The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) used hundreds of thousands of taxpayer funds to develop a “counter-disinformation” video game targeted at American children aged 6-9 in 2022, per a recent report by the Foundation for Freedom Online. The revelation highlights the federal government’s increasingly alarming desire to control the minds of the American populace by smearing critics of the state as spreaders of “disinformation.”
According to Foundation for Freedom online journalist Oscar Buynevich, the DHS awarded the video game developers $750,000 under their Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention Program (TVTP). “The project, titled ‘Defenders Against Disinformation: Defeating Disinformation with Digital Gaming’ used the funds to create a video game that pitted ‘superhero’ governments, industry partners, and legacy media companies against disinformation,” reported Buynevich.
The game will give students examples of “new emerging threats of disinformation” to tackle in the game. The “disinformation” used in the game will be determined by so-called “disinformation experts.” (Note that during the Covid pandemic, the “experts” falsely labeled things like vaccine injuries and the credible Covid lab leak theory “disinformation.”) Students will also be prompted to combat speech that is “fairly harmless offensive rhetoric” and not just false or “harmful” rhetoric. Ultimately students will be taught not just how to recognize and reject disfavored information, but also how to “prevent and defeat” it.
Defenders Against Disinformation was created by the Wilson Center, “a purportedly non-partisan nonprofit established by Congressional charter in 1968,” noted Buynevich. The Wilson Center relies on Congressionally appropriated funds for one-third of its budget and has a 30-year rent-free lease at the Washington D.C. Ronald Reagan Building.
