Disarm Foundation: Unveiling the Agenda Behind Disinformation Combat
CTIL Files, DISARM, PUBLIC DEMOCRACY and the "Censorship-Industrial-Complex"
Michael Schellenberger’s investigative work on the CTIL files has been pivotal in shedding light on the weaponization of cyberspace. His reporting has contributed significantly to public understanding of the intricate networks and operations within the “Censorship Industrial Complex.” The revelations from the CTIL files have also underscored the importance of frameworks like DISARM, which are utilized in campaigns regarding information exchange through sharing data, analysis, and coordinating methods of effective action. Schellenberger’s findings have not only informed the public but have also highlighted the relevance of this type of publicly funded information warfare underwritten through a convoluted alliance of politically motivated funding sources and think tanks.
From: https://docs.house.gov/meetings/FD/FD00/20231130/116615/HHRG-118-FD00-20231130-SD001.pdf
In an era dominated by digital communication, the fight against disinformation has emerged as a rallying cry for various organizations, chief among them the Disarm Foundation. Fully implemented by the end of 2021, this foundation has positioned itself as a paragon against the “dissemination of false information.” However, closer scrutiny of its modus operandi, particularly its alliances with entities like Public Democracy Action, reveals a more nuanced and potentially concerning picture.
Here’s a summarized timeline of the DISARM Foundation’s development:
Summer 2018: A meeting of aligned activists at a hybrid warfare workshop leads to the formation of the group that would become the DISARM Foundation.
2019: With support from Craig Newmark Philanthropies, the group creates Adversarial Misinformation Influence Tactics and Techniques (AMITT) within the MisinfoSec Standards Working Group and the Credibility Coalition.
January 2020: AMITT establishes the Cogsec Collaborative to build and connect groups responding to disinformation at no charge.
2020-2021: The Cogsec Collaborative works closely with the MITRE Corporation. During this period, MITRE, in partnership with Florida International University and activists Savina Joda and Daniel Sixto, develops the SP!CE framework, employing similar techniques to AMITT.
Late 2021: SP!CE and AMITT merge to form DISARM, while SP!CE continues as a MITRE-owned “fork,” enhancing the organization’s computational capabilities.
September 2021: The DISARM Foundation is registered as a tax-exempt charitable nonprofit in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, supported by Public Democracy America and Alliance4Europe. The name DISARM is derived from the “Disinformation Analysis and Risk Management Framework.”
Since 2022: The Alfred Landecker Foundation, through Alliance4Europe, supports the development, testing, and deployment of the DISARM Foundation’s signature tool.
The Network
These entities have amassed a significant amount of political power through financial scheming and corruption. Political and commercial power is augmented by a vast network of affiliations and partners. Consequently, the relationships between these entities take on an ominous and authoritarian hue.Here is an overview of some of the major players in misinformation and disinformation programs:
Open Society Foundations (OSF):George Soros: Founder and Chair.
Alexander Soros: Chair of the Board of Directors.
Mark Malloch-Brown: President.
Binaifer Nowrojee: Incoming President.
Leonard Benardo: Senior Vice President.
Laura Silber: Vice President, External Affairs.
Democracy Alliance:
Pamela Shifman: President.
Gara LaMarche: Former President.
Rob Stein: Founder.
Patricia Bauman: Board of Directors.
Weston Milliken: Board of Directors.
Public Democracy:
Executive Team:
Scott Shalett: Executive Director.
Rachel Johnson: Deputy Director, Head of Strategic Operations.
Hampton Roese: Head of Innovation and Digital Engagement.
Emilee Lord: Communications Consultant.
Deiandra Williams: Executive Administrative Assistant.
AI Team Fellows:
Shalonda Ingram: Specific roles are not listed, but they are part of the AI team.
Board of Directors:
Eric Sapp: Director.
Rachel Johnson: President.
Rob Lalka: Director.
Shannon Hopkins: Director.
Jason Cohen: Director.
Jim Sype: Director.
The organization works in the policy fields of civic, service, political, advocacy, and community-building initiatives.
The financial affiliations between these entities are likely to be in the form of grants, donations, or collaborative project funding. For instance, individuals like George Soros are known to contribute to both OSF and Democracy Alliance, which in turn support organizations like Public Democracy through their funding initiatives.
1. Democracy Alliance: Instead of fostering progressive causes, their influence is wielded to advance agendas that align with their own interests, stifling conservative, as well as any, dissenting voices and manipulating public opinion under the guise of promoting democracy.
2. Public Democracy Action: While advocating for democratic values, have become instrumental in disseminating information that serves the interests of only special interest and their powerful backers, they spread ideas such as DEI. An influence that seeks only Social control rather than genuinely “empowering marginalized voices.” This type of military planning and operational tool is especially dangerous in this current 5GW system. The use of identity politics, coercive tactics, and fundamentally and politically biased narratives rather than promoting transparency and accountability is a perfect storm for chaos coordination.
3. Knight Foundation: Despite their focus on understanding technology's impact on democracy, their research is used to develop tools and strategies that manipulate the information flow to maintain the status quo and consolidate power.
4. Craig Newmark Philanthropies: Instead of supporting efforts to combat “disinformation,” their resources are be used to propagate narratives that benefit their allies and suppress dissent, further entrenching their control over the flow of information. Yet another propaganda machine.
5. Alfred Landecker Foundation: all of these organizations reportedly, ostensibly, say they are dedicated to fostering “democratic societies”, however, their actions say the opposite.
The Disarm Foundation and similar initiatives are being leveraged to shape public discourse in a manner that serves only a few interests. The opaqueness of the extent of operations rather than genuinely promoting transparency and accountability is part and parcel to the ‘Playbook.’
In this light, the relationships among all of these entities should be viewed as part of a concerted effort to monopolize information channels, manipulate public opinion, and maintain a stranglehold on democratic processes.
Ties That Raise Alarms: Public Democracy Action
Public Democracy Action (PDA), is a questionable, politically biased, nonprofit advocacy group. PDA professes to amplify the voices of the marginalized. But they are primarily ran by special interest organizations, financial, democratically maligned agencies, and organizations who claim to be aligning themselves with the mission to ‘combat disinformation’
The veneer of noble intentions should be stripped away from these maligned agencies. It is up to the independent press and investigative researchers to reveal this network of power brokers, whose intentions to preserve their influence has eroded the fabric of society.
Philosophically, this malignancy threatens the very end of the digital noosphere, and the end of a sustainable and ‘just’ democratic process. It may be the end of civil liberties as we know it.
The Dubious Framework
While the Disarm Framework garners institutional accolades for its purported intent, the primary concerns by anyone everywhere is about its weaponization. It used to muzzle free speech, to create discord, to create levers of propaganda, to control the flow of sentiments, and quash dissenting voices; all under the pretense of “combating disinformation!?” No wonder it appears like something directly out of the Orwellian, “Ministry of Truth”; that such frameworks, despite their purported noble objectives, are implemented intentionally to be being weaponized, and that weaponization is to suppress legitimate discourse and stifle meaningful debate.Strategic Framework for Influence Operations: This diagram illustrates the meticulous stages of planning and execution in influence campaigns, aligning with established national security protocols and adaptable to various departmental or allied operations. It serves as a blueprint for both understanding and developing comprehensive influence strategies, from conception to engagement.
DISARM Framework: A comprehensive open-source analytical tool for agents and operators to navigate the complex 5G landscape, equipped with a diverse arsenal of offensive and defensive strategies derived from global cybersecurity think tanks.
DISARM (ATT&CK) Navigator Matrix: A multi-tool for cyber that has the capability to map out and annotate offensive and defensive strategies, team coordination, and technique detection within the ATT&CK framework, enhancing situational awareness and strategic planning.
From: https://www.disarm.foundation/framework
Evaluating Influence Campaigns: This chart provides a visual representation of the SP!CE methodology for assessing the conduct and impact of influence campaigns, with a color-coded scoring system that aids in identifying areas for improvement and strategic refinement.
Follow the Money: The Seeds of Bias?
The foundation’s reliance on funding from entities with discernible political leanings, such as the Alfred Landecker Foundation and Craig Newmark Philanthropies, casts a shadow of doubt over the impartiality of its endeavors. There looms a legitimate concern that the foundation’s dependency on such funding sources could lead to partial and biased interpretations of what constitutes disinformation, misinformation and absolutely results in the targeting of information that merely contradicts the ideologies of its wealthy benefactors.
Questioning the Mission
The very mission of combating disinformation finds itself under the microscope. I will posit that the term ‘disinformation’ is frequently wielded as a catch-all label to discredit inconvenient truths and dissenting viewpoints. This skepticism extends to any organization, including the Disarm Foundation, that professes to combat disinformation, as it may be perceived as an endeavor to manipulate the narrative rather than to elucidate it.
In Conclusion
Disarm Foundation is the most important and fundamental framework, tool, and weapon, for this digital battlefield. A battlefield in which we find ourselves directly engaged. Whether it be its politics and biases of its collaborators, such as Public Democracy Action, they may have thought that they embarked on their journey with the altruistic objective of safeguarding public discourse from the perils of disinformation, but the methodologies and motivations driving this mission necessitate meticulous examination. They skirt and dance along the cliff-side balanced between propaganda, dystopian ‘psycho-history,’ and on the other side of the dice, in spite of rather than upholding, rests freedom of speech and justice. Our journalism, our journey remains precarious, demanding that any entity embarking on such a mission navigate it with utmost transparency and circumspection.
Sources:
https://docs.house.gov/meetings/FD/FD00/20231130/116615/HHRG-118-FD00-20231130-SD001.pdf
https://twitter.com/shellenberger/status/1729537450752811097
https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/who-we-are/leadership
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/09/23/democracy-alliance-president-pamela-shifman-513786
https://www.politico.com/story/2014/04/democrats-democracy-alliance-liberal-donors-105972
https://www.publicdemocracyamerica.org/our-team
https://www.publicdemocracyaction.org/
https://medium.com/disarming-disinformation
https://www.stimson.org/ppl/sara-jayne-terp/
https://disarm.foundation/
https://disarmframework.herokuapp.com/
https://disarmfoundation.github.io/disarm-navigator/
https://users.cs.fiu.edu/~markaf/doc/o13.venhaus.2021.mitre.210039_archival.pdf
https://users.cs.fiu.edu/~markaf/doc/o14.gocso.2023.spice_archival.pdf
https://github.com/DISARMFoundation/DISARMframeworks/
https://github.com/cogsec-collaborative/AMITT
https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/american-values-network/
https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/disarm-foundation/