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libertariantaoist · 3 years

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News Roundup 3/29/21

by Kyle Anzalone

US News

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio can sign a bill to end qualified immunity in the city. [Link]

White House Press Secretary Jen Paski received at least $5,000 from Israeli spy firm AnyVision. [Link]

Facebook suspended the account of Venezuela’s President for 30 days. Maduro pushed a Venezuelan made treatment for Covid in a Facebook post. [Link]

China

Special Operations Command informed Congress it has formed a new task force to combat Chinese information operations. [Link]

Secretary of State Blinken said that aspects of the US relationship with China are “increasingly adversarial.” [Link]

Biden wants a massive infrastructure program to rival China’s Belt and Road. [Link]

Ukraine

Ukraine’s President dismisses the head of the country’s Constitutional Court. The judge was blocking anti-corruption laws that Ukraine needs to pass to get foreign loans. [Link]

Myanmar

Reports in Myanmar say the military killed over 100 protesters in a single day. Then, troops fired at mourners. [Link]

The Myanmar Army carried out airstrikes against a regional ethnic group. [Link]

Afghanistan

The Taliban threatened to target foreign forces if they remain in Afghanistan beyond May 1st. [Link]

Members of the intelligence community are attempting to use a classified intelligence assessment that says the Afghan government could fall within two to three years if a power sharing agreement isn’t agreed to before the exit of US troops. [Link]

Middle East

Iran and China signed a 25 year economic cooperation agreement. [Link]

The US takes down two websites belonging to Iraqi military, Katlib Hezabolah. [Link]

The US killed over 30 Yemeni civilians in 12 military operations in Yemen. [Link]

A Houthi attack damaged a Saudi oil facility. [Link]

Africa

Officials in northern Mali say a French airstrike killed six civilians. The French claim they killed militants. [Link]

Dozens of people were killed by fighting in Mozambique. [Link]

#kyle anzalone #immersion news #libertarian institute #news roundup

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mobianflame · 5 years

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Omar, Tlaib Rage Over Potential Trump Travel Ban Expansion: 'Straight Up Racism'

Phrase that the Trump administration might extend its own present trip restriction brought cries of racism from anti-Trump progressive Democrats prior to anyone also revealed which countries could be affected.

The White House is taking into consideration a broadened travel ban, depending on to The Associated Bunch.

: fl-noexcerpt =" true" > Ad- account proceeds listed below The AP record mentioned many of the countries added will likely be majority-Muslim countries,

but did not call each of them. Depending On to CBS News, which described its undisclosed resource as a senior management authorities, the restriction can be actually increased through 7 nations, many of all of them majority-Muslim nations. CBS additionally did certainly not call the nations.

Fox Headlines reported that a paper laying out the plan has been actually producing the rounds in the White Home, yet with the had an effect on countries' names quashed.

The existing ban covers Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria as well as Yemen along with Venezuela and also North Korea.

Are you exhausted of the knee-jerk whimpers of racism coming from the left?

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and Relations to Make use of. You're visited to Facebook. Click on this link to log out. Finishing this survey entitles you to The Western side Publication headlines updates absolutely free. You may opt out at anytime. You likewise concur to our Personal privacy Policy and Conditions of Usage.

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=" firefly-poll-results-yes" style=" width: 100 %" > 100 % (129 Ballots ).

> 0 %( 0 Ballots). Promotion- story proceeds below Under the policy, immigrant as well as non-immigrant visas are suspended for applicants from the affected nations, however there are actually exceptions for students and people along with" considerable connects with" in the USA

Updates that the restriction could possibly be actually increased delivered howls of shock coming from Autonomous Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan as well as Pramila Jayapal of Washington.

Omar knowned as the ban "insanity" on Twitter.

What carry out 5 out of 7 of these countries share?

They are actually Muslim-majority nations the Head of state currently made an effort to ban.

Our team need to pass the #NoBanAct promptly to stop this chaos. https://t.co/UxdV7SsnCU

-- Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) January 10, 2020

Tlaib pertained to the restriction as "Straight up bigotry!"

Advertising campaign- account continues listed below Say goodbye to waiting. Excessive Muslims have been intentionally targeted, victimized against, split up from their loved ones and also rejected options only based upon their faith. Directly racism!

Depending on to Jayapal, any sort of expansion of the restriction will be actually "xenophobic."

Different Muslim Ban-- very same intolerant Administration.

A grown Muslim Ban is going to aggravate our relationships with countries worldwide.

It won't do just about anything to create our country more secure. It is going to harm evacuees, estrange our allies & & provide fanatics disinformation for recruitment. https://t.co/qMaWQxt6oS

-- Rep. Pramila Jayapal (@RepJayapal) January 10, 2020

: fl-noexcerpt=" accurate" > Promotion -story carries on below Democratic governmental candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts assured that if she is actually selected, she'll undo Trump's traveling restriction.

Donald Trump is relatively multiplying down on his bigotry as well as xenophobia. Allow's be very clear: I'll reverse the Muslim Restriction on my very first time in workplace, and I will not quit battling versus policies that patsy and pain Muslim communities and also families. https://t.co/3zKanMq6C1

-- Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) January 10, 2020

: fl-noexcerpt =" real "> Advertisement- story proceeds below Others dismissed, with one commentator taking note that racial discrimination neglects belief.

Jihad-Reps Omar, Tlaib OUTRAGED over record White Property plans to broaden traveling restriction: 'Directly bigotry!: Really, betches, it is actually "Directly nationwide security!" As well as long outstanding. #BacktheBan Oh, and also Islam is actually certainly not a race. https://t.co/qh57ig5tm5 pic.twitter.com/REh4eAyncx

-- Pamela Geller (@PamelaGeller) January 11, 2020

White Home replacement bunch assistant Hogan Gidley will neither assure or even refuse that the checklist of countries on the travel ban was actually being increased.

Promotion- tale carries on below

" The Traveling Restriction has been very prosperous in securing our Country and elevating the surveillance guideline around the globe," Gidley pointed out in a statement.

" While there are no new statements at this time, sensible and also nationwide security both dictate that if a nation wants to entirely take part in USA immigration programs, they must likewise abide along with all safety and security as well as counter-terrorism measures-- because our team carry out certainly not wish to import violence or even every other nationwide safety danger into the USA."

Our experts are committed to honest truth as well as precision in each of our writing. Read our content requirements.

This content was originally published here.

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mas2017a · 6 years

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#Facebook suspends more Iran-linked accounts https://dailym.ai/2PYFMFR via @MailOnline #Iran #MEK #Trrorism #IraniansWantRegimeChange

#facebook suspends iran linked accounts

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localbizlift · 5 years

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Twitter discloses another 10,000 accounts suspended for fomenting political discord globally

Twitter’s ongoing, and possibly Sisyphean, effort of policing and removing nefarious content disseminated on its platform is taking another step forward today. The company’s safety team has disclosed the removal of another 10,112 accounts across six countries that were found to be actively spreading misinformation and encouraging unrest in politically sensitive climates.

The accounts noted today follow the same fault lines of unrest that you will find in the news at the moment: they include more than 4,000 each in United Arab Emirates and China, over 1,000 in Equador, and 259 in Spain. The full trove is being posted for researchers and others to parse and you can find it, and the wider archive — now numbering in the millions of Tweets and with one terabyte of media — here.

Today’s removals mark nearly one year of Twitter’s efforts to identify and remove accounts that are spreading political misinformation for the purposes of changing public sentiment — something that has wide-ranging impact beyond simply being annoyed on social media, including not least democratic processes like voting in elections or referendums. Today’s list is on par with some of the other notable disclosures Twitter has made every few months in the last year, such as its first removals process last October covering some 4,500 accounts out of Russia; but they are a far cry from its biggest removal effort to date, identifying and suspending some 200,000 accounts in China aimed at sowing discord in Hong Kong this past August.

Given that, if anything, Twitter is trying to make it easier, not harder, to open accounts and start using the service, one could argue that trying to police the bad guys is a never-ending, and possibly impossible effort, since like the universe itself, Twitter just keeps expanding.

But on the other hand, it’s a necessary process, one that can help us learn about how social media is being misused (Twitter says that ‘thousands’ of researchers have accessed the data to date).

Those who are able can try to figure out ways to fix it, and we the public become smarter about spotting and passing over the bad stuff. Plus, in a climate where social networks are now getting increasingly scrutinised by governments for their role in aiding and abetting the bad actors, it also helps Twitter (and others that also identify and remove accounts, like Facebook) demonstrate that it is self-policing, making an effort and producing results, before states step in and do the policing for them. (Related sidenote: Just yesterday, Colin Crowell, Twitter’s VP of public policy for the last eight years, who had a big role in interfacing with the powers that be by overseeing lobbying efforts, announced yesterday that he would be stepping down.)

More details on the list announced today:

United Arab Emirates & Egypt: Twitter said it removed 267 accounts originating in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Egypt. “These accounts were interconnected in their goals and tactics: a multi-faceted information operation primarily targeting Qatar, and other countries such as Iran. It also amplified messaging supportive of the Saudi government,” Twitter notes. Additionally, it identified that all these accounts came from one tech company called DotDev, which has also been permanently suspended (along with other accounts associated with it).

A separate group of 4,258 accounts operating from the UAE, mainly directed at Qatar and Yemen, were also removed. “These accounts were often employing false personae and tweeting about regional issues, such as the Yemeni Civil War and the Houthi Movement.”

Saudi Arabia: Just six accounts linked to Saudi Arabia’s state-run media apparatus were found to be “engaged in coordinated efforts to amplify messaging that was beneficial to the Saudi government.” The accounts presented themselves as journalists and media outlets.

Twitter also singled out the account of Saud al-Qahtani, a former media advisor to the King, for violations of its platform manipulation policies. (The account is not included in the archives disclosed today.)

Spain: Partido Popular — the Spanish political party founded by a former Franco minister that has been tied up in corruption scandals — was identified as operating some 259 accounts that were falsely boosting public sentiment online in Spain. The accounts were active for only a short time, Twitter notes.

Ecuador: There were 1,019 accounts removed this summer affiliated with the PAIS Alliance political party. The network of primarily fake accounts “was primarily engaged in spreading content about President Moreno’s administration, focusing on issues concerning Ecuadorian laws on freedom of speech, government censorship, and technology.”

China (PRC)/Hong Kong: It’s not 200,000 accounts as in August but still, another 4,302 accounts have been identified in helping to “sow discord about the protest movement in Hong Kong.”

As with previous datasets that Twitter has disclosed, the company notes that this is an ongoing effort that will see further announcements in the months ahead as more accounts are identified. But the question you have to ask is whether the company has been trying to figure out if there is a way of preventing these accounts from coming on to the platform in the first place.

#marketing

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creepingsharia · 6 years

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A Month of Islam in America: February 2019

For those who can’t find the House Homeland Security monthly report on terror because it appears to have been deleted when Democrats took over the House, you may find our monthly reports useful.

The trend of big technology platforms aiding and abetting the jihad and imposing sharia on the world continued and was further confirmed as Facebook and Twitter consult with terror-tied CAIR over who gets banned from platforms.

Click any hyperlink below to read the full story, then share to your social media sites using the buttons on the bottom of each story. Future generations will thank you!

February 2019

Jihad & Terror

California: Muslim Gets Almost 16 Years for Plotting Jihad in The U.S. in The Name of ISIS

Amer Sinan Alhaggagi was sentenced today to 188 months for attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization and identity theft charges.

Arizona: Bodycam footage shows ISIS suspect attacking police officer, then shot (VIDEO)

Sgt. Brandon Wells shot Ismail Hamed, 18, outside a police substation in Maricopa County last month after Hamed called 911, telling the operator he had a knife and rocks. “My name is Ismail Hamed,” he said. “I live in Fountain Hills, and I’m owing my allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. I just want a cop to come real quick and I want to deal with them.”

Baltimore Man Pleads Guilty to ISIS Bomb Threat on Pentagon, Govt Buildings

George Tomasack, age 47, admitted that during the calls he threatened to blow up the locations. Specifically, during the call to the Pentagon Tours Office, Tomasack stated that the call was an “ISIS threat” and “there will be a (unintelligible) at your building in five hours.” On that same day, Tomasack called a CNN news affiliate in Atlanta and stated that “he was associated with ISIS and they were going to blow up a government building.”

Bronx: Muslim Pleads Guilty to Attempting To Provide and Conspiring To Provide Material Support To ISIS

ADAM RAISHANI, a/k/a “Saddam Mohamed Raishani,” pled guilty to attempting to provide and conspiring to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (“ISIS”).

Florida: Fort Pierce Resident Sentenced to Prison for ISIS Related Threats

Charlton Edward LaChase, 28, of Fort Pierce, Florida, was sentenced yesterday to 18 months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release for text messages professing his support for ISIS and threatening to kill several people while committing acts of terrorism and mass murder. A search warrant for LaChase’s Facebook account revealed several attempts by LaChase to purchase firearms, as well as threats to commit mass murder, threats to kill politicians, and statements of support for ISIS.

California: Somali Muslim Refugee Who Tried to Run Down Jews at Synagogue Charged with Attempted Murder

Mohamed Abdi Mohamed, 33, accused of a hate crime attack after allegedly trying to run over two Jewish men outside a synagogue in Hancock Park last year is now facing attempted murder charges, officials announced Thursday.

North Carolina: Muslim gets 15 years prison for recruiting people to wage jihad on behalf of ISIS

Erick Jamal Hendricks, 38, of Charlotte, North Carolina, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS).

New York: Man “Ready to Kill and Die in the Name of allah” Arrested at JFK Airport en Route to Join Pakistani Terror Group

Jesus Wilfredo Encarnacion, a.k.a. “Jihadistsoldgier,” “Jihadinhear,” “Jihadinheart,” “Lionofthegood,” was arrested last night at John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK Airport) in Queens, New York and was charged today with attempting and conspiring to provide material support to Lashkar e-Tayyiba (“LeT”), a Pakistan-based designated foreign terrorist organization responsible for multiple high-profile attacks, including the infamous Mumbai attacks in Nov. 2008.

Ohio: Muslim who planned Cleveland jihad attack indicted for threatening to behead Trump and kill family

Demetrius Nathaniel Pitts, 49, who uses the aliases Abdur Raheem Rafeeq and Salah ad-Deen Osama Waleed, who was previously indicted on federal charges for allegedly planning a terrorist attack in Cleveland last summer has now been charged with additional crimes, including threatening to kill President Donald Trump and his family.

The new indictment supersedes the previous one from January that charged with attempting to provide material support to al-Qaida.

Texas: 18-year-old charged with recruiting for Pakistani Islamic terror group LeT

Michael Kyle Sewell, of Arlington, has been charged with conspiring to provide material support and resources to LeT, a Pakistani-based terrorist organization.

Ohio: Muslim convert charged with a hate crime for synagogue mass shooting jihad plot

Damon Joseph, 21, aka Abdullah Ali Yusuf, was indicted Tuesday on charges that include attempting to provide material support to ISIS and attempting to commit a hate crime.

Investigators say Joseph, who converted to Islam, talked about wanting to kill as many people as possible at a synagogue in the Toledo area.

Damon Joseph aka Abdullah Ali Yusuf

Islamic Rape & Violence Against Americans

Minnesota: Muslim Sexually Assaults 13-Year Old Girl in St. Cloud Minnesota: Rochester Muslim Convicted of Sexual Assault and False Imprisonment Ohio University Muslim student from Oman arrested for rape, stalking, kidnapping and more Oregon: Koran instructor sentenced to 4 years prison for sexual abuse of underage girls Wisconsin: Lyft driver asks to use passenger’s bathroom, sexually assaults her

Immigration Jihad in America

At least 17 Saudi students from 8 states flee after being convicted or charged with rape, manslaughter or child porn Illinois: Muslim who shot motorist near Georgetown flees U.S. to Saudi Arabia Minnesota: Muslim refugee charged with taking U.S. journalist, others hostage in Somalia New York: Diplomat’s Muslim husband has immunity revoked but avoids jail after beating wife Michigan: ICE allows Muslim to self deport with no charges after arrest in student visa fraud sting Virginia: Moroccan Immigrant Sentenced to 5 Years Prison for Assault on ICE Officers Texas: Houston getting new mega mosque for first Ismaili center in U.S.

Sharia in Your Community

Brooklyn: Muslims Form Community Patrol – Plan to Expand Citywide New York: Islamization continues – Muhammad Ali Jinnah Way inaugurated in Pakistani Muslim enclave Chicago Cubs agree to work with terror-linked CAIR over owners father’s leaked emails Minnesota: Christian Pastor Arrested at Mall of America Faces Hearing and Trial After Talking to Muslims Philadelphia’s Please Touch Museum Indoctrinating Kids with Islam

Sharia Adherents in Elected Office

New York: Muslim Immigrant Who Joined ISIS Now Works With U.S. Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn Democrats Remove Monthly Terror Reports from Committee on Homeland Security Website Massachusetts Republican Gov. Baker visits terror-linked Boston mosque Muslim Rep. Rashida Tlaib ‘Lied’ About Residency To Run For Office, Registered To Vote At False Address Virginia: Democrat Candidate Ibraheem Samirah’s Donors Named in Terrorist Report for Hamas Links

Fraud for Jihad in America

Wisconsin: Another Anti-Muslim Hate Crime Turns Out to Be a Hoax New Jersey: Muslim Couple Charged in $4 Million Food Stamp Fraud at Paterson Store

Tennessee: Franklin man caught impersonating a U.S. Marshal

Kansas: Muslim leader who illegally stored hazardous waste costing taxpayers $760k gets probation, fine

U.S. to provide nearly $10M to Maldives – where non-Muslims can’t become citizens

Straight Out Treason:

Former U.S. Air Force and Counterintelligence Agent Converted to Islam, Gave Classified Info to Iran

Treasonous Muslim who fled Alabama to become ISIS bride & recruiter suddenly has regrets now that she wants to return to America

Florida: Muslim immigrant woman who fled U.S. with her young kids to join ISIS is killed in Syria

And the lone victory against Islam and sharia in February:

Arkansas: House passes resolution calling on law enforcement agencies to suspend contact with CAIR over terror links (VIDEO)

See all the Creeping Sharia monthly reports here or use the Category drop-down on the upper right nav bar on any page to see how sharia is creeping in your state.

2018 Year in Review, Part I here and Part II here.

Social media censorship is real. Please share on Facebook, Twitter and other sites or copy and paste with credits and link back to Creeping Sharia to warn your fellow citizens and future generations. Thank you.

#Creeping Sharia #fbi #finance #islam #Jihad #law #Legal #Life #litigation jihad #Media #Military #Muslim #News #Politics #Random #Religion #Sharia #terrorism #travel #monthly

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tastydregs · 3 years

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The global business of professional trolling

Professional political trolling is still a thriving underground industry around the world, despite crackdowns from the biggest tech firms.

Why it matters: Coordinated online disinformation efforts offer governments and political actors a fast, cheap way to get under rivals' skin. They also offer a paycheck to people who are eager for work, typically in developing countries.

"It's a more sophisticated means of disinformation to weaken your advisories," said Todd Carroll, CISO and VP of Cyber Operations at CybelAngel.

Driving the news: Facebook last week said it had uncovered a massive troll farm in Albania, linked to an Iranian militant group.

The operation had the the hallmarks of a typical troll farm, which Facebook defines as "a physical location where a collective of operators share computers and phones to jointly manage a pool of fake accounts as part of an influence operation."

"The main thing we saw was strange signals centralized coordination between different fake accounts," said Ben Nimmo, Facebook's global influence operations threat intelligence lead.

Like numerous troll farms uncovered over the past few years, there was one easy giveaway: content from the network targeted Iran, but was posted on social media during normal working hours on Central European Time.

Be smart: The best way to slow down professional trolls is to make it more expensive for them to carry out disinformation campaigns, says Jean le Roux, a researcher at the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab).

He, along with his team at the DFRLab and Buzzfeed News, uncovered a large troll operation in Nigeria last week, in which a Nigerian PR firm and a UK-based nonprofit paid social media influencers in Nigeria to tweet support for a Columbian businessman accused of money laundering in the US.

The operation aimed to recruit influencers, primarily in Nigeria, to tweet in support of the businessman, Alex Saab, twice per week initially for one month earlier this year, according to documents obtained by BuzzFeed News.

Twitter last week suspended more than 1,500 accounts for manipulating the #FreeAlexSaab hashtag, per the report, but told Buzzfeed News it hasn't yet determined whether this was a state-backed campaign.

The big picture: Professional troll farms tend to share key attributes, which help to tip tech platforms and researchers off.

Shared physical location: Troll farms are often propped up by a party that will pay for high-speed internet and computers that together power the network. It's easier to finance and monitor operations that physically sit close together.

Posting during working hours: As was the case in the Albanian operation, content from troll farms tend to be posted during work hours, with breaks for lunch and during the evening.

Hyper-targeted messaging: Posts from troll farms tend to zero in on a certain political message. Most ordinary people post about an array of topics, le Roux notes.

What to watch: Troll farms can create a symbiotic relationship between political actors eager to manipulate adversaries and developing nations eager for cash.

CNN, in conjunction with Clemson University, last year uncovered a major troll operation in Ghana being used to sow division among Americans ahead of the 2020 election. The operation was linked back to the Russian state-backed troll operation called the Internet Research Agency.

Carroll, a 20-year veteran with the FBI, said that in his time investing troll operations, he saw many from places like Vietnam, Philippines, and Malaysia — "places where there's a lot of cheap labor and little oversight."

"We're also seeing a lot more (troll operations) being picked up in Africa," le Roux says, which is what has in-part inspired the DFRLab to open an office in the region, where le Roux is based.

"More people in Africa are going online, on social," he says. "At same time, Africa is one of poorer continents, which creates an easy recipe for someone like Russia to step in and pay someone to sit behind a computer all day."

Often, bad actors will go to lengths to set up "cut-outs" or systems to pay trollers without having to go through a bank, or a system that would get them noticed. Usually, money is distributed via a third-party on the ground.

Bottom line: Trolling requires few technical skills, Carroll notes, and it pays. "Any emerging economies susceptible something like that," le Roux says.

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96thdayofrage · 4 years

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In the wake of the dramatic storming of the Capitol last week, a host of big media companies, including Facebook, Reddit, Pinterest, Twitch, YouTube, Snapchat, Instagram and TikTok, have all taken measures against Donald Trump. Making the most headlines, however, was the decision of the president’s favorite medium, Twitter (1/8/21), to permanently suspend him “due to the risk of further incitement of violence.”

It’s difficult to argue that Trump did not repeatedly violate Twitter‘s rules against “threaten[ing] violence” and “glorification of violence,” justifying his ban. But we urgently need to rethink the power of these social media behemoths, because there are plenty of other examples where their enforcement of their rules has been arbitrary and non-transparent.

Whether one saw the assault on the halls of Congress as a coup attempt (e.g., Atlantic, 1/6/21; Buzzfeed News, 1/6/21; Guardian, 1/6/21), a “riot” (MSNBC, 1/10/21; Wall Street Journal, 1/12/21) or “protests” (Fox News, 1/7/21, 1/8/21), there is no doubt that Trump did incite the crowd to invade the seat of government. Instructing his followers to “fight like hell” to stop a “stolen election,” he insisted: “You’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.”

The media reaction to the social media ban was varied. Writing in tech publication ZDNet (1/7/21), Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols supported the decision. “The right to free speech doesn’t give you the right to right to shout fraud in a fractured country,” he said. “Twitter should have suspended Trump’s account years ago,” wrote Sarah Manavis in the New Statesman (1/7/21):

For years the president has been allowed to tweet anything he wants, with deadly consequences…. The case for kicking one of its highest-profile users off the platform is self-evident.

Meanwhile, Chris Stevenson in the London Independent (1/11/21) argued that privately owned websites have every right to remove their services from users.

Jessica J. González, co-CEO of the media advocacy group Free Press (1/9/21) and co-founder of the anti-hate speech Change the Terms coalition, hailed the ban as a victory for media activism:

Twitter’s decision to permanently suspend Donald Trump is a victory for racial-justice advocates who have long condemned his continued abuse of the platform.

From the launch of his presidential campaign when he defamed Mexicans as rapists, criminals and drug dealers, to the desperate last gasps of his presidency as he has egged on white supremacists to commit violence and insurrection, Trump had used his Twitter account to incite violence, lie about the election outcome, encourage racists and spread conspiracy theories. He did not deserve a platform on Twitter, or on any other social or traditional media.

Others were not so heartened by the news. Writing in Politico (1/10/21), European Union official Thierry Breton worried:

The fact that a CEO can pull the plug on POTUS’s loudspeaker without any checks and balances is perplexing. It is not only confirmation of the power of these platforms, but it also displays deep weaknesses in the way our society is organized in the digital space.

National leaders like German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador also characterized the move as a blow against free speech. New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg (1/11/21) was in the middle, stating that tech giants were right to ban Trump, but worried about the “scary power” they were amassing.

Perhaps the most histrionic reaction came from Donald Trump Jr., who tweeted (1/9/21):

The world is laughing at America & Mao, Lenin, & Stalin are smiling. Big tech is able to censor the President? Free speech is dead & controlled by leftist overlords.

In reality, of course, actual, self-described leftist and Communist figures are routinely purged from the site. Twitter shut down virtually the entire Cuban state media apparatus in 2019, removed tens of thousands of accounts it claims were linked to the Chinese Communist Party, and has suspended Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s account multiple times without explanation. These moves failed to elicit handwringing condemnations and essays on the nature of free speech, however.

With the power that he wields as president, Trump is undoubtedly the most belligerent user in Twitter history, using the platform to threaten genocide against Iran and threaten North Korea with “total destruction” (presumably nuclear in nature). So blatant were his violations of the site’s anti-violence rules that it had to craft new “public-interest exemptions” to justify not kicking him off. Although they couched their decisions in the language of free speech, the president’s wild proclamations were always a huge money spinner; Twitter lost $3.4 billion in market value overnight after announcing the ban last week.

While Trump’s actions clearly breached the company’s terms of service by not only calling for but producing violence, the affair brings up bigger questions about private ownership of public forums and the massive power social media giants like Facebook and Twitter hold over the public sphere. Sixty-eight percent of American adults use Facebook and 25% use Twitter. Both platforms are huge gateways and distributors of news around the world. Facebook is by a long way the most widely used news source in the United States, and both platforms have user bases far larger than the collective circulation of all daily US newspapers. They also give ordinary people the opportunity to share information and build communities, making them immensely important parts of the modern public square.

A free press is the cornerstone of any open, democratic society. But like it or not, in just a few short years, massive online companies have far surpassed the reach of legacy media outlets, with news generally being broken on Twitter before anywhere else. Companies like Google and Facebook have become monopolies by design, squeezing out or buying up the competition. There are no practical alternatives of any size to these behemoths, raising questions of whether they should be in private ownership at all, given their importance to the public discourse.

Western governments already exercise considerable control over the content of social media, but for their own interests, not ours. In 2018, Facebook announced it would be working closely with the Atlantic Council to help it curate its news feeds and stamp out false information (FAIR.org, 5/21/18). The Atlantic Council is a NATO cutout organization funded by the State Department and allied foreign governments. Its board of directors includes high-ranking Bush-era officials like Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell, US military generals and no fewer than eight former CIA chiefs. When organizations such as these influence the most influential means of global communication, that is coming close to state censorship on a worldwide scale.

Meanwhile, in 2019, a senior Twitter executive was unmasked as an officer in the British Army’s psychological operations and online warfare division. Corporate media reacted with a collective yawn, the news covered by only one US outlet of any note (Newsweek, 10/1/19; see FAIR.org, 10/24/19)—a response that raises many troubling questions about the relationship between deep state and fourth estate. The journalist who covered the story resigned a few weeks later, citing stifling top-down censorship.

Perhaps this helps explain why the online media giants’ primary targets of censorship have always been the domestic left and foreign enemies of Washington. Facebook has shut down pages belonging to a myriad of anti-establishment groups, such as Occupy London and the anti-fascist No Unite the Right, while suspending those of alternative media like TeleSUR English and Venezuelanalysis.

Last year it also announced that, since President Trump had designated the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) a terrorist organization, all posts presenting recently slain General Qassem Soleimani in a positive light would be immediately deleted across its platforms (Instagram, WhatsApp, etc.). “We operate under US sanctions laws, including those related to the US government’s designation of the IRGC and its leadership,” a company spokesperson said. Taking into account that Soleimani had a more than 80% domestic approval rating, this meant that one pronouncement from Trump effectively barred Iranians from sharing their overwhelmingly popular opinion online with each other.

Facebook has also deliberately changed its algorithm in an attempt to throttle traffic to left-wing news sites. Last year, the Wall Street Journal (10/16/20) reported that Mark Zuckerberg personally approved changes that would hit “left-leaning” political news sites harder than previously planned. Meanwhile, conservative and far-right commentators dominate the site, despite their constant and well-documented violations of the terms of service.

Twitter has also purged hundreds of thousands of Russian, Chinese, Turkish and Venezuelan accounts, while constantly suspending antiwar voices and publications. Like with Facebook, left-wing independent news site Venezuelanalysis is a favorite target.

Private companies probably should not be hosting the largest online forums. However, if they do, there need to be transparent and enforced rules in place to deal with grave breaches of conduct. In this sense, it was a prudent decision from social media companies to suspend or ban the president, who has flagrantly disregarded those rules for years.

However, Silicon Valley corporations are far from neutral moral arbiters, and have a history of abusing their power. In 2018, it took barely 24 hours for big tech companies to shift their ire from conservative conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to the left (FAIR.org, 8/22/18), deleting and suspending accounts with little rhyme or reason. Don’t expect this to be the last highly controversial censorship decision they make.

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techcrunchappcom · 4 years

Photo

New Post has been published on https://techcrunchapp.com/facebook-twitter-dismantle-global-array-of-disinformation-networks-technology-news-firstpost/

Facebook, Twitter dismantle global array of disinformation networks- Technology News, Firstpost

ReutersOct 09, 2020 00:17:16 IST

LONDON/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Facebook Inc and Twitter Inc said on Thursday they had taken down more than a dozen disinformation networks used by political and state-backed groups to deceive users on the social media platforms in multiple countries.

In separate statements, the two companies said they had identified and suspended more than 1,000 accounts between them, which used fake identities and other deceptive behaviors to spread false or misleading information.

The networks announced on Thursday targeted users in a wide array of countries, including the United States, Saudi Arabia, Cuba, Thailand, Myanmar, Nigeria, the Philippines and Azerbaijan.

Facebook said the people responsible for the sweeping disinformation activity were often associated with political groups who targeted domestic audiences.

Twitter said the five networks it had suspended were separately linked to groups with ties to the governments of Iran, Saudi Arabia, Cuba, Thailand and Russia.

After coming under heavy fire for failing to stop alleged Russian efforts to sway the 2016 U.S. election, Facebook and Twitter have announced a string of high-profile takedowns in the weeks leading up to this year’s presidential vote.

In multiple cases, the social media companies have worked with U.S. law enforcement to track and dismantle political influence campaigns targeting U.S. voters which have been attributed to foreign states, most notably Iran and Russia.

Tehran and Moscow have repeatedly denied the allegations.

(Reporting by Jack Stubbs in London and Christopher Bing in Washington; Editing by David Gregorio)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.

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#array #disinformation #dismantle #Facebook #global #networks #twitter #Technology

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libertariantaoist · 6 years

Link

2020

Bernie Sanders announces he is running for the Democratic nomination in 2020.

Rep Tulsi Gabbard introduces a bill that would prevent the US from spending money on weapons that violate the INF Treaty. [Link]

US News

Colorado marijuana sales top $6 billion over the past five years. [Link]

Uber is suing New York City over a new law that limits the number of drivers. [Link]

Ady Barkan explains that Rep Ilhan Omar is right about AIPAC’s influence. [Link]

Andrew Bacevich explains how the legacy media sensationalizes fake news and ignores wars. [Link]

Afghanistan

The Taliban say they will be unable to attend peace talks with the US in Pakistan because members of the Taliban delegation are on US and UN blacklists. [Link]

The Taliban attack an Afghan Army base killing all 32 soldiers. [Link]

Middle East

Israel’s Prime Minister gives up his roles as Foreign Minister. Israel Katz will take over as Foreign Minister. [Link]

The IRGC accuses Pakistani security forces of supporting the terror group that carried out a suicide bombing that killed dozens of IRGC soldiers. [Link]

Steven Cook argues the current Iran policy resembles the runup to the Iraq War. [Link]

The Commander of US Forces in Afghanistan is planning to reduce troop levels by 1,000 as part of his strategy. The troop reduction is separate from Trump’s planned drawdown and talks with the Taliban. [Link]

The Houthi and Yemeni government have reached an UN-brokered agreement to withdraw forces from Hodeida. The Houthi will withdraw from the ports and the Yemeni government will withdraw from the outskirts of the city. Both sides will allow access to tons of food aid from World Food Program. Eventually, the roads to Sanaa and Taiz will be opened. [Link]

Africa

The US carried out an airstrike against al-Qaeda in Libya. [Link]

Nigeria postpones elections planned for Feb 16th by a week. [Link]

Police Abuse

A Houston police officer is being investigated after lies he told led to police killing two people. [Link] A Baltimore judge vacates a jury’s decision to award victims of a police shooting $38 million. One of the victims is a young woman killed by police, and the other is her child who was shot by police and survived. The judge claims the police officer has qualified immunity. [Link] A Montana police officer has been charged with 80 counts of sexual abuse of children. [Link] A Florida police officer is on leave after a video surfaced of him hitting a handcuffed man. [Link] An 11-year-old boy was arrested at school for threatening a teacher. The teacher told the boy to leave the country because he found the pledge of allegiance to be racist. [Link]

Trump’s Wall

Trump declares a national emergency allowing him to reallocate funding for building a wall on the southern border. [Link]

Social Media

Facebook suspends the accounts of three pages because the pages did not disclose links to the Russian government. It is not standard Facebook policy to require pages to disclose parent companies or foreign funding. [Link] Twitter deletes a Tweet From Iran’s Supreme Leader that reasserts the execution order against Salman Rushdie. [Link]

Venezuela

A leaked State Department email shows the US is moving 250 million tons of humanitarian aid to Venezuela’s border. [Link] The US sanctions five top Venezuelan military and intelligence officials. [Link] Maduro claims member of his government has had talks with the US government. The US did not confirm or deny having talks with the Maduro. [Link]

Turkey

Turkey plans to move forward with the purchase of S-400 air defense from Russia. The US has threatened to end the sale of Patriot air defense and F-35s to Turkey if Turkey buys the S-400. [Link] Turkey is demanding that only Turkish forces are deployed to the safe zones in northern Syria. [Link]

#kyle anzalone #immersion news #news roundup

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paulbenedictblog · 5 years

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%news%

New Post has been published on %http://paulbenedictsgeneralstore.com%

Bbc news Elecciones generales 2019: ¿cuál es la evidencia de que Rusia interfirió?

Bbc news

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A leak of confidential UK govt paperwork within the scuttle-up to remaining December's traditional election has been blamed on Russian actors. Nonetheless what evidence is there to claim the Russian govt itself tried to interfere in British politics?

With comely about two weeks to switch prior to election day, Labour chief Jeremy Corbynpublished a trove of confidential paperworkoutlining talks between UK and US officials a pair of imaginable future trade deal.

The leak fuelled a debate in regards to the style forward for the NHS and made the headlines for days, specifically afterevidence emergedblaming Russians for the leak.

Nonetheless a key keep an bid to remains unanswered, three months after the vote: Was the Russian govt immediately racy?

Bbc news Reddit and the elusive 'Gregoratior'

The 451-web insist trove of paperworkfirst emerged on-line in October.

A user going by the name "Gregoratior" posted a link to the paperwork on discussion web insist Reddit, suggesting the e-newsletter would "make some noise".

Image copyright Reddit

It did now not within the origin: simplest a cramped substitute of Reddit customers observed the publish and commented on it.

On Twitter, politicians and journalists additionally failed to immediately concentrate on the leak, no topic repeated attempts by a Twitter fable, all yet again with the tackle "Gregoratior", to salvage their consideration. Since then, the fable has been suspended.

Image copyright Twitter

Bbc news BBC Trending

The programme that takes an investigative see at social media, from the BBC World Carrier.

Hear to our investigation 'Did Russia leak British secrets on-line?'

With less than a week to switch prior to the election,Reddit launched a assertionlinking the "Gregoratior" fable to a acknowledged disinformation campaign popping out of Russia.

The web insist banned the fable, along with 60 other connected accounts suspected of misusing the platform and intelligent in what they called "influence operations".

We asked Reddit if we may per chance well survey the evidence the firm holds linking these accounts to Russian operators - but they declined to point out us.

Image copyright Press Affiliation

Image caption Jeremy Corbyn: "At no stage did the head minister or someone issue that those paperwork were proper"

It additionally remains unclear how the Labour Event got support of the leaked paperwork. At the time, they did now not yelp their source, and so that they did now not reply to BBC Trending's latest requests for observation.

At the time of the leak, Mr Corbyn described suggestions that Labour may per chance well per chance collect benefited from a Russian operation as "nonsense".

Bbc news 'Operation Secondary Infektion'

Nonetheless there is stronger evidence pointing to the involvement of Russian hackers - albeit now now not conclusive proof that the Kremlin itself is racy.

Final yr, Facebook shut downdozens of accounts, pages and groups scuttle from Russiafor intelligent in what the firm described as "coordinated inauthentic behaviour".

They were linked to what the Digital Forensic Be taught Lab (DFRLab), half of the Atlantic Council assume tank, would later name as "Operation Secondary Infektion" - a disinformation campaign stemming from Russia.

Thru a network of bogus social media accounts, this campaign tried to spread forged paperwork and fraudulent news tales that, in step with DFRLab, "attacked Western pursuits and cohesion".

Image copyright FunnyJunk.com

Image caption Among the forged tales were suggestions that Spanish intelligence modified into conscious a pair of Remainer reputation to rupture Boris Johnson

Continuously translated into numerous languages, pretty a big selection of those tales were published on websites commence to contributions from the public.

When the leak of UK-US trade paperwork hit the headlines, commence-source investigators observed how the recordsdata were published and disbursed on-line. Quickly, the similarities with "Operation Secondary Infektion" modified into evident.

"The tradecraft modified into fully identical," says Ben Nimmo, who worked on the usual DFRLab myth and is at this time head of investigations at US firm Graphika.

Nimmo outlined the similarities between the earlier operation and the UK leaks ina mythlaunched in December.

"The identical form of pages were being old, comparable username systems were being old," says Lisa-Maria Neudert, a researcher on the Oxford Web Institute. "It both is an actor who's replicating these efforts or it's some distance the identical actor."

Image copyright Reddit

Image caption But one more forged story which modified into half of the operation suggested the Staunch IRA had posted an Arabic-language invitation to Islamist warring parties on-line

There modified into then all yet again one key difference: while "Operation Secondary Infektion" spread fraudulent tales in step with forged paperwork - time and all yet again particular and preposterous fakes - the "Gregoratior" leak of trade talk paperwork looks legit.

The Cabinet Location of enterprise declined to observation on the authenticity of the paperwork, but no govt reliable has yet denounced them as forgeries.

"The tall keep an bid to is calm: How did inner UK govt paperwork stay conscious on Reddit within the first site?" says Mr Nimmo.

As a consequence of the likelihood that hackers may per chance well were thinking gaining salvage entry to to the paperwork, the National Cyber Security Centre is at this time investigating.

Bbc news Moscow denies involvement in leaks

While the evidence aspects lend a hand to Russian territory, it's some distance extra sophisticated to search out out who specifically modified into carrying out the operation and, extra importantly, on whose orders.

"It modified into sophisticated, it modified into effectively resourced," says Mr Nimmo. "The likeliest candidate is both some perform of Russian yelp operator or some proxy of the Russian yelp operators." Nonetheless he and numerous alternative other consultants stay wanting drawing a definitive line to the Russian govt.

Image copyright Getty Photos

Image caption Russian President Vladimir Putin has denied accusations of Russian interference

"Certain, Russia does collect that approach to their playbook," Ms Neudert says. "Nonetheless it'll also additionally be deepest actors, some perform of hacker collective, it'll be some perform of tech-savvy trolling... There are pretty a big selection of styles of actors which may per chance well be hacking deepest data."

The Russian Embassy in London denied any hyperlinks to both "Operation Secondary Infektion" or the leak of UK-US trade paperwork.

Numerous consultants warned that an weird level of curiosity on Russia may per chance well deflect consideration from other campaigns.

"Russia has a habit of looking out to interfere in western international locations' elections," says Elisabeth Braw, a senior study fellow on the Royal United Companies and products Institute assume tank. "They're extraordinarily correct at corrupting our public discourse."

"Nonetheless we now collect a bother where or now now not it's very easy guilty Russia," Ms Braw says. "That's extraordinarily dreadful, because we neglect to survey the actions of alternative international locations that want to weaken our societies, equivalent to China, North Korea, or Iran."

Media playback is unsupported on your tool

Media captionA fact-checker's data to stopping faux news

Bbc news Unreleased myth

In October, the UK Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee achieved a myth outlining the pretty a big selection of systems by which Russia has lately tried to interfere with British democracy.

Downing Facet road delayed the e-newsletter of the parable, prompting accusations that it may per chance well per chance belooking out to suppress its key conclusions. Quantity 10 denies the accusation and says a customary timetable has been adopted.

E-newsletter is now anticipated later this yr, once a brand new Intelligence and Security Committee has been appointed.

Hear:BBC Trending's "Did Russia leak British secrets on-line?" is accessible now

Is there a story we ought to be investigating?Email us

Observe BBC Trending on Twitter@BBCtrending, and procure us onFacebook. All our tales are atbbc.com/trending.

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plusorminuscongress · 5 years

Text

New story in Politics from Time: Russia May Not Be the Only Threat to U.S. Elections in 2020

WASHINGTON (AP) — Russia interfered in the 2016 election and may try to sway next year’s vote as well. But it’s not the only nation with an eye on U.S. politics.

American officials sounding the alarm about foreign efforts to disrupt the 2020 election include multiple countries in that warning. Concerns abound not only about possible hacking of campaigns, but also about the spread of disinformation on social media and potential efforts to breach voting databases and even alter votes.

The anxiety goes beyond the possibility that U.S. adversaries could directly affect election results: The mere hint of foreign meddling could undermine public confidence in vote tallies — a worrisome possibility in a tight election.

“Unfortunately, it’s not just Russia anymore. In particular, China, Iran, a couple of others, studied what the Russians did in 2016,” said James Lewis, a cybersecurity expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

U.S. intelligence agencies reported Russian, Chinese and Iranian influence operations targeting last year’s midterms, and a senior FBI official recently singled out Beijing as a particular source of concern. Meanwhile, Microsoft recently reported that Iranian hackers had targeted an unidentified presidential campaign along with government officials, journalists and prominent expatriate Iranians.

Any foreign effort to interfere in the 2020 election won’t necessarily mirror Russia’s attack in 2016, when Kremlin-linked military intelligence officers hacked Democratic emails and shared them with WikiLeaks to try to help Republican Donald Trump defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton.

More likely are the social media campaigns, like the Russian-based one that shaped public opinion in the 2016 election and divided Americans on hot-button topics like race and religion. Facebook announced recently that it has removed four networks of fake, state-backed misinformation-spreading accounts based in Russia and Iran. The company said the networks sought to disrupt elections in the U.S., North Africa and Latin America.

A Senate Intelligence Committee report described Russia’s social media activities as a “vastly more complex and strategic assault on the United States than was initially understood.” A recent memo prepared by the FBI and Department of Homeland Security warned that Russia may use social media to exacerbate divisions within political parties during primaries or hack election websites to spread misinformation on voting processes.

Concerns about foreign influence coincide with stepped-up enforcement of a law requiring the registration with the Justice Department of lobbyists, media organizations and other entities that do the bidding of foreign government.

Special counsel Robert Mueller exposed through his investigation the unregistered, covert Russian campaign to spread disinformation on social media.

The Justice Department is concerned about China undertaking similar activities. Twitter said it has suspended more than 200,000 accounts that it believes were part of a Chinese government influence campaign targeting the protest movement in Hong Kong. The department last year also required China’s state-owned television network, CGTN, to register.

“Make no mistake, China is aggressively pursuing foreign influence operations,” Nikki Floris, an FBI deputy assistant director, said at a recent congressional hearing. “So as we roll into 2020, though Russia was certainly a threat in 2016 (and) 2018, and will continue to be so in 2020, we are also aggressively looking at China as well.”

U.S. officials said the foreign influence campaigns didn’t change midterm vote totals, but there’s no question that concern remains for 2020. Besides the hacking and subsequent release of stolen emails, Russian agents in 2016 searched for vulnerabilities within election systems in all 50 states and breached the election systems of two Florida counties but don’t appear to have done any damage.

America’s adversaries might have a stake in the 2020 vote. Trump, for instance, speaks well of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un while deepening tensions with Iran by withdrawing the U.S. from a nuclear deal. He has also engaged China in a trade war.

But some experts are skeptical that those countries will use hacking to try to boost a particular candidate — or to influence the election at all. Much of their hacking has been tied to more narrow national interests.

China, for instance, has so far used its cyber capabilities for the purposes of espionage and intellectual property theft and to further its goal of challenging the U.S. role as a global economic superpower. The Justice Department in 2014 charged five Chinese military hackers with siphoning secrets from major American corporations.

Iranian hackers have attacked dozens of banks and a small dam outside New York City and, more recently, sought to pilfer sensitive information from hundreds of universities, private companies and American government agencies.

North Korea tends to focus its efforts on defectors, academics and others with a hostile relationship to the country, said Jung Pak, a Brookings Institution expert. It hacked Sony Pictures Entertainment and released the private emails of its executives in apparent retaliation for a Hollywood comedy that mocked Kim.

“We haven’t really seen politically motivated attacks where they try to sway elections,” said Matt Ha, a research associate at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “Right now, their main objective is the summits, the diplomacy, to try to gain as much as they can — gaining a lot for giving up nothing.”

Even as other countries have bolstered their own capabilities, Russia’s own decadeslong interest in American politics makes it the most challenging and realistic adversary, said Lewis, of CSIS.

“They’re politically astute in a way that no other country can match, and that makes them the most formidable opponent,” Lewis said. “They just know us really well.”

By ERIC TUCKER / AP on October 30, 2019 at 01:51AM

#Time #politics #PlusOrMinusCongress #±Congress #Indega±#IndegaPlusOrMinus #TimeMag #TimeMagazine

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pmsocialmedia · 5 years

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Twitter discloses another 10,000 accounts suspended for fomenting political discord globally

But on the other hand, it’s a necessary process, one that can help us learn about how social media is being misused (Twitter says that ‘thousands’ of researchers have accessed the data to date).

More details on the list announced today:

China (PRC)/Hong Kong: It’s not 200,000 accounts as in August but still, another 4,302 accounts have been identified in helping to “sow discord about the protest movement in Hong Kong.”

via Social – TechCrunch https://ift.tt/30esDl6

#IFTTT #Social – TechCrunch

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un-enfant-immature · 5 years

Text

Twitter discloses another 10,000 accounts suspended for fomenting political discord globally

But on the other hand, it’s a necessary process, one that can help us learn about how social media is being misused (Twitter says that ‘thousands’ of researchers have accessed the data to date).

More details on the list announced today:

China (PRC)/Hong Kong: It’s not 200,000 accounts as in August but still, another 4,302 accounts have been identified in helping to “sow discord about the protest movement in Hong Kong.”

#TechCrunch

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alexsmitposts · 5 years

Photo

“Human Right Activists” Celebrate Facebook-Twitter Censorship All Facebook and Twitter accounts associated with Bangkok-based geopolitical analyst Tony Cartalucci have been deleted. The extent to which both American-based tech companies went to target Cartalucci could be seen in a recent Reuters article reporting on it. Written by Thai Reuters correspondent Patpicha Tanakasempipat, the article titled, “Facebook removes fake accounts from Thailand, Russia, Ukraine, Honduras,” referred to the author claiming: The accounts removed in Thailand used “fictitious personas” to promote narratives about Thai politics, U.S.-China relations, protests in Hong Kong, and criticism of democracy activists in Thailand, Gleicher said. “We were able to determine conclusively that some of the activities of this network was linked to an individual based in Thailand associated with New Eastern Outlook, a Russian government-funded journal based in Moscow,” Gleicher said. The article cited “coordinated inauthentic behavior” and hailed the move as countering “deceptive political propaganda.” No mention was made of how writing anonymously is “inauthentic behavior” nor were any examples provided of what was deemed “deceptive political propaganda” and why. Matthew Tostevin, a Reuters correspondent also based in Southeast Asia and whose Twitter profile unironically invokes the hashtag, “Journalism is Not a Crime” celebrated the systematic, coordinated censorship, claiming in a tweet: “Tony Cartalucci” Facebook and Twitter accounts inaccessible after Facebook said it had erased accounts of a network linked to “an individual based in Thailand associated with New Eastern Outlook, a Russian government-funded journal”. The term “associated with” is often used to imply impropriety without providing any actual evidence of it. Tostevin’s defence of Facebook-Twitter censorship fails to explain how getting paid to write articles is wrong, especially considering Tostevin himself makes his living doing precisely that for London-based Reuters. Human Rights Watch’s Thai representative, Sunai Phasuk, himself a verified recipient of foreign government funds, also celebrated rather than opposed Facebook and Twitter’s coordinated censorship. In his tweet (translated from Thai), he claimed: The end of IO [information operation]! Facebook and Twitter suspend the accounts of Tony/Anthony Cartalucci (source of “slim” information) as well as related accounts for using a fake identity, disseminating false information, creating hatred for democratic parties and human rights activists/linked to Russian IO. The term “slim” is a derogatory term used by supporters of Thaksin Shinawatra, an ousted billionaire politician now living abroad as a fugitive and guilty of the worst human rights violations in contemporary Thai history. Sunai not only reveals a complete lack of impartiality as a supposed human rights advocate, but also is clearly promoting censorship of information he and his foreign sponsors deem “false.” Regarding claims of using a “fake identity,” Cartalucci himself has repeatedly stated over several years that the name “Tony Cartalucci” is a pen name and that he writes anonymously, as many authors throughout history have, particularly those writing about sensitive political topics. From Reuters to Human Rights Watch employees, attempts to “dox” Cartalucci and others presenting differing perspectives has become a disturbing trend. Facebook and Twitter now deleting accounts of anonymous writers only serves to further chill the free speech “human rights advocates” like Sunai claim to defend. Others celebrating Cartalucci’s suspension from Facebook and Twitter include BBC correspondent Jonathan Head. West’s Losing Battle Amid the Information War Facebook and Twitter have targeted many other alternative media sites and individuals, often using accusations of being “Russian-funded” to smear targets and justify censorship. Conversely, should governments overseas targeted by US or British-funded sites or individuals attempt to shut them down, they are depicted as “authoritarian” and guilty of indisputable “censorship.” Such hypocrisy over free speech, media freedom and censorship stems from the much wider hypocrisy that drives Western foreign policy in general. Other examples include decrying “Iranian aggression” while the US surrounds Iran with military bases built on nations the US illegally invaded and now occupy, or the US decrying unfounded claims of Russian interference in its domestic politics while openly funding opposition groups targeting Moscow. The accounts of organisations and individuals across the West, including Reuters, the BBC, and HRW guilty of “disseminating false information” regarding “weapons of mass destruction” in Iraq, Russian interference in US elections, claims of sarin gas used in Syria or covering up Western interference in the domestic politics of nations worldwide not only remain unscathed by Facebook and Twitter’s “fake news” campaign, but the sole beneficiaries in an increasingly crowded information sphere where the alternative media has otherwise challenged their monopoly over information. Facebook and Twitter are both suffering severely from attempts to control the flow of information on both platforms. A desire for alternatives is sought out not only by persecuted political activists being purged from both platforms, but from a wide and growing range of ordinary individuals who feel both social media platforms have become too invasive. Cartalucci will likely continue writing and those who remain on Facebook and Twitter will likely continue promoting his articles. All the move to purge individuals and organisations from social media platforms will do is accelerate the search for alternatives. Since Facebook and Twitter’s censorship fails to address the fundamental shortcomings of Western foreign policy that people like Cartalucci expose and have gained attention from Facebook and Twitter censorship for, such censorship is a bandaid at best. At worse, it is delaying the inevitable conclusion of an information war neither social media platform (nor the special interests they represent) are winning.

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todaybreakingnews · 6 years

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Facebook suspends 'inauthentic' Iranian accounts that criticized Trump and spread divisive political messages - Washington Post

Washington Post

Facebook suspends 'inauthentic' Iranian accounts that criticized Trump and spread divisive political messages Washington Post Facebook announced Friday that it had suspended 82 pages, groups and accounts that had originated in Iran for engaging in “coordinated inauthentic behavior” and sharing divisive political messages, including opposition to President Trump. The accounts ... Facebook Removes Iranian Network That Was Spreading DisinformationNew York Times Facebook uncovers Iran disinformation to sow political discord over Trump, raceUSA TODAY Facebook takes down more 'coordinated inauthentic behavior' linked to IranTechCrunch BBC News -Business Insider -WIRED -Telegraph.co.uk all 418 news articles »

from Top Stories - Google News https://ift.tt/2OT86wH from Blogger https://ift.tt/2PocGT7

#breaking news #news today #news headlines #world news #current news #headline news #recent news #Blog

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localbizlift · 6 years

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Facebook and Twitter remove hundreds of accounts linked to Iranian and Russian political meddling

Facebook has removed hundreds of accounts and pages for what it calls “coordinated inauthentic behavior,” generally networks of ostensibly independent outlets that were in fact controlled centrally by Russia and Iran. Some of these accounts were identified as much as a year ago.

In a post by the company’s head of cybersecurity policy, Nathaniel Gleicher, the company described three major operations that it had monitored and eventually rolled up with the help of security firm FireEye. The latter provided its own initial analysis, with more to come.

Notably, few or none of these were focused on manipulating the 2018 midterm elections here in the states, but rather had a variety of topics and apparent goals. The common theme is certainly attempting to sway political opinion — just not in Ohio.

For instance a page may purport to be an organization trying to raise awareness about violence perpetrated by immigrants, but is in fact operated by a larger shadowy group attempting to steer public opinion on the topic. The networks seem to originate in Iran, and were promoting narratives including “anti-Saudi, anti-Israeli, and pro-Palestinian themes, as well as support for specific U.S. policies favorable to Iran,” as FireEye describes them.

The first network Facebook describes, “Liberty Front Press,” comprised 74 pages, 70 accounts, and 3 groups on Facebook, and 76 accounts on Instagram. Some 155,000 people followed at least one piece of the Facebook network and they had 48,000 Instagram followers. They were generally promoting political views in the Middle East and only recently expanded to the States; they spent $6,000 on ads beginning in January 2015 up until this month.

A related network to this one also engaged in cyberattacks and hacking attempts. Its 12 pages and 66 accounts, plus 9 on Instagram, were posing as news organizations.

A third network had accounts going back to 2011; it was sharing content in the Middle East as well, about local, U.S., and U.K. political issues. With 168 pages and 140 Facebook accounts and 31 Instagram accounts, this was a big one. As you’ll recall, the big takedown of Russia’s IRA accounts only amounted to 135. (The full operation was of course much larger than that.)

This network had 813,000 accounts following it on Facebook and 10,000 on Instagram, and had also spent about $6,000 on ads between 2012 and April of this year. Notably that means that Facebook was taking ad dollars from a network it was investigating for “coordinated inauthentic behavior.” I’ve asked Facebook to explain this — perhaps it was done so as not to tip off the network that it was under investigation.

Interestingly this network also hosted 25 events, meaning it was not just a bunch of people in dark rooms posting under multiple pseudonyms and fake accounts. People attended real-life events for these pages, suggesting the accounts supported real communities despite being sockpuppets for some other organization.

Twitter, almost immediately after Facebook’s post, announced that it had banned 284 of accounts for “coordinated manipulation” originating in Iran.

Working with our industry peers today, we have suspended 284 accounts from Twitter for engaging in coordinated manipulation. Based on our existing analysis, it appears many of these accounts originated from Iran.

— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) August 22, 2018

The Iranian networks were not alleged to be necessarily the product of state-backed operations, but of course the implication is there and not at all unreasonable. But Facebook also announced that it was removing pages and accounts “linked to sources the U.S. government has previously identified as Russian military intelligence services.”

The number and nature of these accounts is not gone into in detail, except to say that their activity was focused more on Syrian and Ukrainian political issues. “To date, we have not found activity by the accounts targeting the U.S.,” the post reads. But at least the origin is relatively clear: Russian state actors.

This should be a warning that it isn’t just the U.S. that is the target of coordinated disinformation campaigns online — wherever one country has something to gain by promoting a certain viewpoint or narrative, you will find propaganda and other efforts underway via whatever platforms are available.

Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) issued a brief I-told-you-so following the news.

“I’ve been saying for months that there’s no way the problem of social media manipulation is limited to a single troll farm in St. Petersburg, and that fact is now beyond a doubt,” he said in a statement. “We also learned today that the Iranians are now following the Kremlin’s playbook from 2016. While I’m encouraged to see Facebook taking steps to rid their platforms of these bad actors, there’s clearly more work to be done.”

He said he plans to bring this up at the Senate Intelligence Committee’s grilling of Facebook, Twitter, and Google leadership on September 5th.

#marketing

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