In his latest piece on the Twitter Files, Matt Taibbi divulged more than one interesting detail about the State Department’s Global Engagement Center, which pays contractors to code and trace the activities of private individuals on social media. But perhaps the most interesting detail is that the leftist Atlantic Council runs something called the Digital Forensic Research Lab, known as the DFRLab, which sent a list of 40,000 names to GEC. Here’s what Taibbi didn’t say: A “resident fellow” at the DFRLab is one Jared Holt, whom VDARE profiled in May 2021 in its Doxing the Doxers series.
2. On June 8, 2021, an analyst at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab wrote to Twitter:
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) March 2, 2023
“Hi guys. Attached you will find… around 40k twitter accounts that our researchers suspect are engaging in inauthentic behavior… and Hindu nationalism more broadly.” pic.twitter.com/0RpK3kyhHC
DFRLab contended that the people behind the accounts were “engaging in inauthentic behavior… and Hindu nationalism more broadly.” The lab sent GEC a list of “Hindu nationalists,” Taibbi reported, who were actually very “real septuagenarian Trump supporters.”
One person caught in the dragnet was Marysel Urbanik, a Cuban-American, who was aghast:
“They say I’m what?”
“A Hindu nationalist,” I said. “Well, suspected.”
“But I’m Cuban, not Indian,” she pleaded, confused. “Hindu? I wouldn’t even know what words to say.”
[Twitter Files: GEC, New Knowledge, and State-Sponsored Blacklists, March 2, 2023]
“Un-American,” Urbanik called it.
8. But Americans on DFR’s list, like Marysel Urbanik, are unconvinced its focus is “exclusively international.”
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) March 2, 2023
“This is un-American,” says Urbanik, who immigrated from Castro’s Cuba. “They do this in places that don’t believe in free speech.” pic.twitter.com/7MKySCe3XN
“I have no connection to any Hindu folks… Just a Reagan Republican here in CT,” another target said.
4. “I have no connection to any Hindu folks... Just a Reagan Republican here in CT,” replied “Bobby Hailstone.”
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) March 2, 2023
“A Hindu nationalist? I’ve never even been out of this country. Let alone the state of NJ,” said “Lady_DI816.”
“These people are insane!” said “Krista Woods.”
Holt’s involvement with DFRLab would be unremarkable except for one thing. A leftist extremist, he’s thick as thieves with Antifa goons who advocate violence, and featured them in friendly podcast interviews.
Such is Holt’s involvement with “antifascists” that he has used their material to dox people for the communist RightWingWatch. “I wrote a piece last year for RightWingWatch,” he said on a podcast:
We were able to sort of follow up on the work of antifascist activists and researchers [emphasis added], who believe they had identified [Jack] Corbin. We were able to come in and hit the nail on the head and just get it down rock solid that this was exactly who he was.
Holt is also an undignified vulgarian who attacks his enemies with foul language.
So you now know that leftists and communists are using your tax dollars to surveil you on social media, and target you for “extremism” or spreading “disinformation.”
