“Bad Kitty Unleashed” investigative journalists at X released a BOMBSHELL REPORT about the US State Department funding the international censorship group International Fact Checking Network (IFCN).
IFCN, although funded by the State Department, operates in the US.
Bad Kitty Unleashed reported:
This is a massive scandal! The State Department, which legally cannot operate in the US, has been funding US fact-checkers since 2015! Yes, it’s the earliest day!
News organizations operating under the IFCN banner, such as the Washington Post, do the leg work. That then causes posts on Facebook etc to be labeled and the algorithm throttling those posts.
This official International Fact-Checking Network also works with Google. Poynter’s IFCN is funded by CIA linked, State Department’s National Endowment for Democracy and Omidyar grants.
Note that Google started its first US censorship program and expanded it globally using the First Draft Consortium. First Draft also works with IFCN. Poynters Politifact is on the First Draft network.
Here’s more about the newly discovered US government-funded censorship program.
Here is the timeline of events.
April 2015 – First Draft Consortium initiated by Google
June 2015 – The Official First Draft Announcement is out. Along with the Google News Lab partnership announcement (obviously)
August 2015 – Google News Lab partners with Poynter
Sept 2015 – IFCN launched by Poynter
Oct 2015 – Poynter launches IFCN with State Dept NED funding
Oct 2017 – Google news lab partners exclusively with IFCN
December 2018 – Poynter acquires Politifact
♦️Next I will list some key quotes from the beginning of IFCN:
October 21, 2015 – “Today marks the online launch of the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) at Poynter. This informal network, a forum of fact-checkers from five continents, was born from the desire to learn and discuss fact-checking as a journalistic instrument worldwide .
IFCN is supported by grants from the Omidyar Network and the National Endowment for Democracy.
“Poynter’s partnership with Google is the institute’s first major alliance with a digital technology company.”
♦️ Now sharing US links is easy.
“Led by the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) at the Poynter Institute, FactChat is the first collaborative project to bring together a US fact-checking organization with two major Spanish-language news broadcasters to combat misinformation/disinformation during the 2020 presidential campaign.”
“Facebook users in the US and Germany can now flag articles they think are deliberately false, which will then go to a third-party fact-checker registered with IFCN.
These fact-checkers come from media organizations like the Washington Post and websites such as the urban legend debunking site Snopes.
Another danger appears if users try to share the story, although Facebook does not prevent sharing or removing the fake news story. However, the “fake” tag will negatively impact the story’s score in Facebook’s algorithm, meaning fewer people will see it pop up in their news feed.
“Alexios Mantzarlis first headed the IFCN:
Then go to GOOGLE NEWS LAB. And now Principal, Google Trust & Safety Intelligence. As Director of IFCN, he helped draft the fact-checking code of principles and maintained the seminal partnership between fact-checkers and Facebook.
♦️ Now let’s go to Brazil:
– Cristina Tardáguila, NED FELLOW, Founder of Agência Lupa and is in Brazil misinfocon with Zommer. Both are GDI advisors. Cristina Tardáguila is Associate Director of IFCN.
– Laura Zommer as Zommer is the board of IFCN and GĂ©nero & Numero from Brazil. He is also Executive and Editor-in-Chief at Checkeado, the first initiative to check facts and verify public discourse in Latin America.
Knight Fellow Laura Zommer started Factchequeado, a journalism and education center to prevent the flow of disinfo on Spanish-language platforms in the US.
Factchequeado will use an innovative approach developed by Chequeado and Maldita in Latin America and Spain – introducing a WhatsApp tipline to involve the audience in fact-checking. Factchequeado is a collaborative alliance with Latino media and fact-checking organizations.
The IFCN announced in 2015 that it was funded by the State Department’s National Endowment for Democracy.
On Tuesday, The Washington Examiner reported on how the State Department broke the law and funded censorship groups.
An office within the State Department was accused in a new congressional report of violating its mandate to prevent foreign disinformation by funding groups that engage in “censorship” of small businesses in the United States.
“This interim report outlines how government agencies are working with the private sector to ensure that certain businesses do not have the same opportunity to compete online,” said Rep. Roger Williams (R-TX), who chairs the House Small Business Committee. “Even worse, this report finds how taxpayer dollars contribute to censorship that picks winners and losers in the online marketplace.”
The 66-page report was prepared by investigators on the Republican-led House Small Business Committee. For more than a year, the panel has sought funding records from the State Department’s Center for Global Engagement on programs that combat allegations of disinformation and misinformation. The investigation was initiated because of the draw Washington Examiner reported on the office that raised the Global Disinformation Index – a British group that pressured advertisers to eliminate right-wing media outlets in the US.
The release of the report comes as the Center for Global Engagement, which has a budget of about $61 million and a staff of 125, faces the potential of losing funding due to GOP-led frustrations over its involvement with visible domestic censorship groups. A provision through the State Department’s annual appropriations bill, which passed the House this summer and will be discussed in the Senate, aims to ban future checks for the GEC. The office also faces lawsuits from conservative media outlets over $100,000 GEC sent to GDI and support from a company called NewsGuard that rates news outlet-level “misinformation.”
Titled “Instruments and Victims of the Censorship-Industrial Complex,” the House report accused GEC of promoting “tech start-ups and other small businesses in the disinformation detection space to private sector entities with domestic censorship capabilities.” In addition, the report accused the National Endowment for Democracy, a non-profit group funded by the State Department that gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to GDI, “violating international prohibitions by collaborating with fact-checking entities to assess the recognition of domestic press businesses to the credibility of the organization.”
Bad Kitty Unleashed also published several tweets about Google’s work on sensor devices.
And this is called bringing the baby home. Great document found here with Google admitting it all! Google is synonymous with disinfo work!
Google News Lab created the First Draft Coalition in April 2015. Then announced it officially in June 2015.
In August… pic.twitter.com/YYGmc81mYR
– Bad Kitty Unleashed (@pepesgrandma) September 11, 2024
February 12, 2018 Poynter Expands Fact-Checking Franchise by Acquiring PolitiFact.
“Although Poynter owns the Tampa Bay Times newspaper — which created the PolitiFact initiative in 2007 — the acquisition and official relocation allowed Poynter to expand its fact-checking practice and … pic.twitter.com/3KKnzticB6
– Bad Kitty Unleashed (@pepesgrandma) September 11, 2024
This is just more evidence that the US Government is funding outlets to silence independent media like The Gateway Pundit and prominent online voices.
The Gateway Pundit Jim Hoft is participating in the Murthy vs. Missouri lawsuit. Investigations continue into lawsuits about how the government forced social media to silence our websites and others.
**Gateway Pundit reached out to The International Fact Checking Network to get more information on government funding and the silencing of American voices.
