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--:-- Georgia Howe: Good morning, I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley. It's December 2nd, and this is a Saturday edition of Morning Wire.
--:-- John Bickley: Welcome to Morning Wire, I'm John Bickley.
--:-- Georgia Howe: A new bombshell report alleges that U.S. and U.K. military contractors were involved with spreading approved political narratives online after Brexit and the 2016 U.S. elections.
--:-- John Bickley: The most alarming thing that we saw was the regular stream of communication between the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and the largest tech companies in the country.
--:-- Georgia Howe: This isn't crazy conspiracy theory. We've already had four federal judges rule that they believe this activity violates the First Amendment.
--:-- John Bickley: What is the Cyber Threat Intelligence League and how did it skirt the law?
--:-- Georgia Howe: I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley. It's December 2nd, and this is a Saturday edition of Morning Wire. A record number of homeowners say they own a firearm. What's motivating Americans to pull the trigger on gun ownership?
--:-- John Bickley: And one Florida school district tries a zero-tolerance policy for cell phones with surprising results.
--:-- Georgia Howe: More student engagement in the academics as well as the social aspects of school. So all around a huge improvement.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: According to a new whistleblower report, government agencies in the U.S. and U.K. coordinated with private military contractors to control and censor speech on social media.
--:-- John Bickley: Independent journalists Matt Taibbi and Michael Schellenberger testified before Congress on Thursday about the operation, calling it part of the censorship industrial complex.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Here with more is Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham.
--:-- Megan Basham: So Megan, this report comes to us from the same investigative reporters who broke the story about a number of government agencies who'd been pressuring Twitter, now called X, and some other platforms to censor Americans over things like the election and COVID.
--:-- Georgia Howe: They called that the Twitter files, but they're calling these latest revelations the CTIL files.
--:-- Megan Basham: So the records revealed in this reporting center on an anti-disinformation group known as the Cyber Threat Intelligence League. So that's where we get that CTIL.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And it began as a volunteer project involving data scientists and former defense and intelligence staffers.
--:-- Megan Basham: But it was formally leveraged by the FBI and Department of Homeland Security against Americans.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Essentially, Schellenberger, Taibbi, and some other independent journalists say that this was the germination of things like the Twitter files.
--:-- Megan Basham: And while the Twitter files show that the government was coordinating with big tech to censor speech, these latest records also detail a proactive attempt to covertly drive public discourse.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So according to records that a whistleblower leaked, the CTIL partnership was part of the British and American government's reaction to Brexit and the 2016 election.
--:-- Megan Basham: Now, what do you mean when you say they attempted to drive public discourse?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, CTIL members spoke of recruiting sock puppets to disseminate the government's preferred narratives on social media, and they tried to infiltrate informal networks of people opposed to things like lockdowns.
--:-- Megan Basham: So Taibbi said that the records show the anti operatives plan to quote go on offense to disrupt speech by using fake personas and spy tactics things like how to use burner phones and fake emails.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And DHS actually helped train them in this.
--:-- Megan Basham: Trainees were given an instruction book called the Big Book of Disinformation Response.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And this is leaked from a CTIL training video.
--:-- Megan Basham: Basically, we're using many of the same techniques as the bad guys, but we're doing it in a good way. We're helping people to understand the reality of complex situations. We are helping them to avert confusion.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And we are helping to make simple, repeatable, hopefully viral concepts that can saturate the information space in the same way bad guys do.
--:-- Megan Basham: A whistleblower told Taibbi and Schellenberger that FBI and DHS operatives also regularly attended CTIL virtual meetings and that the initial green light for this CTIL partnership came straight from the White House.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And that would be the Obama White House at that time.
--:-- Megan Basham: That's correct. The whistleblower claims that one of CTIL's leaders is a former British intelligence analyst who was, quote, in the room at the Obama White House in early 2017, and she was given instructions to create a counter disinformation project to stop a, quote, repeat of 2016.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, I think the question a lot of people will have is, is this actually legal?
--:-- Megan Basham: Well, you know, the training was very clear that this was a way to circumvent U.S. law.
--:-- Georgia Howe: In another leaked video, a CTIL trainer says the Defense Department would be most effective at running an anti-disinformation operation, but that the DOD is expressly forbidden from operating against U.S. citizens.
--:-- Megan Basham: So this was something of a workaround solution.
--:-- Georgia Howe: This came from another leaked video.
--:-- Megan Basham: The people that do it overseas are typically the CIA and the NSA and the Department of Defense. But again, I've already talked about that.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Intel collection agencies are not legally allowed to do those things by the United States.
--:-- Megan Basham: Americans have a healthy distrust of their government, and it just wouldn't look good.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But we need to help them out by deciding what kind of things can we do proactively.
--:-- Megan Basham: Yes, education is great for the kids that are in school now, but what do we do with John and Jane Q Citizen that actually watch Fox News and believe Plandemic?
--:-- Georgia Howe: What do we do with those guys?
--:-- Megan Basham: So I think what's important to stress here is that Taibbi and Schellenberger testified before Congress Thursday that this was a very partisan effort.
--:-- Georgia Howe: It appears to have been targeted almost exclusively at the political right.
--:-- Megan Basham: Well, very disturbing. Hopefully this gets the coverage it deserves.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Megan, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Megan Basham: Anytime.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: According to a new study, gun ownership rates among the U.S. electorate have never been higher, with the majority of American voters now saying someone in their home owns a firearm.
--:-- John Bickley: Here with more is Daily Wire Senior Editor Cabot Phillips.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So Cabot, give us some context first, and then we'll get into what's behind this surge.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Yeah, well, according to a new survey from NBC, 52% of American voters now say they or someone in their household owns a firearm.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: That is the highest number on record and marks a significant increase over the last decade.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The same poll in 2019 found that number to be 46 while a decade ago in 2013 it was down at just 42.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So a double spike in just 10 years.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The trend becomes especially noticeable during the pandemic, when 60 million firearms were sold across a three-year span.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: For context, from 2005 to 2020, the number of guns sold annually tripled from 7.8 million to $21.8 million.
--:-- Georgia Howe: All told, an estimated 15 million households purchased a firearm for the very first time between 2020 and 2022.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: For more on the trend, I spoke with Stephen Katowski, a Second Amendment expert and founder of The Reload.
--:-- Georgia Howe: I think that there was kind of a perfect storm created in 2020 where we saw a lot of chaos from a lot of different angles that gave a lot of different people a lot of different reasons to buy a gun, you know, just across demographics, across the ideological spectrum across the political background, you name it, there was something that happened during that time frame, whether it was the COVID shutdowns, George Floyd, the rioting that happened after that.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: All this stuff, I think, contributed to people going out and buying a gun for the first time who'd never actually considered doing so before.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, what sort of demographic breakdowns do we see in this data?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well, historically, there has been a clear partisan divide when it comes to gun ownership. And that does continue to hold true.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So looking at the latest numbers, we see 66% of Republican households reporting firearm ownership compared to just 41% of Democrat households.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: But if you zoom out, just 30% of Democrat households reported owning a gun back in 2013.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So clear increase there.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: We saw a similar 11% uptick among Republican households.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So the trend is hardly reserved to just one party.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: We're seeing a spike across the spectrum.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And from a racial standpoint, the spike is being driven largely by Black Americans.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: According to polling data, while gun ownership rates for white households increased by a modest 3% since 2019, among black households, they skyrocketed by 17% in the last four years alone, rising from 24% to 41%.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Here's Guitowski on the shift.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: I think there's been an ongoing trend in America where you're seeing a new kind of gun owner come up. Somebody who's younger, you have more women buying guns, you have more minorities buying guns than has been the case in the past.
--:-- Georgia Howe: It's moving from a more rural association with firearms into a more suburban and urban association.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And from a culture that was primarily focused on hunting to one that's primarily focused on self-defense.
--:-- Georgia Howe: All right, so to the big question, why is this happening?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, based on polling data, the vast majority of gun owners say that self-defense is the leading factor in buying a gun.
--:-- Georgia Howe: For example, a Pew survey this year found that 72% of gun owners cited protection as a key reason for firearm ownership.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: That's more than double the next closest reason, which is hunting.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Here's Katowski on that front.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: There's a tendency in America for people to want to have basic security for themselves. And when they feel that society or the government isn't providing that for them, that takes the form of them wanting to do it themselves.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And in America, obviously, the top option for that is to go out and buy a firearm.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: It's like buying a fire extinguisher. It's not necessarily that they feel they will have to use it, but I think a lot of people want to have that option.
--:-- Georgia Howe: You see that reflected in polling when people are asked why they buy guns as well.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well, certainly eye-opening trends we're tracking here.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Cabot thanks for reporting.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Anytime.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: A Florida school district recently banned students from using cell phones for the entire school day which puts in place a stricter rule than a new state law requires The results are making headlines.
--:-- John Bickley: Here to give us the details is Daily Wire contributor, Charlotte Pence-Bond.
--:-- Charlotte Pence-Bond: So Charlotte, give us a little background here. What was the Florida law that instigated this?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Hi, Georgia. Earlier this year, Florida passed a law that looked to change how students use their cell phones at school and banned the use of cell phones during class.
--:-- Charlotte Pence-Bond: It also put the onus on schools to teach 6th to 12th graders about the negative effects of social media on mental health, how social media manipulates behavior, and how to safely use the internet.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The law also notably went after TikTok in particular, banning use of the social media site on devices that the district owns or even on the district's Wi-Fi.
--:-- Charlotte Pence-Bond: But Orange County Public Schools decided to make a stricter rule and entirely banned cell phones the whole day.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That means no phone use in hallways or during lunch.
--:-- Charlotte Pence-Bond: Now, I'm curious how they enforced that.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But first, what was the result?
--:-- Charlotte Pence-Bond: One of the county's teachers said students are more talkative and more collaborative without the distraction of their cell phones in class.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Lisa Rodriguez-Davis, another teacher interviewed by Fox News, said that now that the ban has gone into effect, the school hasn't seen as much of an issue with kids using their phones for TikTok dances at school anymore.
--:-- Charlotte Pence-Bond: And it's been a positive development for the learning environment.
--:-- Georgia Howe: She said it has also reduced online bullying.
--:-- Charlotte Pence-Bond: There's just no pictures, kids taking pictures of each other and posting them, and there's no access to all that.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And middle school, not everybody has a phone.
--:-- Charlotte Pence-Bond: So it really levels the field as far as if you don't have a phone, I don't have a phone, kind of like a uniform.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Everybody's the same.
--:-- Charlotte Pence-Bond: It doesn't matter who has the newest or the best or who doesn't.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And sometimes when kids first come into middle school, they're very nervous about making friends and things like that.
--:-- Charlotte Pence-Bond: And now they're actually speaking to each other instead of being shy and just staring at them.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, as a former middle school teacher, this seems like it would be hard to enforce, especially in places like hallways and the lunchroom.
--:-- Charlotte Pence-Bond: How did they deal with that?
--:-- Georgia Howe: The motto is, if we see it, we take it.
--:-- Charlotte Pence-Bond: And then they hold the phones until the end of the day.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Certainly a rule like this requires a lot of vigilance on the part of the staff, but it appears to be working.
--:-- Charlotte Pence-Bond: Now, are parents on board with this rule.
--:-- Georgia Howe: It's a mixed bag.
--:-- Charlotte Pence-Bond: Some parents and students told the New York Times that they thought having no phones allowed in class was a good idea, but they didn't like the restriction lasting the entire school day.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Parents were concerned about their kids being able to reach them when they weren't in class.
--:-- Charlotte Pence-Bond: Rodriguez Davis posted a TikTok video teasing parents who were upset about the new rules.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Yes, I am the teacher that took your child's cell phone. I understand she was having a hard time with the math problem, but it's a test.
--:-- Charlotte Pence-Bond: Yes, emergencies do happen, but a TikTok video is not an emergency.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And we have had her do about five this week.
--:-- Charlotte Pence-Bond: It's a trend that we may see more of as kids, teachers, and parents start to experience positive outcomes.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Around 77% of schools had banned cell phone use during school time in the 2019 to 2020 school year.
--:-- Charlotte Pence-Bond: And that was an increase of almost 7% from 2017 to 2018.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So it looks like this may be catching on.
--:-- Charlotte Pence-Bond: Well, sometimes I wish someone would take my phone for the whole day.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Charlotte, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Charlotte Pence-Bond: Thanks for having me.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: That was Daily Wire contributor Charlotte Pence-Bond.
--:-- John Bickley: That's all the time we've got this morning. Thanks for waking up with us.
--:-- Georgia Howe: We'll be back this afternoon with an extra edition of Morning Wire.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for tuning in.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And don't forget to subscribe to Morning Wire on your favorite podcast platform.
--:-- John Bickley: We'll see you next time.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: Morning Wire is presented by Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief John Bickley and co-host Georgia Howe.
--:-- John Bickley: Get daily coverage of the latest developments in politics, culture, education, sports, and more.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Wake up with Morning Wire and get the facts first on the news you need to know.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for listening.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for listening.
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