Image Credit: Jemal Countess/Getty Images for TIME 
A former Obama official who headed a disinformation watchdog that worked closely with the federal government and Twitter to censor Americans has previously defended pushing propaganda to mislead the public.
Richard Stengel is a former State Department official under Obama and founder of the Global Engagement Center (GEC), which has come under scrutiny since the Twitter Files revealed the extent of its role to censor the American people who defy establishment narratives.
At a congressional hearing related to the government’s corrupt censorship collusion with Twitter, Rep. Dan Bishop (R-N.C.) played audio of Stengel defending propagandizing Americans.
“Basically every country creates their own narrative and story. My old job at the State Department is what people used to joke as the ‘Chief Propagandist’ job,” Stengel had said in the recording.
“We haven’t talked about propaganda. Propaganda, I’m not against propaganda. Every country does it and they have to do it to their own population,” he added.
Here’s Stengel’s original remarks during a Council on Foreign Relations conference:
1) Richard Stengel is the founder of the State Department's Global Engagement Center (GEC).
He describes his job as "chief propagandist."
"I'm not against propaganda. Every country does it, they have to do it to their own population, & I don't think it's that awful."@elonmusk pic.twitter.com/E7D9lXeixK
— kanekoa.substack.com (@KanekoaTheGreat) February 7, 2023
Emails in the Twitter Files revealed the GEC was a key entity involved the social media platform’s censorship policies, working as a go-between for the federal government and Twitter.
25. Some NGOs, like the GEC-funded Global Disinformation Index or the DOD-funded Newsguard, not only seek content moderation but apply subjective “risk” or “reliability” scores to media outlets, which can result in reduction in revenue. Do we want government in this role? pic.twitter.com/s9tobM9rf8
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) March 9, 2023
Journalists Matt Taibbi and Michael Shellenberger testified Thursday before Congress about their findings regarding the Twitter Files, showing a vast web of censorship organizations and protocols that they termed the “Censorship-Industrial Complex.”
Michael Shellenberger on the censorship-industrial complex's Orwellian mission creep:
"You go from fighting ISIS recruiting, then to Russian disinformation, and now they are in a situation where they want to censor true information, accurate facts, because they are worried that… https://t.co/8TmgoA0qdi pic.twitter.com/ZGZ2Whjfbj
— kanekoa.substack.com (@KanekoaTheGreat) March 9, 2023
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