A guide to understanding the organisations controlling and censoring information.
- Full Fact
- Integrity Initiative / Institute for Statecraft
- Trusted News Initiative (the BBC)
- Center for Countering Digital Hate
- Wikipedia
- Plus Many Others….
We have seen the birthing of a vast new public-private bureaucracy devoted to stopping “mis-, dis-, and malinformation,”. The “Censorship-Industrial Complex” is the Military-Industrial Complex reborn for the “hybrid warfare” age, marketing itself as “anti-disinformation”, designed to fend off the hostile attacks of extremists and foreign cyber-adversaries.. However, it has become a relentless, unified messaging system aimed primarily at domestic populations, who are told that political discord at home is dangerous because it aids the enemy’s assault on democracy.
They suggest we must rethink old conceptions about rights, and give ourselves over to new surveillance techniques. The musty old free press must be replaced with an updated model that uses automated assignment tools like “newsworthy claim extraction,” and submit to frank thought-policing mechanisms like the “redirect method,” which sends messages to online browsers of content deemed “dangerous” and pushes them toward “constructive alternative messages.”
Binding all this is a commitment to a new homogeneous politics, which the complex of public and private agencies seeks to capture a narrative, which can be perpetually tweaked and amplified online via algorithm and machine learning.
Included here are excerpts on articles about 5 of the Top 50 organisations, to try to answer a few basic questions about funding, organization type, history, and especially, methodology. Many of these anti-disinformation groups adhere to the same formulaic approach to research, often using the same “hate-mapping,” guilt-by-association-type analysis to identify wrong-thinkers and suppressive persons.
- Full Fact
- Integrity Initiative / Institute for Statecraft
- Trusted News Initiative (the BBC)
- Center for Countering Digital Hate
- Wikipedia
The full article is entitled “Report on the Censorship-Industrial Complex: The Top 50 Organizations to Know – The citizen’s starter kit to understanding the new global information cartel“
Censorship: the suppression of words, images, or ideas which are deemed to be undesirable, unsafe or “wrong” by some people or organisation (or artificial intelligence) which imposes its own ideas, agendas, politics or values onto others.
Full Fact
Link: https://fullfact.org/
Type: A leading UK “fact-checking” “NGO” with mountains of money from Big Tech.
You may have read about them when: Founded by Michael John Samuel, the son of an aristocrat, Full Fact epitomizes the elitism and down-talking of the “fact-checking” industry. Full Fact has been explicit about collaborating with Big Tech and government, stating in a #TwitterFiles email “Full Fact has been working with a variety of organizations including Facebook, Google, Twitter, First Draft and the UK and Canadian governments to create a Framework for Information Incidents.”
In developing the framework they relied on much of the same cozy club of information police — the report drew from other leading organizations including First Draft, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Ben Nimmo (NATO, Graphika, Facebook), and Joan Donovan (Data & Society, Shorenstein).
While most digital rights and free speech groups have opposed the British government’s online “safety” bill, Full Fact thinks it doesn’t go far enough, arguing “the Bill falls short of the Government’s aim to make the UK the safest place to be online.”
Full Fact was the first UK member of Facebook’s Third-Party Fact-Checking program. Characteristic of the “fact-checkers,” they get an enormous level of Covid information wrong, including claiming it is “very rare” to get Covid twice or that you “can’t be forced to get a vaccine.” While claiming they are independent they also state they “work for Facebook.” Full Fact led a successful campaign to have vaccine critic and Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen removed from the party.
As is typical, Full Fact strays dramatically from the remit of pursuing the truth, instead combating “bad” information. (It is not known if that means naughty or of poor quality; possibly, both) It would be one thing if the response was to counter with “good” information, but Full Fact’s consistent approach favors censorship-type solutions. Full Fact has even developed its own AI-driven Robocop to police speech online.
What we know about funding: Full Fact takes huge amounts of Big Tech money, almost $2.5 million between 2019-2021 from Facebook alone. Another example of corporations funding the people who supposedly keep them accountable. They also receive strong support from Google, Poynter, and Omidyar.
What they do/What they are selling: Truth policing in the service of the powerful.
Characteristic/worldview quote: “Full Fact fights bad information”; “Bad information ruins lives.”
In the #TwitterFiles: A note via the #FakeNewsSci mailing list shows that they are working with “Facebook, Google, Twitter, First Draft and the UK and Canadian governments to create a Framework for Information Incidents.”
Connected to: Facebook, Google, Poynter, First Draft, Shorenstein Center, Graphika, and the government of the UK.
In sum: Leading candidate for inevitable UK Big Brother award.
Integrity Initiative / Institute for Statecraft
Link: https://www.statecraft.org.uk/ for official page; link to Integrity Initiative documents leaked by Anonymous here.
Type: Shady-as-F spookworld surveillance and information control plan that will send you voiding in terror
You may have read about them when: The hacker Anonymous in late 2018 published a series of documents showing the British Foreign Office funded a broad anti-disinformation scheme, centered around the construction of geographic “clusters” of anti-disinformation warriors under the guidance of Britain’s Institute for Statecraft. The initial list of cluster participants included many names who’d go on to become central players in anti-disinformation, from then-NATO press officer (and future Graphika Director of Investigations) Ben Nimmo to would-be Disinformation Governance Board chief Nina Jankowicz to ex-Obama defense official (and McCain Institute head) Evelyn Farkas to the journalist Anne Applebaum. The leak was big news in England, because it contained damning passages showing the British Foreign Office identified Jeremy Corbyn as a “useful idiot” for Russia, but made few headlines in the U.S.
What we know about funding: The leaked documents showed 2016-2017 public funding of £296,500, with a planned increase to £1,961,000 the next year; those numbers were cited by multiple official bodies, including the UK parliament.
What they do/What they are selling: All public traces of the Integrity Initiative, whose tweeting history showed wide interest in identifying Western figures as linked to Russia and other actors, were shut down after the Anonymous leak in late 2018. A subsequent report by the OSCR, the Scottish charity regulator, makes for frightening reading. It describes the activities of the Institute for Statecraft, technically listed as a “charity,” as “not entirely charitable,” adding that “one of its most significant activities, a project known as the Integrity Initiative, did not provide public benefit.”
Characteristic/worldview quote: “Although the principle [sic] target is Russian disinformation and influence, where appropriate clusters also consider other sources of interference where these interact with the Russians.” Also: “The cluster’s main means of influence is through select journalists.”
Gibberish verbiage: “Performance indicators” include “increased education of the younger generation on disinformation and threats.”
In the #TwitterFiles: FBI forwards to Twitter the British Parliamentary report on Russian influence: “We are grateful to those outside the Intelligence Community – in particular Anne Applebaum, William Browder, Christopher Donnelly, Edward Lucas and Christopher Steele – for volunteering their very substantial expertise on Russia.”
In sum: Straight Outta Orwell! The Integrity Initiative documents represent one of the most consequential intelligence leaks of all time — the very dirty underpants of NATO.
Trusted News Initiative (BBC, Reuters, Associated Press, Facebook, Google, YouTube)
Link: www.bbc.com/beyondfakenews/trusted-news-initiative
Institution: Trusted News Initiative
Type: Trusted News Initiative is a partnership “founded by the BBC” that includes media and technology organizations from around the world, including Google and YouTube, Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter, The CBC, The Washington Post, Associated Press, Reuters, and several more. Its members collaborate “to build audience trust and to find solutions to tackle challenges of disinformation.”
You may have read about them when: The Trusted News Initiative established an “early warning system of rapid alerts to combat the spread of disinformation” during the 2020 election. According to Variety, TNI partners would alert each other to disinformation that threatened the “integrity of the election so that content can be reviewed promptly by platforms.”
RFK Jr and a host of other plaintiffs have brought legal action against The Trusted News Initiative and many of its members, accusing them of suppressing information and debate on Covid-19.
What we know about funding: There are few details about its funding or the level of resources contributed by its members, beyond obviously the relationship to the BBC. We do know its expansion to an Asia-Pacific network was “funded by the Google News Initiative.”
What they do/What they are selling: Real-time combating of disinformation relating to issues such as elections and Covid-19.
Characteristic/worldview quote: “We’ll do everything we can, working together, to stop disinformation about Coronavirus in its tracks.”
Gibberish verbiage: Information Apocalypse. The Covid-19 pandemic brought about the “long-prophesied Information Apocalypse.” For the journalists covering disinformation: “Don’t face the Information Apocalypse alone.”
Twitter Files Reference: Claire Wardle in May 2019 mentions “BBC Media Action who were in the room told us about this ridiculous database they have. It lists the sources of information people trust around the world localized by country, region and sector of the population (farmers, teachers, etc).”
Closely connected to: Big tech and big media, and anti-disinformation groups like Information Futures Lab/First Draft.
In sum: A mammoth anti-disinformation initiative bringing together the biggest media and tech companies on the planet.
Center for Countering Digital Hate
Link: https://counterhate.com/
Type: An NGO cut-out engaged in brazen smearing, attacking of dissenting views, deplatforming, censoring and pro-active shrinkage of the Overton window.
You may have read about them when: They issued a report called the “Disinformation Dozen” which sought to “deplatform” dissident Covid thinkers from Substack, including RFK Jr, smearing them as “anti-vaxxers.” CCHD are experts in strategically conflating serious voices with the fringes, mixing them together to isolate genuine actors and squash dissent. What is unique about CCHD is its blatant distortions, vicious tone, and cynical appropriation of anti-racist, anti-sexist, and public health rhetoric. The group promotes explicitly pro-censorship and deplatforming positions, and pushes the boundaries of the new normal. Founder Imran Ahmed is connected to senior UK Labour Party figures. Current campaign work focuses on pressuring advertisers to leave Twitter due to Musk making it a “safe haven for hate and intolerance.”
What we know about funding: CCHD doesn’t declare its funding on its site, though filings show its UK registration (they are also US-registered) received almost £1m GBP in 2022.
What they do/What they are selling: Aggressive targeting of “misinformation” particularly on Covid but also related to climate, including campaigns with strong access to media outlets.
Characteristic/worldview quote: “Science matters. Lies can kill.” “CCDH has forced social media companies to establish precedent and remove hateful or dangerous content, by holding them directly accountable for amplifying and profiting from it.” “Campaigns such as Stop Funding Misinformation reduce the reach of websites that masquerade as real news but in fact spread conspiracy theories, lies and hateful propaganda.”
In the #TwitterFiles: 12 Attorneys General write to Twitter and Facebook on March 24, 2021, asking them to take action on the “disinformation dozen,” referencing the Center for Countering Digital Hate. They state: “As safe and effective vaccines become available, the end of this pandemic is in sight.” On April 1, days later, Twitter adds labels and gives strikes to all the accounts, and permanently suspends one person.
In sum: Institutional anger-merchant NGO with a murky background and bulldog mentality ready to attack all and sundry, to institute their regime of censorship.
Wikipedia
Wikipedia, like many tech behemoths, plays the role of a defender of free speech in certain circumstances, but lately it has become perhaps the most furious grindstone of digital conformity in Western media outside Twitter, Google, and Facebook, institutionalizing a system of blockages that increasingly only let through information reported on in an approving way by large corporate or academic institutions (it has been a great struggle to get Twitter Files material on the site, for instance). Wikipedia was once seen as one of the great experiments in open-source media, and identified with legal challenges to things like the NSA’s illegal domestic surveillance program, but has become just another member of the cartel-like “industry call” that includes the FBI, Twitter, and Facebook (the Twitter Files show the exact moment in which Wikipedia asks for a “disinformation” contact at the FBI), and has taken rigid stands on ridiculous issues like the definition of “recession.”
#TwitterFiles also show Wikipedia staff invited to election tabletops with the Pentagon, and joining weekly “industry meetings” with their Big Tech brethren.
Former Executive Director Katherine Maher is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a World Economic Forum young global leader, a security fellow at the Truman National Security Project, and a fellow at DFRLabs at the Atlantic Council, the military-industrial complex’s favorite Think Tank. It’s amazing how far selling encyclopedias can take you.
There also exist activist groups who work to relentlessly remove or change information with which they disagree.