Censorship Industrial Complex
The Rebranding of a Censorship Unit
Despite Congress’s efforts to dismantle the GEC, its core operations appear intact under a new name and nearly identical mission.
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The way things stand right now, the shutting down of the US State Department’s disgraced Global Engagement Center (GEC) doesn’t appear to equate to the GEC actually being dismantled.
Rather, the unit, notorious for its role in flagging social media posts during the outgoing administration, seems to have simply undergone a rebranding. Now, the State Department has the Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (R/FIMI) Hub. Matt Taibbi of the Twitter Files describes what happened here as an “absurd prank” that defies Congress, which moved to force the end of the GEC. One reason for this conclusion is the result of checking the former and the newly founded unit’s mission statements for any differences. And there are virtually none. The GEC Mission was officially, “To direct, lead, synchronize, integrate, and coordinate US Federal Government efforts to recognize, understand, expose, and counter foreign state and non-state propaganda and disinformation efforts aimed at undermining or influencing the policies, security, or stability of the United States, its allies, and partner nations.” And here’s what R/FIMI Hub is supposed to do: “To direct, lead, synchronize, integrate, and coordinate efforts of the Federal Government to recognize, understand, expose, and counter foreign state and non-state propaganda and disinformation efforts aimed at undermining or influencing the policies, security, or stability of the United States, its allies, and partner nations.” The difference between the two texts is R/FIMI Hub going for, “(…) efforts of the Federal Government” – rather than GEC’s “US Federal Government efforts.” Not only that – and the fact that this alleged focus on foreign threats turned into a smokescreen for going after online speech at home – R/FIMI Hub is also reportedly set to keep about 50 GEC staff, and continue to be funded, as before, with just under $30 million via grants and contracts. Shuttering the GEC was a cause championed by Congress Republicans through a number of investigations, essentially suspecting that its role was to facilitate, through obfuscation, what is otherwise illegal government involvement in censorship. They are now, even though coming to power at all levels, presented with a case that illustrates the functioning of what many of them like to call “the deep state” – a permanent power structure underlying elected ones, where a brazen “rebrand” of this kind can happen right in front of everyone. Former GEC staff are reportedly planning to carry on their work, dispersed across the State Department, thus creating the illusion of the unit being disbanded, but with R/FIMI Hub seemingly envisaged as just that – a hub for their continued activities. The activities included the GEC teaming up with third parties like the Global Disinformation Index that would “score” content for advertisers, to the detriment of conservative media. |
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From LifeSiteNews
By Dan Frieth
Biden’s statements came on the same day Mark Zuckerberg appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience, revealing that the Biden administration had actively pressured Meta to censor content related to COVID-19
President Joe Biden harshly criticized Meta’s decision to eliminate its professional fact-checking program in favor of user-driven community notes, labeling the move as “really shameful.” His comments, delivered during a press conference following a speech on economic progress, reveal a concerning push for increased control over online discourse.
Biden’s statements came on the same day Mark Zuckerberg appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience, revealing that the Biden administration had actively pressured Meta to censor content related to COVID-19. Zuckerberg disclosed that officials repeatedly contacted Meta, demanding the removal of memes and truthful posts critical of COVID-19 vaccines. He recounted how the White House would “call up our team and scream at them and curse” over content they deemed unacceptable.
Zuckerberg pointed to a specific incident where the administration pushed for the deletion of a meme featuring Leonardo DiCaprio pointing at a TV with a caption suggesting future legal actions over the COVID-19 vaccine. Zuckerberg resisted, stating, “No we’re not we’re not going to take down humor,” emphasizing that his team would not remove content that was humorous and not factually false. Despite Meta’s history of censoring similar content, Zuckerberg insisted, “Basically, it just got to this point where we were like no, we’re not going to take down things that are true. That’s ridiculous.”
Zuckerberg also said that the Biden administration pressured for the censorship of truthful information.
“Basically, it just got to this point where we were like no, we’re not going to take down things that are true,” Zuckerberg said. “That’s ridiculous.”
Zuckerberg’s decision to dismantle the platform’s fact-checking system announced just before President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, has drawn polarized reactions. While Democrats decry the change, Republicans, including Trump, have long accused Meta of silencing conservative voices. Zuckerberg openly admitted that scaling back content moderation might allow more harmful content to circulate, but he also recognized the need to move away from biased oversight.
Biden criticized the autonomy of private tech leaders, stating, “The idea that, you know, a billionaire can buy something and say, ‘By the way, from this point on, we’re not going to fact-check anything.’ And you know, when you have millions of people reading, going online, reading this stuff … I think it’s really shameful.”
Reprinted with permission from Reclaim The Net.
Censorship Industrial Complex
Mark Zuckerberg Tells Joe Rogan That Biden Admin Would ‘Scream’ And ‘Curse’ At Meta Employees To Censor ‘True’ Content
From the Daily Caller News Foundation
By Jason Cohen
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told podcast host Joe Rogan on Friday that officials in President Joe Biden’s administration would yell and hurl profanities at his company’s employees over content censorship.
The Biden administration pushed Facebook to censor posts about COVID-19 that it deemed misinformation, according to documents published by House Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Jordan in July 2023. Zuckerberg, on “The Joe Rogan Experience,” revealed that also Meta faced investigations and backlash after Biden accused Facebook of “killing people” in July 2021 for not censoring so-called COVID-19 misinformation.
WATCH:
“Basically, these people from the Biden Administration would call up our team and like scream at them and curse,” Zuckerberg said. “And it’s like these documents are — it’s all kind of out there.”
Rogan asked if Meta had recorded any of the calls, but Zuckerberg said he did not believe so.
“I mean, there are emails. The emails are published. It’s all kind of out there …. And basically, it just got to this point where we were like, ‘No, we’re not going to — we’re not going to take down things that are true. That’s ridiculous,’” Zuckerberh said. “They wanted us to take down this meme of Leonardo DiCaprio looking at a TV, talking about how ten years from now or something, you’re going to see an ad that says, ‘Okay, if you took a COVID vaccine, you’re eligible, like for this kind of payment,’ like this sort of like class-action lawsuit-type meme. And they’re like, ‘No, you have to take that down.’”
“We just said, ‘No, we’re not going to take down humor and satire. We’re not going to take down things that are true.’ And then at some point, I guess — I don’t know — it flipped a bit,” he added. “I mean, Biden, when he was — he gave some statement at some point, I don’t know if it was a press conference or to some journalist, where he basically was like, ‘These guys are killing people.’ And I don’t know. Then like all these different agencies and branches of government basically just like started investigating and coming after our company. It was brutal.”
Facebook executives believed they were engaged in a “knife fight” with Biden’s White House on COVID-19 censorship, according to a House Judiciary Committee report published in May.
Zuckerberg in August expressed remorse that Facebook caved to pressure from the Biden administration to censor content in a letter to Jordan. He wrote that senior Biden administration officials “repeatedly pressured” Facebook teams to censor COVID-19 content that the platform otherwise would not have suppressed, and voiced frustration when Facebook disagreed.
“I believe the government pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it,” Zuckerberg wrote. “I also think we made some choices that, with the benefit of hindsight and new information, we wouldn’t make today.”
Zuckerberg also alleged in 2022 on “The Joe Rogan Experience” that the FBI warned Facebook of a “Russian propaganda” dump just before the Hunter Biden laptop story broke.
“The FBI basically came to us and some folks on our team and said, ‘Hey, just so you know, you should be on high alert, we thought there was a lot of Russian propaganda in the 2016 election and we have noticed that basically there’s about to be some kind of dump that’s similar to that, so be vigilant,’” he said.
The Meta CEO said he could not recall whether the FBI specifically mentioned the Hunter Biden laptop story, but asserted it fit “the pattern.”
The White House did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
Meta referred the DCNF to documents released by the House Judiciary Committee and Jordan.
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