these psychos are going to go after our kids, we’ve got to be prepared for it. We don’t have to like the reality that we live in, but it is the reality we live in. We’ve got to deal with it. I don’t like that this is a fact of life,” he said. He went on to say that would-be psycho killers “realize that our schools are soft targets. And we have got to bolster security at our schools. We’ve got to bolster security so if a psycho wants to walk through the front door and kill a bunch of children they’re not able.”

That’s an entirely mainstream message: For all the Left’s insistence that federal funding must turn public schools into “safe spaces,” it never wants to spend a dime improving students’ physical safety. Statistics show that schools which end their status as a “gun-free” zone are incredibly safe. Only a vast distortion of his message could make it controversial.

Enter the Associated Press. Within hours, the AP targeted Vance, posting a social media message claiming, “JD Vance says school shootings are a ‘fact of life,’ calls for better security.” After backlash, AP replaced that post with a placeholder message (although the headline is still on AP’s website) — but the original message had served its purpose, which is to let the Harris-Walz campaign repeat the inaccurate reporting, as they did. The campaign released a statement distorting that quotation and another from Trump saying America has to deal with its grief and go on. Walz recycled the falsehood in a September 22 rally in Pennsylvania, claiming the Republican candidates “want to tell you that [you should] just get over it, it’s a fact of life. This is the way it is.”

4. Trump Called for ‘Execution’ of the Central Park Five, Who Were Later Found Innocent

Kamala Harris has repeatedly foisted another blood libel on Donald Trump, claiming he called on police to execute innocent teens of minority backgrounds for allegedly raping a Central Park jogger in 1989. At their presidential debate, Harris instructed her audience, “Let’s remember, this is the same individual who took out a full-page ad in The New York Times calling for the execution of five young black and Latino boys who were innocent, the Central Park Five — took out a full-page ad calling for their execution.”

Nearly everything in that statement is false. In response to the brutal rape and beating of a woman jogging through Central Park in 1989, Trump took out a full-page ad in a number of newspapers, including the Times and the New York Daily News, attacking soft-on-crime policies … but he said nothing about executing the Central Park Five.

Trump’s ad called on city officials to protect “New York families — White, Black, Hispanic, and Asian” — against street thugs and “murderers.” And, “when they kill, they should be executed for their crimes,” he declared. “We must cease our continuous pandering to the criminal element of this city.”

Moreover, the notion that the “wilding” youths were innocent is underwhelming. As columnist Ann Coulter noted in a column that deserves to be read in its entirety:

“Four of The Five gave videotaped confessions, at least three of them in the presence of parents or guardians. Defense attorneys spent weeks attacking the confessions as ‘coerced,’ but two multicultural juries and the trial judge concluded that the confessions were voluntary.”

Additional evidence implicates members of the crowd even after another individual gave his own confession.

5. Bailing Violent Criminals Out of Jail Is ‘Misinformation’

Despite posting the words on social media, Kamala Harris has claimed that ties to the Minnesota Freedom Fund, which bailed out 2020 BLM rioters who went on to commit other crimes.

“I am the child of parents who marched for civil rights,” the “middle-class” kid began, “and I will always be and will always be a supporter of peaceful protests.” She called the allegations another example of “misinformation and disinformation” in an October 2022 interview with WCCO-4, the CBS affiliate in Minneapolis. WCCO tailored a “fact-check” story, not on whether Harris ever promoted the group, but instead noting carefully that “Despite Trump claim and 2020 tweet showing support, Harris never donated to Minnesota Freedom Fund,” a story subsequently updated days after Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race.

This is a rare case of double disinformation. Of course, the BLM riots in Minneapolis, the nation, and the world as a whole were far from peaceful. Violent BLM riots claimed 19 lives — including 77-year-old retired St. Louis police officer David Dorn, whose widow endorsed Trump — and caused at least$2 billion in property damage.

But Harris did, in fact, support bailing out rioters. On June 1, 2020, Kamala Harris posted a message to her followers on social media, stating, “If you’re able to, chip in now to the @MNFreedomFund to help post bail for those protesting on the ground in Minnesota.” The tweet remains on her timeline. She later called the deadly riots “an essential component of evolution in our country, as an essential component or mark of a real democracy.”

Arguably, the story makes CBS News and Kamala Harris look worse. Trump never claimed Harris personally donated; he said she “helped” bail out Shawn Michael Tillman, who had been jailed for gross indecent exposure and went on to murder a man after the Harris-endorsed fund bailed him out. The fact that Harris did not personally support the cause while encouraging her followers to do so could arguably make her seem insincere or hypocritical.

6. J.D. Vance’s Erotic Dalliance with a Couch

The Walz-Harris campaign engaged in “information laundering” with a coarse internet statement self-consciously offered as an internet lie.

Shortly after his selection as her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D) targeted J.D. Vance. “I can’t wait to debate the guy — that is, if he’s willin’ to get off the couch and show up,” said Walz with evident self-satisfaction. “Ya see what I did there?” he said, in case anyone missed it.

He referred to a July 15 social media post from an online account created the day Trump announced Vance as his running mate, with the handle @rxckrxdxscxlvxs (Rick Rude’s calves). The anonymous poster said he “can’t say for sure but he might be the first vp pick to have admitted in a ny times bestseller to f****** an inside-out latex glove shoved between two couch cushions (vance, hillbilly elegy, pp. 179-181).” He later posted a meme exposing his previous post as a lie.

No such citation exists in the book.

The Associated Press branded the story false in a fact-check — but then pulled the story, allegedly because editors felt it did not meet their editorial standards. But Snopes.com has rated the story “False” (while helpfully including a section asking, “Why is this rumor so believable?”). Walz opposition research team undoubtedly knew the story was fallacious. But like certain rumors contained in the Russian dossier about Donald Trump (rumors paid for by the Democratic Party and the Hillary Clinton campaign), the rumors served their purpose.

7. ‘We Are Not Taking Anybody’s Guns Away’

During the presidential debate on September 10, Harris stated, “Tim Walz and I are both gun owners. We are not taking anybody’s guns away.”

But at a joint campaign appearance with Walz in Philadelphia on August 6, Kamala Harris promised, “Together, when we win in November, we are finally going to pass universal background checks, red flag laws, and an ‘assault weapons’ ban.” Red flag laws allow law enforcement to remove firearms from the homes of legal gun owners without due process. The controversial laws, which both candidates have supported, take guns away from law-abiding Americans who purchased their firearms lawfully after receiving a report — possibly from an abusive ex, a jealous neighbor, or a local thief — that the individual poses a threat to himself or others. A so-called “assault weapons ban” would prevent Americans from purchasing such weapons. Harris has promised to support a “mandatory buy-back” for guns possessed lawfully.

Production of “Modern Sporting Rifles” (such as AR-15s and AK-47s) increased 32% between 2020 and 2021, bringing the total number produced since 1990 to 28.1 million, according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation. Americans own an estimated 473.2 million firearms.

8. Trump Promised a ‘Bloodbath’

Harris has accused Trump of another blood libel, claiming he will lead another violent revolution against the government.

The comment came as Trump spoke near Dayton, Ohio, promising to “put a 100% tariff on every single car that comes across” the border from Mexico, some of them built by Chinese companies. “Now if I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole” automotive industry, Trump continued.

As I wrote at the time at The Washington Stand:

“The term ‘bloodbath’ is regularly used in the financial sector to describe an industrial contraction. The Merriam-Webster dictionary lists one of the definitions of ‘bloodbath’ as ‘a major economic disaster.’ … Democratic campaign operatives pounced on Trump’s use of the term ‘bloodbath’ to insinuate he wanted to foment a blood-drenched revolution if he lost the election. … The [then-]Biden campaign promptly wrenched the president’s remarks out of context to create a digital campaign ad titled ‘Bloodbath,’ which recycles other erroneous statements, such as falsely claiming Trump praised rioters at the Charlottesville and January 6 D.C. riots.”

Despite extensive reporting about the full context of the former president’s remarks, Harris attacked Trump during their presidential debate, insisting that “Donald Trump the candidate has said in this election there will be a bloodbath, if the outcome of this election is not to his liking.”

9. Trump Said There Were ‘Very Fine People’ in Charlottesville’s ‘Unite the Right’ Rally

Joe Biden claimed he decided to launch his third presidential bid because of Trump’s response to Charlottesville. The 2024 Democratic Party platform contains a reference to the remarks. And Kamala Harris has dredged up the comments, telling viewers of the presidential debate to “remember Charlottesville, where there was a mob of people carrying tiki torches, spewing anti-Semitic hate, and what did the president then at the time say? There were ‘fine people’ on each side.”

In reality, President Donald Trump began his remarks by condemning “some very bad people” in that group. “But you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides,” Trump continued. “And I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists, because they should be condemned totally. But you had many people in that group other than neo-Nazis and white nationalists, okay? And the press has treated them absolutely unfairly,” because they were “protesting very quietly the taking down of the statue of Robert E. Lee.” Trump went on to declare the Woke mob would not stop at destroying statutes of Confederate heroes but would come for George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and others.

He went on to establish a 1776 Commission, which proposed erecting a series of monuments depicting historic Americans heroes, which the Biden-Harris administration canceled via executive order.

See also The 10 Kamala Harris Lies Moderators Let Slide at the ABC News Debate and Tim Walz’s Lies: The Top 7.

AUTHOR

Ben Johnson

Ben Johnson is senior reporter and editor at The Washington Stand.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Elon Musk Drops Vaccine Bombshell Personal Story

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The Covid shot “nearly sent me to the hospital.” There are tens of millions of post vaccine trauma stories not being told.

Elon Musk Drops Vaccine Bombshell Personal Story | Facts Matter

By: The Epoch Times, Facts Matter, September 28 2023:

2 days ago, the Vice President of the European Commission singled out Twitter as the largest platform hosting dis/misinformation — and added that they “will be watching” what Elon is doing.

This statement of hers came on the heels of an EU law recently implemented (the Digital Services Act) which—among many other things—forces social media companies to censor so-called “disinformation”.

However, as a rebuttable, Elon Musk took to his platform and started a thread wherein he exposed the hypocrisy of the government’s push to censor so-called disinformation, as well as his own experience with taking 3 doses of the mRNA vaccine.

Read more.

AUTHOR

Pamela Geller

RELATED TWEET:

EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

State Department Funded Foreign Think Tank Working To Censor Americans

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  • The State Department funded the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), a foreign organization that works to police online platforms.
  • ISD has partnerships with YouTube and Spotify to inform their content moderation decisions, and claims it helps platforms curb “misinformation.”
  • “By funding organizations – including foreign organizations, no less – that put their thumbs on the scale of hot-button domestic political debates, the federal government is wading into a dangerous Constitutional minefield,” Michael Chamberlain, director of government watchdog Protect the Public’s Trust, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. 

The U.S. State Department funds and partners with a U.K.-based think tank that collaborates with online platforms to censor perceived mis- and disinformation.

The Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) is a British nongovernmental organization that styles itself as a research group working in partnership with several online platforms to combat extremism, hate and disinformation. However, the organization frequently classifies typical conservative discourse and journalism as hate and/or disinformation and has received funding from the U.S. government.

The State Department awarded the organization a grant in September 2021 to “advance the development of promising and innovative technologies against disinformation and propaganda” in Europe and the U.K. after it won the U.S.-Paris Tech Challenge. The event, which was held in collaboration with the “U.S. Embassy Paris, the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) [and] the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO),” was also won by the Global Disinformation Index (GDI), an organization which reportedly seeks to demonetize conservative news sites.

The State Department confirmed that its Global Engagement Center funded ISD to study Russian disinformation tactics against Wikipedia through a grant to Park Advisors. The department told the Daily Caller News Foundation that it plays no role in content moderation decisions on social media platforms.

“By funding organizations – including foreign organizations, no less – that put their thumbs on the scale of hot-button domestic political debates, the federal government is wading into a dangerous Constitutional minefield,” Michael Chamberlain, director of government watchdog Protect the Public’s Trust, told the DCNF. “The government cannot get around First Amendment restrictions by outsourcing or using surrogates or agents for prohibited activities.”

Additionally, the State Department and ISD partnered to create the Strong Cities Network, a United Nations-affiliated initiative that seeks to combat “hate, polarisation and extremism” abroad; the State Department solicited several grants as part of this arrangement, naming ISD as a sub-awardee.

The organization also lists as funders left-wing billionaire Pierre Omidyar’s Omidyar Group, George Soros’ Open Society Foundations and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, along with several European government agencies.

ISD maintains several partnerships with platforms to inform their content moderation decisions, largely regarding extremist and terrorism-related content, but also, significantly, what it deems hate and misinformation.

The organization has a special advisory role with Spotify to “curb” misinformation on the audio streaming platform, and is tasked with flagging content for YouTube.

“The State Department’s partnership with the ISD is problematic at best and unconstitutional at worst,” Mike Davis, president of the Internet Accountability Project, told the DCNF. “Taxpayer dollars essentially funding the censorship of conservatives under the guise of ‘misinformation’ shouldn’t surprise anyone who’s followed the Biden administration’s assault on the marketplace of ideas.”

While much of ISD’s work focuses on various forms of extremism such as radical Islam and white supremacy, a significant portion involves “disinformation” and online hate. However, the organization frequently characterizes staples of conservative discourse as hateful and/or as disinformation.

For instance, ISD appears to consider the comparison of abortion to murder as misinformation, admonishing social media platforms for not enforcing their abortion misinformation policies against such claims.

Moreover, in a 2022 report on “climate disinformation,” ISD profiled a form of discourse it labeled “delayism,” which accepts as a premise the existence of climate change but does not, in ISD’s view, advocate strong enough or urgent enough policy solutions. Criticism of particular policies designed to address climate change, such as the promotion of electric vehicles, were also included within the “disinformation” report.

“In contemporary discussions on what actions should be taken, by whom and how fast, proponents of climate delay would argue for minimal action or action taken by others. They focus attention on the negative social effects of climate policies and raise doubt that mitigation is possible,” the report read.

ISD cited as an example a Facebook post from Republican Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw that warned of the “radical obsession with wind and solar as the only clean energy solution” and argued instead for nuclear energy and natural gas with carbon capture technology.

Another example was a meme that compared an electric vehicle to a Flintstones-esque rock car.

“This outlandish form of censorship cannot be allowed to happen in America, such as simple policy preferences related to electric cars being labeled as misinformation,” Davis told the DCNF.

The organization characterized Libs of Tik Tok, a conservative Twitter account that publicizes examples of left-wing pedagogy including Critical Race Theory (CRT) and gender ideology, as a “prolific spreader of hate,” and classified conservative journalist Scott Morefield as an individual “known to spread disinformation and amplify hateful right-wing talking points.”

ISD also considered “misgendering” an example of “anti-trans hatred” in a report on social media discourse surrounding the participation of men in women’s sports. ISD concluded by urging platforms to take action against posts that misgender trans individuals.

While ISD’s work is primarily research-oriented, the organization has successfully embedded itself in roles informing content moderation decisions within hugely influential social media and technology companies. Much of ISD’s work with online platforms focuses on terrorism and violent extremism, but the organization’s purview also includes mis- and disinformation.

ISD is a member of Spotify’s Safety Advisory Council, formed in 2022 as a response to criticism of the audio streaming platform for Joe Rogan’s December 2021 interview with COVID-19 vaccine skeptic Dr. Robert Malone.

The council, though not tasked with directly making content moderation decisions, is nevertheless empowered to “inform” Spotify’s policies and enforcement actions regarding “misinformation.” In ISD’s own words, the group will help Spotify “curb the spread of misinformation” on its platform and “independently keep watch over the platform’s content and safety policies.”

Additionally, ISD is part of YouTube’s “Trusted Flagger program,” an initiative in collaboration with several nongovernmental organizations and government agencies designed to improve YouTube’s enforcement of its guidelines. Trusted Flaggers are able to flag more content than average users, The Wall Street Journal reported in 2014, and receive special treatment from YouTube.

“[O]ur teams prioritize flags from Trusted Flaggers for review,” Google’s description of the program reads.

ISD partnered with Google.org for its Impact Challenge on Safety grant initiative which distributed €10 million to organizations working to “counter hate and extremism” in Europe, and also received a $1.3 million grant from Google in 2017 to counter hate in the U.K.

The organization also boasts partnerships with Microsoft, Amazon’s audiobook platform Audible and Facebook.

“The State Department exists to represent the American public’s interests abroad,” Chamberlain told the DCNF. “If they are interested in countering concerns about weaponizing the government, they could start by not assisting outside groups that target the speech of American citizens.”

ISD did not respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.

AUTHOR

AILAN EVANS

Associate Editor.

RELATED ARTICLE: A Dem-Linked Dark Money Network Is Quietly Funding The ‘Misinformation’ Research Industry

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved. All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Disinformation Czar Resigns, Board On ‘Pause’ Following Criticism She Spread Disinformation

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The Department of Homeland Security put a “pause” Monday on its disinformation board after the truth czar, who resigned Wednesday, came under fire for spreading disinformation herself, The Washington Post reported.

DHS shut the board down Monday and Nina Jankowicz, who was tapped to lead the department, drafted a resignation letter Tuesday, according to The Washington Post. Jankowicz was reportedly pulled into a meeting late Tuesday night, however, with officials giving her the chance to stay on as the department determines whether to move forward with the highly polarized board. Jankowicz formally resigned Wednesday, according to The Washington Post’s Taylor Lorenz.

The decision comes as Jankowicz faced extreme backlash for pushing disinformation.

Jankowicz attempted to discredit the Hunter Biden laptop story as a “Trump campaign product” while speaking to ABC News in 2020. During the second presidential debate, Jankowicz posted that President Joe Biden cited “50 former natsec officials and 5 former CIA heads that believe the laptop is a Russian influence op.”

The laptop was authenticated by several outlets including the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Jankowicz also claimed the now-discredited Steele Dossier was funded by Republicans in a 2017 tweet.

She also expressed concern about Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter and what would happen if “free speech absolutists were taking over more platforms.”

Jankowicz also said in 2021 the GOP is made up of “disinformers” who “have seized on” issues like Critical Race Theory to spread “disinformation.”

A DHS spokesperson defended Jankowicz in a statement to The Post.

“Nina Jankowicz has been subjected to unjustified and vile personal attacks and physical threats. In congressional hearings and in media interviews, the Secretary has repeatedly defended her as eminently qualified and underscored the importance of the Department’s disinformation work, and he will continue to do so.”

The DHS announced the creation of the Disinformation Governance Board in April to counter what it considers misinformation and disinformation, particularly disinformation coming from Russia and misleading rhetoric about the U.S.-Mexico border. DHS Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas has fended off criticism of the board, recently saying the “board does not have any operational authority or capability.”

AUTHOR

BRIANNA LYMAN

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Obama To Keynote Disinformation Conference With High-Profile Allies Tied To Fake News Scandals

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Former President Barack Obama will deliver the keynote speech at a Stanford University forum Thursday on media disinformation.

The keynote speech is part of Obama’s crusade against disinformation in the digital world, the Washington Free Beacon reported. The former president allegedly joined the fight against “disinformation” after lengthy discussions with Apple heiress Lauren Powell Jobs, who reportedly funded a number of fake local news sites in Silicon Valley that push Democratic rhetoric and talking points.

Other panelists at the event include Color of Change president Rashad Robinson who consistently pushed the fake news story that Jussie Smollett was the victim of a hate crime, the outlet reported. Smollett was later convicted of staging the hate crime.

Stanford researcher Renee DiResta will moderate the panel, according to the report. DiResta was reportedly part of the advisory team that created fake Russian bots that helped influence a 2017 Alabama special election, according to the report. She admitted to working with the company but denied knowledge of their tactics when asked by The Washington Post.

Former national security advisor Obama Ben Rhodes will also attend the conference. Rhodes previously admitted he created “echo chambers” of spin that supported “largely manufactured” narratives about various topics, including the Iran nuclear deal, according to the Washington Free Beacon.

Obama’s personal history earned the “Lie of the Year” award from PolitiFact in 2013 for his repeated use of the phrase, “if you like your healthcare plan, you can keep it.”

Republican Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton called out Obama in a tweet Thursday for “lecturing” Americans on disinformation despite earning the “Lie of the Year.”

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KAY SMYTHE

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.