Propaganda

Censorship

Online Censorship Losing Public Support

April 26, 2025 S.A. McCarthy via The Washington Stand 0
The results of the Pew Research Center study also come shortly after the U.S. State Department shuttered its Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference office, formerly known as the Global Engagement Center, which was responsible for “silenc[ing] and censor[ing] the voices of Americans they were supposed to be serving,” according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Lamenting the damage done by the censorship initiative, Rubio added, “Over the last decade, Americans have been slandered, fired, charged, and even jailed for simply voicing their opinions.”

[…]

Censorship

How the US Government funded narrative control operations around the globe

April 23, 2025 Rebekah Barnett via Dystopian Down Under 0
Narrative control efforts to give the US a competitive advantage over Russia and China make sense – this is what we expect of nation states. Why the US Government should be so invested in pushing vaccines and influencing the information environment surrounding the elections of small and far-flung nations is less obvious, unless you understand the US to be an empire representing the interests of major cartels and an ambitious deep state.

[…]

Censorship

How Big Pharma’s Favorite Ad Agency Helped Create NewsGuard

April 1, 2025 FFO Staff via Foundation for Freedom Online 1
Studies show NewsGuard’s ratings are heavily skewed against anti-establishment media sources. Its advertiser exclusion lists include some of the most prominent destinations for non-mainstream news, including Newsmax, Breitbart News, The Federalist, and One America News. While conservative websites bear the brunt, left-wing websites with an anti-establishment, anti-war tendency, like Consortium News, have also found themselves on NewsGuard’s blacklists.

[…]

AI

America First Legal Exposes Censorship Scheme by USAID and Global Engagement Center, Working With UK Government and Media Firms, to Use AI Censorship Tools

March 22, 2025 America First Legal 1
“The partnership between USAID and the Global Engagement Center is bad news for the American people. Add in the fact that they were coordinating with internet censorship enforcers at NewsGuard and Poynter, and you can start to see just how dangerous this unholy alliance is for free speech and free expression. Thankfully, the GEC is shuttered and USAID is being exposed — but lawmakers should take note of this example as they consider legislation to ensure the federal government actually serves American principles and interests,” said Andrew Block., America First Legal Senior Counsel

[…]

Politics

Trump Guts International Propaganda Agencies

March 19, 2025 Paul Dragu via The New American 1
Perhaps Connor O’Keeffe of the Mises Institute said it best:

Voice of America absolutely should go away. Employees and supporters of VOA like to describe the outlet’s purpose as providing “objective” and “balanced” reporting on current events. But dig a little deeper and you’ll find out that what VOA staffers are really passionate about is “promoting democracy” abroad and helping in a global fight against authoritarianism. … It’s a propaganda outlet that we’re all forced to fund. It is one part of the broader regime change apparatus that got a lot of exposure earlier in the year with the gutting of USAID. Funding foreign propaganda campaigns is not our responsibility. Your average American family does not have a moral obligation to send part of their paycheck to try and turn people in Belarus against their government.

[…]

Propaganda

An Ex-Jihadist Working for the Government is Smearing Trump

March 10, 2025 Daniel Greenfield via Jihad Watch 1
The VOA, an arm of the government, was promoting Russiagate and unsubtly nudging voters to turn against Trump during three presidential elections in violation of its charter and mission. And the man behind some of these articles had been recruited by a related arm of the government back in the 1980s during his days as a Jihadist to engage in a war of propaganda. Now that propaganda was being aimed within the United States against the president.

And it’s still going on.

A propaganda machine once aimed at America’s enemies is now run by our enemies and aimed at us. The story of Masood Farivar shows why the Voice of America needs urgent reform.

[…]

Legal

FCC to Brief House Republicans on ‘Unprecedented’ George Soros Scheme to Control 200 Radio Stations

February 28, 2025 Sean Moran via Breitbart News 1
Federal law requires applicants with excessive foreign ownership to file a petition for declaratory ruling at the same time that they seek FCC approval for the relevant license transfers, they must then complete that process before the FCC can approve the assignment of licenses, and that process must enable Executive Branch agencies with national security and specific policy expertise to weigh in.

Carr continued, “Did they obtain approval from the FCC for their excessive foreign ownership? No, they did not. Did the Applicants afford the Executive Branch agencies with national security and relevant policy expertise an opportunity to consider their application as well as the source and amount of foreign investment? No, they did not.

[…]

Free Speech

The Department of Defense has allocated millions of dollars to create phony social media profiles the government could turn against Americans.

February 25, 2025 Logan Washburn via The Federalist 4
While this may appear benign, it is a shocking admission — the government sponsored a massive network of fake social media accounts that it could manipulate, capable of capturing users’ data.

“This DARPA contract involved the development and deployment of technology to create and manage fake social media accounts at scale,” The Federalist’s CEO Sean Davis posted on X. “This is far more insidious than a simple government payment to a news agency.”

[…]