Darren Beattie, appointed acting undersecretary for public diplomacy by Trump in February, reportedly sought sweeping amounts of records that would serve as the basis for a “Twitter Files 2.0″ document dump. According to Eileen Guo in Technology Review, Beattie sent a written request to State Department officials to amass “evidence” that would (once again) “prove” a vast conspiracy to silence conservative voices:
A previously unreported document distributed by senior US State Department official Darren Beattie reveals a sweeping effort to uncover all communications between the staff of a small government office focused on online disinformation and a lengthy list of public and private figures—many of whom are longtime targets of the political right. The document, originally shared in person with roughly a dozen State Department employees in early March, requested staff emails and other records with or about a host of individuals and organizations that track or write about foreign disinformation—including Atlantic journalist Anne Applebaum, former US cybersecurity official Christopher Krebs, and the Stanford Internet Observatory—or have criticized President Donald Trump and his allies, such as the conservative anti-Trump commentator Bill Kristol.
Eileen Guo, Technology Review
Beattie’s demands are reminiscent of Matt Taibbi-focused “Twitter Files” because he is attempting, via cutouts, to gather copious amounts of documentation in order to prove a thesis that is already false on its face. Search parameters apparently included mention of Trump mouthpieces like Alex Jones, Glenn Greenwald, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.; but also any mention of buzzwords like “Pepe the Frog,” “incel,” “QAnon,” “Black Lives Matter,” “great replacement theory,” “far-right,” and “infodemic.”
For several people who received or saw the document, the broad requests for unredacted information felt like a ‘witch hunt,’ one official says—one that could put the privacy and security of numerous individuals and organizations at risk.
Eileen Guo, Technology Review
In 2018, Beattie was fired from Trump’s first administration after revelations surfaced that he went to a conference with noted white supremacists in attendance, like Richard Spencer. After his departure, he went on to start right-wing propaganda outlet Revolver News, which published all sorts of conspiracies about the Trump-directed Insurrection on January 6th, 2021.
AUTHOR FOOTNOTE
Like I always say, Dumb mobsters constantly repeat the same operations expecting a different result. This one is no different. And if something feels like it’s in service to Putin’s goal of humiliating/destroying American democracy, it probably is.
One last note: if an official inside Donald’s State Department is concerned about mentions of “incel” that means we should keep using that word every day.
