A new report traces Soros-backed funding to the Center for Countering Digital Hate. The report describes the group as part of a transnational apparatus designed to manipulate U.S. politics and police online speech. Sources say the “dark-money machine” works to shape federal policy, pressure social media platforms and ultimately silence critics.
This article originally appeared in The Defender – Children Health Defense News and Views
Republished with permission
by Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D.
George Soros – photo credit Aris Oikonomou via Wikimedia commons
An organization linked to George Soros helped fund the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) — the group that wrote the 2021 “Disinformation Dozen” list targeting Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other prominent vaccine critics.
The Washington Free Beacon first uncovered the $250,000 grant for fiscal year 2024 in a report published Monday. The Open Society Foundations — which lists the grant on its website as providing “general support” — was founded and funded by Soros and is now led by his son, Alex Soros.
The disclosure offers a rare look into CCDH’s finances. The nongovernmental organization, which has long kept its funding sources out of public view, “does not voluntarily disclose its donors,” the Free Beacon reported.
On Substack, Sayer Ji, chairman of the Global Wellness Forum and founder of GreenMedInfo, said the Soros-linked grant represents only a small part of “a web of 20+ funders, pass-throughs, hidden trusts, foreign billionaires, and U.S.-U.K. political operatives” backing CCDH.
After CCDH published its “Disinformation Dozen” list in 2021, mainstream media outlets repeatedly cited it to discredit those named — including Kennedy, then chairman of Children’s Health Defense, which he founded. Some outlets have since issued corrections.
Last year, a whistleblower leaked internal documents revealing that CCDH planned to “kill Musk’s Twitter” — now X — and launch “black ops” against Kennedy. “Black ops” refers to secret operations carried out by governments or other organizations that hide their involvement.
Jim Hoft, founder and editor of The Gateway Pundit — which CCDH and its CEO, Imran Ahmed, attempted to demonetize in 2021 — said CCDH’s link to Soros did not surprise him. Hoft said he is “thrilled that this is finally exposed,” arguing that Soros has supported “numerous anti-American protests and movements.”
Ji, who appeared on the “Disinformation Dozen” list, told The Defender that CCDH’s ties to Soros represent “far more than a simple financial disclosure — it’s the moment the curtain gets pulled back on an elaborate theater of manipulation that has been operating in plain sight, yet hidden behind layers of institutional camouflage.”
Ji said the revelations confirm that CCDH “has never operated as an authentic civil society organization.” Instead, CCDH “functions as a sophisticated influence weapon, deployed with surgical precision against those who dare challenge pharmaceutical orthodoxy and the broader control narratives of our time.”
Pediatrician Dr. Sherri Tenpenny, also named one of the so-called “Disinformation Dozen,” said, “Soros’ money seems to be in everything destructive to liberty and democracy.”
CCDH funded by Gates-linked groups and web of anonymous donors
CCDH, founded in the U.K. in 2018, has long hidden its funding sources, according to investigative journalist Paul D. Thacker.
Thacker reported in The Disinformation Chronicle that in 2021 — CCDH’s first year of operations in the U.S. — the group reported $1,471,247 in donations, including an anonymous $1.1 million gift routed through a private Schwab Charitable Fund.
Although CCDH holds nonprofit status in the U.S., it’s linked to a private Delaware corporation, Center for Countering Digital Hate Inc. Thacker said the corporation is based at a private residence in Washington, D.C., and, as a private entity, “is not required to make its finances public.”
Thacker said the company contributes heavily to the nonprofit’s operations, including payroll and legal expenses.
“CCDH does not report their Soros funding because this aligns with their policy of hiding their funders. It’s how Imran Ahmed has always operated since he founded CCDH years ago in London,” Thacker told The Defender.
Chiropractor Ben Tapper, also named as one of the “Disinformation Dozen,” said CCDH, “when pressed, has refused to provide a full donor list.”
According to the Free Beacon, CCDH received $415,000 in 2023 from the Skoll Fund, a private philanthropic organization run by former eBay President Jeff Skoll.
Two Skoll Fund board members — Gayle E. Smith and Raj Panjabi — helped lead the Biden administration’s COVID-19 response and were involved in global public health initiatives such as the World Health Organization’s pandemic accord.
Another board member, Shashi Buluswar, previously served as the founding CEO of GH Labs, a global health nonprofit founded by Bill Gates.
The Silicon Valley Communication Foundation — which the Free Beacon described as a “donor-advised fund that manages charitable contributions on behalf of anonymous donors” and is associated with the Skoll Fund — contributed $403,175 to CCDH in 2023.
The foundation does not list its full leadership structure or board on its website.
Ji said the grants — which helped make up CCDH’s $2.1 million 2023 revenue — form part of “a vast tapestry of dark money” flowing into the group. He said the funding network includes Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss and several institutional donors, including some connected to the Democratic Party, such as the recently dissolved Arabella Advisors and the Sixteen Thirty Fund.
“At the top sits Hansjörg Wyss, the Swiss billionaire who seeded and financed the U.S. political dark-money machine,” Ji wrote on Substack. In 2021, The New York Times reported that Wyss “helped build a sophisticated behind-the-scenes operation that attacked Republicans and promoted Democratic causes.”
Ji wrote that Arabella Advisors “operates as the central distribution hub for billions in foreign-origin or anonymously sourced money,” distributing over $2.5 billion to nonprofits and operating over 350 “‘pop-up’ front groups, designed to mimic independent grassroots organizations.”
He described the Sixteen Thirty Fund, managed by Arabella Advisors, as “Arabella’s political weapon,” saying it provides millions of dollars for electoral and “online influence” campaigns, coordinates legislative pressure and bankrolls political ads. Ji called the fund “one of the largest dark-money players in U.S. politics.” The fund does not list its leadership structure or board online.
“CCDH’s talking points, campaigns, and report themes mirror the Sixteen Thirty Fund’s political agenda nearly word for word,” Ji wrote.
Other organizations funding CCDH include:
Elevate Prize Foundation — $300,000.
Esmée Fairbairn Foundation — 213,333 pounds, approximately $279,000.
Pears Foundation — 150,000 pounds, approximately $196,000.
Paul Hamlyn Foundation — 100,000 pounds, approximately $131,000.
Oak Foundation — $100,000.
Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust — 53,400 pounds, approximately $70,000.
“Each of these entities is tied to U.S. election influence, foreign policy networks, or digital policing initiatives,” Ji wrote.
According to Ji, other less-visible entities funding CCDH include Prism the Gift Fund, a U.K. charity that he said allows donors to remain “permanently anonymous.”
Ji said CCDH “openly encourages the use of donor-advised funds,” which allow the donor’s identity to remain secret. He wrote that these funds are “widely considered legalized money-laundering structures for political nonprofits” and are often used by foreign donors to “fund domestic political operations without detection.”
‘They want us silenced’
Examples of political operations include attempts to undermine Kennedy’s leadership of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and to support broader efforts to censor online speech, including during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Thacker said CCDH and Ahmed have close ties to the Democratic Party and the British Labour Party, and support censorship legislation overseas, including the U.K.’s Online Safety Act, which seeks to force social media platforms to censor users in the U.S. and worldwide.
“Imran Ahmed helped to pass the U.K.’s Online Safety Act and he’s worked in Brussels to also pass censorship policies. He’s a threat to our constitution and the free speech of everyone across the globe,” Thacker said.
Ji wrote that CCDH is part of “a transnational censorship-industrial complex” designed to influence U.S. politics and suppress domestic speech. The group’s narratives “directly shaped” federal COVID-19 disinformation policy during the Biden administration and fueled “social media takedown pressure” against online users, he said.
Ji said:
“What we’re confronting isn’t simply about ‘misinformation’ — that’s the cover story. This is about power architecture: who controls the flow of information, who determines acceptable thought, who decides which voices get amplified and which get silenced.”
Hoft said, “They want us silenced. Now we have proof that Soros is one of many who are funding this.”
IRS, DOJ ignoring CCDH’s ‘materially false’ claims
CCDH’s operations have come under increased scrutiny from members of the U.S. Congress and the Trump administration.
Thacker reported that CCDH lied to the IRS to obtain tax-exempt status in the U.S., claiming in its 2021 application that it was already operating as a registered charity in the U.K., even though the group never registered as a U.K. nonprofit.
“CCDH likely made the false claim to speed up the IRS process to gain tax-exempt status so they could begin fundraising” in the U.S., Thacker wrote. “Yet, neither the IRS nor the Department of Justice has investigated CCDH’s materially false claim.”
Thacker said CCDH told the IRS that “a couple hundred thousand dollars” covers salaries for all of its workers, while its website lists six employees. However, a whistleblower inside CCDH shared an organizational chart showing 28 employees as of 2024. Thacker wrote:
“Ahmed is paid about $250,000 and his is the only salary reported to the IRS. None of the other salaries are reported, as required. …
“… Several members of CCDH’s leadership team are also paid six figure salaries. Yet, CCDH has never explained how they pay dozens of staff members with only the money they report to the IRS.”
Thacker told The Defender that CCDH has always hidden its funding. “Very few of CCDH’s own employees know where the money comes from, and who actually pays their salaries,” he said.
Ji called the opacity deliberate. “This level of concealment isn’t accidental. It’s the operational signature of what intelligence professionals would recognize as an influence operation.”
In 2023, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) launched a congressional investigation into CCDH over its alleged collusion with Big Tech and the federal government to censor content. He subpoenaed CCDH for its donor list.
In an August 2023 response to Jordan, an attorney representing CCDH said the organization “is funded entirely by private donors.” Thacker said that is false, citing a January report by The Telegraph showing that the U.K. government funded CCDH.
‘This should be a five-alarm fire’
Thacker wrote that CCDH and Ahmed misled Congress, yet the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) “has failed to investigate this misleading claim.”
The Trump administration is considering revoking Ahmed’s visa and deporting him to the U.K., according to news reports. Tenpenny said the reports strengthen the “Disinformation Dozen’s” case against “the government-driven censorship.”
However, Thacker told The Defender that Ahmed may not be deported. Citing CCDH sources, he said Ahmed “is trying, or has already gotten, a U.S. passport,” which would complicate any deportation attempt.
“But he’s breaking U.S. laws by hiding the money he uses to prop up his shady nonprofit, with financing from a private company,” Thacker said.
Before the 2024 U.S. presidential election, Donald Trump’s campaign indicated that CCDH would be “investigated from all angles,” but the Trump administration “has done nothing,” Thacker said.
However, the administration may be taking a closer look at the operations of the Open Society Foundations. In September, the DOJ directed several federal prosecutors to launch investigations into the organization, based on allegations of wire fraud and racketeering, arson and material support for terrorism.
Hoft blamed Republican inaction for the lack of legal action against Ahmed and CCDH.
“CCDH has been very successful,” Hoft said. “There has been no pushback by the Republicans, and so their work continues. This should be a five-alarm fire — but it’s not.” Hoft added that Trump “is eager to bring down the hammer on Soros,” but “the GOP Congress is very slow to act.”
Thacker said the U.S. already has enough evidence to prosecute Ahmed and CCDH.
“Before they kick him out of the country, the Department of Justice should indict Imran Ahmed for laws he broke in America, to include lying to Congress and filing materially false statements with the IRS,” he wrote.
Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D.
Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D., based in Athens, Greece, is a senior reporter for The Defender and host of “The Defender In-Depth” on CHD.TV.
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