National Security

FBI reportedly vetting National Guard troops in D.C. amid fears of insider attack

Published

1 year ago

January 18, 2021

According to the Associated Press, the FBI is vetting all 25,000 National Guard members that have been stationed in the nation’s capital for Inauguration Day after concerns of a possible insider attack. U.S. Defense Officials told the AP there has been no evidence of any threats or issues found.

Moreover, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy said they will be conducting second and third investigations of everyone involved in the operation and revealed that intelligence reports suggest that groups are organizing armed rallies leading up to Inauguration Day, and possibly after that.

National Guard members have been stationed in Washington D.C. since the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

According to McCarthy, some service members in the military attended the pro-Trump rally at the capitol Jan. 6, but it’s not clear how many were there or who may have participated in the Capitol riot. So far, a few active-duty or National Guard members have been arrested in connection with the Capitol assault, the AP has reported.

The key goal, McCarthy said, is for America’s transfer of power to happen without incident.

“This is a national priority. We have to be successful as an institution,” McCarthy told the AP. “We want to send the message to everyone in the United States and for the rest of the world that we can do this safely and peacefully.”

Middle East

Facebook, Instagram Employees ‘Censor or Delete’ Protests against Iran

Published

4 days ago

May 23, 2022

Sara Carter Staff

Former and current Facebook and Instagram employees are shedding light onto the “fact checkers” that are censoring vital content such as protests against Iran. “According to a report by BBC Persian, these employees admitted that at all levels of the company, the Iran regime’s influence has infiltrated, leaving biased and pro-regime content monitors to restrict, censor or delete posts about the current protests in Iran” reports The Foreign Desk.

Similar to censorship at the companies in the United States and elsewhere, the behavior is its own political movement. “The actions by these Iranian employees to remove images of the demonstrations in Iran and associated hashtags helps reinforce the Islamic Republic’s argument that the protests are not so widespread.”

According to one of the former employees who had his identity hidden for security purposes, told the BBC Persian in an interview from Germany, that the workers travel back and forth between Europe and Iran. “About 90 percent” of the decision making on censorship is done by these “fact checkers.”

“These are individuals who single-handedly take posts down. According to the source, employees are not allowed to have their personal cellular devices with them at their workstations, so these individuals go to the break room to report a post from their personal phones and then come back to their workstations and address the ‘complaint’ they just created.”

Instagram removed the below post from the @FarashgardFdn becase people chanted “down with Khamenei”.

This action gives us the impression they are censoring Iranian protesters. This is unacceptable @instagram. Restore the post! pic.twitter.com/gsc0M8UaCE

— Iranian Americans for Liberty (@LibertyIranian) May 16, 2022

The Foreign Desk adds:

In 2019 TELUS International became the third-party company contracted with Instagram and Facebook to become their fact checkers and address complaints from users reporting posts for violent, hateful, or threatening material.

A second source, a former TELUS employee, said approximately 400-500 Iranians work at the company in Germany, a country that is known to have diplomatic and bilateral relations with the Islamic Republic.

The Islamic Republic has learned from the Green Revolution of 2009 to infiltrate Western social media outlets and their parent companies to control the narrative and prevent the international community from siding with anti-regime demonstrators.