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By MadamSavvy
https://twitter.com/MadamSavvy/status/1768088239552799077
- MadamSavvy
I was quite confused on why I couldn't find
@TakeThisOrg
on DHS's public records, and that was because they did not file under their business name!
That is because, through (@DrKowert) Dr. Rachal Kowert who wrote the article for Take This and is now private on twitter, is the connection.
According to her website: She partnered with Middlebury College and Logically AI to research "extremist radicalization and recruitment within digital gaming spaces".
What is Logically AI? They "extract insights from across platforms and domains to identify potentially harmful content that can impact election processes, people, and polling locations".
What I thought was an error on my part was only cleared up when I found this old form from Middlebury that is no longer active. I thought they'd have been approved by DHS themselves and was only looking under their business name- I did not think they'd have a college submit the funding request based on how they publicly list it under themselves on their website.
When you read their outline, it is clear what their mission is and they requested a whopping $669,763 USD in funding. They claim to be creating a "framework" to monitor extremist behavior and recruitment in video game communities and claim developers are unaware of these practices.
They claim this is inline with DHS's anti terrorism grant program and planned to use cutting edge research to get to the bottom of this. (So googleforms and twitter)
They use the example of a shooter in NY and state he was part of right wing discords, and also referenced the shooter from NZ who shouted "Subscribe to PewDiePie" and instead of blaming mental health, jump into attributing gaming and discord as the problem.
This was a 2 year research grant and year 1 has been completed. We are now on Year 2. Why does that matter? Well:
Year 1 was about collecting information, which they state they did through leveraging scaled analytical techniques like surveys and "social media intelligence analysis". They also began educational workshops with developers, both single and multiplayer based.
Year 2? They state to establish private and public networks to share information, discuss best practices and open lines of communication regarding extremist trends in games. They also plan to release 3 toolboxes to help detect extremism in games.
Given the language Dr. Kowert used in her article from Take This, I dare say this is all very tied together.
This is the page that links to public records from DHS. Search for 00036 or Middlebury to find the paper I reference above.
Kowert's website:
Logically AI website
https://t.co/zx3gUZYyKS
Take This as described in the outline doesn't just handle mental health discussions, but also "harmful studio culture" and "lack of diversity" But what I am MOST interested in is their definition of "problematic game and community design". I cannot find examples of this.
Their "budget breakdown"
They wanted to host workshops and have travel covered. They also want food and bevs covered and have estimated round costs.
Dr. Kowert also needed to travel.
And Logically AI also had some costs to cover by assigning 4 employees to this project.
Logically AI started in Britain, moved to India to be their primary fact checker according to wiki, and then spread to USA.
in 2019, they received an MIT grant, and had 2 rounds of seed funding following that.
Their whole thing seems to be "misinformation" and they scape social media websites.
Special thanks for MadamSavvy for the permission
** needs to be corrected
Summation and also Additional Reading:
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