Elon Musk posted a very concerning revelation on X. It depicts the Department of Defense, through DARPA, paying Thomson Reuters Special Services for “Active Social Engineering Defense (ASED) Large Scale Social Deception (LSD).”
Sounds ominous. What makes it worse is that this was established in 2018… for Covid. Wait, what?
Here’s Musk’s post:
Reuters was paid millions of dollars by the US government for “large scale social deception”.
That is literally what it says on the purchase order! They’re a total scam.
Just wow.
Reuters was paid millions of dollars by the US government for “large scale social deception”.
That is literally what it says on the purchase order! They’re a total scam.
Just wow. https://t.co/GGxoVQSwN8
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 13, 2025
He was referencing a post by Mario Nawfal:
DOD PAID REUTERS $9M FOR “SOCIAL ENGINEERING” PROGRAM
DOGE investigations reveal mysterious Defense Department payments to Reuters for “large scale social deception” project between 2018-2022.
While DARPA claims it was for cyber defense, questions swirl about why a news agency received millions for “social engineering.”
The revelation comes as other media outlets face scrutiny over federal funding.
🚨🇺🇸 DOD PAID REUTERS $9M FOR "SOCIAL ENGINEERING" PROGRAM
DOGE investigations reveal mysterious Defense Department payments to Reuters for "large scale social deception" project between 2018-2022.
While DARPA claims it was for cyber defense, questions swirl about why a news… https://t.co/8jfgRLW8Fv pic.twitter.com/DAcppcf2j9
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) February 13, 2025
Many of the proposed Community Notes cite references to programs coordinated by Reuters that focus on fighting “disinformation” and inappropriate social engineering. But just because they claim their motives are positive doesn’t change the fact that they’ve participated in spreading disinformation in the name of “stopping” disinformation.
This has been demonstrated clearly by the push to promote ineffective and dangerous Covid jabs. Conspicuously, the contract was for 2018 (before Covid) through 2022 (peak injection time).
Why did they have a program set up to fight Covid disinformation before Covid was known to exist? Why were they tasked with social engineering and “large scale social deception” by DARPA? What will DOGE and the Trump administration do about this?
The program may be ended but the deception is ongoing.
