Setting the Stage
The Department of Homeland Security has partnered with universities for decades, but the nature of that partnership in 2014 changed from external threats of terrorism to internal threats of extremism.
…the Department of Justice and academia to bring together subject-matter experts from a variety of disciplines to participate in summits aimed at developing strategic approaches to preventing multiple casualty violence and countering violent extremism.
With the new paradigm of network regulation justified, the DHS then need only gift excess taxation (grants) to “subject-matter experts” within this new counter-extremism industry, setting the stage for a new internet.
Recent advances in technology have underpinned the growth of social media and messaging platforms online. However, that same technology has also enabled terrorist exploitation of the internet, where extremist organizations recruit, radicalize, and direct supporters. Since the July 2017 launch of the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism--an organization led by Facebook, Microsoft, YouTube, and Twitter… 1
With the major platforms in their respective roles, the DHS needed innovative solutions to implement on those platforms. The platforms themselves could track and identify users, but the DHS wanted new methods to stop certain language (censorship), emphasize desirable language (indoctrination), and justify it with overarching terms such as “CounterSpeech” or “CounterSpeech Initiatives”.
The agency then released a promise of nearly $100 million in grants to nonprofits capable of satisfying this criteria in 2016.23 Hence forth dozens of non-profits would compete to answer the call and capitalize on this promise.
“Executive Summary: Digital Forum on Terrorism Prevention”. Department of Homeland Security. 2016.
Department of Homeland Security. https://www.dhs.gov/taxonomy/term/189/feed
“Budget-in-Brief: Fiscal Year 2016”. Department of Homeland Security. https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/FY_2016_DHS_Budget_in_Brief.pdf