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.”
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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.
