Fatma Zehra Solmaz
14 February 2025•Update: 14 February 2025
ISTANBUL
Thomson Reuters denied on Thursday accusations that the company was involved in "large-scale social deception" on behalf of the US government, saying the claims misrepresented its work with the Department of Defense.
On Wednesday, billionaire Elon Musk posted on X: “Reuters was paid millions of dollars by the US government for ‘large scale social deception.’ They’re a total scam.”
On Truth Social, US President Donald Trump echoed the claim, calling Reuters “Radical Left” and demanding that it “GIVE BACK THE MONEY, NOW!”
Thomson Reuters Special Services CEO Steve Rubley told CNN that “recent public discourse” has “inaccurately represented the nature of the business” between Thomson Reuters Special Services (TRSS) and the Department of Defense.
He added that the accusations wrongly conflated the Reuters news agency with TRSS, which are separate legal entities that operate “independently” and have separate boards of directors.
In 2018, under Trump’s first term, the US government awarded TRSS a $9.1 million contract to develop defenses against “social engineering” cyberattacks that use “social deception” tactics to manipulate individuals into revealing sensitive information, according to CNN.
The project continued until 2022 when the Biden administration ended the contract.
“TRSS has provided software and information services to US government agencies across successive administrations for decades to assist in identifying and preventing fraud, supporting public safety and advancing justice,” Rubley told CNN.
Attacks on The New York Times, Politico
Trump also targeted Politico and the New York Times in another Truth Social post, questioning “why and how much” they were paid for “nothing.”
“PAY BACK THE MONEY TO THE TAXPAYERS!” the US president added.
According to the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) Live Tracker, the US government spent $40 million on subscriptions to The New York Times.
The Times responded that the funds were for government subscriptions, totaling less than $2 million last year, while canceled Politico subscriptions amounted to $500,000.
