God help us. Frances Township is listed as one of three “senior leaders” for the “Countering Extremism Project”: https://www.counterextremism.com/leadership. This group lists rightwing, but not leftwing, “extremist” groups among those it tracks.
She was a cofounder of the CEP, and from its wikipedia page:
“In June 2016, CEP unveiled a software tool for use by Internet and social media companies to “quickly find and eliminate extremist content used to spread and incite violence and attacks”. A CEP senior advisor. Hany Farid, a computer scientist who specializes in the forensic analysis of digital images, developed the software. It functions similarly to PhotoDNA, a system that uses robust hashing technology that Farid worked on developing with Microsoft, which is “now widely used by Internet companies to stop the spread of content showing sexual exploitation or pornography involving children”.[16][17]
To operate this new technology to combat extremism, CEP proposed the creation of a National Office for Reporting Extremism (NORex), which would house a comprehensive database of extremist content and function similar to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. President Obama supported this initiative. Lisa Monaco, Obama’s top counterterrorism adviser, said, “We welcome the launch of initiatives such as the Counter Extremism Project’s National Office for Reporting Extremism that enables companies to address terrorist activity on their platforms and better respond to the threat posed by terrorists’ activities online.”[18] Wallace stated that if this system were to be adopted by social media companies and the private sector, it “would go a long way to making sure that online extremism is no longer pervasive”.[16]”
The DHS is listed as a top partner on its website (https://www.counterextremism.com/government-partnerships), which I should think would disqualify her from an “independent review”?
Sorry, *Townsend*.