February 14, 2025 | 12:48 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - U.S. President Donald Trump and technology billionaire Elon Musk expressed anger on Thursday regarding the U.S. Department of Defense's contract with British news agency Thomson Reuters to develop defenses against social engineering attacks.
"Reuters was paid millions of dollars by the US government for ‘large scale social deception,’" Musk wrote on X as reported by Anadolu. "They’re a total scam,"
The contract awarded to Reuters, labeled by the Department of Defense as Active Social Engineering and Large-Scale Social Fraud (LSD), sparked criticism from many, including Musk.
Trump voiced his frustration on Truth Social, demanding to Reuters, "GIVE BACK THE MONEY, NOW!"
"Radical Left Reuters was paid $9,000,000 by the Department of Defense to study 'large scale social deception,'" he wrote.
Thomson Reuters Special Services, collaborated with the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory and was funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), was tasked to develop defenses against cyber attacks such as phishing, to create a system that could detect, analyze, and mitigate threats on a large scale and enhance cyber security.
This initiative began in 2018, during Trump's first administration, and continued until 2022, when the Joe Biden administration terminated the contract worth US$9,147,532.00.
In another Truth Social post, Trump also targeted Politico and the New York Times. He questioned why and how much these "failed" publications were paid for "not doing anything."
"PAY BACK THE MONEY TO THE TAXPAYERS!" he said.
The U.S. government also spent US$40 million on The New York Times subscriptions, according to the Government Efficiency Department's Live Tracker (DOGE), which revealed the figure on Monday.
In response, The Times stated that the funds received were for government subscriptions, totaling less than US$2 million last year.
It was revealed that the canceled Politico subscription amounted to US$500,000.
This disclosure follows criticism from technology billionaire and head of DOGE Elon Musk, who accused certain media outlets of receiving payments from federal agencies, particularly the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
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