Paul Thacker: Center for Countering Digital Hate employs GHOSTWRITERS for its reports

By kevinhughes // 2023-10-17

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The U.K.-based Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) has gained prominence through mainstream media reporting and government funding. But for investigative journalist Paul Thacker, the pro-censorship organization is one bad actor that deserves to be exposed. According to him, CCDH CEO Imran Ahmed is a political operative with links to British intelligence. The group's head has been connected to the Center for American Progress (CAP), a think tank and lobby group with links to corporate Democrats through its board member Simon Clark. Thacker noted that Elon Musk, owner of X (formerly Twitter), has sued CCDH due to a report Ahmed and his group published in July. The said report made up accusations about hate increasing on X. Musk also cited how Facebook took down a 2021 report by the group, saying that it was making up numbers about vaccine disinformation. (Related: Twitter filing LAWSUIT against pro-censorship operatives including Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH).) The investigative journalist also noticed that after taking a hard look at the CCDH's latest report, he found it odd that the group doesn't name its researchers. Thacker said most of CCDH's reports were written by ghostwriters or anonymous writers, who the mainstream media then cites as expert "researchers" in news articles. Moreover, none of CCDH's "research" gets published in actual journals and they never acknowledge any experts for peer reviewing or advising them on their work. "They just throw up these sparkly documents with graphics and confident findings on their own website," Thacker said. "Further, neither Ahmed nor anyone I can find associated with CCDH has an academic or research background."

Most CCDH staffers are political operatives, advocates

Thacker added that most CCDH employees are either political operatives who have worked for the British Labor Party, or individuals with backgrounds in advocacy work for nonprofits. He cited Callum Hood, CCDH's "head of research," as one example. Hood does not have a job history, and CCDH lists no other employment for him outside the organization. "I'm not saying this means you can't believe anything CCDH writes, but political operatives and advocates aren't the people you really want to rely on as trustworthy sources of credible, unbiased research conclusions," said Thacker. "And journalists who regurgitate this nonsense should not be trusted." The investigative journalist also mentioned that CCDH's latest report is heavy on graphics. This, he explained, seeks to give a visual effect that people are reading credible pieces of research akin to papers from a government agency. He noted that one of the first pages readers of CCDH reports encounter is a table of contents, including an appendix with a methodology and list of references for supposed credibility. Despite having the two sections, the CCDH reports do not have a list of the actual scholars who wrote the paper. "Apparently, ghosts wrote the report," Thacker noted. "The only person named in the document is Ahmed, who allegedly wrote the introduction." Thacker found an ally in the person of sociologist Joshua Guetzkow of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. "Many think tanks like RAND [Corporation] or the Urban Institute, as well as other nonprofits, almost always credit their authors," Guetzkow remarked. "The CCDH does not even do that, so it is impossible to know who was involved in the writing and obviously a significant amount of research involved in that report." Follow DeepState.news for more news about the CCDH. Watch political commentator Nick Fuentes speaking about the recent ban wave caused by CCDH reports below. This video is from the Liberum Arbitrium channel on Brighteon.com.

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Most CCDH staffers are political operatives, advocates

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