The video above options the November 30, 2023, Home Judiciary Committee listening to on the Weaponization of the Federal Authorities.1
Over the previous yr, the Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Authorities has launched a number of studies detailing how the federal government is a) harassing and intimidating residents to close down undesirable viewpoints, b) utilizing misinformation and propaganda to drive false narratives and c) censoring protected speech utilizing third events. Right here’s an inventory of these studies which you could peruse at your comfort.
The Subcommittee additionally filed an amicus brief on Missouri v. Biden in early August 2023.
Rep. Thomas Massie Censored
Authorities-funded organizations had been flagging official congressional accounts, together with mine, to get posts censored on social media. If the federal government will try to censor a member of Congress’s communications to his constituents, the federal government will censor anybody. pic.twitter.com/kvD3s9XlMv
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) November 30, 2023
Across the one-hour mark within the featured video, Rep. Thomas Massie questions Olivia Troye — a former intelligence official on the Division of Homeland Safety underneath President Obama and a nationwide safety and counterterrorism adviser to vice chairman Mike Pence — concerning the U.S. authorities’s use of third occasion organizations to censor protected speech.
The related clip is included above. In her opening assertion, Troye accused the Committee of “indulging in fantasy indifferent from actuality.” “Members of this committee and their witnesses make grand and imprecise accusations about authorities censorship,” she mentioned. She additionally claimed the members had been “spreading conspiracy theories about authorities censorship.”
Massie went on to level to a tweet he posted Might 19, 2021, underneath his official congressional account, by which he had linked to a peer-reviewed examine that discovered the effectiveness of pure immunity was equivalent to that of the Pfizer COVID shot.
“Right here’s a complete examine that tracked reinfections and COVID problems for 187,549 individuals with prior SARS-CoV2 an infection,” he wrote in his tweet. “Conclusion: Effectiveness of immunity as a consequence of prior an infection is identical as for the Pfizer vaccine.”
This tweet was censored by Twitter after the Stanford Web Observatory’s Virality Project flagged it as “misinformation.” As detailed in earlier articles, the Virality Undertaking is partnered with CISA and funded by the U.S. authorities to carry out censorship actions the federal government can not legally carry out.
When requested if she thought there was a cause to flag Massey’s tweet, Troye answered, “Relies on whether or not you’re spreading inaccurate info.” However who determines its “accuracy”?
It was a peer-reviewed, revealed examine, which suggests a number of scientists who weren’t a part of the examine reviewed it. Is the Virality Undertaking certified to guage the accuracy of revealed analysis? It is a very harmful slippery slope. If we can not share peer-reviewed science, which is the epitome of “respected supply,” then what, precisely, is appropriate to share?
“Are you going to sit down right here and keep that it’s a conspiracy idea that this occurred?” Massey requested Troye. “Now we have the paperwork … that confirmed this [censorship] occurred.”
“Nicely, then it [Massey’s tweet] should have been flagged for a cause,” Troye replied.
“What cause?” mentioned Massey. “Is there ever a very good cause to censor a member of Congress? … I deliver this up, No. 1 to point out that your testimony is fake. However No. 2, if they’ll do that to a member of Congress’ official account, they’ll do it to anyone.”
Whistleblower Reveals Navy Contractors’ Secret Plan for Censorship
Investigative journalist Michael Shellenberger testified at this assembly for the second time. 9 months in the past, he testified and shared proof with the Subcommittee concerning the existence of a “Censorship Industrial Complex, a community of presidency companies, together with the Division of Homeland Safety, authorities contractors, and Huge Tech media platforms that conspired to censor peculiar Individuals and elected officers alike for holding disfavored views.”2
All of that was wild sufficient, however there’s extra. On the November 30 listening to, Shellenberger uncovered a gaggle known as the Cyber Risk Intelligence League (CTIL), which consists of army contractors that aren’t solely censoring Individuals, but in addition utilizing refined psychological operations in opposition to us.
In line with Shellenberger, the CTIL was based by a gaggle of former Israeli and British intelligence brokers who initially volunteered their cybersecurity providers FOR FREE to multi-billion-dollar hospital and well being care organizations within the U.S.
CTIL additionally affords bodily safety and “cognitive” safety, i.e., safety in opposition to misinformation, and these providers are volunteered by U.S. and British army contractors. In line with a whistleblower who shared inner CTIL paperwork with Shellenberger, various CTIL “volunteers” are presently in authorities make use of.
Additionally they used formal authorities letter head (FBI, CISA, U.S. Navy and so forth) when speaking with one another. As famous by Massey, that “makes it arduous for folk to assert that these weren’t brokers of the federal government or performing in coordination with the federal government …”
CTIL Information Present Censorship Plot Is Larger Than Imagined
Now, the CTIL’s plan to regulate the knowledge panorama goes additional than these of CISA, the Virality Undertaking and different government-led censorship actions. CTIL’s plan additionally consists of utilizing debanking as monetary leverage to close individuals up, and pressuring social media platforms to vary their phrases of service to facilitate censorship and deplatforming underneath the guise of “phrases of service violations” — and extra.
In a December 4, 2023, Substack article, Shellenberger’s colleague, Alex Gutentag wrote about this new cache of paperwork, known as the CTIL Information:3
“Throughout final Thursday’s [November 30, 2023] Congressional listening to on the Weaponization of the Federal Authorities, Democratic members of Congress insisted4 that censorship efforts of teams just like the Cyber Risk Intelligence League (CTIL),5 the Election Integrity Partnership (EIP),6 and the Virality Undertaking (VP)7 had been benign and never a violation of the First Modification.
‘It is not the First Modification!’ mentioned Rep. Dan Goldman, ‘It is the [social media platforms’] Phrases of Service … And they’re flagging it for the social media firms to make their very own selections. That isn’t the First Modification. That’s the Phrases of Service.’
However the CTIL Information, a trove of paperwork {that a} whistleblower supplied to Public and Racket, reveal that US and UK army contractors developed and used superior techniques — together with demanding that social media platforms change their Phrases of Service — to form public opinion about Covid-19, and that getting content material eliminated was only one technique utilized by the Censorship Industrial Complicated.”
Adversarial Misinformation and Affect Ways and Methods
As defined by Gutentag,8 the CTIL partnered with the Division of Homeland Safety’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Safety Company (CISA) to implement a framework known as “AMITT,” which stands for “Adversarial Misinformation and Affect Ways and Methods.”
The predecessor to this program was the DISARM framework — described as an “open-source, community-led9 … grasp framework for preventing disinformation by means of sharing knowledge and evaluation, and coordinating efficient motion10” — created by the DISARM Basis in 2017.
In line with the DISARM Basis, AMITT was launched with the monetary help of the Craig Newmark Philanthropies in 2019.11,12 The AMITT framework consists of a wide range of “offensive actions,” together with:13
- Influencing authorities coverage
- Discrediting various media
- Utilizing bots and sock puppets to control and direct public dialogue
- Pre-bunking
- Counter-messaging
Extra particular AMITT methods embrace however will not be restricted to:
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Creating coverage that forces social media to police mis- and disinformation |
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Creating “robust dialogue” between the federal authorities and personal sector to enhance reporting |
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Marginalizing and discrediting “extremists” |
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Naming and shaming “influencers” who share unsanctioned info |
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Simulating misinformation and disinformation campaigns, and responses to them, beforehand |
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Debanking offenders and chopping off their entry to monetary providers14 |
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“Inoculating” populations in opposition to “misinformation” utilizing “media literacy coaching” |
A Full-Fledged Navy-Led Affect Operation
Gutentag continues:15
“Removed from merely defending the general public from falsehoods, each authorities and non-profit actors inside Censorship Industrial Complicated have adopted CTIL’s precise playbook and have waged a full-fledged affect operation in opposition to Individuals.
This affect operation has deep ties to safety and intelligence companies, as is evidenced by means of many examples of collaboration. In a single occasion of such collaboration, supposedly impartial “disinformation researchers” like Renée DiResta coordinated16 a 2020 election tabletop train with army officers.
Protection and intelligence funding helps a lot of the Censorship Industrial Complicated. As an illustration, Graphika, which was concerned in each EIP and VP, receives grants from the Division of Protection, DARPA, and the Navy.
Pentagon-affiliated entities are closely concerned in ‘anti-disinformation’ work. Mitre, a serious protection contractor, acquired funding to deal with ‘disinformation’ about elections and COVID.
The US authorities paid Mitre, a corporation staffed by former intelligence and army personnel, to observe and report17 what Individuals mentioned concerning the virus on-line, and to develop vaccine confidence messaging.18
This government-backed army analysis group, Public found, was current within the EIP and VP misinformation reporting system, and in election disinformation report emails to CISA …
Why are companies which might be speculated to fight overseas threats utilizing military-grade psychological instruments to wage affect operations in opposition to the home inhabitants?”
Anti-Democratic Ideology Is Driving the Censorship
As famous by Gutentag, these efforts seem like partly pushed by the necessity to manufacture perceived threats to justify the existence of the counter-terror forms.” However there are additionally clear ideological elements at play. He writes:19
“Each [federal law enforcement and the intelligence community] now basically deal with Individuals as an enemy inhabitants, with monumental help from the Democratic occasion and the legacy media.
The consequence has been large-scale info warfare in opposition to US residents, with refined techniques being employed to develop propaganda narratives about Trump, COVID, and the 2020 election within the identify of combatting ‘disinformation.’ We at the moment are uncovering the clear proof that army contractors seem to have been on the forefront of this effort …
What was as soon as thought of a ‘conspiracy idea’ that army and intelligence forces had been manipulating public opinion by means of inorganic interventions, has now been confirmed.
Our examine of the Censorship Industrial Complicated has uncovered a far-reaching plan to subvert the democratic course of and interact in actions which have a foundation in army methods and that are tantamount to makes an attempt at thought or thoughts management.”
The Plan to Get Censorship Again on Twitter
Right here is the top of the Stanford Web Observatory, Alex Stamos, taunting that Elon Musk “purchased himself right into a hellish existence” the week Musk acquired Twitter.
He goes on, 14 instances, to call Tesla as a vulnerability governments may exploit to drive Musk to censor speech pic.twitter.com/f3WuJkWjfr
— Mike Benz (@MikeBenzCyber) December 4, 2023
The brief clip above options Alex Stamos, head of the Stanford Web Observatory, which runs the federal government’s censorship equipment through its Virality Undertaking.
In it, he’s taunting Elon Musk, saying he “purchased himself right into a hellish existence” by making moderating Twitter his private accountability. In so doing, Musk is inserting his web value, most of which is invested in Tesla, in addition to all different Tesla shareholders, “in jeopardy.”
The explanation? 4 phrases: The Digital Companies Act.20 This European Union legislation, which took impact August 25, 2023, requires on-line firms to actively police their platforms for “unlawful” content material or face enormous fines — as much as 6% of their international income. Repeated refusal to adjust to guidelines or requests for motion can lead to suspension of the platform throughout the EU altogether.
What Stamos seems to be insinuating is that by Musk insisting on maintaining X a free speech platform, he dangers shedding all of it, and this type of monetary extortion leverage is exactly what the CTIL plan requires.
One other Surveillance Program Revealed
In associated information, Wired journal not too long ago reported21 on leaked paperwork that confirm the existence of a “secretive authorities program” that enables legislation enforcement to entry trillions of telephone data of Individuals with out a warrant.
In a current letter to the Division of Justice, U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden challenged the legality of this system, which has been up and working for greater than a decade. In line with Wired:22
“… a surveillance program now referred to as Knowledge Analytical Companies (DAS) has for greater than a decade allowed federal, state, and native legislation enforcement companies to mine the main points of Individuals’ calls, analyzing the telephone data of numerous people who find themselves not suspected of any crime, together with victims.
Utilizing a method referred to as chain evaluation, this system targets not solely these in direct telephone contact with a felony suspect however anybody with whom these people have been involved as effectively.”
DAS began out as a program known as Hemisphere, run by the White Home in coordination with AT&T. It was renamed DAS in 2013. It captures telephone calls made utilizing the AT&T infrastructure on behalf of U.S. legislation enforcement companies, together with native police, sheriffs’ departments, U.S. customs and postal inspectors.
DAS is managed underneath an anti-drug trafficking program known as HIDTA, which stands for “high-intensity drug trafficking space,” however leaked recordsdata from the Northern California Regional Intelligence Middle (NCRIC) exhibits the system can also be being utilized in circumstances which might be unrelated to drug trafficking. In line with Wired, the DAS knowledge doesn’t embrace recordings of conversations.
The information do, nevertheless, embrace figuring out info such because the names of the caller and recipient, their telephone numbers, dates and instances of calls, spanning no less than 10 years or extra into the previous. Collectively, these knowledge can be utilized to find out the precise areas of individuals, “a follow deemed unconstitutional with out a warrant in 2018,” Wired notes.
In line with Wyden, “The dimensions of the info obtainable to and routinely looked for the advantage of legislation enforcement underneath the Hemisphere Undertaking is gorgeous in its scope.” Furthermore, it’s not underneath congressional oversight, and since it’s run out of the White Home, it’s exempt from privateness affect evaluation guidelines and Freedom of Data Act (FOIA) requests.
Protections afforded by the Digital Communications Privateness Act are additionally circumvented as a result of AT&T’s name document assortment happens alongside a telecommunications “spine.”
In early November 2023, Wyden and different lawmakers within the Home and Senate launched the Authorities Surveillance Reform Act of 2023,23 which goals to patch the loopholes DAS is presently exploiting.
If handed, the DAS program would turn into explicitly unlawful and would seemingly be compelled to close down. So, I encourage you to contact your representatives and ask them to help this laws.
