(Article republished from YourNews.com)
A whistleblower has brought to light an extensive collection of documents, rivaling the Twitter Files and Facebook Files in significance. These documents depict the formation of the ‘Censorship Industrial Complex’ in response to Brexit and the 2016 US presidential election, marking a concerted effort by the US and UK governments to establish domestic censorship and influence operations akin to those used in foreign countries.
The whistleblower asserts that the Obama White House, in 2017, demanded a counter-disinformation project to prevent a recurrence of the events of 2016.
The documents stem from the Cyber Threat Intelligence League (CTIL), initially a volunteer project of data scientists, defense, and intelligence veterans. Their tactics have seemingly been integrated into various official projects, including those of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
These documents encompass the origins of modern digital censorship programs, roles of military and intelligence agencies, collaborations with media and civil society organizations, and the utilization of covert online tactics like sock puppet accounts.
It is highlighted that censorship efforts against Americans required private partners due to the government’s lack of legal authority in this domain.
The whistleblower alleges that a leader of CTIL, a former British intelligence analyst, was at the Obama White House when the instructions for this counter-disinformation project were issued.
Further investigations by Public, Racket, congressional investigators, and others have documented the rise of the Censorship Industrial Complex, involving over 100 government and non-governmental organizations.
Central to this network is the DHS’s Cybersecurity and Information Security Agency (CISA), supported by other federal agencies like the National Science Foundation.
Emails show that CISA created the Election Integrity Partnership (EIP) in 2020, collaborating with the Stanford Internet Observatory (SIO) and other government contractors. EIP and its successor, the Virality Project (VP), urged platforms like Twitter and Facebook to censor content.
The origins of this mass censorship initiative were unknown until now. In 2018, SIO official and former CIA fellow, Renee DiResta, gained attention for her Senate testimony about Russian interference in the 2016 election. The period between 2018 and Spring 2020 had been obscure in the study of the Censorship Industrial Complex.
Documents now unveil that in 2019, US and UK military and intelligence contractors, led by former UK defense researcher Sara-Jayne “SJ” Terp, developed a comprehensive censorship framework. These contractors co-led CTIL, which later partnered with CISA in spring 2020.
CTIL’s model and public-private approach laid the foundation for US and UK censorship and disinformation strategies in 2020 and 2021, embedding censorship within cybersecurity and counter-disinformation agendas, focusing on suppressing disfavored narratives, and pressuring social media platforms to censor content.
In spring 2020, CTIL began monitoring social media for content contrary to lockdown narratives, discussing content takedowns, and reporting website domains. Beyond censorship, CTIL engaged in operations to influence public opinion, including promoting counter-messaging, co-opting hashtags, creating fake online identities, and infiltrating private groups.
The whistleblower, whose credibility is supported by extensive cross-checking of public sources, was recruited to participate in CTIL through DHS-hosted cybersecurity meetings.
The FBI declined to comment on these revelations, and CISA did not respond to inquiries. Terp and other key CTIL figures also did not provide comments.
These documents depict a sophisticated and coordinated effort by the US and UK governments to build domestic censorship and influence operations, applying tactics previously used in foreign interventions.
In the coming days and weeks, these documents will be presented to Congressional investigators, and the public release of as much information as possible is planned, with the whistleblower’s identity protected.
This report necessitates a deeper examination of the events leading up to the creation of CTIL in 2018 and 2019 and its pivotal role in the emergence and growth of the Censorship Industrial Complex.
Read more at: YourNews.com
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