Twitter chief Elon Musk called out the Global Engagement Center, which falls under the purview of the State Department, as a leading source of federal censorship efforts in the United States.
“The worst offender in US government censorship [and] media manipulation is an obscure agency called GEC,” he tweeted late Monday evening.
The GEC was outed in an installment of the ‘Twitter Files’ last month, described by journalist Matt Taibbi as a “fledgling analytic/intelligence” arm to participate in guiding Twitter’s moderation of content.
“They are a threat to our democracy,” Musk added. “That is the line they fed the media about me.”
In a subsequent tweet, Musk provided the thread for Taibbi’s report on the GEC.
The worst offender in US government censorship & media manipulation is an obscure agency called GEChttps://t.co/z6h5975anw
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 6, 2023
RELATED: Elon Musk Puts Media On Notice: You Should Be Worried, ‘We Have Only Just Begun’
Elon Musk Exposes Global Engagement Center as Biggest Censorship Threat
Elon Musk, in late December, was lauding his own efforts at combatting censorship and putting the mainstream media on notice, sending an ominous warning that they should “worry” because “we have only just begun.”
Just days later, Taibbi released the 12th installment of the ‘Twitter Files’ which exposed “an astonishing variety of requests from officials asking for individuals they didn’t like to be banned.”
Much of it focused on the Global Engagement Center and its efforts to squash dissenting views on the COVID pandemic.
https://t.co/BcFhHCvjAE February, 2020, as COVID broke out, the Global Engagement Center – a fledgling analytic/intelligence arms of the State Department – went to the media with a report called, “Russian Disinformation Apparatus Taking Advantage of Coronavirus Concerns.” pic.twitter.com/KjUeE8vejt
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 3, 2023
“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,’” Taibbi wrote.
“State also flagged accounts that retweeted news that Twitter banned the popular U.S. ZeroHedge, claiming the episode ‘led to another flurry of disinformation narratives.’ ZH had done reports speculating that the virus had lab origin.”
Taibbia would also claim “Twitter honored almost everyone else’s requests, even those from GEC – including a decision to ban accounts … because GEC identified them as ‘GRU-controlled’ and linked ‘to the Russian government.'”
29.Twitter honored almost everyone else’s requests, even those from GEC – including a decision to ban accounts like @RebelProtests and @BricsMedia because GEC identified them as “GRU-controlled” and linked “to the Russian government,” respectively: pic.twitter.com/OQjQuKTzTO
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 3, 2023
RELATED: Trump: Musk is a Free Speech Hero Who Has Done a Great Service to This Country
Musk is a Free Speech Hero
If the Global Engagement Center represents the biggest threat of censorship in this country, then Musk, by contrast, is the hero of the story.
His exposure of the GEC and the media/big tech/social media cabal of censorship has been invaluable. Even if nothing has yet been done by lawmakers to hold them accountable for their obvious efforts to suppress free speech.
Everybody dies some day
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 6, 2023
Former President Donald Trump has praised Musk for doing the country “a big service” by releasing the ‘Twitter Files’ and called the visionary billionaire a free speech “hero.”
President Trump considers Elon Musk a hero: “Elon Musk did a big service when he released all of this stuff… I’d say he’s a hero. I think that it’s a big part of his legacy. I think it’s more important than other things he’s done.” pic.twitter.com/okQKfrooBg
— Ethan Harsell (@ethan_harsell) December 21, 2022
Exposing the State Department’s GEC is another step along the path. Even their mission statement reads like a left-wing campaign to focus on what they believe is misinformation, which is more likely simply dissent from prevailing propaganda.
Its mission statement:
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.
Where was this agency when the Russia collusion hoax was prominently making the rounds in mainstream media? Where were they when the Steele dossier was considered a thing?
Where were they to stop “undermining or influencing the … stability of the United States” when Hunter Biden’s laptop was being misreported in an effort to meddle in an American election?
They were, as Musk states, too busy being the “worst offender in US government censorship.”
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