Twitter Files Show How The Deep State Conquered Social Media
Matt Taibbi provides a summary of the recent revelations of Twitter manipulations in service of partisan government entities. The publication of the 'Twitter files' came in several Twitter threads from writers, left and right leaning ones, who had been given access to the files and internal Twitter communication.
Capsule Summaries of all Twitter Files Threads to Date, With Links and a Glossary
There have been 12 threads so far. Some of these are of special interest:
Twitter Files Part 1: December 2, 2022, by @mtaibbi
TWITTER AND THE HUNTER BIDEN LAPTOP STORY
Recounting the internal drama at Twitter surrounding the decision to block access to a New York Post exposé on Hunter Biden in October, 2020.
Key revelations: Twitter blocked the story on the basis of its “hacked materials” policy, but executives internally knew the decision was problematic. “Can we truthfully claim that this is part of the policy?” is how comms official Brandon Borrman put it. Also: when a Twitter contractor polls members of Congress about the decision, they hear Democratic members want more moderation, not less, and “the First Amendment isn’t absolute.”
We will later learn that it was the FBI, which had the Hunter Biden laptop material and knew it was real, which pushed Twitter to censor the story by claiming that it was 'Russian hacked' material.
Twitter censorship:
Twitter Files Part 2, by @BariWeiss, December 8, 2022
TWITTER’S SECRET BLACKLISTS
Bari Weiss gives a long-awaited answer to the question, “Was Twitter shadow-banning people?” It did, only the company calls it “visibility filtering.” Twitter also had a separate, higher council called SIP-PES that decided cases for high-visibility, controversial accounts.
Key revelations: Twitter had a huge toolbox for controlling the visibility of any user, including a “Search Blacklist” (for Dan Bongino), a “Trends Blacklist” for Stanford’s Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, and a “Do Not Amplify” setting for conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Weiss quotes a Twitter employee: “Think about visibility filtering as being a way for us to suppress what people see to different levels. It’s a very powerful tool.” With help from @abigailshrier, @shellenbergermd, @nelliebowles, and @isaacgrafstein.
The above one is of special interest to me.
Until late 2021 my Twitter account @MoonofA, which I mostly use to promote my writings here, was not allowed to grow beyond 19,500 followers. There were also signs that tweets by me were not shown to users who were following me. After my account was released from the growth prison it rapidly grew to 47,500 followers in the fall of 2022. It then again went into growth prison for no discernible reason and without me getting any notice of it. Now anytime my follower count increases by 100 or so it will automatically be slashed back to 47,450 followers. There are also again signs that tweets from my account are again 'shadowbanned'.
Yesterday @semperfidem2014 retweeted my latest:
Blue Check Brandon @semperfidem2004 - 21:27 UTC · Jan 5, 2023Well worth reading
Moon of Alabama @MoonofA · Jan 4New on MoA:
Ukraine - The Big Push To End The War
https://moonofalabama.org/2023/01/ukraine-the-big-push-to-end-the-war.html
Image
Then @New_Westphalian responded to @semperfidem2014;
New Westphalian @New_Westphalian - 21:47 UTC · Jan 5, 2023Replying to @semperfidem2004
If you hadn’t retweeted that, I doubt I’d have seen it. I follow MoA, never see a single tweet.
Not sure the cleanup has been entirely successful yet.
Well, I do not think that Elon Musk bought Twitter to do a 'cleanup'. I believe he wants to use it for his own purposes whatever those may be. If it requires a new deal that gives government entities censoring access in exchange for whatever Musk's wants or needs he will agree to that.
Back to Matt Taibbi's summaries. Thread 3 to 5 were about Trump's removal from Twitter. His account was locked despite the fact that he had not violated any of Twitter's internal rules.
Thread 6 to 12 are about the government infiltration of Twitter from every angle, the Pentagon, the three letter agencies as well as various other entities started to censor free speech on Twitter:
Twitter Files Parts 11 and 12, by @mtaibbi, January 3, 2023HOW TWITTER LET THE INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY IN
and
TWITTER AND THE FBI “BELLY BUTTON”
These two threads focus respectively on the second half of 2017, and a period stretching roughly from summer of 2020 through the present. The first describes how Twitter fell under pressure from Congress and the media to produce “material” showing a conspiracy of Russian accounts on their platform, and the second shows how Twitter tried to resist fulfilling moderation requests for the State Department, but ultimately agreed to let State and other agencies send requests through the FBI, which agent Chan calls “the belly button of the USG.”
Revelations: at the close of 2017, Twitter makes a key internal decision. Outwardly, the company would claim independence and promise that content would only be removed at “our sole discretion.” The internal guidance says, in writing, that Twitter will remove accounts “identified by the U.S. intelligence community” as “identified by the U.S.. intelligence community as a state-sponsored entity conducting cyber-operations.” The second thread shows how Twitter took in requests from everyone — Treasury, HHS, NSA, FBI, DHS, etc. — and also received personal requests from politicians like Democratic congressman Adam Schiff, who asked to have journalist Paul Sperry suspended.
The big mainstream media have been quiet about the Twitter revelations. The New York Post and a few other right leaning outlets had a piece about the attempt to ban columnist Paul Sperry:
The journalist in question was Paul Sperry, a Post columnist who in January 2020 wrote an article for RealClearInvestigations about the purported “whistleblower” behind former President Donald Trump’s first impeachment, for which Schiff served as a House manager.In the article, Sperry said then-CIA analyst Eric Ciaramella was overheard talking in the White House with Sean Misko, a holdover staffer from former President Barack Obama’s administration.
A former official who reportedly heard the conversation told Sperry, “Just days after [Trump] was sworn in they were already trying to get rid of him.”
Misko later left the White House and joined the Intelligence Committee, which Schiff chaired, Sperry reported.
The email posted by Taibbi shows that Schiff’s office asked Twitter to take five specific steps that an unidentified company employee said were “related to alleged harassment from QAnon conspiracists.”
They included, “Remove any and all content about Mr. Misko and other Committee staff from its service — to include quotes, retweets, and reactions to that content.”
In response, another unidentified Twitter employee wrote, “no, this isn’t feasible/we don’t do that.”
Schiff’s office also asked for suspension of “the many accounts, including @GregRubini and @paulsperry_, which have repeatedly promoted false QAnon conspiracies and harassed” someone whose name is blacked out.
The Twitter employee responded to that by writing, “we’ll review these accounts again but I believe [name blacked out] mentioned only one actually qualified for suspension.”
In an email Tuesday, Sperry told The Post, “I have never promoted any ‘QAnon conspiracies.’ Ever. Not on Twitter. Not anywhere.”
“Schiff was just angry I outed his impeachment whistleblower and tried to get me banned,” he said. “I challenge Schiff to produce evidence to back up his defamatory remarks to Twitter.”
The only major and good piece written about the Twitter revelations I know of is by Lee Smith in the otherwise not readable Tablet Magazine:
How the FBI Hacked Twitter
The answer begins with Russiagate
This one is well researched and well written. It shows that the whole manipulation by the FBI was and is done in partisan interest with the war-mongering parts of the Democrats being the main beneficiary. The piece is quite long but I recommend to read it in full.
You may think that the paragraph below is exaggerated. However, the evidence following it fully supports the conclusion:
In fact, the FBI’s penetration of Twitter constituted just one part of a much larger intelligence operation—one in which the bureau offshored the machinery it used to interfere in the 2016 election and embedded it within the private sector. The resulting behemoth, still being built today, is a public-private consortium made up of U.S. intelligence agencies, Big Tech companies, civil society institutions, and major media organizations that has become the world’s most powerful spy service—one that was powerful enough to disappear the former president of the United States from public life, and that is now powerful enough to do the same or worse to anyone else it chooses.
All of this was build in secret. All of it can be secretly used against any target. It is also interesting that the fake issue of 'Russiagate', like the 'Skripal affair' in Britain, was to a large part the preparatory buildup to the current war in Ukraine.
While the Twitter files have now given us some knowledge of this they will not change anything. The Republicans are too weak, too corrupt and too susceptible to blackmail to seriously get into the depth of the whole issue.
Posted by b on January 6, 2023 at 17:26 UTC | Permalink
One long thread of fearmongering … McCarthyism - Operation Mockingbird - RussiaGate was actually IntelliGate - PropOrNot - Censorship - EUvsDisInfo - Etc. etc.
Whistleblowers targeting with Espionage Act of 1917
Yeah, pretty much. The owners of the technology patents, the owners of the corporate legal entities (companies) which own the social media platforms, the owners of the financial institutions that provided funding for the start ups, are part of the same blob (of I'll be polite and call them 'entities') which finance the corporate government itself and control the so called politicians operating within the same. It's rather sordid, but basically it is a 'hand in hand' relationship, much like the relationship between mainstream media and government (which, of course, includes all of its various agencies to one degree or another).
Free thinkers should study hows the techniques of Samizdat during Soviet times can be applied to current technologies. I convinced like with B that government control of media will continue.
BTW: Samizda was a form of dissident activity across the Eastern Bloc in which individuals reproduced censored and underground makeshift publications, often by hand, and passed the documents from reader to reader.
Posted by: er | Jan 6 2023 17:51 utc | 4
b:
Well, I do not think that Elon Musk bought Twitter to do a 'cleanup'. I believe he wants to use it for his own purposes whatever those may be. If it requires a new deal that gives government entities censoring access in exchange for whatever Musk's wants or needs he will agree to that.
I agree. I recently returned to Twitter after Musk's promised cleanup and was soon suspended for a politically incorrect response to John Brennan's defense of Anthony Fauci. I posted nothing worse than what Musk himself has said.
I believe the Intel and Law enforcement agencies have decided that it is better to allow dissidents (for lack of a better word) to use the platform to more easily track and infiltrate them if they become too organized.
Musk has just expanded the honeypot to catch more flies.
To get my account unlocked, they now want my cell phone number. Sorry boys, you are going to have to work harder to get that.
Posted by: Opport Knocks | Jan 6 2023 17:55 utc | 5
Its not surprising that the government controls Twitter. Everybody knew that even without the "Twitter files". What was slightly surprising is that Musk was allowed to publish that. The Musk trick gives the populous some "everything is different now" feeling, while actually nothing is different. E.g. The anti-zero-covid and the anti-untested-vax accounts are still locked. Like many others. They lock you automatically and a phone number. The narrative control is the same, only people now think it's different.
Posted by: Vikichka | Jan 6 2023 17:57 utc | 6
Gosh we're running pretty low on unknown-unknowns...
Of course all kinds of narratives were/are controlled by the private/public government of social media. Full Spectrum Dominance isn't a catch phrase, but policy.
Posted by: gottlieb | Jan 6 2023 18:00 utc | 7
[...] fake issue of 'Russiagate', like the 'Skripal affair' in Britain, was to a large part the preparatory buildup to the current war in Ukraine.
Did someone say COVID?
Posted by: OldManBooganigan | Jan 6 2023 18:01 utc | 8
@gottlieb 7
Full Spectrum Dominance isn't a catch phrase, but policy.
Looks like a pipe-dream from here.
Posted by: OldManBooganigan | Jan 6 2023 18:04 utc | 9
To this day, that story of Hunter Biden's laptop, along with the Ukrainian mafia monkeyshines referenced therein, is popularly regarded as nothing to see here, please ignore "conspiracy theories" like this, and so forth.
In hopelessly broken USA, you're hard put to find any issue of substance which is not overwhelmed by the Red vs. Blue clown show. Today, on the two-year anniversary of our first fascist coup attempt, some of the the same yahoos who brought on the insurrection two years ago have totally incapacitated Congress. So much for "the genius of our founders" -- leaving us such a perfectly balanced constitutional system.
I have not heard the failure of the DOJ to charge Biden junior, or anything else about Hunter's criminal activities, raised as a serious issue anywhere outside of Republican info-bubbles. It's all been successfully stratified away.
Posted by: Aleph_Null | Jan 6 2023 18:06 utc | 10
I just read the article from Lee Smith. I didn't see any proof of much of anything really, not that I believe that these things aren't happening, but I had expected some actual proof of crimes as b had indicated it was a bombshell expose.
There was some very strong insinuations of censorship, but I doubt anyone is going to build a legal case based on what was presented.
Disappointing article.
Posted by: David F | Jan 6 2023 18:35 utc | 11
@Aleph_Null "...have totally incapacitated Congress."
Maybe this isn't a bad thing.
Posted by: ian | Jan 6 2023 18:36 utc | 12
Craig Murray the ex-UK ambassador was also shadowbanned and his very informative articles we hidden to most folk who read his blog, alerts on Twitter to new articles were turned off.
In the UK there are thousands of establishment bot accounts, 77th Brigade accounts etc. Twitter is awash with state bot accounts.
"Twitter executive with editorial responsibility for the Middle East and North Africa is also a reservist officer of the British Army's psychological warfare and propaganda unit, a new report has revealed.
Gordon MacMillan, who joined Twitter in 2013 and is listed as the company's Head of Editorial for EMEA, also serves with the 77th Brigade—an outfit formed in 2015 to conduct "information warfare" and develop "non-lethal" ways of conducting war."
Posted by: Republicofscotland | Jan 6 2023 18:37 utc | 13
I have learned something new today!
Not all truths and facts are "Russian disinformation." Some may instead be "QAnon conspiracies."
Posted by: Petri Krohn | Jan 6 2023 18:47 utc | 14
Remember the now supposedly shutdown "Disinformation Governance Board" led by Creepy Poppins? Was that going to be used to control social media and replace the chaotic system that the Twitter Files have revealed? From June last year:
"Two Senators, Hawley and Grassley, got a hold of documents where the Disinformation Board’s purpose is officially laid out. And wadaUknow? It was exactly as the critics feared. The purpose of the Disinformation Board seems to be an attempt to shore up political support for Democratic party policies and corporate/big money donors by working with (intimidating) tech and media companies to censor for them, i.e., Twitter is specifically mentioned. They secretly wanted to do what Justin Trudeau so openly wished he could do—to dictate with the power of the law what people can and cannot say in public. Trudeau is increasingly getting away with dictatorial power grabs in Canada, and apparently western elites being envious of him and other less free nations are trying to codify their power grabs so they no longer have to hide and be fearful of exposure for what they are doing in secret."
Posted by: kana | Jan 6 2023 18:51 utc | 15
I was “permanently suspended” from Twitter. They stated I violated the rules about violence and all this other nonsense. I would write sarcastic responses but never would write anything that would cause harm to anyone. Never have and never will. Now I’m trying to close my account for good, and can’t even do that! Twitter is too overrated and overhyped. Hope I can get my account closed for good.
Posted by: Jose Garcia | Jan 6 2023 18:58 utc | 16
French president Emmanuel Macron claimed to have been the victim of Russian hackers during his 2017 election campaign. According to him, they are to blame for the leak of internal emails from his campaign team. The alleged responsibility of the Russian secret services has never been established and the released emails have never been refuted.
The latest Twitter Files dump shows, beyond doubt, that the CIA participated in the meetings held by the FBI with various social networks. The Agency lobbied Twitter, Yahoo, Twitch, Cloudfare, LinkedIn and the Wikimedia Group to censor the voices of President Emmanuel Macron’s opposition during his re-election campaign in 2022.
Unsurprisingly, the CIA justified its action by claiming to be fighting alleged “Russian disinformation”.
Posted by: La Bastille | Jan 6 2023 19:25 utc | 17
"Well, I do not think that Elon Musk bought Twitter to do a 'cleanup'. I believe he wants to use it for his own purposes whatever those may be."
Correct. If he was really interested in cleaning up Twitter, all the shadow ban flags would have been flipped off by now. Plenty of things that could have been done quickly, I see no evidence on Twitter.
Obviously, the problem in less in social media, network news, "news"papers, and so on. The problem is the government. It can threaten everyone and anyone and harm them by any means necessary whether its banning or much worse. If there's a major danger to the official Narrative it has been and will be attacked until it is no danger. Realistically, at present, there is no danger of true opposition except from an increasing number of online dissidents. As for Twitter, I have no intention of going there because I already know where to go to get reliable information and the fact I don't trust the mainstream social media sites though, they are a vastly better than the ludicrously propagandistic mainstream media sources like the NYT and so on.
We need to populate alternatives and just forget about mainstream BS they are all becoming part of the government under the jurisdiction of the Executive Branch. I think it's obvious now that Musk wants to use Twitter for his own purposes and will use it to enhance whatever faction he supports. The government and most of the oligarchical faction want to control all information but so far the internet is a goldmine of information for those who have the courage to think outside the box (and it requires courage to do so in the face of social disapproval).
Posted by: Chris Cosmos | Jan 6 2023 20:34 utc | 20
b. your permalink at the base of the post goes to the homepage.
Posted by: annie | Jan 6 2023 20:36 utc | 21
Good article - was hoping b would weigh in.
Twitter files confirm election interference in the US and coverup.
Supposed left wingers against right.
Cfr, Atlantic Council, Nimmo etc are NOT left!
They are hardly disguised cheeks of the same arse.
The question for many in the U.K. is why is there nothing by Taibi and the files released so far about exactly the same or worse interference in our elections of recent years?
The real Socialist Democratic ‘Left’ and their causes have been worked against. Including under Trump with Pompeo’s Gauntlet against the Corbynite left, which had massive grassroots enrolment to make the largest mainstream political party in Europe! Scared the shit out of the forever state gits who turned all media messaging to destroy it.
Who worked against that ?
BrexShit was right who worked for it? Don’t pretend ‘fuck the EU’ Obama Administration was actually against it.
Postal votes massively increased in U.K. during that whole period.
The Indy Ref , BrexShit and both Corbyn elections were tampered by US media, state and their ‘partners’.
Including PV fraud.
Show us what Twitter did during those events. And the other social media. Not the lame limited hangout and misdirection of ‘journalists’ such as Cadwalladr and her mates in the Institute of Statecraft and integrity initiative - such absurd Orwellian piss taking!
There is no left/right, there is only above and below.
There are also the red/brown Bridgers. Useful idiot brainwashed kids and wokers.
They are anti socialist , anti democratic.
A partial acknowledgement such as as Taibi and Musk are managing is simply limited hang out.
Somebody independent needs to call Elon out about this.
Grayzone? Mint Press? MoA? Anyone else…?
Someone who these two can’t ignore.
Here’s a link which might help readers if it’s not already been seen.
https://twitter.com/KanekoaTheGreat/status/1608231209875963904?s=20&t=XYwFgRfUkBfV7IkF007PXg
Posted by: DunGroanin | Jan 6 2023 20:45 utc | 23
but so far the internet is a goldmine of information for those who have the courage to think outside the box
Posted by: Chris Cosmos | Jan 6 2023 20:34 utc | 20
Only as long as the few dissidents online are not a threat to them. They can prosecute their citizen and block the foreign sites at any time. Best you go door to door like in old times. But then they can always call the next covid or climate lockdown. It's at this point when you start to use pigeon post.
Posted by: Vikichka | Jan 6 2023 20:59 utc | 24
Opport Knocks no. 5
"To get my account unlocked, they now want my cell phone number."
Do you not think they already have it?
Posted by: ThusspakeZarathustra | Jan 6 2023 21:01 utc | 25
Well, I do not think that Elon Musk bought Twitter to do a 'cleanup'. I believe he wants to use it for his own purposes whatever those may be. If it requires a new deal that gives government entities censoring access in exchange for whatever Musk's wants or needs he will agree to that.
I have not time to look over the files but what happened seems clear and your guess as to what Musk is up to is quite good.
I know a bunch of people who work and run work at the Tesla plant in California Silicon Valley. Condoms on the floor of the plant, fork lift drivers smoking weed and knocking down 40 oz beers on the job, beer bottles and cans inside the plant littered here and there, workers worked long hours for little pay, high turnover of staff, poor sanitation, air in the plant gives you the "Telsa Flue", bonuses for management are dangled out and only paid after 5 years so they can fire you at 4 years 11 months and not pay.
Musk land is not happy land. Some say it is the largest unemployment fund in the state.
Posted by: circumspect | Jan 6 2023 21:01 utc | 26
@ DunGroanin | Jan 6 2023 20:45 utc | 23 who wrote
"
A partial acknowledgement such as as Taibi and Musk are managing is simply limited hang out.
Somebody independent needs to call Elon out about this.
"
Pray tell me the "independent side"????.....I don't want to get banned but some of Twitter Files report on the lies behind Covid, the mRNA drug push, et.al. but the limited hang out does or doesn't include this subject?
I go back to my position that global private finance at the core of the Western form of social organization makes for the bad incentives the society is circling the drain about.
Until/unless the incentives change by which we build community from profit for a few to profit for the global commons, the shit show call Homo Sapiens will continue.
I am hopeful that the China/Russia axis will bring an end to our species perfidy on the Cosmos.....that of profit, patriarchy and monotheism.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Jan 6 2023 21:05 utc | 27
The big issues here are the nature of Twitter (or other "social media") and editorial control:
* The "Twitter files" have demonstrated that Twitter is not a "common-carrier" messaging system or a self-publishing system, but a for-profit newspaper ("The Twitter Herald") that solicits advertising from customers and contributions from free-lance reporters and columnists and then exercises fine-grained editorial control as to which advertising and articles it publishes.
* The fine-grained editorial control exercised by Twitter editors and publishers over the content of their newspaper is very politically oriented, like say the NYT or Fox, and anyhow is also largely driven by government agencies that anyhow operate quite independently of their theoretically supervising elected authorities.
Posted by: Blissex | Jan 6 2023 21:08 utc | 28
Hunter and MSM dupes
I screamed when the CNN types let their security state employees declare that the Biden laptop story was classic Russian disinfo. Any self-respecting journalist would at least ask them to explain 'how so?'
How does the appearance of Hunter Biden's laptop fit any known profile of Russian disinfo? The only tangible example of disinfo that I can find is when a govt entity plants a story anonymously and it gets picked up by the MSM. An example would be to release an inflammatory headline and get posted on 'Drudge Report' where the original source is some made up entity to hide its gove connection.
Yikes, as I express this I realise that the U.S. govt does this constantly. Anyway, Biden's laptop was physically brought to a known location. It's provenance was traceable.
Posted by: Christian Chuba | Jan 6 2023 21:18 utc | 29
Posted by: ThusspakeZarathustra | Jan 6 2023 21:01 utc | 25
maybe, but why make it easier for them? always be monkeywrenching.
Posted by: pretzelattack | Jan 6 2023 21:20 utc | 30
pretzel attack no.30
I prefer the John Lennon "a Spaniard in the works".😂
Posted by: ThusspakeZarathustra | Jan 6 2023 21:34 utc | 31
Do you not think they already have it?Posted by: ThusspakeZarathustra | Jan 6 2023 21:01 utc | 25
Possibly, but I practice decent, but not perfect, online sanitation.
Only use throwaway email addresses and VPN for social media sites. No online games or social media apps on my phone. No subscriptions or personal emails on business accounts, etc.
I am in Canada, so am likely on a CSIS watch list since University.
Posted by: Opport Knocks | Jan 6 2023 22:17 utc | 32
Anyway, Biden's laptop was physically brought to a known location. It's provenance was traceable.Posted by: Christian Chuba | Jan 6 2023 21:18 utc | 29
Not to mention the 1000's of emails, selfies and videos which would have virtually impossible to recreate without creating and exact clone of the hard drive. Which can only be done with the physical computer in hand.
Posted by: Opport Knocks | Jan 6 2023 22:25 utc | 33
Thanks for the article, b! I see it as a report about the current progress on the construction of the Outlaw US Empire's Ministry of Truth. It appears that my comparison of today's D-party with its 1850s kin is closer than I thought as both were/are the reactionaries of their day. Unfortunately, the R-party isn't much cleaner as it's battling the Ds to see who becomes King Tyrant. Such infighting could be good for RoW and might help initiate a new political movement within the Empire, although for the latter to occur many tons of ignorance need to be unloaded from the public's backs. My wife noted Musk had laid-off @60% of Twitter's workforce; I replied that those were the ones involved with all the censorship.
The endemic censorship employed by social media based within the Empire ought to open doors for social media based in other nations who market themselves as free from censorship, although restrictions for decency and legalities will be applied. That's why I chose VK; I knew I wouldn't be censored.
What would help greatly is pressure from Twitter's international users to become as free a platform as possible or risk becoming defunct, particularly since Musk as floated the idea of Twitter becoming a pay-to-play platform.
Psycho:
"global private finance at the core of the Western form of social organization"
Global Private Financiers are Pirates/Privateers.
1. First you give a bit of chicken feed to some Politicians
2. Then you get those Politicians to vote money to you and your friends
3. And you get said Politicians to appoint sympathetic Central Bankers who are only too happy to counterfeit money and incur Debt saddled onto the backs of the Little People.
4. And now that you have more Billions and it's b-tard child, Power, you give a bit more chicken feed to the Politicians.
Posted by: kupkee | Jan 6 2023 23:21 utc | 35
If Melon Husk was serious about his "free speech" agenda he wouldn't have been permitted to buy Twitter.
I believe Twitter is now a limited hangout, where people will be encouraged to believe free speech exists so that actual disinformation can be injected by the FBI/CIA.
In any case, after 9 suspensions, I'm through with Twitter. It is not worth the stress.
Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayast | Jan 6 2023 23:23 utc | 36
Thanks b.
When I hear "public private partnership" I think "fascism", ie, the same "in-crowd" members using public sector positions along with corporate positions to suck the people's life blood.
Youtube is another example along with Twitter that seems more extreme in their control fetish every day. Alexander Mercouris must give them fits as he has figured out their buzz words and is able to work around them so he doesn't get de-monitized or outright banned. He can't say "nazi", can't say "Hitler", can't say "Azov" or he'll get dinged. Mercouris is a lawyer by trade and very detail oriented so he read enough of their rule book and is able to navigate the ridiculous labyrinth but the rest of us are left stepping on whatever landmines they feel like placing. I'm sure the likes of Adam Schiff have Youtube and Facebook on their speed dial. Who wants to live like that?
Posted by: migueljose | Jan 6 2023 23:23 utc | 37
@karlof 34
VK is worse than Fakebook for anyone who's pro Palestine. Not only will they suspend you, they'll make up fake reasons to.
Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayast | Jan 6 2023 23:25 utc | 38
"We will later learn that it was the FBI, which had the Hunter Biden laptop material and knew it was real."
OK, OK! Exactly what material? And what material is "real?" I keep asking these questions and I keep not getting answers. I think I know what Hunter was doing at Burisma. He was likely working to pry Burisma into western hands. Mission accomplished. But this is SOP for the U.S. and part of the reason for the 2014 regime change in the Ukraine. What else? There have accusations of images of child sexual abuse. Seems far-fetched. Whatever! MoA should focus on the war in Ukraine and U.S. government corruption. Plenty there to cover.
Posted by: Cesar Jeopardy | Jan 6 2023 23:31 utc | 39
@ Posted by: psychohistorian | Jan 6 2023 21:05 utc | 27
Amen brother. It’s a cri de couer from me too.
I can say that when an acknowledged mild mannered curr like me starts saying ENOUGH. it is something that is also likely going to break in the 10 million politically social Democrat minded Brits.
Maybe that’s what THEY wait for before giving their proverbial inch.
They are playing a dangerous game this time with our sensibilities.
Last time Charles the First got beheaded. It was civil war.
History will chime.
Ps all, isn’t it refreshing when troll army appears to have been stood down from attacking here for these few hours? Anyone else notice?
Posted by: DunGroanin | Jan 6 2023 23:42 utc | 40
Neocons have as much chance against their own countrymen, not to mention Russians, as their forebears, Sicarii, did against the Army of Titus.
One who renounces kindness carries chaos in their duffle bag.
Neocons took Baghdad Bob as their model spox.
Posted by: The Rev. David R. Gr | Jan 6 2023 23:51 utc | 41
@karlof1 34 "might help initiate a new political movement within the Empire"
Such as this, The All American Party?:
https://theological-geography.net/?page_id=68662
Posted by: The Rev. David R. Gr | Jan 6 2023 23:55 utc | 42
So Musk chicanery and the entire twitter enema revelations are ultimately a place where people are set up to get Trump elected yet again.
Meanwhile the entire feeble crapola about Hunter Biden covers for HIS Medical corporation and the two dozen USA/Pentagon biowarfare labs in Ukraine. That extraordinary link to Biden gets obscured in distraction dust storms.
Are the journos being suborned to be part of it by writing page after page of trivia. The Russiagate hoax continues and Ukraine CBW reality is quietly erased.
Booo. What a transparent hoax.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jan 6 2023 23:57 utc | 43
how did the OGA capture the Twitter / social media?
wasn't it a CIA director who once said that it was easier and cheaper to buy the favors of a journalist than those of a prostitute?
Posted by: nothing but the trut | Jan 7 2023 0:08 utc | 44
from the beginning these "revelations" have amounted to "Breaking News: Cats Say 'Meow'". search twitter for the responses "Putin Bot!", "Kremlin Disinfo!" and "Durrr hows the wether in moskow" and scroll up. the initial tweets will be this stuff but from 2019 - 2022. it's only "news" to people who pay zero attention and/or MSM tards.
If it requires a new deal that gives government entities censoring access in exchange for whatever Musk's wants or needs he will agree to that.
yes. the "free speech absolutist" has already shown his true colors and as soon as he picked that f_cking twat bari weiss to sort through his files i predicted that "absolutism" will stop at the fake borders of "israel". a few pro-/palestinian accounts have been banned and last time i checked pepe escobar is still off the platform.
Posted by: the pair | Jan 7 2023 0:12 utc | 45
Cesar Jeopardy 39, the laptop was turned over to the FBI for many many months. 9? i can't recall. that's how they knew it was real, assuming they have a few experts!
Posted by: annie | Jan 7 2023 0:17 utc | 46
also CJ, 39, it helps if you open the links (at the top where it says Twitter Files Part 1: December 2, 2022, by @mtaibbi
TWITTER AND THE HUNTER BIDEN LAPTOP STORY
and then scroll, this explains a lot:
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1598831212310601728
Posted by: annie | Jan 7 2023 0:26 utc | 47
"We will later learn that it was the FBI, which had the Hunter Biden laptop material and knew it was real."
OK, OK! Exactly what material? And what material is "real?" I keep asking these questions and I keep not getting answers.
______________________________________________________________________________
I've asked the same questions.
The typical answer I have heard is there are pictures of Hunter smoking crack with prostitutes.
well, sure that is what it looks like, but even if you think that is a crime - how do you prove its crack and prostitutes? And in what jurisdiction did this crime occur. And then there is that reference to the " big guy". Does anybody really believe tht's enough for a prosecutor to build a case?
Same thing with Burisma. Hunter never set foot in Ukraine. Not once. Hunter attended Burisma board meetings in Europe. So why aren't trump and all his hangers-on badgering European authorities to investigate?
Oh wait, European authorities did investigate Burisma for money-laundering one month before Hunter was appointed to the board of directors and they confiscated $23 million from Burisma's European bank accounts. But then they released that money after Hunter and his gang were made the board of directors for Burisma. the previous board of directors were regarded as pro-Russian.
https://www.sfo.gov.uk/2014/04/28/money-laundering-investigation-opened/
Posted by: jinn | Jan 7 2023 1:03 utc | 48
Gonzalo Lira recently posted a video about getting shadow banned on both twitter and youtube. He also explains how he figured out that youtube was limiting his exposure to potential new viewers. Content creators apparently are able to compare the proportion of viewers are are subscribers vs nonsubscribers, and a relatively small number of nonsubscribers points to probable shadow banning.
Going forward, I will make it a point to compare numbers of total views vs subscribers on videos that do not conform to official narratives.
Consistent with the above, I have had to bookmark Lira's channel, as searching his name tends to reveal scant results with various search engines.
Posted by: farm ecologist | Jan 7 2023 1:48 utc | 49
Thanks muchly for this one, b, it’s a huge subject. It is ridiculous that a part of the global communications infrastructure (to use the nomenclature from the Tablet article) is solely accountable to the USA. I see this as a potential reason for the involvement of the FBI - there are going to be complaints from the globe by some who can get a response, which will demand some official US agency take action at their direction.
So, when I read this: “So Chan badgered former head of site security Yoel Roth to produce evidence the FBI was serving its advertised mission of combating foreign influence operations when in fact it was focused on violating the First Amendment rights of Americans.” I ask myself: is this about bringing “freedom and democracy” to Twitter, and to the global communications infrastructure?
Posted by: Bruised Northerner | Jan 7 2023 1:55 utc | 50
Hackers leak email addresses of 235 million Twitter users: January 6, 2023
The breach “will unfortunately lead to a lot of hacking, targeted phishing and doxxing,” Alon Gal, co-founder of Israeli cybersecurity-monitoring firm Hudson Rock, wrote on LinkedIn.
There were no clues to the identity or location of the hacker or hackers behind the breach. It may have taken place as early as 2021, which was before Elon Musk took over ownership of the company last year.
Convenient timing to get users off Twitter.
Posted by: Antonym | Jan 7 2023 1:55 utc | 51
Yawn. :O
The circus lets ignore the real issues 'DJT FARCE STYLE' continues unabated.
Who benefits?
Posted by: Bad Deal Motors On | Jan 7 2023 1:58 utc | 52
Twitter banning is wrong, except for any anti-covid statements, these were all completely acceptable right? In fact seem to recall some blogs even banning comments against government restrictive covid policies the authors fully endorsed. In fact a German doctor was just arrested for writing mask exemptions, hmm, seems they are still running with it over there.
Posted by: Organic | Jan 7 2023 2:01 utc | 53
Best comment below it: "And the government wants us to move to digital currency. Riiiiiiiiiight!"
Posted by: Antonym | Jan 7 2023 2:11 utc | 54
American totalitarianism is the intelligence agencies functioning as the handmaiden of fascist capitalism.
Posted by: Lex | Jan 7 2023 2:15 utc | 55
@ Posted by: farm ecologist | Jan 7 2023 1:48 utc | 49
I have no issues using duckduckgo/yahoo/google search engines. The yeah but is I use cloud-based DNS set on both computer and rooter. Net provider DNS is so unreliable. :(
Interesting character. It is a shame his research on the Dutch Farmers' woes of a storm in a teacup. Was so shallow. He forgot to mention numerous major facts. All of which contradicted his fable.
Fun Fact: Did you know the Dutch Government has a funded farm buyback program?
Question more. :)
Posted by: Bad Deal Motors On | Jan 7 2023 2:22 utc | 56
"Well, I do not think that Elon Musk bought Twitter to do a 'cleanup'."
There may be very legitimate reasons for thinking such thoughts, as a fairly uncontroversial observation and standard analysis suggests that, for exampl:
Plus ça change, plus ça reste pareil (????!!!!), or something like that, perhaps, maybe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJ20GnX1Kc0
"Operation Mockingbird is an alleged large-scale program of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) that began in the early years of the Cold War and attempted to manipulate domestic American news media organizations for propaganda purposes."
"The CIA used to infiltrate the media. Now the CIA is the media."----By Caitlin A. Johnstone
"Control of thought is more important for governments that are free and popular than for despotic and military states. The logic is straightforward: a despotic state can control its domestic enemies by force, but as the state loses this weapon, other devices are required to prevent the ignorant masses from interfering with public affairs, which are none of their business. . . . And that expresses the attitude toward the population completely. The population is the “enemy,” and you’ve got to control “enemy territory,” and the way you do it is by very extensive public diplomacy, meaning propaganda."
And so here we are, once again, "Moving in circles, you never quite know where you are. Living the future while living the past."
i. "Far from being an establishment outsider, Elon Musk himself is a major figure in the military industrial complex, and represents the long tradition of Silicon Valley giants being thoroughly enmeshed in the military and intelligence wars."
ii. "The conversation surrounding Twitter has centered around whether or not Elon Musk is a free-speech advocate, though little has focused on the implications of a military contractor having complete control over such an important platform."
iii. "Many things have changed under Musk’s Twitter, but Twitter’s role as a megaphone for US government–funded media has not."
iv. "Twitter, like other SiliconValley behemoths, has numerous links to the national security state. An investigation by Middle East Eye (9/30/19) revealed that one of Twitter’s top executives was also a member of one of the British military’s psychological warfare units, the 77th Brigade."
v. "Twitter’s Strategic Response Team, in charge of making decisions about which content should be suppressed, was headed by Jeff Carlton, who previously worked for both the CIA and FBI. In fact, MintPress News (6/21/22) reported on the dozens of former FBI agents that have joined Twitter’s ranks over the years."
vi. "Twitter’s adherence to Western foreign policy objectives is nothing new. Twitter has even openly announced that its company policy includes support for NATO. In 2021, as tensions between Russia and Ukraine were on the rise, Twitter announced that it had removed dozens of Russian accounts as “state-linked operations.” The reason Twitter (2/23/21) cited for the removal was that they were “undermining faith in the NATO alliance and its stability.”
https://fair.org/home/under-musk-twitter-continues-to-promote-us-propaganda-networks/
Posted by: deliriumtremens | Jan 7 2023 4:41 utc | 57
@ deliriumtremens | 56
Sure, Elon Musk meteoric rise out of nowhere is as suspicious as say Emmanuel Macron's. Still, to keep the woke zombies in line the $how should not be too faulty.
Posted by: Antonym | Jan 7 2023 5:16 utc | 58
Below is the Capsule summary of Part 10
Twitter Files Part 10, by @DavidZweig, December 28, 2022HOW TWITTER RIGGED THE COVID DEBATE
David Zweig drills down into how Twitter throttled down information about COVID that was true but perhaps inconvenient for public officials, “discrediting doctors and other experts who disagreed.”
Key Revelations: Zweig found memos from Twitter personnel who’d liaised with Biden administration officials who were “very angry” that Twitter had not deplatformed more accounts. White House officials for instance wanted attention on reporter Alex Berenson. Zweig also found “countless” instances of Twitter banning or labeling “misleading” accounts that were true or merely controversial. A Rhode Island physician named Andrew Bostom, for instance, was suspended for, among other things, referring to the results of a peer-reviewed study on mRNA vaccines.
What galls me a as someone attempting to have compassion about the ONGOING Covid situation is the deaths and suffering that will occur because of the continued disinformation and suppression of information about Ivermectin. The FDA has been forced to recant its "Its Horse Paste" tweets and I keep reading potential US legislation making Ivermectin available in some states but none have been proven so far.
Prophylactic and treatment use of Ivermectin should be easily available all over the world until the Covid threats are further known and/or Ivermectin usage becomes ineffective against the variants.
I have just recently had my 2nd Covid event and my fever broke within 4 hours of my first dose of Ivermectin and my friend with all the mRNA shots experiencing his 2nd "breakthrough" Covid infection had almost a full day of fever...he did not take Ivermectin.
I want the Twitter Files Part 10 perfidy knowledge to grow to where it changes global medical policy about Ivermectin that saves lives and reduces unnecessary suffering.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Jan 7 2023 5:48 utc | 59
Twitter was never conquered by deep state, it has always been a part of it.
The moment Twitter stops serving the deep state, it will cease to exist.
Posted by: Sid Victor Cattoni | Jan 7 2023 6:02 utc | 60
here too, thx b.
but as the last quote alleges: "powerful enough to disappear the former president of the United States from public life."
disappear? I don´t think DT ever disappeared from anywhere.
That´s a ridiculous exaggeration in the wrong direction and a dangerous one too.
All this research eventually makes no sense, if the corrupt and powerful abuse it to victimize each other.
Beause that would just be - to quote the movie "KNIVES OUT" - a donut inside another donut.
So the fringe stuff, like "Skripal" is the one that matters. I don´t care about Hunter Biden´s laptop.
I might be wrong, but this averts all the attention. And that suits Rep and Dems alike.
This blame game to scapegoat the Democrats is just this, a game for all involved.
It won´t matter. So I like to check with FAIR.ORG. They are not new to this political maneuvering.
Bryce Greene "Under Musk, Twitter Continues to Promote US Propaganda Networks":
https://fair.org/home/under-musk-twitter-continues-to-promote-us-propaganda-networks/
p.s. not that Hunter does not matter at all. But there´s this danger the power structure is only being affirmed by this senationalist focus.
It would be naive too believe Musk has any higher morale.
Posted by: AG | Jan 7 2023 10:15 utc | 61
re: "disinformation"
i.e. Any information that doesn't conform to Western propaganda
Western Governments Keep Assigning Themselves The Authority To Regulate Online Speech
We know that when the government says they are doing something, they are actually doing the opposite. The US is dead set against stifling dissent, for example. ha-ha. So know we know what they are really doing. . .and Blinken outlined the process for it.. . .read on
Blinken in an interview--
. . .But we’re also seeing, of course, the abuse of this technology in various ways, including by repressive governments trying to control populations, to stifle dissent, to surveil and censor. We see that, of course, in the PRC with technology being used, for example, for mass surveillance, including of the Uyghurs and other minorities.
So the question is what is to be done. What do we do about it? And there are a number of things that we need to do and in fact that we are doing. One is to start by calling things out. That’s the – often the basis for everything. We have to call out the abusive technology, including digital authoritarianism.
Second, as I mentioned, we’re going to be taking on the chairmanship of the Freedom Online Coalition. We’re working to strengthen it. And this is an important vehicle to try to protect and advance internet freedom and to push back against digital authoritarianism.
Very practically speaking, there are a number of things that we – countries, NGOs, and others – are doing to, for example, get anti-censorship technology into the hands of people who need it so that they have the tools to push back against the misuse of technology in an authoritarian way. We set up a multinational fund to do that at the Summit for Democracy that we hosted last year.
comment: But then Blinken transitions to the real policy -- attacking "disinformation" which belies the US dogmas. That means blaming others for what the US is actually doing. Clever, eh what? The US needs "trusted mediators" for its propaganda.
back to the Blinken interview:
And the hope, of course, was that the democratization of information would be a good thing overall. And fundamentally, I believe that’s still the case. But as a result of this, as a result of this disaggregation, you’ve lost exactly what you said, which are sort of the trusted mediators who can make sure that information, to the greatest extent possible, is actually backed up by the facts. And at the same time, that technology itself has allowed the abuse and the spreading of misinformation and disinformation in ways that we probably didn’t fully anticipate or imagine.
So we see authoritarian governments using this. We see it, for example, right now in the Russian aggression against Ukraine. We saw it in 2014 when Russia initially went at Ukraine and was using information as a weapon of war. So in that particular instance and in this instance, we’ve actually reversed this on them precisely by using information, real information, to call out what we saw them preparing and working to do. And being able to do that and to bring to the world everything that we were seeing about the planned Russian aggression and to lay out exactly the steps they were likely to take, and which unfortunately they did, I think has done a profound service to making sure that credible information is what carries the day and disinformation is undermined.
https://www.state.gov/secretary-antony-j-blinken-with-maria-ressa-on-digital-diplomacy-and-human-rights-online/
comment: "making sure that credible information is what carries the day and disinformation is undermined." And who will do the undermining? The US and its puppets, of course, with the US disseminating the "credible information" from State for the online media via NewsGuard etc..
Stanford University, a place for learning, of all places, is helping out on the battle against disinformation "around the world:"
Blinken in Silicon Valley:
. . . So Stanford is doing remarkable work on that, and it’s one of the things that we want to make sure that we’re benefiting from, because this is a day-in, day-out battle for us, combating misinformation and disinformation around the world. We have at the State Department itself a big focus on this. We have something called the Global Engagement Center that’s working on this every single day. But that work is both inspired by work that’s being done in academia, including here at Stanford, as well as where appropriate collaborations. And one of the things we have to do is to make sure that we’re using technology itself to deal with some of the downsides of technology when it’s misused, including when it comes to misinformation and disinformation.
https://www.state.gov/secretary-antony-blinken-remarks-to-the-press-3/
on the Global Engagement Center. . .
U.S. Department of State
Global Engagement Center
Mission & Vision
Mission: To direct, lead, synchronize, integrate, and coordinate U.S. Federal Government efforts to recognize, understand, expose, and counter foreign state and non-state propaganda and disinformation efforts aimed at undermining or influencing the policies, security, or stability of the United States, its allies, and partner nations.
Special Envoy and Coordinator
James P. Rubin
https://www.state.gov/bureaus-offices/under-secretary-for-public-diplomacy-and-public-affairs/global-engagement-center/
Blinken, Dec 16, 2022
Today, we welcome James P. Rubin as Special Envoy and Coordinator of the State Department’s Global Engagement Center (GEC). Jamie will lead and coordinate the U.S. Government’s work to recognize, understand, expose, and counter foreign state and foreign non-state propaganda and disinformation that threatens the security of the United States, our allies, and partners.
comment: Just foreign? nope. Some domestic media is acting as an agent for foreign propaganda.
back to Blinken
Jamie has more than 35 years of experience in foreign policy, including at the State Department, having served as a diplomat, spokesperson, policy advisor, professor, and broadcaster. He is uniquely qualified to direct GEC’s critical work on countering foreign disinformation and propaganda from foreign actors including, Russia, the People’s Republic of China, Iran, and foreign violent extremist organizations like ISIS and al-Qa’ida. He also will help build societal resilience to disinformation and propaganda overseas.
I warmly welcome Jamie back to the Department, and look forward to working with him again in this important role.
https://www.state.gov/appointment-of-james-p-rubin-as-special-envoy-and-coordinator-of-the-global-engagement-center/
comment: So the measure of disinformation is not truth but rather it's any information that undermines or influences the policies, security, or stability of the United States, and "Jamie" knows how to attack "disinformation."
. . .and let's get the Western puppets to help Jamie in "internet freedom" ha-ha. . .actually it's "the shaping of global norms through joint action." . .And Jamie will inform us on "global norms" . . .or, the "rules-based international order." (trademark)
from the web -- "shaping global norms:"
Today, 35 governments are part of the Freedom Online Coalition:
The Chair of the Coalition rotates among member states on an annual basis. The 2022 Chair of the Coalition is Canada. The Chair is assisted by the Friends of the Chair, a group of FOC members currently comprising of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the UK and the USA.
A key priority of the Freedom Online Coalition is the shaping of global norms through joint action. The Freedom Online Coalition offers its members an informal diplomatic space to share information and concerns about current developments that threaten to compromise Internet freedom around the world.
Through direct connections between states, members can bring worrying or positive developments to the attention of a group of likeminded governments in the Coalition.
This fast and direct information sharing allows the Coalition to react quickly to recent developments and deliberate them in an informal setting among governments who are governed by the same principles of Internet freedom.
https://freedomonlinecoalition.com/members/
comment: Katy bar the door, the US will chair the Freedom Online Coalition -- i.e. "FOC" - I love it -- in 2023. Here's the outgoing US puppet Canada which has been "shaping global norms."
from the web:
David Morrison
Deputy Foreign Minister, Global Affairs, Canada, who has been "shaping global norms through diplomatic coordination and multistakeholder engagement."
Since assuming the role of chair of the FOC in January 2022, Canada has led the coalition’s efforts to advance digital inclusion by shaping global norms through diplomatic coordination and multistakeholder engagement through our ambitious twenty-three-commitment Program of Action. We have advanced our vision in several other ways.
First we’ve actively worked to affirm and shape global norms by strengthening and expanding diplomatic networks in Paris, Geneva, and New York to share information, coordinate positions, and advance strategies to promote internet freedom and human rights online in priority forums Whether it was calling out Russia’s state-sponsored disinformation in Ukraine or drawing attention to internet shutdowns taking place in Iran, we’ve shone light on egregious situations around the world that undermine human rights and fundamental freedoms online.
. . .Canada has been working to develop the Ottawa Agenda for Digital Inclusion this year. This was done in part by hosting consultations around the world to gather insights about challenges to internet freedom and best ways forward. If we are to counter the greatest digital threats facing democracy today, to defend internet freedom, and push back against digital authoritarianism, we are going to need a collective response—one rooted in multilateralism and multistakeholder engagement.
. . .Canada’s chairmanship may be coming to a close, but we will continue to support the FOC’s mission to protect human rights online. We look forward to working closely with the US as they assume the role of chair of the coalition in 2023. We are thrilled to see the US retaining the Digital Inclusion Framework and its commitment to continue the work of bolstering the FOC’s capacity to make it an effective, action-oriented coalition. We are delighted that our US colleagues have supported the Ottawa Agenda through its development this year and have committed to advance it through their chairmanship next year.
https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/news/transcripts/as-the-us-takes-the-helm-of-the-freedom-online-coalition-here-are-its-top-priorities/
comment:
So the State Department partner NewsGuard has been doing some of that "multistakeholder engagement" with Consortium News which has been involved in "digital authoritarianism." . .whew
And Canada is "thrilled to see the US retaining the Digital Inclusion Framework and its commitment to continue the work of bolstering the FOC’s capacity to make it an effective, action-oriented coalition." ha-ha . . .You can't make this stuff up.
Posted by: Don Bacon | Jan 7 2023 13:41 utc | 63
Posted by: psychohistorian | Jan 7 2023 5:48 utc | 58
100% agree, on a recent trip to El Paso Tx I picked up 8ea 6mg Ivermectin tablets
for about $10 US while in Juarez for Dental work. Anyone with access to the US -Mexico border should pick some up.
Posted by: SwissArmyMan | Jan 7 2023 13:52 utc | 64
Under Musk, Twitter Continues to Promote US Propaganda Networks
BRYCE GREENE
"Twitter’s “state-affiliated media” policy has an unwritten exemption for US government-funded and -controlled news media accounts. Twitter even boosts these accounts as “authoritative” sources for news during the Russian/Ukrainian war...."
https://fair.org/home/under-musk-twitter-continues-to-promote-us-propaganda-networks/
Posted by: bevin | Jan 7 2023 14:09 utc | 65
b, you say "partisan" but that's misleading, the "party" is the war party, not Dems, not GOP. I was banned from Facebook more than my conservative friends, and it was before/as war drums were pounding. It is the FBI/CIA doing what THEY do, THEY'RE the party. We've got to get past the Dem/GOP false dichotomy.
Posted by: scottindallas | Jan 7 2023 16:23 utc | 67
One can get a bunch of drugs in Mexico, Ivermectin, dewormer is not one anyone without livestock would have any use for. Don't be a snake oil consumer
Posted by: scottindallas | Jan 7 2023 16:24 utc | 68
psychohistorian, you know fever isn't an indication of Covid infection; so again, you're lost in the noise, ivermectin is snake oil, sorry, dewormer, it's useless against a virus. Covid infections are generally not serious, just like the flu or common cold which are also some of the biggest killers every year. You understand statistics like a psychologist, easily duped
Posted by: scottindallas | Jan 7 2023 16:29 utc | 69
Kann ich bestätigen. Ich folge MoA bei Twitter, sehe es aber dort nur über retweets. Ist mir bis heute nur deshalb nicht aufgefallen, da ich sowieso hier mitlese.
Take it as a compliment! :-))
Posted by: njet | Jan 7 2023 17:28 utc | 70
Free thinkers should study hows the techniques of Samizdat during Soviet times can be applied to current technologies. I convinced like with B that government control of media will continue.
BTW: Samizda was a form of dissident activity across the Eastern Bloc in which individuals reproduced censored and underground makeshift publications, often by hand, and passed the documents from reader to reader.
Posted by: er | Jan 6 2023 17:51 utc | 4
--------
The problem today is nothing like the government censorship during Soviet times. The problem is a lack of control of privately owned media technology and patents that allow wealthy media owners to control almost all of the content and information which is amplified to the general public without rebuttal, unless the wealthy privite owners allow it. In 1987 President Reagan abolished the Fairness Doctrine" which paved the way for the complete control of all forms of media to be controlled by a few wealthy individuals.
This experiment in corporate (capital) control of all things newsworthy has proven to be a great success for goverment and privite enterprise over the control and formation of the national narrative, largely because the wealthy owners of media are a critical component of goverment itself.
Posted by: Ed | Jan 7 2023 17:30 utc | 71
'...This experiment in corporate (capital) control of all things newsworthy has proven to be a great success for government and private enterprise over the control and formation of the national narrative, largely because the wealthy owners of media are a critical component of government itself..." [email protected]
In the past popular radicalism has managed to publicise its ideas and policies by building its own alternatives to the capitalist media: the names of their publication are legion and famous. And in the days of print and paper the costs of capitalising even a small press were enormous. Nevertheless individuals, unions and cooperatives strained their resources and insisted on competing with the capitalists.
In most ways this has never been easier to do than it is now: running a website and staffing it with volunteers or full timers is much easier and cheaper than producing the Appeal to Reason or the Daily Herald, Humanite, the Daily Worker or even weeklies like Tribune.
Why then are there no mass media critical of the ruling class and accessible to the masses?
One reason is that our culture is utterly corrupted by neo-liberalism to the extent that 3 out of 4 of the critics of war and parliamentary duopoly are themselves believers in most of the vulgar shibboleths of the capitalist class: that 'human nature' inclines men to capitalism and hierarchy, that socialism has been tried and cannot work, that controlling monopolies and nationalising natural monopolies (ideas espoused by Adam Smith and widely adopted in practice until the past half century wave of privatisation carried out by a ruling class pursuing its own interests ruthlessly.
Our current discontents are the product of the capitalist system: there are many paths to a n alternative to capitalist class rule. But they all imply popular organisation to put an end to capitalism. None allows of a kinder gentler totalitarianism in which the ruling class does not use its power in the pursuit of its own narrow and anti-social interests.
If you don't like the fruits of capitalism chop down the tree.
Posted by: bevin | Jan 7 2023 18:06 utc | 72
"capitalist class"
Just another name, a sideshow.
Socialists, communists, fascists and capitalists are all Totalitarians. Period. And they most often can't paint their own colors inside the lines.
Marx never envisioned Central Banking where a Private Select Few could indebt an entire Nation for the benefit of their ilk.
Central Banking is just a whole lot more efficient at stealing from the productive and the poor, than physically sending out Tax Collectors to turn the Peasants upside down.
Posted by: kupkee | Jan 7 2023 19:02 utc | 73
“…that 'human nature' inclines men to capitalism and hierarchy, that socialism has been tried and cannot work, that controlling monopolies and nationalizing natural monopolies (ideas espoused by Adam Smith and widely adopted in practice until the past half century wave of privatization carried out by a ruling class pursuing its own interests ruthlessly.”
Posted by: bevin | Jan 7 2023 18:06 utc | 7
Thank you bevin for your comment.
Your arguments are, in my opinion, so full of holes that one doesn't know where to start, but the old "human nature" contrivance is a good place to start.
From this point of view some (as you do) have suggested that neo-liberal capitalism is the end of history, but history itself suggests otherwise. Slavery was once proclaimed (by the slave masters) to be the product of human nature, simply because it provided a proper standard of living for the slave owners, while providing at least a minimalist living for the non-slave proletariat and that is as God intended. Most human beings do not think this way anymore, so it seems as though "human nature" is more malleable than people such as yourself admit too.
The same argument applies to the second most entrenched exploitive economic system known to humanity, Feudalism. This was also defended by the “Nobel” class as the product of “human nature” and the will of God. Again, it is not well accepted by most of humanity today.
So, today, those defenders of the world's third most exploitive system, capitalism, continue to assume that humanity must accept the exploitation of some humans as a requirement for humanity to exist.
Notice that the end of Slavery and the emergence of Feudalism made life better for the exploited majority. Life is without a doubt better for a serf than for a chattel slave. And again, life for the paid working class under capitalism is, without a doubt, better for a modern worker than for a serf. This is true, even though the slave, the serf, and the modern worker, continued to be members of the exploited classes. So, the question must be asked: What is the next stage for humanity, this progression of “human nature,” or is there one? You say no, and I say yes.
Also, you say Socialism is a spent idea because it has been stomped down by the might of the modern exploitive classes or mishandled it by those who tried to birth it in its infancy. I say that some form of socialism is a requirement for the future of humanity: What the world has seen of it so far is only the birth Pains of Socialism struggling to emerge from the womb of the Capitalist dictatorship.
Posted by: Ed | Jan 7 2023 19:39 utc | 74
@scottindallas | Jan 7 2023 16:29 utc | 69
"you're lost in the noise, ivermectin is snake oil, sorry, dewormer, it's useless against a virus."
Ivermectin 'snake oil' has been on the World Health Organization's list of essential medicines. It won a Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2015 for its successful treatment of parasitic diseases in humans. More recently it has been used to successfully treat Covid, generally outside countries whose doctors are controlled by Big Pharma.
For evidence that supports use of Ivermectin to prevent and treat Corona virus, see https://covid19criticalcare.com/treatment-protocols/totality-of-evidence/
The above page contains many references.
Posted by: Tiger Lily | Jan 7 2023 20:17 utc | 75
Marx never envisioned Central Banking where a Private Select Few could indebt an entire Nation for the benefit of their ilk.
Central Banking is just a whole lot more efficient at stealing from the productive and the poor, than physically sending out Tax Collectors to turn the Peasants upside down.
Posted by: kupkee | Jan 7 2023 19:02 utc | 73
Marx never claimed to be clairvoyant. Notice that Marx almost never discussed what socialism or communism would actually look like, as such a state had never existed during his lifetime, though there were some mostly utopian experiments from the past. During Marx's time the modern banking system was in its infancy: And only a fool makes claims about things unknown.
But Lenin did live to see. and write about the development of finance capitalism resulting from international industrial monopoly capitalism. Lenin said that the emergence of finance capital and industrial capital was a new stage in the development of capitalism, which he called a form of imperialism, and the highest stage of capitalism.
Posted by: Ed | Jan 7 2023 20:33 utc | 76
ed, you’re special…. gotta serious reading comprehension issue when it comes to bevin’s posts - try again
Posted by: b real | Jan 7 2023 21:06 utc | 77
@ Posted by: Tiger Lily | Jan 7 2023 20:17 utc | 75
After Ivermectin’s discoverers win the Nobel Prize for Medicine there were several review articles in major journals - all prior to 2020 & Covid - extolling it’s remarkable safety as well as not only it’s broad spectrum antiparasitic action in humans and animals but also its broad spectrum antiviral activity including against the type of viruses that coronaviruses are.
Ivermectin was tweaked to make it patentable from avermectin - an antimicrobial natural substance made by a soil microorganism to fight against other soil microorganisms.
Compare that with BigPharma linked Media demonisation of it as “dangerous horse de-wormer”. It is now off-patent and a threat to on-patent products.
This financial dynamic is widespread in Medicine at every level because BigPharma money underwrites Universities, Journals, Medical Education, Guidelines Committees, Regulatory Agencies & the WHO.
Posted by: PJB | Jan 7 2023 21:32 utc | 78
@ deliriumtremens 58
It has always seemed obvious to me that twitter and Facebook are government institutions. Completely ridiculous that anti- government thinkers complain about the swish of the blade when they have placed their own heads on the denominated block.
What about that old yarn that a lot of information was gathered by bin-men and road-sweepers? As for Elon Musk, what a brilliant idea to only make electric cars when half the world only gets 30 amps per household all the time and the 30 amps for half the time. Lithium is scarce, and the batteries need to be replaced. There must be another scam making him rich because it certainly cannot be his fairground go-cars.
Facebook has been used to foment colour revolutions using disinformation. A plague on social media in all its manifeststions. Where else can someone get driven to suicide by anonymous cancelling? People must have alligator skins to survive.
These platforms have built a youth culture which rejects the centre collective wisdom of a society. It starts at about 3 as a type of autism, and developed by 13 into complete anarchy. By 18 the young adult iscready to be re-firmed completely in the mould of WEF, Soros or some other sick sod.
I can't understand why anybody would ever illingly want to expose themselves to the empire self- water-boarding of twitter .
Posted by: Giyane | Jan 7 2023 22:19 utc | 79
ed, you’re special…. gotta serious reading comprehension issue when it comes to Bevin's posts - try again
Posted by: b real | Jan 7 2023 21:06 utc | 77
------
b you are correct, after at least three readings of Bevin's post, I realize my error. I apologize to Mr. Bevin, I got lost in the bottom paragraphs of your post and lost the narrative that you had woven above. Perhaps we (Bevin and I) agree more than I realized.
At 70 years old, I must work harder to follow the stream of consciousness (as James Joyce might say), pay attention to drifting content. Bevin, your style of writing has thrown me off from time to time. Not that there is anything wrong with your writing, it is quite good in fact. In the late 80's and early 90's I wrote opinion columns in local papers in Houston Texas, Amerillo Texas. and South Africa (I worked in the oil and gas industry as a Plant Design Draftsman). I was told that my writing style was simple and down to earth: I was insulted.
I think your writing style, as others have informed me, is much more stylish and old school. I respect that. Just remember, some of us are not on that level.
Posted by: Ed | Jan 8 2023 1:13 utc | 80
Silicon valley was built to spinoff technology developed by secret government agencies after WW2. It seemed like a great idea at the time and vastly accelerated US tech lead during the cold war. Unfortunately as Snowden revealed the very technology that was once developed to protect our freedoms in the 1940s was taken over by both political parties to undermine our democracy, freedoms, and our way of life. Now it looks like each party is racing to elect a leader who will become president for life. It is sad that Musk is falling on his sword to uncover what anyone with half a brain figured out a long time ago. The bottom line is that politicians have been so successful at dividing people that unless something major changes the people will be happy when we get our very own home grown Saddam Hussein.
Posted by: atm | Jan 8 2023 2:44 utc | 81
@ atm | Jan 8 2023 2:44 utc | 81 who wrote
"
The bottom line is that politicians have been so successful at dividing people that unless something major changes the people will be happy when we get our very own home grown Saddam Hussein.
"
Sorry to break it to you but those politicians are not the source of the Western malaise but puppets put in place by the global money mafia cult I write about continually here.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Jan 8 2023 2:53 utc | 82
Posted by: james | Jan 8 2023 4:30 utc | 83
Thank you James, that means a lot.
Posted by: Ed | Jan 8 2023 5:12 utc | 84
Posted by: psychohistorian | Jan 8 2023
In a democracy it does not matter how high the puppet is in n the hierarchy of things, puppets are procecuted and setanced to a thousand years of jail time or forced to consume hemlock per the traditions of the land. Puppet strings run two ways and if the puppeteer is guilty they get the same. However in the US puppeteers and the people conspire against liberty and are asking for a king thus the guilty are not held accountable. When the people beg for túrannos even the gods do not stand in their way. In this way they are punished for thousands of years. Samuel 8:11-17
Posted by: atm | Jan 8 2023 15:13 utc | 86
@atm | Jan 8 2023 2:44 utc | 81
"Silicon valley was built to spinoff technology developed by secret government agencies after WW2."
......
And moreover
Post-WWII “Five Eyes” Agreement where British Empire via MI6, MI5,
BBC and GCHQ took control of American intelligence via
FBI, IBM, RCA, NBC, Jun. 5, 1946
C.I.A Founded, Sep. 18, 1947
NSA Founded, Oct. 24, 1947
Marshall Plan, Dec. 17, 1947
americans4innovation have shown how the british, inside the US were very focused about creating a monopoly for all forms of communication including controlling patents technology etc.
Posted by: petergrfstrm | Jan 8 2023 15:49 utc | 87
americans4innovation have shown how the british, inside the US were very focused about creating a monopoly for all forms of communication including controlling patents technology etc.Posted by: petergrfstrm | Jan 8 2023 15:49 utc | 87
Classic Intel "hey look over there" misdirection.
Posted by: Opport Knocks | Jan 8 2023 17:20 utc | 88
@Posted by: Don Bacon | Jan 7 2023 13:41 utc | 63
I read another snippet somewhere else that Consortium News is not to be trusted regarding Internet or press freedom of speech. I'll have to try to find out more about that.
Posted by: jonboinAR | Jan 8 2023 22:17 utc | 89
The comments to this entry are closed.
thanks b.. i will read those articles...
the intel community are calling the shots for some time... even pat lang thinks the cia needs to come down.. good luck with that.. it is just the opposite... propaganda and manipulation 24-7 and of course the corporate media can't talk about it because they are in on it too! the suppression of twitter accounts - b's and others - no surprise... anyone who thinks the leader of the shaky unipolar universe is all about democracy and freedom can be completely dismissed at this point...
tom had a good post on some quotes from musk in a previous thread from 2018 or thereabouts.. it fits right into this thread... silence is the name of the game when anything relevant gets said.. pravduh.com, lol.. one has to give musk some credit where it is due, but he is in no position to buck the trend as i see it..
Posted by: james | Jan 6 2023 17:36 utc | 1