Matt Taibbi and a team of writers have created a 70 page report on the “information cartel” — the new conglomerate cabal of Big Money, Big Government and Big Tech that wants to censor and nudge you into servitude and obedience. Facebook promptly censored his report on censorship. Taibbi tweeted that out, and Facebook realized they were proving his point, and reversed it. It was “just a bug” said a Facebook executive, unconvincingly.
Click to enlarge (twice even) Illustration by mrmooremedia.com
Matt Taibbi, Racket News
Report on the Censorship-Industrial Complex
The citizen’s starter kit to understanding the new global information cartel
Until World War II, America had no permanent arms manufacturing industry. Now it did, and this new sector, Eisenhower said, was building up around itself a cultural, financial, and political support system accruing enormous power. This “conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience,” he said, adding:
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes… Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.
After sixty-plus years, most of America – including most of the American left, which traditionally focused the most on this issue – has lost its fear that our arms industry might conquer democracy from within.
The wannabee rulers seek to craft a battle against a foreign enemy seeking to control the US through “mis-, dis- and malinformation” and to frame free speech itself as “outdated”.
The “Censorship-Industrial Complex” [CIC] is just the Military-Industrial Complex reborn for the “hybrid warfare” age.
Much like the war industry, pleased to call itself the “defense” sector, the “anti-disinformation” complex markets itself as merely defensive, designed to fend off the hostile attacks of foreign cyber-adversaries who unlike us have “military limitations.” The CIC, however, is neither wholly about defense, nor even mostly focused on foreign “disinformation.” It’s become instead a relentless, unified messaging system aimed primarily at domestic populations, who are told that political discord at home aids the enemy’s undeclared hybrid assault on democracy.
The report should become the next go-to document for anyone wondering who is linked to what when yet another Disinformation Institute appears to tell us that black is white, that freedom is slavery and that your car causes storms. Just for examples, the report covers groups like Centre for Countering Digital Hate, the Trusted News Initiative, and to name a random few… ClaimBuster, DisinfoCloud, MythDetector, DisinfoWatch, FactCheck.me, and the Global Disinformation Index.
The Wall of Money feeding the Disinformation
It takes a lot of cash to keep the lies levitating so the report describes large funders and central players like “Craig Newmark Philanthropies” which gave away as much as $419m between 2018 – 2022 to disinformation initiatives and schools of journalism.
In entry number 26 Newmark is described as the “anti-disinformation” elite of the elite.
What they do/What they are selling: The idea that his money can be a “force multiplier” for battling disinformation. Craigslist’s free classified ads helped destroy local newspapers, but Newmark has found friends in journalism with gifts of $10 million to the Columbia Journalism School and $20 million to CUNY’s Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism.
Characteristic/worldview quote: “You can manipulate a person by manipulating a person’s feed. You can tell a person what to believe and maybe tell a person what to do.”
Connected to: Almost everybody, including, probably, anyone currently in the room with you.
In sum: A mega-fund core to power the explosive growth of the Censorship-Industrial complex.
But it’s not just “philanthropists” at work, the US government is funding it too:
The Aspen Institute is a fundraising powerhouse, receiving over $140 million in contributions and grants in 2021. According to USAspending.gov, the Aspen Institute has received tens of millions of dollars in grants and contracts from the U.S. government, primarily from the State Department, but also from USAID.
The following entities and foundations are listed by Aspen as donors of over $500,000 or more, with many donating over $1 million: the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; Johnson & Johnson; JP Morgan Chase Foundation; Walmart; Blackrock; and the Open Society Foundation.
Millions of dollars is paying salaries of people to write lies about how climate skeptics are funded by fossil fuels, anti-vaxxers are conspiracy theorists and to pat journalists on the back with comforting pap like: “Don’t face the Information Apocalypse alone.”
It looks daunting, but this is where it starts — shining the light on the Big Money behind the lies. Spread the word, share the message. Know the enemy.
And tell the journalists,the good guys are not the ones on the same side of the censors. Those who call themselves brave while defending The Powers That Be. Just call them minions…
REFERENCE
Report on the Censorship-Industrial Complex: The Top 50 Organizations to Know