https://www.wired.com/story/doge-website-is-just-one-big-x-ad/
DOGE’s
Website Is Just One Big X
Ad
The
source code for the new
Department of Government
Efficiency’s “official US
government website” points
to X as its primary source
of authority, while
sharing links to the site
sends users to x.com.
At a press
conference in the Oval
Office this week, Elon
Musk promised the actions of
his so-called Department
of Government Efficiency
(DOGE) project would
be “maximally transparent,”
thanks to information posted
to its website.
At the
time of his comment, the DOGE
website was empty.
However, when the site
finally came online Thursday
morning, it turned out to be
little more than a glorified
feed of posts from the
official DOGE account on
Musk’s own X platform,
raising new questions about
Musk’s conflicts
of interest in running
DOGE.
DOGE.gov
claims to be an “official
website of the United States
government,” but rather than
giving detailed breakdowns
of the cost savings and
efficiencies Musk claims his
project is making, the
homepage of the site just
replicated posts from the
DOGE account on X.
A WIRED
review of the page’s source
code shows that the
promotion of Musk’s own
platform went deeper than
replicating the posts on the
homepage. The source code
shows that the site’s canonical
tags direct search
engines to x.com
rather than DOGE.gov.
A
canonical tag is a snippet
of code that tells search
engines what the
authoritative version of a
website is. It is typically
used by sites with multiple
pages as a search engine
optimization tactic, to
avoid their search ranking
being diluted.
In DOGE’s
case, however, the code is
informing search engines
that when people search for
content found on DOGE.gov,
they should not show those
pages in search results, but
should instead display the
posts on X.
“It is
promoting the X account as
the main source, with the
website secondary,” Declan
Chidlow, a
web developer, tells
WIRED. “This isn't usually
how things are handled, and
it indicates that the X
account is taking priority
over the actual website
itself.”
Advertisement
All the
other US government websites
WIRED checked used their own
homepage in their canonical
tags, including the official
White House website.
Additionally, when sharing
the DOGE website on mobile
devices, the source code
creates a link to the DOGE X
account rather than the
website itself.
“It seems
that the DOGE website is
secondary, and they are
prodding people in the
direction of the X account
everywhere they can,”
Chidlow adds.
Alongside
the homepage feed of X
posts, a section of Doge.gov
labeled “Savings” now
appears. So far the page is
empty except for a single
line that reads: “Receipts
coming soon, no later than
Valentine's day,” followed
by a
heart emoji.
A section
entitled “Workforce”
features some bar charts
showing how many people work
in each government agency,
with the information coming
from data gathered by the
Office of Personnel
Management in March 2024.
A
disclaimer at the bottom of
the page reads: “This is
DOGE's effort to create a
comprehensive,
government-wide org chart.
This is an enormous effort,
and there are likely some
errors or omissions. We will
continue to strive for
maximum accuracy over time.”
Another
section, entitled
“Regulations,” features what
DOGE calls the
“Unconstitutionality Index,”
which it describes as “the
number of agency rules
created by unelected
bureaucrats for each law
passed by Congress in 2024.”
The
charts in this section are
also based on data
previously collected by US
government agencies.
Doge.gov also links to a
Forbes article from last
month that was written by
Clyde Wayne Crews, a member
of the Heartland Institute,
a conservative think tank
that pushed climate
change disinformation and
questioned the links
between tobacco and lung
cancer. It is also a
major advocate for privatizing
government departments.
The site
also features a “Join” page
which allows prospective
DOGE employees to apply for
roles including “software
engineers, InfoSec
engineers, and other
technology professionals.”
As well as requesting a
Github account and résumé,
the form asks visitors to
“provide 2-3 bullet points
showcasing exceptional
ability.”
The
website does not list a
developer, but on Wednesday,
web application security
expert Sam Curry outlined
in a thread on X how
he was able to identify the
developer of the site as
DOGE employee Kyle Shutt.
Curry
claims he was able to link a
Cloudflare account ID found
in the site’s source code to
Shutt, who used the same
account when developing Musk’s
America PAC website.
On
Thursday, Drop
Site News reported,
citing sources within FEMA,
that Shutt had gained access
to the agency’s proprietary
software controlling
payments. Earlier this
week, Business
Insider reported that
Shutt, who recently worked
at an AI interviewing
software company, was listed
as one of 30 people working
for DOGE.
Neither
Shutt, DOGE, nor the White
House responded to requests
for comment.
