by Alan Macleod
Part 4 - Controlling the Narrative
USAID influences global media and the means of communication in far more profound ways than simply sponsoring news outlets. Last March, a 97-page USAID document was obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.
The document revealed a vast operation to censor and suppress wide swaths of the internet, including Twitch, Reddit, 4Chan, Facebook, Twitter, Discord and alternative media websites. There, USAID lamented, users were able to build communities to create “populist expertise” and develop opinions and viewpoints that challenge official U.S. government narratives.
Although its internal justification was halting the flow of mis- and disinformation, it seemed particularly concerned with “malinformation” – a concept it defines as speech that is factually correct but “misleading” (i.e., bothersome truths the U.S. government would prefer the public does not know).
Chief among the methods USAID outlines to suppress independent media is what it calls “advertiser outreach” – in effect, threatening advertisers into cutting ties with smaller websites to throttle them financially.
The report makes clear that its main concern is not China or Russia, but its domestic population:
The document revealed a vast operation to censor and suppress wide swaths of the internet, including Twitch, Reddit, 4Chan, Facebook, Twitter, Discord and alternative media websites. There, USAID lamented, users were able to build communities to create “populist expertise” and develop opinions and viewpoints that challenge official U.S. government narratives.
Although its internal justification was halting the flow of mis- and disinformation, it seemed particularly concerned with “malinformation” – a concept it defines as speech that is factually correct but “misleading” (i.e., bothersome truths the U.S. government would prefer the public does not know).
Chief among the methods USAID outlines to suppress independent media is what it calls “advertiser outreach” – in effect, threatening advertisers into cutting ties with smaller websites to throttle them financially.
The report makes clear that its main concern is not China or Russia, but its domestic population:
Discussions on disinformation and misinformation often revolve around assumptions of state actors driving the issue. However, problematic information more regularly originates from networks of alternative sites and anonymous individuals who have created their own ‘alt media’ online spaces.
USAID suggests directing the public towards mainstream, corporate sources of information and “psychologically inoculating” them against inconvenient facts that challenge U.S. power by “prebunking” information before people see it. Prebunking includes “discrediting the brand, the credibility and reputation of those making false allegations”—in other words, a state-directed attack against alternative media and critics of the U.S. government. The full report – and a MintPress News investigation on the subject – can be read here.
USAID suggests directing the public towards mainstream, corporate sources of information and “psychologically inoculating” them against inconvenient facts that challenge U.S. power by “prebunking” information before people see it. Prebunking includes “discrediting the brand, the credibility and reputation of those making false allegations”—in other words, a state-directed attack against alternative media and critics of the U.S. government. The full report – and a MintPress News investigation on the subject – can be read here.
USAID, however, is far from the only government institution attempting to control global narratives. The National Endowment for Democracy (reportedly also in Musk and DOGE’s crosshairs) also sponsors media around the world.
The Department of Defense, meanwhile, fields a giant clandestine army of at least 60,000 people whose job is to influence public opinion, the majority doing so from their keyboards. A 2021 exposé from Newsweek described the operation as, “The largest undercover force the world has ever known,” and warned that this troll army was likely breaking domestic and international law.
The Twitter Files further exposed the Department of Defense’s shadowy actions. It showed how the DoD worked with Twitter to carry out a Washington-run influence project across the Middle East, even as the app claimed it was working to shut down foreign-backed disinformation operations. And investigations from MintPress News have revealed how the highest echelons of top social media apps, such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, TikTok, and Reddit, are filled with former officials from the CIA, USAID, and other national security agencies.
Furthermore, U.S.-based groups with close government links, such as the Ford Foundation, the Open Society Foundation, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, all give huge grants to journalists and foreign media outlets.
The Department of Defense, meanwhile, fields a giant clandestine army of at least 60,000 people whose job is to influence public opinion, the majority doing so from their keyboards. A 2021 exposé from Newsweek described the operation as, “The largest undercover force the world has ever known,” and warned that this troll army was likely breaking domestic and international law.
The Twitter Files further exposed the Department of Defense’s shadowy actions. It showed how the DoD worked with Twitter to carry out a Washington-run influence project across the Middle East, even as the app claimed it was working to shut down foreign-backed disinformation operations. And investigations from MintPress News have revealed how the highest echelons of top social media apps, such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, TikTok, and Reddit, are filled with former officials from the CIA, USAID, and other national security agencies.
Furthermore, U.S.-based groups with close government links, such as the Ford Foundation, the Open Society Foundation, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, all give huge grants to journalists and foreign media outlets.
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