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Group behind 'disinformation dozen' sought to 'kill Musk's Twitter,' launch 'black ops' against RFK Jr.
By newseditors // 2024-10-25
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The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) — authors of “The Disinformation Dozen” — planned to “kill” X (Twitter), shut down popular social media accounts on other platforms, censor non-establishment voices and “bring back” attacks on “antivaxx” voices, according to internal documents leaked by CCDH insiders. (Article by Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D. republished from ChildrensHealthDefense.org) Investigative journalists Paul D. Thacker and Matt Taibbi on Tuesday released the documents on The Disinformation Chronicle and X. Thacker told The Defender he spoke with “several CCDH insiders” who provided minutes from internal CCDH staff meetings that took place between January and early this month. According to the documents, CCDH planned to organize “black ops” against Robert F. Kennedy Jr., chairman on leave from Children’s Health Defense (CHD), and pressure Substack to remove COVID-19 vaccine critics Dr. Joseph Mercola and Alex Berenson from its platform. “Black ops” are defined as a “secret mission or campaign carried out by a military, governmental, or other organization, typically one in which the organization conceals or denies its involvement. The minutes from CCDH’s Jan. 8 staff meeting included this: “RFK — black ops being set up to look at RFK. Nervousness about the impact of him on the election. We may be asked to comment, particularly from antivaxx.” CCDH previously included Kennedy and Mercola on its “Disinformation Dozen” list of the 12 “leading online anti-vaxxers,” published in March 2021. Thacker said the “explosive leak” of the CCDH documents could affect the U.S. presidential election. Thacker noted that CCDH’s founder is British political operative Morgan McSweeney, chief of staff to U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and advisor to Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign. CCDH also maintains ties to key Democrats, including Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), “who has introduced multiple bills to regulate online ‘misinformation.’” The documents reveal that CCDH has pushed for a U.S. social media censorship law akin to the European Union’s “Digital Services Act” and the U.K.’s “Online Safety Act.” “The CCDH documents carry particular importance because McSweeney’s Labour Together political operatives have been teaching election strategy to Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, leading Politico to call Labour and the Democrats ‘sister parties,’” Thacker and Taibbi wrote. Thacker’s tweet announcing the leak had garnered over 35 million views as of press time, while BBC Radio 4’s “Today” aired a report on the leak today. CHD CEO Mary Holland said: “Kudos to Thacker and Taibbi for this important investigative report. To see ‘kill Musk’s Twitter’ as one of the primary objectives of CCDH, an intricately politically connected organization, is an outrage. We know for certain that ‘killing information’ was one of the critical ways people were indeed killed in the COVID era. “CCDH’s effort is one of many to ‘kill free speech’ in the name of ‘eliminating misinformation.’ Without a doubt, the First Amendment’s freedom of speech and freedom of the press are on the ballot this November. “Let’s remember German Jewish poet Heinrich Heine’s famous admonition of the 1820’s: ‘Where they burn books, they will also ultimately burn people.’” Thacker and Taibbi also noted that CCDH’s focus on “Kill Musk’s Twitter” raises questions about the nonprofit’s tax-exempt status with the IRS. Thacker told The Defender he is working with Taibbi to roll out more stories over the coming weeks. CCDH lobbied for U.S. legislation to regulate social media platforms CCDH has also attempted to hurt X financially by pressuring potential advertisers and lobbying politicians to enact laws regulating social media platforms. Noting that CCDH previously “perfected” this tactic in the U.K. when targeting The Canary, Thacker and Taibbi said CCDH’s “growing Washington office is working on similar plans to ‘kill’ the online presence of … Musk.” CCDH referred to this plan as “Advertising focus,” which was listed as an agenda item for at least 10 staff meetings this year. Advertising focus “likely references the group’s apparent strategy of publishing reports that claim Musk allowed hate to proliferate on X, followed by efforts to drive away the company’s advertisers,” Thacker and Taibbi wrote. The leaked documents also show that “Kill Musk’s Twitter” was a top agenda item during those same CCDH staff meetings. One such document refers to “Meeting with 16 congressional offices over the next two weeks to give updates on the Elon lawsuit,” referencing Musk’s since-dismissed lawsuit against CCDH alleging the organization manipulated data to claim X hosts hate speech. According to Thacker and Taibbi, CCDH lobbied for a proposal it calls the “STAR framework,” which would lead to the formation of an “independent digital regulator” that could “impose consequences for harmful content.” The “STAR Framework” was listed as an agenda item during at least 10 CCDH staff meetings this year. “STAR’s core concepts are similar to Europe’s just-instituted Digital Services Act and Britain’s even more stringent Online Safety Act, which puts the national media regulator Ofcom in charge of determining fines for uncooperative platforms,” Thacker and Taibbi wrote, noting the U.K. threatened X with “strong action” under the act. The internal CCDH documents draw a connection between the STAR proposal and overseas legislation. The minutes of the Jan. 8 CCDH meeting, in referencing plans to organize a “The State of STAR” conference, noted that “when we did the original conference, there was no legislation in [place], now [we have] EU, UK, Aus [Australia], CA [Canada], NZ [New Zealand].” The minutes of CCDH’s May 23 meeting referenced possible contact with Thierry Breton, then-European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services. On Aug. 12, Breton posted a letter to Musk, warning that he has a “legal obligation” to censor “harmful content,” while in 2022, Breton said Twitter would have to “fly by our rules.” CCDH ‘using politics’ to ‘weaponize’ misinformation Thacker and Taibbi said CCDH, through its lobbying activities in the U.S., may be running afoul of tax regulations and its nonprofit status — perhaps knowingly. “According to the IRS, CCDH could lose its special tax status if ‘a substantial part of its activities is attempting to influence legislation.’ Yet, CCDH’s third item on its annual priority list is ‘Trigger EU and UK regulatory action’ and the group previously employed the firm Lot Sixteen to lobby congressional offices on ‘misinformation’ in Washington,” Thacker and Taibbi wrote. The minutes of CCDH’s Jan. 22 staff meeting notes, in reference to efforts to promote the STAR framework, that “if it is anything that Congress could have a vote on, it counts as lobbying.” Thacker and Taibbi also wrote that CCDH, while not disclosing donors, raised $1.47 million in donations in 2021 — with $1.1 million of those funds traced back to CCDH board member Aleen Keshishian, a prominent Hollywood agent representing actor Mark Ruffalo and singer Selena Gomez. During congressional testimony in July 2023, Kennedy said CCDH is “funded by dark money.” Thacker told The Defender these new revelations show that CCDH is “using politics to weaponize the idea of what misinformation is.” Read more at: ChildrensHealthDefense.org)
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