Hawley and Grassley Receive Evidence from Whistleblower Showing DHS Intent to Weaponize Social Media to Control Information
Whistleblower evidence
https://www.grassley.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/grassley_hawley_to_deptofhomelandsecuritydisinformationgovernanceboard.pdf
Documents also suggest that the Department has been working on plans to
“operationalize” its relationships with private social media companies to implement its public
policy goals.
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For example, we obtained draft briefing notes prepared for a scheduled April 28,
2022, meeting between Robert Silvers and Twitter executives Nick Pickles, Head of Policy, and
Yoel Roth, Head of Site Integrity. The notes are marked “TBC,” and it is unclear whether the
scheduled meeting actually took place. The briefing notes frame the planned meeting between
Silvers and the Twitter executives as “an opportunity to discuss operationalizing public-private
partnerships between DHS and Twitter, as well as [to] inform Twitter executives about DHS
work on MDM, including the creation of the Disinformation Governance Board and its analytic
exchange…”
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According to whistleblower allegations, Nina Jankowicz may have been hired
because of her relationship with executives at Twitter. Consistent with these allegations, Silvers’
briefing notes state that both Pickles and Roth know Jankowicz.16
A recent DHS strategy
document further discusses efforts to “[e]mpower partners to mitigate MDM threats.”17
The
document states that in certain cases, federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial or
nongovernmental partners “may be better positioned to mitigate MDM Threats based on their
capabilities and authorities.”
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DHS theorizes that “[b]y sharing information, DHS can empower
these partners to mitigate threats such as providing information to technology companies
enabling them to remove content at their discretion and consistent with their terms of service.”
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