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This Week's Updates:
Lawmakers Push for Answers on Crisis Pregnancy Center Funding
Last week, Reps. Jame Raskin (D-MD) and Maxwell Frost (D-FL) sent a letter to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) asking the agency to conduct a study on federal funding sent to anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs). In their letter, the lawmakers note that CPCs often pose as legitimate medical clinics, and provide only provide “biased, limited, and scientifically inaccurate information” about reproductive care. On top of these health and safety failures, CPCs are not required to comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and have almost no obligation to protect patient privacy. The letter also cited a new study from a private health consulting firm, which estimated that over 650 CPCs across the country had received more than $400 million in federal funding between 2017 and 2023. While this analysis is valuable, Raskin and Frost argue that a GAO study would fill knowledge gaps and improve transparency.
In April, CfA sent complaints to the attorneys general of Idaho, Minnesota, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Washington alleging that CPCs in their states had potentially violated consumer protection laws by telling clients their personal health information was protected under HIPAA. CfA’s complaints focused on facilities that belonged to umbrella organizations like Care Net and Heartbeat International, which Raskin and Frost expressed particular concern with.
Militia Groups Use Social Media to Capitalize on Trump Assassination Attempt
The attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump has spawned a flood of conspiracy theoriesacross social media, as platforms fail to uplift credible information or fact-check false claims. On X, the Community Note system collapsed under a surge of posts claiming the attack had been staged or was the result of a “deep state” plot. Instead of stepping up to fill this gap, X competitor Threads flopped, hamstrung by Meta’s decision to move away from breaking news and politics.
Naturally, this information vacuum created opportunities for bad actors, and signaled to extremist organizations that platforms weren’t serious about content moderation. On Tuesday, journalist Tess Owen reported that armed militia groups were rallying around the assassination attempt on social media, using mainstream platforms to spread their ideology and recruit new members. CfA’s Tech Transparency Project (TTP) contributed to the story by providing exclusive research concerning the extremist group American Patriots Three Percenters (APIII), which has been allowed to recruit on Facebook, X, TikTok, and even NextDoor for the past year. All these platforms have policies against violent organizations, but enforcement appears to be minimal; a Facebook “Confederate militia” group, which Owen highlighted by name in her report, remains active three days after her story was published. Meta did not provide a comment.
Traditional Criminal Enterprises Move in on Crypto
For years, cryptocurrency trade associations have opposed the expansion of anti-money laundering (AML) safeguards to crypto transactions, arguing that reporting requirements would threaten “tens of thousands of U.S. jobs” and harm the country’s “strategic advantage.” In Washington, the industry has recruited a revolving cast of former law enforcement officials to lobby on its behalf; in hearings, they insist that money laundering doesn’t happen on their platforms, and attack the efficacy of existing AML systems. Despite these claims, a new report from the cryptocurrency research firm Chainalysis suggests that money laundering activity is increasing on blockchains, and that more traditional criminal organizations are getting in on the action. Specifically, researchers looked for indicators of illegal activity, like spikes in transactions just below reporting thresholds or the use of multiple intermediary wallets before cash-out, which has become increasingly common on exchanges that require ID-verification. This behavior suggests that bad actors are shifting to exchanges that have AML and know-your-customer requirements, but are still taking steps to obscure the origins of transactions by moving them to different wallets.
