Following yesterday’s exploration of the #BrockGate documents and our look at Media Matters’ “Trump War Room”, new findings indicate that Media Matters has access to the raw data of numerous social media platforms, plus the power to influence their understanding on what is and isn’t “fake news”.
The following is an excerpt from page 10 of the #BrockGate document:
“Media Matters has already secured access to raw data from Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites. We have also put in place the technology necessary to automatically mine white nationalist message boards and alt-right communities for our archive.
We will now develop technologies and processes to systematically monitor and analyze this unfiltered data.”
Media Matters goes on to describe how they found a way to manipulate these social media platforms into thinking that they need their help. In fact, the following excerpt from the #BrockGate document speaks to this concern with precision:
“Out lets that push fake news are completely dependent on Facebook to spread their lies, and ad networks like Google to fund them.
Media Matters has unique insight to help fix the problems in this part of the media landscape.
After Facebook responded to our campaign by acknowledging the problem of fake news and agreeing to do something about it, we began a dialogue. It became clear form these conversations that Facebook needed our help in fully understanding the problem and identifying concrete solutions. Further, it also became clear that we had information and insight that they didn’t have that was helpful in educating them on the full scope of the problem. For example, Media Matters had a detailed map of the constellation of right-wing Facebook pages that had been the biggest purveyors of fake news – as well as insight into the food chain of fake news and how it was moving through the Facebook ecosystem.
Similarly, after Google revised their terms of service in order to prohibit so-called fake news sites from using their advertising network, it was Media Matters that had the information necessary to identify 40 of the worst fake news sites to which this policy applied.”
The following is a brief of summary of the findings in the document:
In the document, the group claims that they will push the Russia narrative forward, they assert that they will steal the best talent from the other left-wing outlets and consolidate them into Shareblue (they will convince “top editorial and writing talent [to] leave competitors to join Shareblue”), they propose a paid “Twitter-like” social network for the “opposition” to collude, they discuss their “Antidote to Breitbart” and their goal of controlling platforms like Google and Facebook, and they also mention a “Trump War Room” and their goal of keeping President Trump “unpopular” and how they are actively trying to portray President Trump as a “weak, think-skinned [sic] ‘loser’ vulnerable to goading”. In all, this is a comprehensive three-year game plan that the left hopes to implement to great effect in their effort to win votes in 2018 and take the White House in 2020.
For more information on the “Trump War Room”, read here.
