A former Enron executive from Texas who has put his wealth to work to expand the censorship of what he considers to be “disinformation” has joined the board of directors at Facebook’s parent company, Meta.
John Arnold, who parlayed his $8 million Enron bonus — the largest the company ever gave — into a hedgefund fortune he later used to promote soft-on crime policies and censorship campaigns, has been elected to the company’s board, according to a press release by Meta.
As the Washington Examiner has reported, Arnold, through his for-profit philanthropic organization Arnold Ventures, has contributed nearly $14 million to groups that seek to develop new and innovative ways to censor free speech in the name of combatting “disinformation” and “misinformation.”
The beneficiaries of Arnold’s generosity include the American Journalism Project (AJP), which is tied to left-wing groups like the Democracy Fund and the Racial Equity in Journalism Fund, per Washington Examiner. The former was created by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar.
“In the absence of trusted news sources, we see targeted disinformation campaigns, including efforts to spread misinformation through social networks and websites masquerading as news brands,” AJP says on its website.
Arnold Ventures has also donated over $13.5 million to the New Venture Fund, which supports a wide array of left-wing causes, including advocacy for the federal government taking more regulatory control of the internet, per the Examiner.
Arnold’s use of his wealth to advocate for more media censorship has not escaped the notice of at least one lawmaker on Capitol Hill who also happens to be from Texas.
“This is another example of the dark money ecosystem pushing its own interpretation of disinformation,” Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX) told the Examiner recently, referring to Arnold’s expenditures to restrict speech.
Arnold Ventures also gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to the group Global Witness, which claims that “the reality of the climate crisis is an undeniable truth” and has encouraged Facebook and other social media companies to help “stop the spread of damaging climate disinformation.”
