Foreign interests have spent over $530 million influencing US policy, public opinion since 2017

Foreign lobbyists and agents acting on behalf of foreign interests have reported hundreds of millions of dollars in payments since January 2017, an analysis of OpenSecrets’ exclusive new Foreign Lobby Watch data reveals. Today we’re making available, for the first time, a searchable database of foreign interests spending on lobbying and influence in the United States. Foreign lobbyists and other operatives acting on behalf of foreign interests wield a significant amount of power, impacting economic and diplomatic policies as well as public opinion.

The law that governs most foreign influence disclosure requirements, the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA), requires any foreign agent or lobbyist representing a foreign principal to register with the U.S. Department of Justice and file detailed public disclosures. These reports may include details that are not found in the more familiar lobbying reports submitted to Congress under the Lobbying Disclosure Act, including names of U.S. officials with whom the lobbyist had contact and copies of materials disseminated, such as ads, press releases, or flyers. While FARA reports are publicly available through the Justice Department, following the money can be difficult, requiring laborious research and records sleuthing. With Foreign Lobby Watch, anyone can quickly learn what foreign interests are spending on lobbying or to influence policy in the United States and how much they are spending. Since the Center for Responsive Politics inherited this project from the Sunlight Foundation, we’ve added a number of features to make the records easier to access. In addition to a full-text search feature, Foreign Lobby Watch data is now searchable by lobbyist or political operative name, registrant, country, and foreign principal. For example, you can find every mention of “tariff” in all of the FARA filings or choose to filter result by firm, lobbyist, country, date, or any combination of the filters.

Here’s what we found: At least $534.7 million has been spent by foreign governments, political parties and other foreign interests to influence U.S. policy or public opinion. An examination of the records since 2017 shows more than 300 lobbying firms and other registrants representing more than 350 foreign clients, including governments, political parties, nonprofits, businesses, and individuals.

https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2018/08/foreign-interests-fara-lobby-watch-exclusive/

Google joins Facebook, Twitter in terminating Iran-linked accounts

Google joins Facebook, Twitter in terminating Iran-linked accounts

by Joe Williams

| August 23, 2018 02:32 PM

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Google terminated 57 customer accounts, primarily on YouTube, that were pushing misinformation at the behest of Iran's official state broadcasting network, the company announced in a blog post on Thursday. The news comes just days after Facebook announced the suspension of 650 pages, groups, and accounts linked to Iran for engaging in "coordinated inauthentic behavior" dating as far back as 2011. Twitter also previously said it removed 274 accounts that appeared to have ties to Iran.

Google said the terminated accounts, which included 39 YouTube channels that collectively had nearly 14,000 views, were linked to the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting. "This effort was carried out as part of the overall operations of the IRIB organization, since at least January 2017. This finding is consistent with Internet activity we’ve warned about in recent years from Iran," Kent Walker, senior vice president of global affairs, wrote in the blog post. The company said it has informed U.S. lawmakers and law enforcement of the findings, which were identified by cybersecurity company FireEye. Google last year removed 42 YouTube channels that were associated with Russia's Internet Research Agency, the company linked to the Kremlin's prior attempts to influence the 2016 presidential election.

In advance of the 2018 midterm elections in November, concerns are growing that the U.S. electoral system is ill equipped to safeguard against nefarious influence from foreign governments. Among the critics is Facebook's former top security officer, who on Wednesday claimed it was too late to protect the fall elections. Senate Republicans earlier this year blocked an attempt by Democrats to attach an additional $250 million in election security related funding to an annual appropriations bill. House Republicans previously blocked a similar attempt by Democrats in the chamber.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/business/google-joins-facebook-twitter-in-terminating-iran-linked-accounts

David Horowitz: Visa, Mastercard Cut Off Payments to My Think Tank Based on SPLC ‘Hate Group’ Label

The David Horowitz Freedom Center has had their donation processing system blocked by Visa and Mastercard allegedly following a campaign by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The David Horowitz Freedom Center stated in a recent email that its ability to accept donations by credit card has been disabled by both Visa and Mastercard following a campaign by the SPLC to label the Freedom Center as a hate group. This situation comes shortly after Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch was forced off the funding platform Patreon following pressure from Mastercard. The Freedom Center is the next target of the SPLC, and they are using Mastercard and Visa again in their attempt to shut down conservative voices. In an email sent to supporters, Horowitz outlined how the SPLC had convinced Mastercard and Visa to block the Freedom Center from receiving payments and donations via credit card. In the email, Horowitz requested that supporters send donations via check to a P.O. Box. In the email to supporters, the Freedom Center lashed out at the move by Mastercard and Visa, saying: “this blow could be the end of the Freedom Center. Decades of work, down the drain because the hateful Left wants to squash free speech and silence an organization that dares to question them.

https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2018/08/23/david-horowitz-visa-mastercard-cut-off-payments-to-my-think-tank-based-on-splc-hate-group-label/