What disappeared from the Pentagon website
These words stopped me cold. "Why are you considering compromising with traditional media? It's an industry locked in a death spiral... You're compromising with a dying industry rather than dominating it. Crushing it."
This was Mark Zuckerberg talking. His words are revealed in Sarah Wynn-Williams' explosive memoir Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism. Zuckerberg is fighting to suppress this book with legal injunctions, but its revelations illuminate the hostility Meta has shown toward facts, news and the information systems democracy depends upon.
The most damning aspect of Careless People isn't its documentation of Facebook's actions, but its exposure of the calculated contempt behind them — the disregard for human lives left vulnerable on their platforms, for democratic institutions undermined by their algorithms and for sovereign nations treated as mere extraction sites. They embody what Harvard professor Shoshana Zuboff identified so precisely in 2019 as "surveillance capitalism." These are not just tech companies but extractive predators that harvest our most intimate data to predict, manipulate and monetize our behavior while skilfully operating beyond meaningful accountability.
When Critical Information Disappears
This letter marks the launch of an urgent fundraising campaign for CNO. As we witness unprecedented threats to both our information ecosystem and our national security, Canada's National Observer is stepping up a new stream of coverage we're calling "Reality Check."
During the federal election, journalists Rachel Gilmore and Emily Baron Cadloff led this new fact-checking service at CNO, focused on dispelling climate disinformation. We need more funds now to continue to provide this vital service and to do more. We're seeking to build more dedicated reporting focused on the convergence of disinformation, climate change and democracy. To make this vital work possible, we need to raise $150,000 by May 31st. I hope you'll join us in this critical mission after reading why this initiative is more necessary than ever.
The urgency of our work was brought into sharp focus for me in a shocking way as I was doing some research on national security and climate. In 2015, the US Department of Defense issued a historic report that explained how climate change was not just an environmental issue — it was a national security issue. The Pentagon warned that the impacts of climate change — instability, mass displacement and the failure of governments to meet basic needs — were real and accelerating.
Fast forward to now, and try to find that report online.
You won't.
The link leads to a 404.
The original document has been erased.
That's because the Trump administration ordered US agencies last February to remove references to the climate crisis from their websites. What has been erased from official records is chilling — the disappearance of critical knowledge about the climate threats we face — threats that continue to evolve and become more dangerous with each passing day.
This deliberate erasure of information isn't just bureaucratic housekeeping — it's information warfare. In a world where critical security assessments can simply vanish overnight, who preserves the knowledge citizens need to understand the challenges we face? Who has the facts?
While government websites can be scrubbed clean of inconvenient truths, a firehose of disinformation continues unabated across podcasts, Instagram, TikTok and countless other platforms. It is happening in the US but needless to say, it also affects us in Canada.
Over the past ten years, CNO has steadily built a permanent, secure archive with over 40,000 well-researched climate articles that will remain accessible to the public regardless of political shifts. Help us continue to build this vital archive.
When Meta Abandoned Canada
In August 2023, we witnessed Meta's true priorities when they abruptly removed all news content from their platforms in Canada rather than comply with new legislation. The impact was immediate and devastating. At CNO, our traffic plummeted and stories that once reached millions disappeared from Facebook and Instagram feeds. Our Facebook page went dormant and the 30,000 or so people who went there for news were disappointed. Fake news on Facebook dominates.
This wasn't a business decision; it was a power play that revealed the tech giant's fundamental indifference to democratic discourse.
The consequences extend far beyond our industry. While legitimate news vanishes from platforms, disinformation flourishes unchecked. This creates a dangerous reality where climate change becomes in some minds "just an opinion" and genuine national security threats go underreported or misunderstood.
Recent polls show climate concerns falling among Canadians' priorities — not because the crisis has abated, but because the information ecosystem has been corrupted. As our recent podcast, The Takeover, documents, far-right influencers and business leaders in the oil industry are now aggressively trying to debunk the idea that there even is a 'climate crisis.'
Our Plan to Fight Back
After ten years as publisher of CNO, I've come to understand that disinformation is the fundamental problem we must solve before we can effectively address climate change and national security. That's why I'm asking for your support today.
If we can raise $150,000 by May 22, we will be able to ramp up with:
But if we can reach $250,000, we will create a fully dedicated desk with both a researcher and a reporter working exclusively on disinformation and security issues.
At a time when U.S. agencies have been ordered to remove references to the climate crisis from their websites, and when Trump has weaponized tariffs against our economy, Canada needs to strengthen its information system. Independent journalism that preserves critical information and holds power accountable depends on people like you to play the role that it must.
While Meta and other platforms can switch off access to news with the flip of a switch, your support ensures CNO remains resilient and independent. Unlike the vanishing Pentagon climate security report that now leads to a 404 error, we've built a permanent, secure archive that will remain accessible regardless of who holds power.
The stakes couldn't be higher. The geopolitical order is in flux. Climate-driven disasters are growing in scope. And disinformation threatens to undermine our collective response to these challenges while making billionaires wealthier. Just this week, Meta announced they'd posted $42 billion in sales in the first quarter of 2025 alone.
Why This Matters to Me Personally
As many of you know, I came to Canada in 2001, a month after 9/11, to start a new life here. I became a Canadian citizen, raised two sons on this soil, divorced and remarried a Canadian. I came with an idealistic view of Canada that over the years has shifted to a more realistic view of its strengths and limitations, but I still believe that Canada is a world leader and gem of a progressive democracy with the potential to offer hope around the world as authoritarianism spreads. My home is in Canada, and it's here where I've built both a family and a publication dedicated to truth.
The threats we face today are not abstract policy disagreements. They are direct challenges to Canadian sovereignty and security. With Trump attacking Canada's economy through tariffs and floating the outrageous notion of absorbing Canada as the 51st state, it often feels like his goal is to make us feel insecure, anxious and uncertain. This deliberate destabilization serves those who benefit from a confused and divided public. Together with you, we can help push back against confusion and falsehoods.
This isn't just another fundraising campaign. It's about whether Canadians will have access to vital information when they need it most. What we build today will serve Canadians for generations.
Standing Against a Dystopian Future
In Careless People, Wynn-Williams reveals Zuckerberg's ultimate vision: creating a 'fifth estate' with Facebook as the singular news platform for billions. While he may have temporarily lost interest in this digital monopoly, the infrastructure and ambition remain. What stands between that dystopian information landscape and a healthy democracy isn't government regulation or corporate conscience — it's independent journalism with the resources to withstand pressure and preserve truth. Your support today doesn't just fund reporting; it ensures Canada maintains the information sovereignty essential to remaining the country we love, not the 51st state in someone else's empire.
When I launched CNO in 2015, I could not have predicted how dramatically the information landscape would shift — how tech giants would claim to support journalism while plotting to "crush" it, how climate science would be erased from government websites or how disinformation would flood into the void where verified news once stood.
What began as a publication focused primarily on climate reporting has evolved into something more fundamental: a guardian of facts in an era when facts themselves are under assault. The connections between disinformation, climate denial and threats to national security have never been clearer or more dangerous. When Trump speaks of tariffs and annexation, when Meta abandons Canada while disinformation flourishes, when critical climate security documents vanish without a trace — these aren't isolated incidents, but symptoms of a coordinated assault on informed democracy.
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