During several trips earlier this year to Twitter's San Francisco HQ, I ran across internal emails claiming that Robert Kennedy Jr. spews disinformation. Instead of trying to adjudicate these claims—which would likely be impossible—I decided to ask few obvious questions:

Who are these people?

Who funds them?

How did they become "disinformation experts"?

In one example, Twitter employees took action on several accounts after a shady, dark money group called the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) released a report alleging that just 12 accounts produced the majority of anti-vaccine disinformation on social media. "There isn't any evidence to support this claim," Facebook responded in a statement dismissing CCDH's report.

Nonetheless, the report's simplistic findings proved catnip to the White House and most media outlets.

"Researchers have found just 12 people are responsible for the bulk of the misleading claims and outright lies about COVID-19 vaccines that proliferate on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter," reported NPR, regurgitating back CCDH's allegations. Quoting the group's CEO, Imran Ahmed, NPR added, "The 'Disinformation Dozen' produce 65% of the shares of anti-vaccine misinformation on social media platforms."

Like other outlets, NPR ignored Facebook's later statement rejecting the findings of Ahmed's group, and the reporter never bothered to ask Ahmed who funds his organization and how he acquired his expertise in disinformation. A few years before rebranding himself as a vaccine and disinformation expert, Ahmed was a British Labour Party political operative best known for writing the book New Serfdom which argued against free market ideology.