0:03

A new bombshell report alleges that

0:06

US and UK military contractors were

0:08

involved with spreading approved political narratives

0:10

online after Brexit and the 2016

0:13

US elections. The

0:16

most alarming thing that we saw was the

0:19

regular stream of communication between the

0:22

FBI, the Department of Homeland Security,

0:25

and the largest tech companies in

0:27

the country. This isn't crazy

0:29

conspiracy theory. We've already had four federal

0:31

judges rule that they believe this activity

0:34

violates the First Amendment. What

0:36

is the Cyber Threat Intelligence League and how

0:38

did it skirt the law? I'm

0:41

Georgia Howe with Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief

0:43

John Bickley. It's December

0:45

2nd and this is a Saturday edition

0:47

of Morning Wire. A

0:53

record number of homeowners say they own

0:55

a firearm. That's motivating Americans

0:57

to pull the trigger on gun

1:00

ownership. And one

1:02

Florida school district tries a zero tolerance

1:04

policy for cell phones with surprising results.

1:07

More student engagement in the academics as

1:09

well as the social aspects of school.

1:11

So all around a huge improvement. Thanks

1:14

for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We

1:16

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today. According

2:02

to a new whistleblower report,

2:04

government agencies in the U.S.

2:06

and U.K. coordinated with private

2:08

military contractors to control and

2:10

censor speech on social media.

2:13

Independent journalists Matt Taibbi and Michael

2:16

Schellenberger testified before Congress on Thursday

2:18

about the operation, calling it part

2:20

of the Censorship Industrial Complex. Here

2:24

with more is Daily Wire culture reporter Megan

2:26

Basham. So Megan, this report

2:28

comes to us from the same investigative

2:30

reporters who broke the story about a

2:32

number of government agencies who had been

2:34

pressuring Twitter, now called X, and some

2:37

other platforms to censor Americans over things

2:39

like the election and COVID. They

2:41

called that the Twitter Files, but

2:44

they're calling these latest revelations the

2:46

CTIL Files. What does

2:48

that stand for and what's the difference between this

2:50

and the Twitter Files? So

2:53

the records revealed in this reporting

2:55

center on an anti-disinformation group known

2:57

as the Cyber Threat Intelligence League.

2:59

So that's where we get that

3:02

CTIL. And it began as a

3:04

volunteer project involving data scientists and

3:06

former defense and intelligence staffers, but

3:08

it was formally leveraged by the

3:10

FBI and Department of Homeland Security

3:13

against Americans. Essentially, Schellenberger,

3:15

Taibbi, and some other independent journalists

3:17

say that this was the germination

3:19

of things like the Twitter Files.

3:21

And while the Twitter Files showed that

3:23

the government was coordinating with Big Tech

3:26

to censor speech, these latest

3:28

records also detail a proactive attempt

3:30

to covertly drive public discourse.

3:33

So according to records that a

3:35

whistleblower leaked, the CTIL partnership was

3:37

part of the British and American

3:39

government's reaction to Brexit and the

3:41

2016 election. Now

3:44

what do you mean when you say they

3:46

attempted to drive public discourse? Well,

3:49

CTIL members spoke of recruiting

3:51

sock puppets to disseminate the government's

3:53

preferred narratives on social media, and

3:56

they tried to infiltrate informal networks of

3:59

people opposing the to things like

4:01

lockdowns. So Taibbi said that the

4:03

records show the anti-disinformation operatives plan

4:06

to quote go on offense

4:08

to disrupt speech by using fake

4:10

personas and spy tactics, things like

4:12

how to use burner phones and fake

4:14

emails. And DHS actually helped

4:17

train them in this. Trainees

4:19

were given an instruction book called

4:21

the Big Book of Disinformation Response.

4:24

And this is leaked from the CTIL

4:26

training video. Basically, we're using

4:28

many of the same techniques as the bad

4:30

guys, but we're doing it in a

4:33

good way. We're helping people

4:35

to understand the reality of

4:37

complex situations. We're helping them

4:39

to a word confusion.

4:42

And we are helping to make

4:45

simple and repeatable,

4:48

hopeful and viral concepts that

4:50

can saturate the information space in

4:53

the same way bad guys do.

4:56

A whistleblower told Taibbi and Schellenberger

4:58

that FBI and DHS operatives also

5:00

regularly attended CTIL virtual meetings and

5:03

that the initial green light for

5:05

the CTIL partnership came straight from

5:07

the White House. And that would

5:10

be the Obama White House at

5:12

that time. That's correct. The whistleblower

5:14

claims that one of CTIL's leaders is

5:16

a former British intelligence analyst who was

5:19

quote, in the room at the Obama

5:21

White House in early 2017. And

5:24

she was given instructions to create

5:26

a counter disinformation project to stop

5:28

a quote, repeat of 2016. Now,

5:30

I think the question a lot

5:32

of people will have is, is

5:34

this actually legal? Well,

5:37

you know, the training was very

5:39

clear that this was a way

5:41

to circumvent US law. In another

5:43

leaked video, the CTIL trainer says

5:45

the Defense Department would be most

5:48

effective at running an anti disinformation

5:50

operation, but that the DOD is

5:52

expressly forbidden from operating against US

5:54

citizens. So this was something of

5:56

a workaround solution. This came from

5:58

another leaked video. The

6:01

people that do it overseas

6:03

are typically the

6:05

CIA and the NSA and

6:07

the Department of Defense, but

6:10

again, I've already talked about that. Intel

6:12

collection agencies are not legally allowed to

6:14

do those things inside the United States. Americans

6:17

have a healthy distrust of their government, and it

6:19

just wouldn't look good. But we need to help

6:21

them out by deciding, you know, what

6:23

kind of things can we do proactively? Yes, education is

6:25

great for the kids that are in school now, but

6:27

what do we do with that

6:31

actually, you know, watch Fox

6:33

News and believe the pandemic? What do

6:35

we do with those guys? So

6:38

I think what's important to stress

6:40

here is that Taibbi and Schellenberger

6:42

testified before Congress Thursday that this

6:44

was a very partisan effort. It

6:47

appears to have been targeted almost

6:49

exclusively at the political right. Well,

6:51

very disturbing. Hopefully this gets the

6:53

coverage it deserves. Megan, thanks for

6:56

reporting. Anytime. According

7:04

to a new study, gun ownership rates

7:06

among the U.S. electorate have never been

7:08

higher, with the majority of American voters

7:10

now saying someone in their home owns

7:13

a firearm. Here with

7:15

Morris Daily Wire senior editor, Cabot Phillips. So,

7:17

Cabot, give us some context first and then

7:19

we'll get into what's behind the surge. Yeah.

7:21

Well, according to a new survey from NBC,

7:23

52 percent of American voters

7:25

now say they are someone in

7:28

their household owns a firearm. That is the

7:30

highest number on record and marks a significant

7:32

increase over the last decade. The same poll

7:34

in 2019 found that number to be 46

7:36

percent. While a decade ago

7:38

in 2013, it was down at just 42 percent. So

7:41

a double digit spike in just 10

7:43

years. The trend becomes especially noticeable

7:45

during the pandemic, when 60 million firearms were sold

7:47

across the three year span. For context, from 2005

7:49

to 2020, the number of guns sold annually tripled

7:52

from 7.8 million

7:56

to 21.8 million. All

7:59

told, an estimated. We donated 15 million households' purchase

8:01

to Firearm for the very first time between

8:03

2020 and 2022. For more

8:06

on the trend, I spoke with Stephen Katowski, a

8:08

Second Amendment expert and founder of The Reload. I

8:11

think that there was kind of a perfect storm created in

8:13

2020 where we saw a lot of chaos from

8:18

a lot of different angles that gave a lot of

8:20

different people a lot of different reasons to buy a

8:22

gun. Just across demographics,

8:24

across the ideological spectrum,

8:26

across the political background, you

8:29

name it. Something that happened

8:31

during that timeframe, whether it was

8:33

the COVID shutdowns, George Floyd, the

8:35

rioting that happened after that, all

8:38

this stuff, I think, contributed to

8:40

people going out and buying a gun

8:42

for the first time who'd never actually considered

8:44

doing so before. Now, what sort

8:47

of demographic breakdowns do we see in this

8:49

data? Well, historically, there has been a clear

8:51

partisan divide when it comes to gun ownership,

8:54

and that does continue to hold true. So

8:56

looking at the latest numbers, we see 66%

8:58

of Republican households reporting firearm ownership compared to

9:00

just 41% of Democrat households. But

9:04

if you zoom out, just 30% of Democrat households

9:06

reported owning a gun back in 2013. So

9:09

clear increase there. We saw a similar

9:11

11% uptick among Republican households. So

9:14

the trend is hardly reserved to just one

9:16

party. We're seeing a spike across the spectrum.

9:19

And from a racial standpoint, the spike is

9:21

being driven largely by black Americans. According

9:24

to polling data, while gun ownership rates for white

9:26

households increased by a modest 3% since

9:28

2019, among black households, they skyrocketed by

9:30

17% in the last four years alone,

9:34

rising from 24% to 41%. Here's

9:38

Gutowski on the shift. I think

9:40

there's been an ongoing trend

9:42

in America where you're seeing a

9:44

new kind of gun owner come up. Somebody

9:47

who's younger, you have more women buying guns, you

9:49

have more minorities buying guns than has been the

9:51

case in the past. It's moving

9:53

from a more rural association with firearms

9:55

into a more suburban and urban association

9:58

and from. a culture

10:00

that was primarily focused on hunting

10:03

to one that's primarily focused on

10:05

self-defense. All right,

10:07

so to the big question, why is

10:09

this happening? Yeah, based on polling

10:11

data, the vast majority of gun owners say

10:13

that self-defense is the leading factor in buying

10:15

a gun. For example, a Pew

10:18

survey this year found that 72% of

10:20

gun owners cited protection as a key

10:22

reason for firearm ownership. That's

10:24

more than double the next closest reason, which is

10:26

hunting. Here's Katowski on that front. There's

10:29

a tendency in America for

10:31

people to want to have

10:33

basic security for themselves. When

10:36

they feel that society or the government isn't providing

10:38

that for them, that takes the form of them

10:40

wanting to do it themselves. In

10:43

America, obviously, the top option for that

10:45

is to go out and buy a firearm.

10:47

It's like buying a fire extinguisher.

10:50

It's not necessarily that they feel they will have

10:52

to use it, but I think a lot of

10:54

people want to have that option. Now you see

10:56

that reflected in polling when people are asked why

10:58

they buy guns as well. Well, certainly

11:01

eye-opening trends we're tracking here. Kevin, thanks

11:03

for reporting. Anytime.

11:08

A Florida school district recently banned students

11:10

from using cell phones for the entire

11:12

school day, which puts in place a

11:14

stricter rule than a new state law

11:17

requires. The results are making headlines.

11:20

Here to give us the details is Daily

11:22

Wire contributor Charlotte Pence Bond. So

11:24

Charlotte, give us a little background here. What

11:26

was the Florida law that instigated this? Hi,

11:29

Georgia. Earlier this year, Florida passed a

11:31

law that looked to change how students use their cell

11:33

phones at school and banned the use of cell phones

11:35

during class. It also put the

11:38

onus on schools to teach 6th to 12th

11:40

graders about the negative effects of social media

11:42

on mental health, how social media manipulates behavior,

11:44

and how to safely use the internet. The

11:47

law also notably went after TikTok in particular,

11:49

banning use of the social media site on

11:51

devices that the district owns or even on

11:53

the district's Wi-Fi. But Orange

11:56

County Public Schools decided to make a

11:58

stricter rule and entirely banned cell phones

12:00

the whole day. That means no phone use

12:02

in hallways or during lunch. Now,

12:04

I'm curious how they enforce that, but first, what

12:06

was the result? One of the

12:09

county's teachers said students are more talkative and

12:11

more collaborative without the distraction of their cell

12:13

phones in class. Lisa Rodriguez-Davis, another

12:15

teacher interviewed by Fox News, said that now

12:17

that the ban has gone into effect, the

12:19

school hasn't seen as much of an issue

12:21

with kids using their phones for TikTok dances

12:23

at school anymore, and it's been

12:25

a positive development for the learning environment. She

12:27

said it has also reduced online bullying. There's

12:30

just no pictures, kids taking pictures of

12:32

each other and posting them,

12:34

and there's no access to all that.

12:36

And middle school, not everybody has a

12:39

phone, so it really levels the

12:41

field as far as if you

12:43

don't have a phone, I don't have a phone, kind of like a

12:45

uniform. Everybody's the same. It

12:47

doesn't matter who has the newest or the

12:49

best or who doesn't. And sometimes when kids

12:52

first come into middle school, they're very nervous

12:54

about making friends, things like

12:56

that. And now they're actually speaking to

12:58

each other instead of being shy and

13:00

just staring at each other. Now

13:03

as a former middle school teacher, this seems like

13:05

it would be hard to enforce, especially in places

13:07

like hallways and the lunch room. How did they

13:09

deal with that? The motto is,

13:11

if we see it, we take it. And then they hold

13:13

the phones until the end of the day. Certainly a rule

13:16

like this requires a lot of vigilance on the part of

13:18

the staff, but it appears to be working. Now

13:20

are parents on board with this rule? It's

13:22

a mixed bag. Some parents and students told the

13:24

New York Times that they thought having no phones

13:27

allowed in class was a good idea, but they

13:29

didn't like the restriction lasting the entire school day.

13:32

Parents were concerned about their kids being able to reach

13:34

them when they weren't in class. Rodriguez

13:36

Davis posted a TikTok video teasing parents who

13:38

were upset about the new rules. Yes,

13:41

I am the teacher that took your child's

13:43

cell phone. I understand she's had

13:45

a hard time with the math problem, but it's a

13:47

test. Yes, emergencies do happen, but

13:49

a TikTok video is not an emergency.

13:52

And we have had her do about

13:54

five this week. It's

13:56

a trend that we may see more of as

13:58

kids, teachers and parents start to experience positive

14:00

outcomes. Around 77% of

14:03

schools had banned cell phone use during school time

14:05

in the 2019 to 2020 school year

14:07

and that was an increase of almost 7% from 2017

14:11

to 2018. So it looks like

14:13

this may be catching on. Well sometimes I wish someone

14:15

would take my phone for the whole day. Charlotte

14:18

thanks for reporting. Thanks for having me.

14:20

That was Daily Wire contributor Charlotte Penz-Bond.

14:26

That's all the time we've got this morning. Thanks for

14:28

waking up with us. We'll be back this afternoon with

14:30

an extra edition of Morning Wire.