The “Global Engagement Center” (GEC) of the State Dept. spearheaded the creation of Twitter
- The GEC mission is to “Direct, lead, synchronize, integrate, and coordinate U.S. 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”
- DHS has been in ever increasing control of Twitter since the public-private partnership was formed in 2011
- To explain the background activity of Twitter in a way that readers could understand, I used the metaphor of Twitter as Jack’s Magic Coffee Shop
- “The metaphorical Jack had a great idea, open a coffee shop where the beverages were free and use internal advertising as the income subsidy to operate the business. Crowds came for the free coffee, comfy couches, fellowship, conversation and enjoyment. Over time, guards were placed at the entrance to pre-screen customers. Some were denied.”
Background:
- In 2011 and 2012, the US Government, Obama administration and the U.S. State Dept., came into Jack's Coffee Shop and asked for help delivering coffee to their allies in the Middle East to support the Arab Spring party.
- Jack told the officials he was willing to help but didn't have the capacity to deliver on that scale.
- The officials told Jack they would handle that aspect - he just needed to agree to the partnership and let them utilize his business.
Over the next several weeks, months and eventually years, Jack watched as hundreds of new employees flooded into the business to facilitate the rapid expansion.
- Along with a myriad of new faces, new equipment was delivered, and soon Jack found himself looking at heavy industrial equipment erecting large buildings in the back lots of the property.
Behind closed doors, and through pressure on private platforms, the U.S. government has used its power to try to shape online discourse
- DHS has warned that the threat of subversive information on social media could undermine support for the US government
- Laura Dehmlow, an FBI official, warned that we need a media infrastructure that is held accountable
Direct Portal to the Facility
- To streamline the operational efficiencies as the industrial coffee system grew, direct portals between the Washington DC government offices and Jack's Magic Coffee Shop were created.
- Officials no longer needed to travel to the location of Jack's Coffee Shop in order to operate the valves, mixers, grinders, etc.
The extent to which the DHS initiatives affect Americans' daily social feeds is unclear.
- During the 2020 election, the government flagged numerous posts as suspicious, many of which were then taken down
- A 2021 report by the Election Integrity Partnership at Stanford University found that of nearly 4,800 flagged items, technology platforms took action on 35 percent
- Either removing, labeling, or soft-blocking speech, meaning the users were only able to view content after bypassing a warning screen
The larger objective of U.S. involvement in social media has always been monitoring and surveillance of the public conversation, and then controlling and influencing public opinion.
- The United States Dept of Homeland Security (DHS) is the operating system running in the background of Twitter
- Elon Musk has no idea that a DHS portal into the coffee shop existed and what it would be for
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