State Department hides vast majority of emails in FOIA suit about funding disinformation group

 The suit sought documents concerning the London-based Global Disinformation Index, a non-profit organization that claims its mission is "To disrupt the business model of disinformation." The GEC is known for funding anti-populist internet games abroad, such as "Cat Park", which led the Foundation for Freedom Online to call the GEC "The global-facing political censorship arm of the Internet." Even the names of public officials have been removed from the GEC emails, which Bader told Just the News was "Likely wrong" under the "Personal privacy" FOIA exemption relied upon by the State Department.

Washington Examiner reporter Gabe Kaminsky's series "Disinformation Inc." revealed that GEC and the National Endowment for Democracy, a State-funded private foundation created by Congress, together provided $330,000 to GDI. According to the documents obtained by Bader from his FOIA suit, $100,000 of that came from GEC's Disinfo Cloud, a platform used by several U.S. agencies that was run by Park Advisors.

A handful of job titles filtered through unredacted, including GEC's director of technology engagements and public affairs specialist, and State's senior congressional advisor on public diplomacy and public affairs and a press officer for global public affairs.

Just the News found a job listing for a GEC "Public affairs specialist" through the federal contractor Tuvli, which would technically be the specialist's employer, rather than the State Department.

The only extended unredacted section features an unidentified department spokesperson's April 11 response to Gordon concerning Twitter Files disclosures about GEC, which came out a month earlier.

"The GEC did not fund GDI to study, analyze, or report on social media platforms or accounts inside the United States," and the terms of the award prevented its use for "Any other GDI project or purpose." GEC "Does not suppress narratives" such as the COVID-19 lab-leak theory.

GEC has "No contractual relationship with Hamilton 68 nor its current version, Hamilton 2.0" and provided no funding "Directly or indirectly" to the dashboard of Twitter accounts "Linked" to Russia, the spokesperson's response says, referring to the GEC contractor who helped create Hamilton 68 but claimed it was a side gig.

https://justthenews.com/accountability/watchdogs/state-department-blacks-out-vast-majority-emails-foia-funding