{"id":1767276,"date":"2022-12-08T06:30:24","date_gmt":"2022-12-08T11:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1767276"},"modified":"2022-12-08T08:57:57","modified_gmt":"2022-12-08T13:57:57","slug":"official-state-department-team-focused-on-disinformation-meets-regularly-with-big-tech-companies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/official-state-department-team-focused-on-disinformation-meets-regularly-with-big-tech-companies\/","title":{"rendered":"Official: State Department Team Focused on Disinformation Meets Regularly With Big Tech Companies"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fofficial-state-department-team-focused-on-disinformation-meets-regularly-with-big-tech-companies%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1767276&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-state-department\">State Department<\/a> team that is focused on misinformation and disinformation meets regularly with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-big-tech\">Big Tech<\/a> companies, including Twitter and Facebook, an official said in a recent deposition.<\/p>\n<p>Daniel Kimmage, the\u00a0principal deputy coordinator of the department\u2019s Global Engagement Center (GEC), said that the team would exchange information during the meetings, including providing social media firms with details on how foreign actors such as Russia and China promote \u201cpropaganda and disinformation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe tools and techniques of our adversaries would probably be the number one topic. So what are the campaigns we see, foreign propaganda actors, like Russia, China, Iran or terrorist organizations, what campaigns are they conducting, what tools are they using, potentially which narratives they\u2019re promoting,\u201d Kimmage said during the deposition, which was conducted in November and made public this week. \u201cAnd we would be in listening mode for anything the companies wanted to share.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0GEC, established in the 2017 defense funding bill, has a mission of \u201ccounter[ing] foreign propaganda and disinformation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The GEC filed \u201ctickets\u201d with big tech firms like Twitter flagging posts that allegedly contained misleading or false information, a consortium called the Election Integrity Partnership revealed in a 2021 report (<a href=\"https:\/\/stacks.stanford.edu\/file\/druid:tr171zs0069\/EIP-Final-Report.pdf\">pdf<\/a>). Big Tech companies took down a number of the posts that were flagged by GEC and other entities.<\/p>\n<p>Twitter identified Kimmage and other GEC officials as \u201clikely involved\u201d in communications \u201cabout censorship and\/or content modulation on issues such as election integrity, vaccine\/COVID misinformation, and related subject[s],\u201d according to an updated complaint by the attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana.\u00a0Messages obtained in the case, which alleges unlawful government-Big Tech collusion, showed that the GEC engaged in meetings on censorship, prompting a judge to order Kimmage and other <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/judge-orders-fauci-psaki-top-officials-be-deposed-in-big-tech-censorship-case_4813336.html\">government officials deposed<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>Focused on Foreign Disinformation<\/h2>\n<p>Kimmage said in his deposition he did not recall authorizing GEC staffers to flag posts to the partnership.<\/p>\n<p>He also said that the GEC focuses on foreign disinformation, challenging <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/news\/world\/2018\/02\/13\/global-engagement-center-russia-meddling\/333015002\/\">a media article<\/a> that said the center \u201ccoordinates with U.S. agencies, such as the FBI and Department of Homeland Security, to target the American audience.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe do not target American audiences,\u201d Kimmage said. \u201cThe GEC\u2019s concern is with the actions of foreign propaganda actors. The GEC\u2019s concern stops there. It doesn\u2019t extend to the speech of Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He also claimed that the center only provided Big Tech companies with information and did not pressure them to take action, including action against the spread of purported disinformation.<\/p>\n<p>The center \u201cequips people, it equips, potentially, technology companies to better\u00a0understand it so that they can take whatever actions they would take to stop the spread,\u201d Kimmage said.<\/p>\n<p>The GEC makes available a suite of tools in a so-called disinfo cloud to social media companies, nonprofits, and other groups, previously released documents show. As of 2021, 1,200 entities had access to the cloud, which contained 70 tools.<\/p>\n<h2>Two Instances<\/h2>\n<p>Kimmage acknowledged coordinating with the FBI and Department of Homeland Security, including the department\u2019s\u00a0Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).<\/p>\n<p>He was also shown emails that showed Alex Dempsey, a GEC official, forwarding concerns about a YouTube channel run by Americans about the origin of COVID-19.<\/p>\n<p>One video featured a person that claimed COVID-19 was brought to China by an American. Dempsey flagged the video to Brian Scully, an official at CISA, who then sent the concerns to Twitter, Facebook, and Google, which owns YouTube. The incident was also made known to the FBI.<\/p>\n<p>Kimmage said he was aware of the video but did not know about the emails and did not recall whether he authorized anyone under him to contact CISA.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAre you aware of any other situations where anyone at the GEC flagged content on a YouTube channel run by Americans to CISA or a social media platform or the FBI as a disinformation campaign to be combatted?\u201d John Sauer, Missouri\u2019s solicitor general, who was questioning Kimmage, asked.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo, I\u2019m not,\u201d Kimmage said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t believe that chain teed up an action. I don\u2019t believe it recommended an action,\u201d he added later.<\/p>\n<p>Kimmage also recalled in 2018 how he was informed by a colleague that protesters in a Middle Eastern country were using a social media platform, which he did not identify, to communicate, and that the department was concerned for the safety of its employees.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd this was a concern that was being tracked in realtime, at the highest levels of the State Department. And that was the one time that I recall that I did communicate directly to a social media platform or representative that this was an ongoing concern,\u201d Kimmage said. \u201cI was very specific in my interactions, simply saying that this is a realtime situation where we believe that the safety of our personnel is at stake, and I would simply ask that you review the activity on these accounts to make a determination in line with your own terms of service.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI did not ask for anything to be removed,\u201d he added, \u201cbut I did have a direct interaction about specific content motivated by security concerns about the safety of our people.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"author_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"one_author_block round\">\n<div class=\"top_row\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/author-zachary-stieber\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/WEB_ZacharyStieber-1.jpg\" alt=\"Zachary Stieber\" \/><\/a>Follow<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Zachary Stieber is a senior reporter for The Epoch Times based in Maryland. He covers U.S. and world news.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A State Department team that is focused on misinformation and disinformation meets regularly with Big Tech companies, including Twitter and Facebook, an official said in a recent deposition.Daniel Kimmage, the\u00a0principal<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1895045,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"Official: State Department Team Focused on Disinformation Meets Regularly With Big Tech Companies","footnotes":""},"categories":[547],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1767276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-bongino-report"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"Official: State Department Team Focused on Disinformation Meets Regularly With Big Tech Companies","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1767276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1767276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1767276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1895045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1767276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1767276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1767276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}