“Dark Money” Mega-Donor John Arnold Joins Meta’s Board & Ramps Up Censorship
Shortly after the social media giant added John Arnold to its board, it cracked down on news and conservative “misinformation.” Why?
You’ve probably never heard of John Arnold, but you definitely know the company that launched his career—Enron.
Arnold, a hedge fund mogul who cut his teeth at the infamous natural gas conglomerate—earning a reported $750 million before it went kaput in 2001—is one of the country’s least-known billionaires. But since 2008, he’s rapidly become one of the Left’s most lucrative, if obscure, mega-donors, pumping north of $1 billion into a range of “progressive” causes both personally as well as through the Arnold Foundation and his for-profit philanthropy, Arnold Ventures, which does not report its grant recipients (talk about “dark money”).
During the Trump administration, Arnold Ventures quietly became a top funder to anti-“disinformation” groups on the Left, including MapLight—itself funded by George Soros to “safeguard democratic institutions”—and the American Journalism Project, also funded by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar to fight (invariably right-wing) “misinformation.”
(RELATED: Is Apple Meddling in Wisconsin’s 2024 Election?)
Suppressed by Big Tech
Arnold’s latest scalp was joining the board of Meta (formerly Facebook) in February, already notorious for censoring news stories deleterious to the Democratic Party in the 2020 election, particularly the Hunter Biden laptop story. Some reports estimate that 1 in 6 Biden voters would’ve changed their vote if that story hadn’t been suppressed by Big Tech.
At the same time, Meta’s quasi-independent oversight board—established by Mark Zuckerberg in Oct. 2020 to further regulate “hate speech” and “misinformation” shared on the social media site—announced new policy recommendations for curtailing election “disinformation” in 2024, when some 80 countries representing half the global population go to vote.
Weeks later, Meta followed up with new plans to launch a “dedicated team to combat disinformation” by fact-checking political news that could “mislead voters.” As evidence, the company pointed to AI-generated voice clips impersonating Joe Biden telling voters not to show up in New Hampshire’s primary election.
As always, beware the bait-and-switch. The Left has a long history of using obvious and reprehensible examples like this to get moderates on board with the idea of gatekeeping “acceptable” information—then systematically tightening the noose on what’s considered acceptable.
At its heart is the assumption that people cannot be trusted to make up their own minds, so “progressive” elites must do it for them. They think you’re stupid.
Flash forward to March, when Meta cracked down on—of all things—Australian news connecting users to domestic violence charities, government services, and the national meteorology bureau, rather than pay news providers for using its platform. (Ditto in Germany, France, and the U.K.) Though Facebook remains the most popular social media site for accessing news Down Under, the message is clear: No news for you.
As for Arnold, his track record of funding “disinformation” groups ought to worry anyone concerned with free speech. Take Global Witness, which has received over $500,000 from Arnold Ventures and used its funding to demand Meta, TikTok, and YouTube censor “election disinformation” in the 2022 midterms.
“For many people, social media is not safe. Large social media companies employ a business model that disrupts our democracies, leading to real-world harm,” the group warns melodramatically, claiming a failure to censor will “incite violence and even genocide”—next to a photo from the Jan. 6 riot. Are they really concerned with genocide, or protecting pro-Davos globalist regimes?
Protect free speech and the free press. Don’t give your time or money to the Left, or it’ll be used to destroy you.
(READ MORE: The Insurrection Party Hasn’t Accepted a GOP President Win Since 1988)
