Laurene Powell Jobs is shifting the focus of her pro-immigration advocacy group to include combatting what she calls “far-right disinformation campaigns”, which criticize her group, Immigration Hub, per Breitbart.
Jobs, 61, is Apple founder Steve Jobs’ widow, and is a billionaire. She is described as a philanthropist, pouring her billions into various advocacy groups, including Immigration Hub. Immigration Hub describes itself as “a national organization dedicated to advancing fair and just immigration policies through strategic leadership, innovative communications strategies, legislative advocacy and collaborative partnerships,” and boasts of former congressional staff and executive officials in its ranks.
Jobs’ new group, Catalyze/Citizens, released a statement this month indicating that Immigration Hub would “expand its scope” to “counter” criticism of their organization and aims. It also stated a goal of pushing changes to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, in order to “build safer online spaces”.
Section 320 of the Communications Decency Act, as it currently exists, provides for free speech on the internet by making users solely accountable for their own posts. Under Section 320, internet users or services cannot be sued for what a different user says; services are not considered publishers, and therefore anyone who provides an internet service, such as running a forum, is not considered responsible for what people post there.
If this section were reformed, then website owners would be open to lawsuits regarding content posted by users. At present, website owners can only get in legal trouble if they are knowingly hosting illegal content.
It is not currently possible for Immigration Hub to legally challenge any website that allows its users to criticize mass migration, an action which Immigration Hub characterizes as “far-right”. If they were able to do so, then social media websites would censor their users’ posts in order to avoid lawsuits against the website as a whole.
In addition to planning to encourage censorship, Catalyze/Citizens’ statement also laid out its plan to “drive narrative interventions” regarding criticism towards immigration.
Other statements by Catalyze/Citizens and its involved parties, such as activist Beatriz Lopez who is highly positioned in Immigration Hub, conflate being critical of mass migration with being anti-democratic.
“Under my leadership, the Hub will expand its mission to tackle the source of disinformation by championing policies and solutions that ensure social media responsibility and online and AI safety,” said Lopez, referring to policies regarding regulating and censoring the internet. She said that Immigration Hub must create a “robust response that matches, competes and wins against the extreme right’s anti-immigrant, anti-democratic narratives.”
Immigration Hub and Catalyst/Citizens repeatedly frames any criticism of mass migration policies as a result of right-wing propaganda tactics. On the Immigration Hub’s website, its research tab consists almost exclusively of Right Wing Media Reports going back to January 2022.
The site’s “Our Story” section states that “Emerson Collective incubated the Immigration Hub in 2017 to provide strategic support to a broad spectrum of partners to help counter escalating anti-immigrant sentiment and restrictive immigration policies” and that the Immigration Hub works to advance “a pro-immigrant Congressional agenda,” among other things.
Of the 28 published research articles, only two are not Right Wing Media Reports. The purpose of each report is to count how many “negative immigration mentions” appear in right-wing media outlets during a given time period, usually one month.
Jobs, who is worth around $11 billion, is known to have contributed significantly to Kamala Harris’ campaign, donating “millions” to it. Catalyst/Citizens released a report that lamented the lack of migration-centered campaigning from Harris, as opposed to immigration regulation being a major part of Donald Trump’s campaign.
A top aide of Jobs’ is also reported to have helped to remove Joe Biden from the presidential race by circulating unfavorable polling numbers.
