Guardians of the Digital Realm or Puppets of Power
Feb 29, 2024
Ryan F Samuels
Imagine the guardians of our virtual worlds are former spies. On today's show, we're peeling back the digital curtain to reveal a startling trend: the migration of ex-CIA operatives into the fortress of trust and misinformation policies at behemoths like Google and Meta. As your host, Ryan Samuel, I dissect the explosive findings of a Twitter journalist, providing a critical look at how these social media titans might be influenced by their new hires. We're not just chatting about the control of information; we're examining the very pillars that uphold our rights to privacy, free speech, and the integrity of our democratic processes.
Shrouded in the shadows of controversy, this episode scrutinizes the intricate dance between tech giants and government agencies, questioning their role in shaping the world's narrative during pivotal moments such as the COVID-19 pandemic and political upheavals across the globe. No stone is left unturned as we investigate the business and moral implications of these companies' international actions, pondering the future of online freedoms. It's an episode that demands your attention—if you're concerned about the narratives that shape your world, then join me on this enlightening journey to confront the uncomfortable questions and seek the transparent truth.
Imagine the guardians of our virtual worlds are former spies. On today's show, we're peeling back the digital curtain to reveal a startling trend: the migration of ex-CIA operatives into the fortress of trust and misinformation policies at behemoths like Google and Meta. As your host, Ryan Samuel, I dissect the explosive findings of a Twitter journalist, providing a critical look at how these social media titans might be influenced by their new hires. We're not just chatting about the control of information; we're examining the very pillars that uphold our rights to privacy, free speech, and the integrity of our democratic processes.
Shrouded in the shadows of controversy, this episode scrutinizes the intricate dance between tech giants and government agencies, questioning their role in shaping the world's narrative during pivotal moments such as the COVID-19 pandemic and political upheavals across the globe. No stone is left unturned as we investigate the business and moral implications of these companies' international actions, pondering the future of online freedoms. It's an episode that demands your attention—if you're concerned about the narratives that shape your world, then join me on this enlightening journey to confront the uncomfortable questions and seek the transparent truth.
Ted Neuchat and I got a call from my buddy, ryan F Samuels, and he wants me to tell you that he's a working hard, playing all American. Son of a who is celebrating God, family country.
Speaker 2:
Welcome to the Ryan Samuel show, one of the top political podcasts in the United States, where we have a healthy distrust for government and mainstream Media. The Ryan Samuel show is a raw, unfiltered look at American politics. Follow on Facebook, twitter, youtube, rumble and all podcast platforms. Here is your host, ryan Samuels.
Speaker 1:
Hello, patriots, we are here, we are live and we're going to talk about some groundbreaking news that has, once again, not really made it to the mainstream media, and Twitter, once again, has allowed this story to grow and to flourish as it should. Now there was a journalist on Twitter they go by the name, you know redacted name, and they did an investigation into all of the people who are working at Google, twitter I'm not Twitter Facebook, all these social media companies, and it turns out there is a significant and concerning amount of former CIA agents that work there. Now, if in Twitter they have, you know, when you tweet something or when you X or X, you only have a certain amount of words that you can use, so you have to do it in. When you do a big story like this, you have to do it in in sections. So, section one they released a video that is showing exactly what, what is the most concerning. So let's, let's listen to this video.
Speaker 4:
We're also fighting for the awesome To come to private. I will. I will proper, though I think that if they get into our space first, we own them for life.
Speaker 1:
If they get into our space first, we own them for life. This is William Avenina, a CIA FBI. So they're showing a profile of Aaron B, who is the misinformation policy at Facebook or meta and A former CIA. Then they're showing a profile of Aaron B, who is the misinformation policy at Facebook or meta and CIA. Then they're showing Jacqueline L she's trust and safety at Google former CIA. These are the people controlling your information.
Speaker 6:
Transparency is incredibly important in the work that I do. How do we think about the balance between Harmful content and protecting from the speech it's about?
Speaker 1:
So this is Jacqueline LePore or Jacqueline L. She's the head of trust and safety CIA 10 years. Listen to what she has to say about the Russia illusion.
Speaker 7:
Hacking was done on both sides. They deliberately released the DNC information to WikiLeaks and so, even though the hacking was on both sides, it was the release of the information out into the public domain, with the specific motivation of helping Trump get elected.
Speaker 6:
So we've been able to direct more than two billion people worldwide to expert health resources through our coronavirus misinformation center.
Speaker 7:
Hillary Clinton is a known quantity. She's the ultimate Washington insider in this, and there's no one who has more policy expertise.
Speaker 1:
She's talking about Hillary Clinton, ten years in the CIA, head of trust and safety at Google. Talking about how great Hillary Clinton is. She's a Washington insider.
Speaker 7:
So Donald Trump is the ultimate wildcard. He's unfamiliar with how the intelligence community works and the great fear is that he could politicize them, as he's done with the debates and his information about the Russian hacks. This is extremely significant. We have increasing mounting levels of evidence that Russia's fingerprints are all over this.
Speaker 1:
Mounting levels of evidence, head of trust and safety, former CIA controlling the information that you can find on Google, turns out that the Russian collusion was nonsense. None of it was even remotely close to true. However, that did not stop them from silencing it and continuing to push the agenda. I mean even today.
Speaker 7:
I mean, when Trump talks about being caught in the act, I mean that's exactly what we have here. The hackers have been caught in the act, and we know that Russia has the means and the motivation and the capabilities to do all of this. So this is completely unprecedented in US electoral history. I can't even stress how significant it is.
Speaker 6:
Some examples we had labels on posts about COVID-19 and vaccines to show additional information from the WHO. And when we do remove misinformation from the platform, which I'll talk about in a second we built a tool so that we notify users who saw that misinformation before we removed it, so that they have access to the authoritative information that corrects it.
Speaker 4:
And this election.
Speaker 1:
The authoritative information that corrects it. So, essentially, these two of the biggest platforms on planet Earth are stopping the information they don't like and forcing information that they want you to know in front of your head. This is a. This is a Psyop. I mean, I hate to say that it sounds crazy, but that's exactly what's happening.
Speaker 4:
As we partner with Facebook and YouTube and Twitter and all the social media companies, it's really exacerbated their concern and want to help be a solution and protecting our democracy.
Speaker 3:
We've really strengthened our partnership with our government agencies since 2016.
Speaker 1:
Now that's Jack Dorsey, CEO of formal, formally known as Twitter, saying that he really strengthened their relationships with government agencies. There should be zero relationship, zero, relationship, zero. There is no need for any of these companies to have a relationship with any government agency. Their private companies.
Speaker 8:
I think you've heard us and many others talk about publicly the very good work in terms of sharing information from the intelligence community with social media platforms to consider relative to their terms of service.
Speaker 1:
This is Shelby Pearson, election threats executive. What the hell is an election threats executive? I mean, people just go vote. You wouldn't have any threat to an election if you just required ID. I mean that would be, that would be. Yeah, you register, you show your ID, you prove who you are and then that's it. How else would? If you did that, you would eliminate any threat of any election.
Speaker 8:
Service.
Speaker 9:
How to remediate inauthentic content, in decreasing the dissemination of fake news, in transparency, and I think that's what you're seeing.
Speaker 1:
Payoff Facebook, Google, all of these places have zero, zero responsibility to determine what is fake and what is not. It is up to the users. They are not publishers. They're just a community forum. The individual is a publisher. They publish what they want. Somebody else publishes what they want. They in turn.
Speaker 9:
I think we've all said in the private meetings we had, as well as this public discussion, that tighter coordination really helps us.
Speaker 4:
In the community. It's very similar whether you see IONSA, nga, and let's make a difference what we have in the community. We have the IOP. We don't know anybody Once we get them in.
Speaker 1:
We own them for life Again. So this is a word track he's using all the time. Now check this out. This is super interesting. This is the staff at Google Nick Rossman, trust in Safety All these people in the same photo. For those of you on the podcast who can't see Nick Rossman Trust in Safety CAA 5 years. Christopher Porty Porter, threat Intelligence CAA 12 years. Jacqueline Lopour this is the person we were talking about earlier. Trust in Safety CAA 10 years. Debra Wotowski, global Intelligence CAA 19 years. Chelsea Magnet, policy Manager CAA 9 years. Jamie Washington, threat Intelligence CAA 13 years.
Speaker 1:
Now, google is the biggest information data collection program on the planet. They have access to everything. They have emails, they have phone numbers, because you have Google numbers. I mean websites, you name it. Individuals searches, what they're looking for, their search history. This is a prime target for a CAA app. Literally, what the CAA does is infiltrate organizations and gain intelligence and then use that intelligence to their advantage. Are these people former CAA or are they current and they were compromised? So now they're saying that they're former but they're really still working for the CAA. Should you be allowed to? If you're a former spy, should you be allowed to infiltrate these companies? I mean, what are the chances that nine out of 10 of your trust and safety people or your threat intelligence people are all CAA operatives?
Speaker 3:
All of them. 2018 is an incredibly important year for elections, not just in the US midterms, but around the world. There are important elections in India, in Brazil, in Mexico, in Pakistan and in Hungary that we want to make sure that we do everything we can to protect the integrity of those elections.
Speaker 1:
You have zero responsibility to protect the integrity of any election. None, none, none. So I don't know what the hell, where they're going with this. I don't know. Well, I do know right, but I mean it just doesn't make any sense. You're going well, we need to protect the election, not only in the United States, but for the world. So hold on a second. So now we're controlling the world's elections and what information voters receive on these platforms, and you're telling me this isn't an opera, this isn't a CAA op To control the information that people in foreign countries are receiving before they go vote for elections, to place the people in power that our government wants in power, including our own country. I mean, that's what it sounds like to me. So here is the misinformation policy executive at meta, tweeting or Facebooking, or maybe I don't know. Aaron Berman, here's how we're prepping for the Brazil election your example of the extent meta goes to reduce information misinformation. Check out Facebook's response to the at oversight board recommendations on C 19 misinformation. We are increasing transparency as recommended and will continue looking to health authorities to tell us what misinformation is likely to contribute to imminent physical harm. Very interesting fact about that they're talking about the C 19 and how they're going to control misinformation. But if you're a clinical physician and you disagree with the World Hearth Organization or you disagree with the CDC and you post that you're an expert, by the way, they remove your content because you're disagreeing with the analysis that the government has established. What these companies are doing is they're removing any Disagreement with whatever the government's narrative is, even if it's from experts. Here's how meta is prepping for the Philippines election, including combating misinformation by removing some content, partnering with fat checkers and helping users find voter registration information. You're controlling what the voters see or don't see. The same thing happened with the 100 Biden laptop story. Here is more on what meta is doing in response to Russians invasion of Ukraine, including adding several safety features and taking extensive steps to fight the spread of misinformation. We are working 24-7 on this Question.
Speaker 1:
For you non-believers out there who think I'm crazy, right? What does Google exist to do at the end of the day? Or any business make money, right? What's the population of Russia Millions of people versus the population of Ukraine? So, as a for-profit company like Facebook, why would you alienate an entire country with millions of your users that have millions of businesses that will pay Facebook to market an entire country the biggest country in the world, by the way well, one of the biggest countries in the world. You have taken all of those customers and all of that business and you have decided we don't want it. We're going to fight for Ukraine. Bullshit, that is coming from a different place. That is not a business decision. That is a foolish business decision. You stay neutral. You stay out of it. That's what a business person would do, a real business person would do. But that was the video that was released in the first Twitter thread. Now let's see what else they had to say. This is name redacted, retweeted by Elon Musk.
Speaker 1:
Google and Meta function as extensions of the US intelligence community, with Jacqueline Lopore, google's head of trust and safety, and Aaron Berman met as head of elections and content misinformation policy, both being career CIA officers. He underscores the CIA's substantial control over online censorship. Why is the CIA big tech revolving door where career CIA officers wield the power to censor and decide what misinformation is purposefully suppressed? In the broader conversation about censorship, why are career CIA officers like Jacqueline Lopore and Nick Rossman, who both have a history of spreading misinformation and promoting the Russiagate conspiracy theory, now in senior roles in trust and safety at Google, deciding what is misinformation and overseeing content moderation? These are great questions.
Speaker 1:
The cumulative number of former intelligence community personnel hired by Meta and Google since 2018 is staggering. Before 2018, there were only at handful. Here are the combined hires by both companies CIA 36, fbi 68, NSA 44, dhs, sza 68, state Department 86, dod 121. Elon Musk responded to this and said I just typed in a Google query on my phone. On the top two choices are pro censorship. He tried to Google why censorship and it auto filled is important and it also auto filled is important in social media. Here's the second thread. Why would Google specifically choose these six senior executives to extend the ISF OSAC event in DC? Everyone in this picture, alongside former CIA director Robert Gates, is a current senior executive at Google and a former career CIA officer, except for the attorney from Perkins Co. Second from the left, jack Wenglopour this is thread number three spent 10 years at the CIA before joining Google in 2017. She is currently head of trust and safety, where she not only determines what constitutes misinformation, but also wields considerable power in content moderation on search and YouTube. I wonder how YouTube will treat this video. In this interview, lopour is promoting the Russiagate conspiracy. I wonder if she believes her own propaganda Thread.
Speaker 1:
Number four, jack Wenglopour, a career CIA officer, played a significant role in developing various intelligence programs at Google and YouTube. Manages Intel operations for violent extremism, misinformation, hate speech. Led development of intelligence programs for global election analysis. That developed the YouTube intelligence desk. Developed Google's first machine learning threat detection and analysis program. Provided daily C-19 briefings to senior leaderships at Google and YouTube. Ceo. These are great questions. Notice that this transition takes place after the 2016 election, where Hillary Clinton lost to Donald Trump. Now, no matter how hard they try, no matter how they skewed the polls, no matter how hard they try telling everybody that Hillary Clinton is going to win Donald Trump annihilated it, he smoked it. Hillary Clinton to this day says oh, the election was stolen and they're pushing this cohesively CIA, nsa, fbi, doj, dod all working together with these corporations to push a narrative. Number five Lopour authored a rather bizarre article titled the Best Reason for Iran Deal the West will learn where to drop bombs. Interesting, she wrote an article in 2015 for Reuters Six.
Speaker 1:
Nick Rossman spent over five years at the CIA before joining Google in 2022 as a senior management of trust and safety. His activity on Twitter acts is troubling, especially considering his current position in content moderation. Why does Nick Rossman have a problem with white people Interesting? He seems to be a white person himself. Here are some examples of Rossman's unhinged behavior on Twitter slash X, negative tweets about white people hoping Trump voters cough on their grandparents, giving them C19 that they get to rot. I mean that's interesting. Asking Trump if he is an agent of a foreign power, calling Trump a lunatic and a racist, tagging Keith Overman and using the hashtag resist, calling anti-vaxxers Nazis and Confederates that's interesting.
Speaker 1:
Nick Rossman, trust and safety, former CIA analyst. Here are the tweets Look another way for white people to kill black kids. Anti-vaxxers are like Nazis and Confederates have come out of the dark with Trump. Former CIA head of trust and safety thinks that anti-vaxxers, who are concerned about their personal choices and making their own medical decisions, are clearly out to kill minority children. I mean that has to be it. Odd that the young black men can't profit off their likeness, but the rich white men can. Interesting A rich white kids family can pay for the girlfriend's ticket. Chase Young gets a loan, pays it back from someone who is not a university employee and is suspended. Let me guess he was a white dude.
Speaker 1:
This is the head of content moderation and a former CIA agent. Christopher Porter spent most of his professional career in the intelligence community. After nine years at the CIA, he joined ODNI, where he was head of IC Cyber Analysis Council, leading a team of CIA, fbi, nsa and DOD regarding US elections, while at ODNI, he regularly briefed President Biden, so it's only natural that, as of June 2022, he joined Google as head of threat intelligence. Peter is also a member of the Atlantic Council. His LinkedIn bio states that he likes to talk about Russia and election security. Here is his profile Senior Intelligence Leader. Head of International Security Corporation at Google. Head of Threat Intelligence at Google. National Intelligence Officer for Cyber. Officer of Directive. National Intelligence Intelligence Officer, cia. Eight years Interesting Another spy as an executive in these corporations.
Speaker 1:
Deborah Wotuski joined Google in 2018 as a senior director of global intelligence. Her only prior work experience was 19 years at the CIA, where she was chief of staff to the director. Wotuski is a member of the Council of Foreign Relations. Google Vice President, global Intelligence. Google Senior Director. Led worldwide program that provides risk analysis to help inform strategic business and security decisions, to protect alphabets, people, property and ideas. Ideas. Serve as a senior advisor, providing strategic insights on company initiatives and tactical intelligence analysis of the implications for Google on fast breaking developments across the globe. Before that, 19 years at the Central Intelligence Agency, served in a variety of senior roles, including Chief of Staff to the Director of Chief of Staff to the Deputy Director, demonstrating substantive knowledge, trade craft expertise and management skills as a leader of intelligence analysis and operations. Provide record of managing and resourcing. Analysis of operation, balancing risk and attracting and developing talent across multiple offices. Live representational experience with senior US and foreign officials. Number nine here is a video of Deborah talking about. Let's just watch it.
Speaker 5:
Here at Google, I lead a team that's focused on a lot of the geopolitical developments, and what does it mean for the company? At the beginning of the war, the invasion of Ukraine, I said to my analysts we just need to keep asking ourselves is there something that Vladimir Putin knows that we don't know? I'm not suggesting he's sick, I'm not suggesting that there's a coup around him. We just have to question our own assumptions. Is there something that he knows that we don't know? That could be driving the timeline, that could be driving the decision making, because I've learned that over time you don't have the complete picture. You have an assumption that usually informs that first initial decision or first initial perspective on the action, and I just want us to slow down, take a look at all of the information, look at it from multiple perspectives and recognize that some of the information takes some time to develop.
Speaker 1:
Why on earth would Google give a shit about the invasion of Ukraine? Why would they give a shit? People search invasion of Ukraine on your platform. Articles with keywords come up. News article CNN, fox News, foreign news countries, some supporting it, some opposing it, the Russian news agencies reporting it and that are supporting it. Why does Google give a shit? Why are they having meetings about it? It's just another news story which tells you they're trying to control the information.
Speaker 1:
Catherine Tobin joined Google in 2021. Her career path is like the others listed on this thread. After six years at Bose Allen Hamilton, she spent four years at the ODNI, followed by four years at the CIA, then returned to the ODNI for another three years. Catherine wrote a blog post on LinkedIn sharing her transition from the CIA to the private sector, titled my new mission from spying to startups. For anyone interested, here's my personal blog my new mission from spying to startups. You can read it. It's all on LinkedIn.
Speaker 1:
Beth Shermer joined Google in 2022 as a global threat analysis and Intel manager. Her only prior work experience was five years at the CIA. Omar Ahmed joined Google in 2020 as the manager of trust and safety at Google slash YouTube. His only prior work experience is 10 years at the State Department. I suppose his experience in Indonesia, afghanistan and Senegal qualifies him to be a content moderator. Jamie Washington joined Google in 2018 as a direct threat of intelligence. Her only experience prior to joining Google is two years at the FBI and 13 years at the CIA. Chelsea Magnet joined Google in 2018 as public policy manager. Her only prior work experience was at the CIA for nine years. Dawn Burton joined Google's trust and safety team in 2022. She was previously at Twitter trust and safety, but was fired by Elon Musk. Prior to this, she spent six years at DHA, then four years at the FBI as a senior advisor to James Comey.
Speaker 1:
Yong Suk Lee that's not a joke, that's a real name Joined Google in 2019 as director of global and risk analysis. His only prior work history is 22 years at the CIA, where he was the deputy assistant director of Korean mission center. He is the only member of the council on foreign relations. I mean. This just keeps going on and on and on and on. How many spies do you need to run a fucking search engine? Zero Content moderation is censorship. Fact checking is sense or ship. It is crystal clear by all the evidence provided that the government has partnered with private companies to silence you and control the information you read, you like you want to believe and blowing bullshit facts with smoke up your ass. Thank you very much for tuning in. This is the Ryan Samuel Show. Do not forget to hit that like, share and subscribe button and we will see you next time.
Speaker 2:
Thanks for tuning in to the Ryan Samuel Show. Don't forget to like, share and subscribe.