Post AthDTeZM3g779I2ZPs by Nonilex@masto.ai
(DIR) More posts by Nonilex@masto.ai
(DIR) Post #Ath9HhJ5PYy47FVMR6 by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-05-02T20:44:53Z
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Senior #State Department official sought internal communications with #journalists, #European officials, & Trump #critics#Trump appointee Darren Beattie requested records regarding a large list of high-profile names, organizations, & #RightWing buzzwords for a “#TwitterFiles” style document dump about alleged conservative censorship.#law #FirstAmendment #FreeSpeech #FreePress #privacy #InfoSec #democracy #RevengePolitics https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/05/01/1115988/senior-state-department-official-sought-internal-communications-with-journalists-european-officials-and-trump-critics/
(DIR) Post #Ath9dKWwm3qzqZIria by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-05-02T20:48:50Z
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A previously unreported document distributed by snr US #State Dept ofcl #DarrenBeattie reveals a sweeping effort to uncover all communications between the staff of a small govt office focused on #online #disinformation & a lengthy list of #public & #private figures—many of whom are longtime targets of the #FarRight. #law #FirstAmendment #FreeSpeech #FreePress #privacy #InfoSec #democracy #RevengePolitics #Trump
(DIR) Post #Ath9jjWImCED5X3SKW by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-05-02T20:49:59Z
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The document, originally shared in person w/roughly a dozen #State Dept employees in early March, requested staff emails & other records with or about a host of individuals & organizations that track or write about foreign #disinformation — including #Atlantic #journalist #AnneApplebaum @anneapplebaum, fmr US #cybersecurity official #ChrisKrebs, & the #StanfordInternetObservatory — or have criticized #Trump & his allies, such as the conservative anti-Trump commentator #BillKristol.
(DIR) Post #Ath9u0ppFrL7gY5XhQ by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-05-02T20:51:51Z
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The document also seeks all staff communications that merely reference #Trump or people in his orbit, like #AlexJones, #GlennGreenwald, & #RFKJr. In addition, it directs a search of communications for a long list of keywords, including “Pepe the Frog,” “incel,” “q-anon,” “Black Lives Matter,” “great replacement theory,” “far-right,” & “infodemic.”#law #FirstAmendment #FreeSpeech #FreePress #privacy #InfoSec #democracy #RevengePolitics
(DIR) Post #AthADBUJs3cUEAAeki by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-05-02T20:55:19Z
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For several people who received or saw the document, the broad requests for unredacted information felt like a “witch hunt,”…one that could put the #privacy & #security of numerous individuals & organizations at risk. Beattie, whom #Trump appointed in Feb to be the acting undersecretary for #public #diplomacy, told #State Dept ofcls that his goal…was a “#TwitterFiles” like release of internal State Dept documents “to rebuild trust with the American public”….#law #RevengePolitics
(DIR) Post #AthAWXjNOegOiMRcp6 by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-05-02T20:58:49Z
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The document, dated March 11, 2025, focuses specifically on records & communications from the Counter Foreign Information Manipulation & Interference (R/FIMI) Hub, a small office in the #State Dept’s Office of Public Diplomacy that tracked & countered foreign #disinformation campaigns; it was created after the Global Engagement Center (#GEC), which had the same mission, shut down at the end of 2024. #MIT Technology Review broke the news earlier this month that R/FIMI would be shuttered.#Trump
(DIR) Post #AthB3kFnrDRt6tRa5Y by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-05-02T21:04:49Z
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…included among the nearly 60 individuals & orgs caught up in #DarrenBeattie’s information dragnet are #BillGates; the #opensource #journalism outlet #Bellingcat; fmr #FBI special agent #ClintWatts; #NancyFaeser, #Germany’s interior minister; #DanielFried, a career #State ofcl & fmr US ambassador to Poland; #RenéeDiResta, an expert in online #disinformation who led research at #StanfordInternetObservatory; & #NinaJankowicz, a researcher who briefly led the #DHS Disinformation Governance Board.
(DIR) Post #AthBOvLXoJCdavECpM by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-05-02T21:08:33Z
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When told of their inclusion in the records request, multiple people expressed alarm that such a list exists at all in an American institution. “When I was in government I’d never [have] done anything like that,” #BillKristol, a fmr chief of staff to VP Dan Quayle, says. “What would be the innocent reason for doing that?”#Trump #law #FirstAmendment #FreeSpeech #FreePress #InfoSec #democracy #RevengePolitics
(DIR) Post #AthBPXEQxC5t5sC41I by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-05-02T21:08:45Z
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#DanielFried echoes this sentiment. “I spent 40 years in the #State Dept, & you didn’t collect names or demand email records…I’ve never heard of such a thing”—at least not in the American context, he clarifies. It did remind him of Eastern European “Communist Party minder[s] watching over the untrusted bureaucracy.” He adds: “It also approaches the compilation of an #EnemiesList.”#Trump #law #FirstAmendment #FreeSpeech #FreePress #InfoSec #democracy #RevengePolitics
(DIR) Post #AthBj9uJNq7OXt8g7M by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-05-02T21:12:17Z
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Both #GEC & #RFIMI, its pared-down successor office, focused on tracking & countering foreign #disinformation efforts from #Russia, #China, & #Iran, among others, but GEC was frequently accused—& was even sued—by *#conservative* critics who claimed that it enabled *censorship* of conservative Americans’ views. A judge threw out one of those claims against GEC in 2022 (while finding that other parts of the Biden admin did exert undue pressure on tech platforms).#Trump #law #RevengePolitics
(DIR) Post #AthC0FThvMfekKqOoa by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-05-02T21:15:23Z
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#DarrenBeattie has also personally promoted these views. Before joining the #State Dept, he started Revolver News, a website that espouses #FarRight talking points that often gain traction in certain *conservative* circles. Among the ideas promoted in Revolver News is that GEC was part of a “censorship industrial complex” aimed at suppressing American #conservative voices, even though GEC’s mission was foreign #disinformation.#ConspiracyTheories #law #Trump #privacy #InfoSec #RevengePolitics
(DIR) Post #AthC517GkUbHeScew4 by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-05-02T21:16:15Z
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This idea has taken hold more broadly; the [#Republican controlled] #House Foreign Affairs Cmte held a hearing titled the “Censorship-Industrial Complex: The Need for First Amendment Safeguards at the State Department,” on April 1 focused on GEC.#ConspiracyTheories #law #Trump #privacy #InfoSec #RevengePolitics
(DIR) Post #AthCGMoqOmAO9BPsxM by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-05-02T21:18:18Z
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Most people on the list appear to have focused at some point on tracking or challenging #disinformation broadly, or on countering specific false claims, including those related to the #2020election. A few of the individuals appear primarily to be critics of #Trump, #DarrenBeattie or others in the #RightWing #media ecosystem. Many have been the subject of Trump’s public #grievances for years.#ConspiracyTheories #law #privacy #InfoSec #RevengePolitics #FirstAmendment #democracy
(DIR) Post #AthCYYwI4iMQwvZlAW by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-05-02T21:21:35Z
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#DarrenBeattie specifically asked for “all documents, emails, correspondence, or other records of communications amongst/between employees, contractors, subcontractors or consultants at the GEC or R/FIMI” since 2017 with all the named individuals, as well as communications that merely referenced them. He sought communications that referenced any of the listed organizations.#ConspiracyTheories #law #Trump #privacy #InfoSec #RevengePolitics #FirstAmendment #democracy
(DIR) Post #AthCi7LbW0MiGryKoa by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-05-02T21:23:18Z
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Finally, he sought a list of additional #unredacted agency records—including all GEC #grants & #contracts, as well as subgrants, which are particularly sensitive due to risks of #retaliation to subgrantees, who often work in local #journalism, #FactChecking, or pro-#democracy orgs under repressive regimes. It also asked for “all documents mentioning” the #ElectionIntegrity Partnership, a #research collaboration between #academics & #tech that has been a target of the #RightWing.#law #Trump
(DIR) Post #AthD4XxFGsO9A8H1Sy by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-05-02T21:27:22Z
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Several #State Dept staffers call the records requests “unusual” & “improper” in their scope.…While they acknowledge that previous political appointees have, on occasion, made information requests through the records management system, #DarrenBeattie’s request was something wholly different.Never had “an incoming political appointee” sought to “search through 7 years’ worth of all staff emails to see whether anything negative had been said about his friends,” says one staffer.#law #Trump
(DIR) Post #AthDEL6q7yQQS2OtiS by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-05-02T21:29:08Z
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#DarrenBeattie delivered the request, which he framed as a “transparency” initiative, to the #State Dept ofcls in a conference room at its Washington, DC, HQ on a Tues afternoon in early March, in the form of an 11-pg packet titled, “SO [Senior Official] Beattie Inquiry for GEC/R/FIMI Records.” The documents were printed out, rather than emailed.Labeled “sensitive but unclassified,” the document lays out Beattie’s requests in 12 separate, but sometimes repetitive, bullet points.#law #Trump
(DIR) Post #AthDTeZM3g779I2ZPs by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-05-02T21:31:49Z
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In total, he sought communications about 16 organizations, including #Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center & DHS’s’s #Cybersecurity & Infrastructure #Security Agency (#CISA), as well as…about 39 individuals.Notably, this includes several #journalists: In addition to #Bellingcat & #AnneApplebaum, the document also asks for communications w/ #NBCNews senior reporter #BrandyZadrozny.#ConspiracyTheories #law #Trump #privacy #InfoSec #RevengePolitics #FirstAmendment #democracy
(DIR) Post #AthDbcShmEJwvijEdU by n_dimension@infosec.exchange
2025-05-02T21:33:09Z
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@Nonilex The US #fascists are preparing for purges and disappearances.Don't say "You didn't know" when the Gestapo come for you.
(DIR) Post #AthDiBCTXAAePFGWLQ by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-05-02T21:34:30Z
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#FreePress advocates expressed alarm about the inclusion of #journalists…, as well as the possibility of their communications being released to the public, which goes “considerably well beyond the scope of what…leak investigations in the past have typically focused on,”says Grayson Clary, staff atty at the #Reporters Cmte for #FreedomOfThePress. Rather, the effort seems like “a tactic designed to…make it much harder for journalists to strike up those source relationships in the first instance.”
(DIR) Post #AthE1AR2bQAtXG8GxM by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-05-02T21:37:55Z
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#DarrenBeattie also requested a search for communications that mentioned #Trump & more than a dozen other prominent right-leaning figures. In addition to Jones, Greenwald, & “RFK Jr.,” the list includes “#DonJr,” #ElonMusk, #JoeRogan, #CharlieKirk, #MarineLePen, “#Bolsonaro” (which could cover either Jair Bolsonaro, the fmr Brazilian president, or his son Eduardo, who is seeking political asylum in the US), & Beattie himself.#law #Trump #privacy #InfoSec #RevengePolitics #FirstAmendment
(DIR) Post #AthEEY08IPp2O9vVFQ by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-05-02T21:40:18Z
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It also asked for a search for 32 right-wing buzzwords related to #abortion, #immigration, #ElectionDenial, & #Jan6, suggesting a determined effort to find #State Dept staff who even just discussed such matters.Multiple sources say State Dept employees raised alarms internally about the records requests.#ConspiracyTheories #law #Trump #privacy #InfoSec #RevengePolitics #FirstAmendment #democracy
(DIR) Post #AthEQqtRsgpwSNfRGC by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-05-02T21:42:36Z
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Employees worried about the sensitivity & impropriety of the broad scope of the information requested, particularly because records would be #unredacted, as well as about how the search would be conducted: through the eRecords file management system, which makes it easy for administrative staff to search through & retrieve #State Dept employees’ emails, typically in response to #FOIA requests. #ConspiracyTheories #law #Trump #privacy #InfoSec #RevengePolitics #FirstAmendment #democracy
(DIR) Post #AthEZ1HN9Od6z6kgng by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-05-02T21:44:05Z
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This felt, they say, like a powerful misuse of the public records system—or as Jankowicz, the #disinformation researcher & fmr DHS ofcl, put it, “weaponizing the access [Beattie] has to internal communications in order to upend people’s lives.”“It stank to high heaven,” one staffer says. “This could be used for #retaliation. This could be used for any kind of improper purposes, & our #oversight committees should be informed of this.”#law #Trump #privacy #InfoSec #RevengePolitics
(DIR) Post #AthEkzRHolRYkj65Gi by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-05-02T21:46:15Z
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Another employee expressed concerns about the request for information on the agency’s subgrantees—who were often on the ground in repressive countries & whose #information was closely guarded & not shared digitally, unlike the public lists of contractors & grantees typically available on websites like Grants.gov or USAspending.gov. “Making it known that [they] took money from the #UnitedStates would put a target on them…We kept that information very secure….”#law #InfoSec
(DIR) Post #AthEy07gaQGodd8KG0 by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-05-02T21:48:36Z
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🚨🚨 Several people familiar with the matter say that by early April, #DarrenBeattie had received many of the documents he’d requested, retrieved through eRecords, as well as a list of grantees. One source says the more sensitive list of subgrantees was not shared.…5 weeks after Beattie made his requests for #information, the #State Dept shut down R/FIMI.#ConspiracyTheories #disinformation #law #Trump #privacy #InfoSec #RevengePolitics #FirstAmendment #FreeSpeech #FreePress #democracy
(DIR) Post #AthFdZcHWkx6amGeDw by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-05-02T21:56:06Z
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An hour after staff were informed, Secy of #State #MarcoRubio published a blog announcing the news on the #Federalist, one of the outlets that sued #GEC over allegations of *censorship*. He then discussed in an interview w/ #RightWing Internet personality #MikeBenz plans for #DarrenBeattie to lead a “transparency effort.”“What we have to do now—& Darren will be big involved in that…is…document what happened…because…people who were harmed deserve to know…,& be able to prove…they were harmed.”
(DIR) Post #AthFrF9uNw7hCLVxjM by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-05-02T21:58:35Z
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This is what #DarrenBeattie — & #MikeBenz —have long called for. Many of the names & keywords he included in his request reflect #ConspiracyTheories & #grievances promoted by Revolver News—which Beattie founded after being fired from his job as a speechwriter during the first #Trump admin when CNN reported that he had spoken at a conference with #WhiteNationalists.#disinformation #law #privacy #InfoSec #RevengePolitics #FirstAmendment #FreeSpeech #FreePress #democracy https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/19/politics/darren-beattie-mencken-club/index.html
(DIR) Post #AthGMCEXJN3r6PRFrs by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-05-02T22:04:10Z
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…#State Dept staffers say they fear a selective disclosure of documents…could be distorted to fit any…narrative #DarrenBeattie, #Rubio, or others create.Weaponizing any speech…by deeming it #disinformation is not only ironic, says Jankowicz—it will also have “chilling effects” on anyone who conducts disinformation #research, & it will result in “less #oversight & #transparency over #tech #platforms, …adversarial activities, [&]…people who are legitimately trying to disenfranchise US voters.”
(DIR) Post #AthHubnyqJqGDAzSQi by pattykimura@beige.party
2025-05-02T22:21:33Z
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@Nonilex Well, good to see the excretable Glenn Greenwald made the list of fascist heroes. It took years past obvious for journo pals like Chris Hayes to stop defending him and mocking us unhinged loonies on the left for correctly calling out Greenwald years ago.
(DIR) Post #AtjbEIC9kVRyd3Jkrw by cynblogger@sfba.social
2025-05-04T01:07:25Z
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@Nonilex What a fucking waste of time & money! Oh well, SNAP, Medicaid, PBS, NPR, VOA & Meals On Wheels can fund it.