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Jun 14, 2023 45 tweets 15 min read Read on X
1/🚨🗣️ EXPOSED — A secret list of journalists pushing propaganda on behalf of the US govt has been revealed as a result of our litigation against the State Dept to uncover the dark truth about the Global Engagement Center (GEC).

Read on to see the secret list below:
2/ We obtained more documents from our lawsuit against the State Department about the GEC, exposing the international censorship czars. Meet the 11 “journalists” who decide what you can see online.
aflegal.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/wp-content/upl… Image
3/ Key Takeaway: The global cabal of “fact-checkers” do not appear to be the benevolent truth-seekers they say. They appear to be highly ideological activists, affiliated through the Poynter network, backed by the same money to say the same thing.
4/ Their claim of independence is farcical. Independent means free from the influence of others. But as we will see, all fact checkers claim the credential of IFCN, a Poynter-backed organization that gives them their ‘legitimacy’ to influence content moderation online.
5/ FACT CHECK — CLAIM: “fact-checkers are independent” = FALSE

Follow along as we expose the charade of “independence” Image
6/ First up, meet Angie Holan, editor-in-chief of @PolitiFact. She’s been involved with this area since PolitiFact’s launch in 2007 and she won a Pulitzer in 2009. She is deeply intertwined in the Poynter network and lectures and teaches others the ways of censorship.
7/ As AFL has previously shown, @Poynter runs PolitiFact and @factchecknet, which was initially funded by the Department of State-funded National Endowment for Democracy, the Omidyar Network, Google, Facebook, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and George Soros’ Open Society… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
8/ In @mtaibbi Report on Censorship Industrial Complex, @Poynter is #8 on the list of top 50 organizations to know. There he reports that in an election slack, the FBI asked about two tweets, and a Twitter trust and safety staffer cites Politifact as the authority for striking a… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
9/ Next, meet Ana Brakus, Exec. Director and journalist at the Croatian outlet Faktograf. Per the POINT Conference, her main field of investigative interest is the “ultraconservative political and civic movement.”
point.zastone.ba/govornici/ana-…
10/ Faktograf calls itself a nonprofit for good journalism, critical thinking, and an informed public. But it models itself after Politifact! And per its own website, its “launch … was financially supported by the @ned and @StateDeptfaktograf.hr/o-nama/
11/ And Faktograf is so committed to an informed public and critical thinking that in 2021 Brakus called for more authority to censor political leaders.
12/ She told Poynter that “fact checkers should be allowed to fact check politicians” and that censorship bodies need more staffing to “moderate” and “enforce” speech from people like Former President Trump.
poynter.org/fact-checking/…
13/ But while Ana seems to think she should have a say in what you can see online, she doesn’t appreciate being questioned. If you question fact-checkers, her organization says you are harassing or promoting violence.
ipi.media/harassed-threa…
14/ “With this research, we wanted to better understand what the wider fact-checking community faces, as well as how politically exposed persons use and fuel harassment that we are faced with. Sadly, it has become obvious that our experiences at Faktograf are not unique, and that… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
15/ Catch Ana this week @PointConference speaking on “invisible harassment: the perspective of fact-checkers and women” after panels on censoring podcasts and YouTube, the green internet, and innovations in fighting disinformation point.zastone.ba/program-2023/
16/ Third, Barbara Whitaker @barbwhitAP is an editor for the Associated Press. The AP is a wire service, meaning, what they print is reproduced and delivered as news by outlets around the world.

The AP claims: Image
17/ But the Fact Check section reads like the talking points of a left-wing policy shop. apnews.com/hub/ap-fact-ch….
18/ And as we uncovered in our previous thread, AP’s funding from the State Department calls its true independence into question.
19/ Up next is Gülin Çavuş. @gulincav is the editor-in-chief of Teyit, a Turkish fact-checking platform. After going through the American higher education system, Gülin ended up in journalism.
20/ After ‘reporting’ on ‘misinformation problems about refugees’ in 2016, she came on Poynter’s radar and won an IFCN fellowship in 2017. She is now the EIC for a Poynter-credentialed fact-check site with an outsized influence on what content is “moderated”
21/ But Gülin’s contempt for people who don’t think like her is palpable. In Dec. 2020, for instance, she wrote a story born out of a conversation with a taxi driver, lamenting how a lack of critical thinking leads people to believe conspiracy theories.

Her solution: let her… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… Image
22/ In 2018 she called for a global database of false news about refugees so she could control the global narrative migration trends. poynter.org/fact-checking/…
23/ Where does a 30-something journalist in Turkey get the authority to control what people in the United States, and in other countries around the world, can and cannot see on social media platforms?
24/ And seemingly like so many of her peers, what is Gülin’s solution to ‘misinformation’?

More censorship and more control.
25/ Next, meet Jency Jacob @jencyjac the managing editor of BOOM and serving as the arbiter of truth Indian media market, and pushing the fact-checking paradigm into Myanmar, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, among other places.
26/ Jency complains that President Trump called the Washington Post “fake news” but his solution is to do exactly what he is criticizing President Trump for—call the other side wrong with no supporting evidence.
27/ Next is Maarten Schenk, developer of a software technology that allows the internet overlords to detect trending content online. Schenk appears to see it as his job to tell you what is true and what is false. bbc.co.uk/news/resources…
28/ Schenk hates conservatives and their viewpoints, routinely mocking any conservative on his own twitter feed. @mschenk
29/ Schenk, too, appears to be funded or supported, in part, by the State Department nationalfile.com/facebooks-top-…
30/ Next, meet Pablo Fernandez @fernandezpm founder and Executive Director of Chequeado, an Argentinian fact-checking organization.
31/ Pablo recently argued that fact-checking the internet is necessary so that AI applications, like ChatGPT, give users the “correct” answers. Pablo apparently doesn’t think users are smart enough to discern the credibility of information for themselves and must rely on him, and… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
32/ Rabiu Alhassan @alrabiu runs GhanaFact, Ghana’s version of the U.S.-based PolitiFact, backed by and adhering to the Poynter Institute model of censorship.
33/ Rabiu appears to be a censorship fiend. Not only does he want to control the information you can see online, he appears to think that he should be able to censor your family group chat if it takes place on WhatsApp
Image
34/ Rabiu also supports using the weight of government to force private companies, like Twitter, to adopt specific policies requiring the removal of what he and his colleagues determine is “misinformation”
35/ After graduating from the Mundus Journalism program in London, Rabiu started GhanaFact in 2019. Poyter’s financial forms show that in 2020 and 2021, they granted nearly $300,000 to “sub-Saharan Africa” for disinformation. But GhanaFact and FactSpace West Africa (Ghana’s… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
36/ Rabiu has no apparent expertise in anything, but after spending time in the London censorship world, he moved to Ghana and, within two years, received $300,000 from Poynter. He now flies around the world, attending conferences and promoting censorship.… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
37/ Next, Ellen Tordesillas @tordesillas co-founder and “fact checker” at Vera Files, a Philippines-based media outlet.
38/ Ellen appears to have been working with Facebook since 2018 to remove political content from Facebook in the Philippines restofworld.org/profile/ellen-…
39/ Finally, meet Thanos Sitistas @epachtitis the editor of Ellnika Hoaxes.
40/ Thanos seems to think his fellow Greeks are “pretty prone to believe fake news,” and so he has taken it upon himself to censor anything he disagrees with. His favorite justification appears to be saying it comes from the “far-right”
meta.mk/en/sitistas-an…
41/ This is very similar to a claim by @gulincav in 2018. Each of them says that their home population, the people they censor the most, are those most vulnerable to ‘misinformation.’
42/ Last year, Thanos sat on a panel hosted by the EU DisinfoLab called “Disinformation and Dangerous Speech: A View from the Front Lines.” Like many other fact-checkers, he calls the speech he disagrees with “dangerous” and labels anyone who protests violent or threatening.
43/ You can also find Thanos next week moderating panels such as “How to spin an invasion?” and “How can the Balkans use the EU toolbox” point.zastone.ba/program-2023/
44/ 🚨 Find all of our document productions on @StateDept GEC here: aflegal.org/case/f-2022-06…

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More from @America1stLegal

Sep 5
🚨BREAKING — AFL is taking Alvin Bragg back to court.

We just filed a new petition in the New York Supreme Court to EXPOSE his politically motivated prosecution of President Trump.

🧵👇 Image
/2 Last year, AFL filed a lawsuit against District Attorney Alvin Bragg over records requested from his office related to the prosecution of President Trump.

Bragg’s office has refused to provide the records and issued sweeping exemptions to keep the truth hidden.
/3 AFL requested the following records from Bragg’s office:

📄 Communications with the Biden-Harris campaign, the DNC, Color of Change, and CREW

📄 Documents and communications about fundraising tied to President Trump’s prosecution

📄 Documents and communications related to Alvin Bragg’s campaign and fundraising

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Aug 29
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The FDA KNEW these drugs increase depression and suicide risks — and STILL pushed them on kids.

It’s been a year.

Parents deserve answers. Image
/2 On August 5, 2024, AFL filed a FOIA request for FDA records on off-label use of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for children.

The FDA acknowledged receipt and promised action.

Then, it went silent.
/3 The law gives agencies 20 days — plus an additional 10 days, if needed — to respond.

389 days later: no records, no answers, no transparency.

This isn’t bureaucratic delay — it’s lawlessness.
Read 9 tweets
Aug 28
🚨BREAKING — AFL has filed a federal lawsuit against Shell USA, Inc. for allegedly orchestrating a racially discriminatory reorganization targeting white employees.

This is a major fight against DEI mandates gone wrong. Image
/2 The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, claims Shell’s radical diversity, equity, and inclusion policies violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.

Experienced security professionals with top credentials were pushed out to meet “diversity” quotas.
/3 AFL’s clients — loyal, high-performing employees — were forced to reapply for their own jobs, undergo in-person assessments, and compete against less qualified candidates just to “diversify” the workforce.

This isn’t fairness — it’s discrimination.
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Aug 25
⚖️ JUSTICE WINS!

A New York appellate court threw out the $500M fine in Letitia James’s politically motivated civil fraud case against President Trump.

The court found it excessive and a violation of the Eighth Amendment.

AFL’s amicus brief was cited in the dissent. Image
/2 AFL, in partnership with Murray-Nolan Berutti LLC, filed an appellate amicus brief on behalf of the Job Creators Network Foundation.
/3 Our brief argued that the entire case against President Trump should be dismissed, warning that James’s lawsuit was wholly political, undermined the rule of law, and served as yet another example of weaponized lawfare against President Trump.
Read 8 tweets
Aug 25
🚨🗳️ LITIGATION ALERT — AFL has filed two bombshell motions exposing Maricopa County’s shocking assault on election integrity.

Local officials are SABOTAGING Recorder Heap for protecting Arizona elections.

This is a direct attack on voters — and it threatens future elections. Image
/2 On June 12, 2025, AFL filed a lawsuit against Maricopa County to stop its illegal election power grab.

The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors is actively weaponizing power to undermine Recorder @azjustinheap and hijack his election integrity efforts.
@azjustinheap /3 Shortly before Recorder Heap took office, the Board:

➡️ Seized control of the Recorder’s servers, databases, and websites

➡️ Removed nearly all his election IT staff
Read 11 tweets
Aug 22
🚨🗳️ BREAKING — The U.S. Election Assistance Commission just opened a public comment period on AFL’s petition to REQUIRE PROOF OF CITIZENSHIP to vote.

Help us STOP noncitizen voting and secure OUR elections!

Submit your comment by October 20 ⬇️

🔗 regulations.gov/commenton/EAC-…Image
/2 The federal voter registration form currently relies on an “honor system.” 

People just check a box saying they’re a citizen. 

No proof required.

No verification required.

This is a LOOPHOLE that undermines trust in our elections.
/3 AFL’s petition calls for Documentary Proof of Citizenship (DPOC).

Voting is a sacred right for American citizens ONLY.

Requiring DPOC ensures fairness, uniformity, and integrity.

This is common sense!
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