Questions Swirl Over $9 Million DoD Funding for Reuters “Active Social Engineering” Program

This article originally appeared on m o d e r n i t y and was republished with permission.

Guest post by @ModernityNews

Questions are being asked over the Department of Defense under Biden funding Reuters to the tune of $9 million to engage in “active social engineering” and “large scale deception,” with some claiming conspiracy and others asserting the funding was related to defending against cyber attacks.

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has been busy targeting the US Agency for International Development, revealing some absolutely ridiculous amounts of taxpayer money being spent on projects around the world.

As part of that process, it has emerged that the US Department of Defense handed $9,147,532 dollars to news agency Reuters for “ACTIVE SOCIAL ENGINEERING DEFENSE (ASED) LARGE SCALE SOCIAL DECEPTION (LSD).”

Can someone explain to me why the Department of Defense provided $9,147,532.00 to Reuters for “ACTIVE SOCIAL ENGINEERING DEFENSE (ASED) LARGE SCALE SOCIAL DECEPTION (LSD)” pic.twitter.com/ESHish9vmC

— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) February 5, 2025

The outlay began in September 2018 and was scheduled to end in November 2022.

Some have asserted that the funds were used in the context of the COVID pandemic to ‘socially engineer’ the public to swallow government narratives about the virus and the vaccine.

Anyone who wondered if media campaigns during #covid were well-orchestrated #psyops can stop wondering

The US Department of Defense provided $9,147,532.00 to Reuters for “ACTIVE SOCIAL ENGINEERING DEFENSE (ASED) LARGE SCALE SOCIAL DECEPTION (LSD)”@ryangerritsen @Martyupnorth_2 pic.twitter.com/BBeutItzAr

— Sharon Polsky MAPP (@PolskySays) February 5, 2025

However, others have claimed that the money was actually part of a DARPA program started under the first Trump administration to prevent hacking and deception by malicious actors.

So many misunderstandings these days.

This guy is upset over a $9.1 million to Thomson Reuters related to “social deception”

What it actually was: A DARPA program that started under Trump in 2018 on how to *prevent* hacking/deceptionhttps://t.co/7ehKcMMD9k https://t.co/xG8QZbGqmE

— Stuart Buck (@stuartbuck1) February 5, 2025

A page about the program on DARPA’s website explains that it was intended to “identify, disrupt, and investigate social engineering attacks” targeting the military and critical infrastructure.

While that explanation seems valid, it’s still a mystery as to why Reuters, a news network, was involved in the program.

Meanwhile, the media is claiming that the Trump administration announcing it would cancel $8 million worth of Politico subscriptions was driven by a “false right-wing conspiracy theory.”

After it was revealed that federal agencies were spending $8.2 million on Politico Pro, CNN claimed that the issue was being deliberately mischaracterized because “the payments are not exclusively USAID funds.”

However, commentator Tim Pool hit back by calling CNN “evil lying garbage.”

“It is a FACT that the US gov spends an exorbitant amount of money on pro accounts for media companies,” said Pool.

“In one instance the Department of Energy spent $400,000 in one year for 172 subscriptions.”

“It’s an indirect way to prop them up while feigning ignorance.”

CNN Is evil lying garbage

It is a FACT that the US gov spends an exorbitant amount of money on pro accounts for media companies

In one instance the Department of Energy spent $400,000 in one year for 172 subscriptions

Its an indirect way to prop them up while feigning… pic.twitter.com/HGcsQepFr7

— Tim Pool (@Timcast) February 6, 2025

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