Exposed: How Our Government Funded the Smear Campaign Against Gab

The Trump administration and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have recently launched an investigation into the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), alleging misuse of taxpayer funds for left-wing causes. President Trump has claimed that billions of dollars have been stolen from USAID and other agencies to fund favorable media coverage of Democrats. The administration has taken swift action, placing senior USAID officials on administrative leave, locking employees out of internal systems, and seizing control of critical databases and financial management systems.

DOGE representatives, reportedly acting on behalf of the State Department, have moved to take over USAID offices, escalating tensions within the agency. Elon Musk, who has been actively involved in the restructuring efforts, has called USAID a “criminal organization” and stated that it’s “time for it to die.”

The investigation has uncovered that a foreign company, Moonshot, was paid nearly $1.5 million to target and monitor alternative platforms like Gab. A significant portion of their research focused on analyzing social media data from platforms such as Gab and 4chan, scrutinizing online discourse surrounding offline events. These findings were used to “inform threat assessment frameworks and produce academic publications.” Gab has long suspected that bad actors were being paid to monitor, troll, and defame us, but now we have definitive proof that our own government was funding a foreign company to do so.

Moonshot, founded in 2015 by Vidhya Ramalingam and Ross Frenett, claims to use technology to disrupt and end “extremism” and other “online harms.” The company has received substantial funding and support from major tech players like Google and Facebook, collaborating closely with Google’s Jigsaw on projects like the “Redirect Method,” which uses search advertising and YouTube to deter potential “extremist recruits.” Moonshot employs artificial intelligence to identify vulnerable individuals online and develops software to analyze digital footprints and encrypted platform data.

This revelation underscores the lengths to which the establishment will go to silence dissent and suppress free speech. Gab remains committed to standing against this tyranny, and we need your continued support to keep this fight alive.

We have faced relentless opposition from the entire system as we’ve fought to defend free speech online. Shockingly, our own government has been funding foreign-owned companies like Moonshot to target, track, and smear Gab. The countless “academic papers,” hit pieces, and attacks on our community over the years were bankrolled by taxpayer dollars. This is why your support is absolutely critical. Unlike other platforms, Gab hasn’t received millions in federal grants or venture capital funding. For eight years, we’ve relied solely on the generosity of our community to keep the fight for free speech alive. Please consider upgrading to GabPRO or making a donation to support our ongoing efforts.

Thank you for making it possible to combat systemic attacks like this from the Regime for years.

Andrew Torba