Documents show Facebook and Twitter closely collaborating with Dept of Homeland Security, FBI to police “disinfo.” They plan to expand censorship on topics like withdrawal from Afghanistan, origins of COVID, information that undermines trust in financial institutions.
FBI agent Laura Dehmlow was in communications with Facebook that led to the suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story in 2020 over the false allegation that it was “disinfo.” This year, she met with Twitter/DHS to stress “we need a media infrastructure that is held accountable.”
Facebook and Twitter created special portals for the government to rapidly request takedowns of content. The portals, along with NGO partners used to censor a wide range of content, including obvious parody accounts and content disagreeing with government pandemic policy.
The emails and documents show close collaboration between DHS and private sector. Twitter’s Vijaya Gadde (fired by Elon Musk last week) met monthly with DHS to discuss censorship plans. Microsoft executive texted DHS: “Platforms have got to get comfortable with gov’t”
How does DHS justify its evolving mission from countering foreign terror groups to policing domestic “disinfo” on social media? Leaked planning docs show the agency argues false information is a source of radicalization and violence.
Earlier this year, DHS launched a widely panned “Disinfo Governance Board” which it later shuttered following criticism. But the same agenda lives on with DHS sub-agency “CISA” which argues disinfo is a threat to American “critical infrastructure”.
Draft DHS quad review, which plans agency policy, leaked to us shows growing focus on MDM (misinfo, disinfo, malinfo) to protect homeland against spread of “toxic narratives.” How the agency defines false info and what narratives are prioritized isn’t clear.
DHS official working on disinfo noted, during an internal strategy discussion, that the agency should use third party nonprofits as a “clearing house for information to avoid the appearance of government propaganda.”
(This article has been compiled from the tweet thread originally tweeted by Lee Fang (@lhfang) on October 31, 2022.)
