Lobby virksomhed META!
part 1
TL;DR: Four new findings. (1) ICMEC, the nonprofit that authored Meta's preferred age verification model bill, is $2.28 million in debt and kept alive by board member loans totaling $1.1M, yet produced a full legislative toolkit aligned with Meta's lobbying position. Meta is a confirmed $25K+ donor. (2) ConnectSafely's $100K/year UK wire most likely goes to Childnet International, a co-member of Meta's Safety Advisory Board since 2009. The UK Charity Commission is currently investigating Childnet for censoring young ambassadors who criticized a funder. (3) Meta sent a named representative to two Brazilian congressional hearings on the Digital ECA, invited directly by the bill's rapporteur. (4) Three of Meta's EU lobbying firms also operate in the US, but Meta keeps its child safety lobbying completely compartmentalized from its international operations. The full investigation, all source documents, and the research repository are now public at
Everything is at
https://tboteproject.com
The repository can be found at
https://tboteproject.com/git/hekate/attestation-findings
What I Did
Follow-up to my previous posts about Meta's $26.3M federal lobbying operation, the DCA exposure, ConnectSafely's 9-year donor concealment, and the Heritage Foundation pipeline. This round focused on international connections: who funds the organizations writing the model legislation, where ConnectSafely's UK money goes, and whether Meta's US influence playbook extends to Brazil and Europe.
1. ICMEC Is Nearly Insolvent and Meta Funds It
ICMEC (International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children, EIN 22-3630133) authored the Digital Age Assurance Act (DAAA), the model bill that shifts age verification from social media platforms to device and OS manufacturers. Meta is a confirmed $25K+ donor.
I pulled three years of ICMEC's 990 XML filings (2022-2024).
Financial picture:
Metric FY 2024 FY 2023 FY 2022
Revenue $3.80M $5.02M $3.51M
Expenses $4.47M $5.61M $5.15M
Net Assets -$2.28M -$1.64M -$1.09M
Employees 13 21 21
Negative net assets every year, getting worse. Revenue down 24% year over year. Headcount dropped from 21 to 13.
Their 2024 audit flagged "substantial doubts regarding the organization's ability to meet financial obligations."
Board members are personally loaning money to keep it running:
Lender Role Outstanding Balance
Franz Humer Board Member (retired Chairman, Roche/Diageo) $807,000
Sally Paul Board Chair $210,000
Rick Li Board Member (Goldman Sachs) $100,000
Total $1,117,000
With $1.1M in board loans and negative $2.28M net assets, ICMEC still managed to produce model legislation, a constitutional analysis, a technical whitepaper, FAQs, a dedicated website (ageverificationpolicy.org), Virginia General Assembly testimony, and co-sponsorship of California AB-1043. All in 2024-2025.
Their largest expense category: "Other professional fees" at $952K. That money paid for the DAAA policy work.
No external grants anywhere in the filings. No Schedule I filed in any year. The only outgoing money goes to ICMEC's own Singapore subsidiary ($170-206K/year).
ICMEC Australia Ltd holds $13.9M in assets. The parent holds $1.05M. ICMEC loaned $868K to the Australian subsidiary in 2023. The filings do not explain why the subsidiary has 13x the parent's assets.
Sources: ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer (990 XML object IDs: 202513219349317586, 202433209349302068, 202303179349304730), ICMEC supporters page, ageverificationpolicy.org
Lobby virksomhed META! 👇 part 1
TL;DR: Four new findings. (1) ICMEC, the nonprofit that authored Meta's preferred age verification model bill, is $2.28 million in debt and kept alive by board member loans totaling $1.1M, yet produced a full legislative toolkit aligned with Meta's lobbying position. Meta is a confirmed $25K+ donor. (2) ConnectSafely's $100K/year UK wire most likely goes to Childnet International, a co-member of Meta's Safety Advisory Board since 2009. The UK Charity Commission is currently investigating Childnet for censoring young ambassadors who criticized a funder. (3) Meta sent a named representative to two Brazilian congressional hearings on the Digital ECA, invited directly by the bill's rapporteur. (4) Three of Meta's EU lobbying firms also operate in the US, but Meta keeps its child safety lobbying completely compartmentalized from its international operations. The full investigation, all source documents, and the research repository are now public at
Everything is at https://tboteproject.com
The repository can be found at https://tboteproject.com/git/hekate/attestation-findings
What I Did
Follow-up to my previous posts about Meta's $26.3M federal lobbying operation, the DCA exposure, ConnectSafely's 9-year donor concealment, and the Heritage Foundation pipeline. This round focused on international connections: who funds the organizations writing the model legislation, where ConnectSafely's UK money goes, and whether Meta's US influence playbook extends to Brazil and Europe.
1. ICMEC Is Nearly Insolvent and Meta Funds It
ICMEC (International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children, EIN 22-3630133) authored the Digital Age Assurance Act (DAAA), the model bill that shifts age verification from social media platforms to device and OS manufacturers. Meta is a confirmed $25K+ donor.
I pulled three years of ICMEC's 990 XML filings (2022-2024).
Financial picture:
Metric FY 2024 FY 2023 FY 2022
Revenue $3.80M $5.02M $3.51M
Expenses $4.47M $5.61M $5.15M
Net Assets -$2.28M -$1.64M -$1.09M
Employees 13 21 21
Negative net assets every year, getting worse. Revenue down 24% year over year. Headcount dropped from 21 to 13.
Their 2024 audit flagged "substantial doubts regarding the organization's ability to meet financial obligations."
Board members are personally loaning money to keep it running:
Lender Role Outstanding Balance
Franz Humer Board Member (retired Chairman, Roche/Diageo) $807,000
Sally Paul Board Chair $210,000
Rick Li Board Member (Goldman Sachs) $100,000
Total $1,117,000
With $1.1M in board loans and negative $2.28M net assets, ICMEC still managed to produce model legislation, a constitutional analysis, a technical whitepaper, FAQs, a dedicated website (ageverificationpolicy.org), Virginia General Assembly testimony, and co-sponsorship of California AB-1043. All in 2024-2025.
Their largest expense category: "Other professional fees" at $952K. That money paid for the DAAA policy work.
No external grants anywhere in the filings. No Schedule I filed in any year. The only outgoing money goes to ICMEC's own Singapore subsidiary ($170-206K/year).
ICMEC Australia Ltd holds $13.9M in assets. The parent holds $1.05M. ICMEC loaned $868K to the Australian subsidiary in 2023. The filings do not explain why the subsidiary has 13x the parent's assets.
Sources: ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer (990 XML object IDs: 202513219349317586, 202433209349302068, 202303179349304730), ICMEC supporters page, ageverificationpolicy.org
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