As the Foundation for Freedom Online recently reported, Microsoft stands out among tech companies for its commitment to censorship policies pushed by the previous administration.
Previous FFO articles have explored the involvement of Microsoft employees in the creation of DHS’s “disinformation governance board,” and its role pushing “psychological inoculation” techniques to prime the public against disfavored narratives.
Microsoft remains partnered with NewGuard, a browser plug-in news rating tool, whose rating system often skews heavily in favor of left-leaning sources and often targets conservative media outlets.
NewsGuard, which received $750,000 in Department of Defense funding from the previous administration, advances online censorship by blacklisting disfavored news websites and financially throttling them by selling those blacklists to advertising companies.
To further educate the public on the deep ties between Microsoft and the U.S. federal government, FFO has compiled publicly available information from White House visitor logs to demonstrate the regularity of the tech company’s meetings with the previous administration.
These include meetings that involved Sam Altman and other executives from OpenAI, which owns roughly 49 percent of the artificial intelligence company.
In total, OpenAI met with the Biden administration 62 times, with six of those meetings attended by Altman himself. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella attended seven meetings.
The full list of 207 meetings between Microsoft/OpenAI and administration officials can be viewed below, and can also be accessed at this link.
Picture – Chris Kleponis/CNP/Bloomberg via Getty Images
