Twitter chief Elon Musk named what he believes is the worst offender in government censorship and it’s an agency most Americans have likely never heard of before.
The Department of State’s Global Engagement Center is a “threat to our democracy,” Musk said on Monday.
He pointed to independent journalist Matt Taibbi's report from January 3 to explain why. In the 12th installment of the Twitter Files, Taibbi called the GEC the “fledgling analytic/intelligence arms of the State Department” and said it took a Russian disinformation report to media and flagged certain accounts as “Russian personas and proxies” based on a dubious list of criteria.
He goes on to detail how the GEC wanted to “insert themselves” into content moderation on the social media site.
4.The GEC flagged accounts as “Russian personas and proxies” based on criteria like, “Describing the Coronavirus as an engineered bioweapon,” blaming “research conducted at the Wuhan institute,” and “attributing the appearance of the virus to the CIA.” pic.twitter.com/a4xBotQZ2m
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 3, 2023
11.The GEC report appeared based on DHS data circulated earlier that week, and included accounts that followed “two or more” Chinese diplomatic accounts. They reportedly ended up with a list “nearly 250,000” names long, and included Canadian officials and a CNN account: pic.twitter.com/GYi4YuPdyu
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 3, 2023
12.Roth saw GEC’s move as an attempt by the GEC to use intel from other agencies to “insert themselves” into the content moderation club that included Twitter, Facebook, the FBI, DHS, and others: pic.twitter.com/h0AXfTswnI
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 3, 2023
In arguing the GEC is a "threat to our democracy," he said this "is the line they fed the media about me."
They are a threat to our democracy
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 6, 2023
Read this thread for more detail https://t.co/2igo7PPwLy
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 6, 2023
According to its website, the GEC's mission is to "direct, lead, synchronize, integrate, and coordinate U.S. Federal Government efforts to recognize, understand, expose, and counter foreign state and non-state propaganda and disinformation efforts aimed at undermining or influencing the policies, security, or stability of the United States, its allies, and partner nations."