- US state department officials also sought information on participants in disinformation course
AUCKLAND, 19 February 2025 – New Zealand-based community education provider Dark Times Academy has had a US Embassy grant it received to deliver a course teaching Pacific Island-based journalists about disinformation terminated after the new US administration requested a list of course participants and to review the programme material.
The course, called ‘A Bit Sus’, is an evidence-based peer-reviewed series of classes that teach key professions the skills needed to identify and counter disinformation and misinformation in their particular field. The classes focus on ‘prebunking’, lateral reading, and how technology, including generative AI, influences disinformation.
Dark Times Academy was originally awarded the funds to run the programme through a public competitive grant offered by the US Embassy in New Zealand in 2023 under the previous US administration.
The US Embassy grant was focused on strengthening the capacity of Pacific media to identify and counter disinformation. While funded by the US, the course was to be a completely independent programme overseen by Dark Times Academy and its academic consultants.
Co-founder of Dark Times Academy, Mandy Henk, was preparing to deliver the eight-week education programme this month to a group of Pacific Island journalists and media professionals, but received a request from the US Embassy in New Zealand to review the course materials to “ensure they are in line with US foreign policy priorities.”
Henk says she and the other course presenters refused to allow US government officials to review the course material for this purpose.
“As far as I can tell, the current foreign policy priorities of the US government seem to involve terrorising the people of Gaza, annexing Canada, invading Greenland, and bullying Panama. We felt confident that a review of our materials would not find them to be aligned with those priorities.”
Henk says the US Embassy also requested a “list of registered participants for the online classes,” which Dark Times Academy also declined to provide as compliance would have violated the New Zealand Privacy Act of 2020.
Henk says the refusal to provide the course materials for review led immediately to further discussions with the US Embassy in New Zealand that ultimately resulted in the termination of the grant “by mutual agreement.”
However, she says Dark Times Academy will still go ahead with running the course for the Pacific Island journalists who have signed up so far.
“The Dark Times Academy team fully intends to continue to bring the A Bit Sus programme and other classes to the Pacific region and New Zealand, even without the support of the US government,” says Henk.
“As noted when we first announced this course, the Pacific Islands have experienced accelerated growth in digital connectivity over the past few years thanks to new submarine cable networks and satellite technology.
“Alongside this, the region has also seen a surge in harmful rumours and disinformation that is increasingly disrupting the ability to share accurate and truthful information across Pacific communities.
“This course will help participants from the media recognise common tactics used by disinformation agents and support them to deploy proven educational and communications techniques.
“By taking a skills-based approach to countering disinformation, our programme can help to spread the techniques needed to mitigate the risks posed by digital technologies,” says Henk.
Dark Times Academy co-founder Byron Clark says the course will be especially valuable for journalists in the Pacific region given the recent shifts in global politics and the current state of the planet.
“We saw the devastating impacts of disinformation in the Pacific region during the measles outbreak in Samoa, for example,” says Clark.