@Mastodon @dpgalliance

Congrats!

> #Mastodon’s mission is to ensure that our online social spaces belong to the people forever, and provide a safe place for public discourse.

This is the ideal place for #science, public institutions, #journalism, #education and everbody who shares these values!

“This is what happens when the president & (Secy of #Defense #PeteHegseth) demand the #NationalGuard state assets deploy immediately with no plan in place … (&) no federal funding available for #food, #water, #fuel & #lodging,” the source said. “This is really the failure of the #FederalGovernment. If you’re going to federalize these #troops, then take care of them.”

@eff @evacide @404mediaco
Instead of suing the indiv. plaintiff—which rarely works—target the law’s structure. A const. challenge citing “chilling effect” on rights (e.g. privacy, travel) is possible. Anti-SLAPP laws in some states help if the suit aims 2 intimidate. In court, use counterclaims 2 defend your rights directly. Goal: delegitimize the system, not the person.

This is what #DarrenBeattie — & #MikeBenz —have long called for. Many of the names & keywords he included in his request reflect #ConspiracyTheories & #grievances promoted by Revolver News—which Beattie founded after being fired from his job as a speechwriter during the first #Trump admin when CNN reported that he had spoken at a conference with #WhiteNationalists.

#disinformation #law #privacy #InfoSec #RevengePolitics #FirstAmendment #FreeSpeech #FreePress #democracy
https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/19/politics/darren-beattie-mencken-club/index.html

Several people familiar with the matter say that by early April, #DarrenBeattie had received many of the documents he’d requested, retrieved through eRecords, as well as a list of grantees. One source says the more sensitive list of subgrantees was not shared.

…5 weeks after Beattie made his requests for #information, the #State Dept shut down R/FIMI.

Employees worried about the sensitivity & impropriety of the broad scope of the information requested, particularly because records would be #unredacted, as well as about how the search would be conducted: through the eRecords file management system, which makes it easy for administrative staff to search through & retrieve #State Dept employees’ emails, typically in response to #FOIA requests.

It also asked for a search for 32 right-wing buzzwords related to #abortion, #immigration, #ElectionDenial, & #Jan6, suggesting a determined effort to find #State Dept staff who even just discussed such matters.

Multiple sources say State Dept employees raised alarms internally about the records requests.

In total, he sought communications about 16 organizations, including #Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center & DHS’s’s #Cybersecurity & Infrastructure #Security Agency (#CISA), as well as…about 39 individuals.

Notably, this includes several #journalists: In addition to #Bellingcat & #AnneApplebaum, the document also asks for communications w/ #NBCNews senior reporter #BrandyZadrozny.

Finally, he sought a list of additional #unredacted agency records—including all GEC #grants & #contracts, as well as subgrants, which are particularly sensitive due to risks of #retaliation to subgrantees, who often work in local #journalism, #FactChecking, or pro-#democracy orgs under repressive regimes. It also asked for “all documents mentioning” the #ElectionIntegrity Partnership, a #research collaboration between #academics & #tech that has been a target of the #RightWing.

#DarrenBeattie specifically asked for “all documents, emails, correspondence, or other records of communications amongst/between employees, contractors, subcontractors or consultants at the GEC or R/FIMI” since 2017 with all the named individuals, as well as communications that merely referenced them. He sought communications that referenced any of the listed organizations.

Most people on the list appear to have focused at some point on tracking or challenging #disinformation broadly, or on countering specific false claims, including those related to the #2020election. A few of the individuals appear primarily to be critics of #Trump, #DarrenBeattie or others in the #RightWing #media ecosystem. Many have been the subject of Trump’s public #grievances for years.

#DanielFried echoes this sentiment. “I spent 40 years in the #State Dept, & you didn’t collect names or demand email records…I’ve never heard of such a thing”—at least not in the American context, he clarifies. It did remind him of Eastern European “Communist Party minder[s] watching over the untrusted bureaucracy.”

He adds: “It also approaches the compilation of an #EnemiesList.”

When told of their inclusion in the records request, multiple people expressed alarm that such a list exists at all in an American institution. “When I was in government I’d never [have] done anything like that,” #BillKristol, a fmr chief of staff to VP Dan Quayle, says. “What would be the innocent reason for doing that?”

The document also seeks all staff communications that merely reference #Trump or people in his orbit, like #AlexJones, #GlennGreenwald, & #RFKJr. In addition, it directs a search of communications for a long list of keywords, including “Pepe the Frog,” “incel,” “q-anon,” “Black Lives Matter,” “great replacement theory,” “far-right,” & “infodemic.”

A previously unreported document distributed by snr US #State Dept ofcl #DarrenBeattie reveals a sweeping effort to uncover all communications between the staff of a small govt office focused on #online #disinformation & a lengthy list of #public & #private figures—many of whom are longtime targets of the #FarRight.