The U.S. State Department collaborated with fact-checkers and academics in an effort to target conservative news outlets, according to a report by the House Small Business Committee.
The report was the result of an investigation spanning more than 14 months. The investigation found that an “interagency body housed within” the State Department — The Global Engagement Center (GEC) — went around its international mandate “by funding, developing, then promoting tech start-ups and other small businesses in the disinformation detection space” to private sector organizations for censorship purposes, according to the report. The report was first obtained by the Washington Examiner.
The report also accuses the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) of breaking international regulations by working with fact-checking organizations “in assessing domestic press businesses’ admission to a credibility organization.” One of the businesses specifically mentioned in the report is the Daily Caller. (RELATED: Mark Zuckerberg’s Overdue Admission About Government Censorship Could Offer Fuel For First Amendment Claims)
EXCLUSIVE: The State Department, joined by the likes of the Poynter Institute, Clemson University, disinfo professor Kate Starbird, and Snopes, have secretly coordinated on a “fake news” listserv targeting conservative media, according to documents obtained by @dcexaminer 🧵1/4 pic.twitter.com/AFWrqddptc
— Gabe Kaminsky (@gekaminsky) September 10, 2024
The GEC recently granted taxpayer money to the Institute of War and Peace Reporting, which gave a subaward to the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, Inc, according to documents, the report says. This subaward went toward persuading international news outlets to take part in Poynter’s International Fact-Checking Networks (IFCN) Code of Principles, “a group of news and information organizations that abide by a certain set of qualities denoting journalistic standards,” the report reads.
The Caller reached out to the State Department but has not heard back at the time of publication.
The House report alleges that it “appears” GEC staff were included in a Google email thread where IFCN assessors criticized conservative media applications — including the Daily Caller and its fact-checking arm, Check Your Fact. (RELATED: America First Legal Launches Investigation Into Biden Admin’s Potential Role In Brazil’s Censorship Of X)
The email group was titled “#FakeNewsSci,” and members were associated with the NED, Poynter, Snopes and other organizations, the report found, the Washington Examiner reported. A University of Washington professor — Kate Starbird — was also on the list, according to documents obtained by the Examiner.
The report says that the communications obtained by the Committee did not show the GEC was an active participant in the conversations, but that it received relevant emails. However, emails from NED staff criticized the Caller’s credibility, according to a document in the report.
The report shows what appears to be a screenshot of an email from an NED-affiliated account. “On the other hand, you really have to ask yourself if you want to be featured on a website with a history of …” the screenshot appears to read, followed by an apparent link to a Snopes article. The email also appears to ask if a writer would want to appear “next to headlines like …,” followed by an apparent link to a Daily Caller article.
An email from the founder of Snopes questions the Daily Caller News Foundation’s funding, according to screenshots obtained by the Examiner’s Gabe Kaminsky.
“Check Your Fact is funded from the Daily Caller’s newsroom budget, and the Daily Caller is funded by the Daily Caller News Foundation (DCNF),” Mikkelson wrote in a Feb. 22 email cited in the report. “So where does the DCNF get its money from? Providing tax forms that merely document how much revenue the DCNF takes in does nothing to answer that question.”
In one example, in 2021, personnel from the State Department-funded National Endowment for Democracy and Snopes founder David Mikkelson took aim at @DailyCaller — with Mikkelson trying to determine its funders. 2/4 pic.twitter.com/0ziYLiRPiC
— Gabe Kaminsky (@gekaminsky) September 10, 2024
The Committee report states that it’s “not appropriate” for the GEC or the NED to be members of a group that “gatekeeps domestic press companies from belonging to a private credibility organization.” (RELATED: Harris Won’t Need A Ministry Of Truth To Crack Down On Speech)
Biden administration officials engaged in communications with a foreign NGO that advocated for online censorship, according to emails obtained by America First Legal in March, the Daily Caller News Foundation previously reported.
/1🚨CENSORSHIP SCANDAL EXPOSED — We just unearthed evidence that Biden’s DHS and State Dept. mobilized federal counterterrorism assets to support a foreign-based organization censoring American speech: the Center for Countering Digital Hate.
THREAD: pic.twitter.com/wHtnW3W2Ph
— America First Legal (@America1stLegal) March 20, 2024
