Laura Dehmlow, head of the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force (pictured), who has ties to Twitter’s decision to suppress the New York Post Hunter Biden laptop story, still informs social media sites about foreign disinformation threats , a new report reveals
An FBI official who helped shape the social media platforms’ decision to suppress Hunter Biden’s laptop story is still updating Facebook and Twitter on foreign interference threats, according to a recent report.
Leaks on The Intercept and analysis of court filings show that Laura Dehmlow, head of the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force, still advises private companies, including social media sites, on threats related to subversive information.
Dehmlow and FBI Field Office Special Agent in San Francisco Elvis Chan were named in a court filing last month as involved in communications with Facebook’s parent company Meta, leading to the suppression of the October 2020 New York Post story, in which the contents of President Joe Biden’s son’s hard drive were revealed for the first time.
The suppression decision, although the story has proven true, does not appear to have impacted Dehmlow’s work as she is still in touch with private companies regarding disinformation.
Twitter insisted to the Intercept that it does not “coordinate with other organizations when making content moderation decisions.”
‘[W]We independently rate content according to the Twitter Rules,” a spokesman for Twitter told the outlet.
The lengthy Monday Intercept report shows that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is still trying to control information online — even after it was forced to disband its Disinformation Advisory Board just months after announcing its creation due to fierce public backlash.
Although the Biden administration dissolved its controversial board earlier this year, the documents suggest that DHS has quietly maintained a shadowy presence and an intense interest in monitoring speech it deems wrong or dangerous.
The report also noted that Facebook has a dedicated online portal for DHS and other government officials to request content moderation, and that the federal department plans to combat “inaccurate information” on a variety of issues.
Dehmlow was the lead briefing at a meeting with executives including those from Twitter and JPMorgan in March, stressing “we need a media infrastructure that is held accountable.” Pictured: President Joe Biden (left) walks with his son Hunter (right) as he leaves Church while on vacation in South Carolina in August
Twitter and Facebook suppressed or flagged the story of the post about the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop ahead of the 2020 presidential election. The story was later corroborated by many outlets, including . Pictured: A picture of Hunter’s abandoned laptop
During a Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Cybersecurity Advisory Committee on March 1, Dehmlow warned of the threat of foreign interference and misinformation campaigns on social media sites, which she says could undermine support for the US government.
The meeting was attended by senior executives from Twitter and JPMorgan and was set to provide a briefing “regarding the FBI’s roles and responsibilities in countering foreign influence.”
The discussion notes stressed, “We need a media infrastructure that is held accountable.”
Dehmlow was the main speaker.
‘MS. Dehmlow was asked to provide their thoughts or define a goal for approaching MDM [misinformation and disinformation] and she mentioned “resilience”. She said we need a media infrastructure that is held accountable; we must educate the population; and that critical thinking seems to be an issue today,” the leaked notes read.
Dehmlow and FBI San Francisco Field Office Special Agent Elvis Chan (pictured) were named in an October court filing to notify Meta, Facebook’s parent company, leading to the suppression of the New York Post’s October 2020 story on Hunter Biden’s laptop led
The 2020 communications that led to the Post’s story being withheld online was part of the federal government’s continued effort to control disinformation and also involved Dehmlow’s FBI task force.
Both Twitter and Facebook have either flagged Hunter Biden’s laptop story as misinformation or squashed the reach stories can normally get from social media sharing.
In early October, the Republican attorneys general for Missouri and Louisiana filed the lawsuit.
It notes that Meta identified that Chan and the Dehmlow-led FBI department were involved in communications “that resulted in Facebook suppressing Hunter Biden’s laptop story.”
Many Republicans claim the suppression was a liberal attempt to deflect negative stories about Hunter Biden’s foreign dealings ahead of the 2020 presidential election. Some say it may have affected the outcome.
The Foreign Influence Task Force was established in 2017 by FBI Director Christopher Wray to identify and counter malicious foreign influence operations against the United States.
It remains even after the DHS Disinformation Advisory Board has failed the test of time.
The now-defunct DHS board was supposed to be headed by Russian disinformation “expert” Nina Jankowics, but she resigned before the board was dissolved.
Many likened the body to an Orwellian “Ministry of Truth,” and Republicans said it was an effort by the Biden White House and the federal government to oversee free speech online.
DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas nailed the final nail in the coffin to the board in August after it had a botched rollout from which it failed to recover.
The demise comes months after the woman who had taken over the helm of the board resigned amid a spate of GOP attacks, claiming her bias made her unfit for the job – noting in particular that she used the laptop -Hunter Biden scandal labeled “Trump campaign product”. ‘
Jankowicz resigned from the board just a month after its inception.
An expert advisory board for the department, hand-picked by the Biden administration, noted in a preliminary recommendation report last month that there was “no need” for the disinformation governance board.
A little over a month after the recommendation, the DHS Advisory Board voted unanimously to accept its report, rejecting the need for the board to carry out the department’s responsibilities. The board then disbanded.
The Intercept report reveals DHS’s involvement in suppressing what it deemed harmful or false information online, even after the agency’s highly unpopular Disinformation Governance Board was dissolved in August. Its leader, Nina Jankowicz (pictured), resigned just a month after it was formed and after a botched induction that saw lawmakers liken the body to the Orwellian Ministry of Truth