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Some members of the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), a World Economic Forum (WEF)-affiliated advertising group accused of helping carry out censorship online, are receiving money from those same US taxpayers whose speech they work to silence.

Other than scores of the world’s biggest brands and corporations, GARM counts six global advertising agencies among its members.

Despite the allegations (actively investigated by Congress) that the initiative’s promise of securing “brand safety” is used as a smokescreen to blacklist “disfavored” brands, creators, and content and deprive them of advertising revenue, four of those agencies are receiving billions of US taxpayer dollars, the Foundation for Freedom Online states.

This information stems from a review of federal contracts, the free speech watchdog said, naming the four agencies as Interpublic Group (IPG), Omnicom, WPP, and Publicis Groupe.

The last of these, Publicis Groupe (which has ties with the controversial outfit NewsGuard) has a subsidiary called Plowshare Group LLC that has a contract, valid until 2025, worth $394.2 million with the Health and Human Services (HHS) Department of the US government.

Two other subsidiaries – Sapient Government Solutions and OnPoint consulting – whose business is to secure government contracts, “also received hundreds of millions of dollars over the years from a variety of government agencies,” reports the Foundation for Freedom Online.

DDB Chicago Inc., an Omnicom subsidiary, has a 10-year, $4 billion contract to manage the US Army’s marketing account. Omnicom’s Ketchum, meanwhile, earns $247 million for its work for the HHS, while GSD&M Idea City LLC, another Omnicom subsidiary, receives $741 million to produce US Air Force recruitment ads.

IPG’s DXTRA Inc. is also in the business with the HHS, and this deal is worth in excess of $1.1 billion. Still with the same global ad agency, MullenLowe Global gets $454 million “to maintain the Department of Defense’s Joint Advertising, Market Research & Studies program (JAMRS), which recruits for all branches of the military,” the watchdog says.

Finally, WPP’s two subsidiaries also have very strong ties with the military: VMLY&R with the US Navy (a $455 million, five-year contract), while Wunderman Thompson makes ads for US Marines and has done so for decades.

Last but not least – “WPP also owns the world’s leading media buying agency GroupM,” the report states, noting that its CEO, Christian Juhl, “recently testified before the House Judiciary Committee to defend GARM’s actions.”

The post Federal Review: Billions in Contracts to Pro-Censorship Advertiser Alliance Members Deemed “Dangerous” and “Sham” appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

Michigan’s Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson has launched a campaign to root out supposed “election misinformation” – by urging the state’s residents to report each other.

As if more chaotic divisiveness was needed ahead of the November vote, the idea here, in one of the swing states, seems to be to get people to keep an eye on their neighbors, and if what they see and hear is interpreted as “misinformation” – report it, complete with a photo, “if possible.”

A document from Benson’s office provides a Michigan government email as the address for such reports, while the call to this type of action can be found on the official page about “voter education resources.”

The Michigan Bureau of Elections has published a document that aims to address a host of threats to “a healthy democracy” – foreign, domestic, partisan, “or simply malicious.”

Their actions – and that would be “misinformation” about the election process, voter rights, “or even an issue on the ballot” – are presented as a serious threat to election security.

Other than reporting anything they consider to be misinformation about voting and elections in the state, residents are encouraged to seek sources of information and media outlets that offer “true” stories.

Voters are treated as not entirely capable of critical thinking regarding their news, so to help with this, the Bureau recommends itself as a “trusted, verified, non-partisan” place where information can be checked as true or untrue.

Here come the “fact-checkers.” These are the places people in Michigan are recommended to go to in order to seek “truth about elections”: the state’s own government’s “SOSFactCheck” page, but also left-leaning Snopes, FactCheck, and PolitiFact.

The Bureau, however, says they are in the business of debunking misinformation, conspiracy theories, hoaxes, and verifying the “accuracy of political speech” – whatever that may include – as well as of ads, debates, interviews, statements, press releases.

Speaking of “non-partisan” activities, the Democrat secretary of state just recently introduced a program called “Democracy Ambassador,” which promises those who join will receive information about “non-partisan facts and resources” which they should then spread in their communities.

“Squash misinformation before it spreads,” is one of the messages.

But that’s not all from Jocelyn Benson. Yet another recent document from her office focused on “misinformation and AI.” Here, residents are warned about “partisans, grifters, and other opportunists here at home” out to “hack the minds of American citizens.”

The post Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson Is Encouraging Residents To Report Neighbors for “Misinformation” appeared first on Reclaim The Net.