1. #CTIFIles2
INTRODUCING THE #CTIFiles
The Deep State, With Its Pants Down
2. Tuesday, @Shellenberger, @galexybrane and I began releasing the CTI League (CTIL) Files. Provided by a whistleblower, they detail activities of a group ostensibly formed for the narrow purpose of fighting Covid misinfo. We quickly found they had wider interests:
3. “I DON’T KNOW A LOT, BUT…”
The documents equal or exceed the #TwitterFiles in explosiveness, offering a devastating portrait of the digital censorship sector – from breathtaking authoritarian views to comic ignorance and lack of self-awareness.
4. The CTIL story has enormous significance because of its close ties to the FBI, DoD, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), a division of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). CISA chief Chris Krebs boasted of CISA’s partnership with CTIL.
5. A whistleblower told Public and Racket CTIL’s online meets were regularly attended by FBI and DHS operatives. The source added CTIL founder SJ Terp said the original go-ahead for the program came from the White House. cisa.gov/news-events/ne…
6. But the #CTIFiles are not just more confirmation of state-aided censorship efforts. They expose much more.
7. Unlike the #TwitterFiles, which detail mostly defensive activity like censorship and deamplification, the #CTIFiles show members instructed in a wide array of “offensive” operations, including infiltration, creation of fake personas, use of burner phones, and more.
8. “IMPAIR THE OPERATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS OF THE ENEMY”
CTIL members repeatedly stressed building a “good guy analog” to disinfo programs of Russians, Chinese, even “Fox News Snorters," using an array of military-style “counters” to disrupt "the enemy” – American citizens?
9. “REPETITION IS TRUTH”
The #CTIFiles also detail how marketing executives with no skills apart from corporate brand management shifted from manipulating perceptions of products to doing it for nation-states, policies, and political parties:
10. @CTILeague has been the subject of reporting before. Accounts like @pepesgrandma aka “Bad Kitty” months ago connected CTIL, DHS, and operations like the Election Integrity Partnership (EIP). The whistleblower docs, however, tell a damning and irrefutable new story.
11. That the DHS and FBI partnered with a group that endorsed both censorship and “bad guy” offensive operations “against U.S. citizens” is only one of many key revelations. The size of this leak makes it difficult to summarize quickly.
12. There are so many ugly details in the #CTIFiles, in fact, that the fastest way to introduce them is to release docs in bunches, by theme. In the next hours, days, and weeks, look for more threads in this space.
First up, momentarily: SOCKPUPPETS AND SPIES.
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1. #CTIFiles3
SOCKPUPPETS AND SPIES
In the #CTIFiles written about today by @shellenberger and @galexybrane, anti-disinformation warriors and officials offer instruction on COINTELPRO-style spy tactics, against a target they knew was forbidden – the American public
2. WHAT WE NEED: “SOCKPUPPETS ON TWITTER AND FACEBOOK”
While #TwitterFiles confirmed use of defensive tactics like censorship/deamplification, the #CTIFiles show “anti-disinformation” operatives planning to go on offense to disrupt speech, using fake personas and spy tactics
3. “YOUR SPY DISGUISE…LOCK YOUR SHIT DOWN.”
CTI League trainings instructed members on creating phony identities to infiltrate groups “like Boogaloo”
1. THE “UK FILES” SPECIAL REPORT
PART ONE: Internal Labour Party Documents Link “Center For Countering Digital Hate” to key Labour faction, fake news episodes
2. On July 31, X/Twitter filed suit against the UK-based Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) for “a series of unlawful acts” it claimed were part of “a scare campaign to drive away advertisers from the X platform.” pacermonitor.com/view/NV3GMHQ/X…
3. U.S. media unfailingly described the suit as an attempt to evade “accountability” by attacking a “nonprofit” conducting “research” on “hate speech.” The Washington Post said X “without evidence” accused CCDH of ties to “potentially even foreign governments”:
1. TWITTER FILES EXTRA:
BIG BROTHER IS FLAGGING YOU
New House report and previously unpublished Twitter Files show: Stanford’s Election Integrity Partnership was a front for government censorship
2. On Monday, @Jim_Jordan's Weaponization of Government Subcommittee released a damning report on the “Weaponization of Disinformation.” Packed with subpoenaed documents, it focused on Stanford’s Election Integrity Partnership: judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-subs…
3. The report showed the EIP, when it flagged 2020 election content, was a stand-in for the Department of Homeland Security.
“We just set up an election integrity partnership at the request of DHS/CISA,” wrote Graham Brookie of Atlantic Council, an EIP partner:
The new Twitter Files stories show: 1) The CEO of the Senate’s top expert on Russian bots, New Knowledge, helped create the Hamilton 68 dashboard;
2) New Knowledge also worked with the Democracy Integrity Project on another “dashboard” project, Disinfo 2018, used as a source to smear @TulsiGabbard;
3) Twitter did not think the issues at New Knowledge were confined to its CEO. One executive also warned about the former NK research chief Renee DiResta, who led Stanford’s Election Integrity Partnership:
1. TWITTER FILES EXTRA
The Senate, New Knowledge, and Manufacturing Russian Bot Hysteria
Reporting by @SchmidtSue1
2. On December 17, 2018, a new report to the Senate Intelligence Committee describing pervasive Russian bot activity generated scare headlines by the dozen:
3. Virginia Senator Mark Warner of the Senate Intelligence Committee called it a “bombshell”:
1. TWITTER FILES: Missouri v. Biden edition
"Thank you for your ongoing collaboration!"
2. After a controversial decision in the Missouri v. Biden lawsuit, here are a few docs from the Twitter Files, illustrating what the Attorneys General meant when they claimed a “Censorship Enterprise” exists.
3. Judge Terry Doughty in his ruling said the government “significantly encouraged” and “coerced” tech platforms into censoring content. What might “significant encouragement” look like?