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On the 19th of April, The Guardian published an article making the positive assertion that two Twitter accounts were run not by real people, but by automated bot software based in Russia. Since the article was published, the owners of both accounts have stepped forward, on video, demonstrating in no uncertain terms that they are in fact real human beings and not software programs.

As of this writing, days later, there has been neither retraction nor correction of the false claims made by The Guardian, and the article remains as published.

The article’s author, Heather Stewart, makes the following claim:

“One bot, @Ian56789, was sending 100 posts a day during a 12-day period from 7 April, and reached 23 million users, before the account was suspended. It focused on claims that the chemical weapons attack on Douma had been falsified, using the hashtag #falseflag. Another, @Partisangirl, reached 61 million users with 2,300 posts over the same 12-day period.”

Stewart explicitly asserts that the Twitter account @Ian56789 is a bot. That account’s owner appeared for an interview on Sky News, completely disproving this assertion. Stewart also names the Twitter account @Partisangirl as a bot account. The account’s owner, Maram Susli, is a well-known Syrian-Australian activist with many publicly available videos and a Wikipedia page.

This is an extremely egregious case of journalistic malpractice. A demonstrable falsehood has been published about two individuals, the information has been publicly available for days, and there has been no correction or retraction from a trusted mainstream news source. When confronted with the obvious and undeniable falsehoods in her story, Heather Stewart tweeted, “It’s not my analysis – as the piece makes quite clear – it’s the government’s.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

UK Foreign Office Denies Claiming Russia Responsible For Nerve Agent, Deletes Tweet

April 4, 2018

UK Foreign Office Denies Claiming Russia Responsible For Nerve Agent, Deletes Tweet

Update: It appears that either the British government can’t keep its lies and proof-less accusations straight or something far more nefarious is at play.

Following headlines (below) that British government scientists admitted they couldn’t tell where the poison – identified by the UK as A-234, also known as Novichok, used in the Salisbury poisoning of the Skripals – came from, undermining a number of claims to come out of Westminster, The UK Foreign Office denies claiming the nerve agent used in the Salisbury poisoning of the Skripals came directly from Russia, despite admitting it sent a tweet saying exactly that, and Boris Johnson making the same claim.

View image on Twitter

✔

Why would @foreignoffice delete this tweet from 22 March?

7:35 AM – Apr 4, 2018

The UK Foreign Office has admitted it deleted the tweet which directly stated that the nerve agent came direct from Russia.

London has directly accused the Kremlin on at least three occasions of being behind the chemical attack on former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia.

As RT notes, bizarrely, the Foreign Office denies Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson claimed the novichock “categorically” came from Russia, despite a recorded interview clearly showing he did.

WATCH: Boris Johnson blatantly lies to Deutsche Welle and says Porton Down lab were “absolutely categorical” that Russia was behind the Salisbury nerve agent attack

On 03/04/18, Porton Down lab said they are unable to confirm the origin of the nerve agent

12:37 PM – Apr 3, 2018

The Foreign Office has not yet deleted a tweet in which the UK’s ambassador to Russia, Laurie Bristow, reiterates the accusation of Moscow being behind the poisoning.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Check Your Mute List On Twitter For Possible New Censorship Shenanigans

April 2, 2018

Check Your Mute List On Twitter For Possible New Censorship Shenanigans

I decided a while back that I’m just going to document all the weird censorship activities that I personally encounter from giant social media corporations in order to have information available to the public so the hive mind can connect the dots on all the myriad ways that anti-establishment voices are being silenced. A lot of the tactics that these corporations are using to stifle dissent depend on the fact that they’re occurring within individual social media accounts, and the only way to learn more about how those tactics are being used is for all of us to publicly share our own experiences with them.

It might look a little unusual, but in my opinion by making as much anti-establishment noise as I can and then documenting all the ways my voice is silenced and marginalized I’m performing a useful journalistic service to the new media landscape. In a corporatist system of government, wherein corporate power is not separate in any meaningful way from government power, corporate censorship is government censorship. It’s important to learn how these quasi-governmental surveillance-based Silicon Valley corporations are protecting the establishment on which their plutocratic dynasties are built.

Before I go on, let me remind my audience that last year Twitter openly admitted to censoring the #DNCLeaks hashtag in the lead up to the 2016 election to prevent it from trending, which Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey blatantly lied about doing at the time. Let me also remind you that Twitter, along with Facebook and Google, was asked on the Senate floor a few months ago to take measures to “silence” rebellious voices in order to “prevent the fomenting of discord” in America.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Inhuman: What The Establishment’s Bot Hysteria Reveals About Their View Of The Masses

March 12, 2018

The only apparatus that could hope to match the soullessness of the psychopaths that run our planet is manifested in the rise of artificial intelligence, paired with robots, which press reports indicate will replace vast sections of the beleaguered human workforce within decades.

It is particularly ironic, then, that the plutocratic class has developed an intense phobia of Twitter bots. In this author’s view, their intense abhorrence can be read in Jungian terms as the subconscious projection of the establishment’s shadow. That is, the more the elite protest about the use of bots on social media, the more they are likely to use such technologies and similar tools to attack the very human public that they constantly misidentify as inhuman bots.

The concept for this article arose after a minor furor erupted on Twitter regarding an application designed by Robhat Labs intended to identify bots disseminating political propaganda, which was found to have been incorrectly classifying many real human social media accounts as bots, myself included. Excellent independent media thinkers have reported extensively on the issue of false attribution of dissent to Russian bots, including Adam Carter with his coverage of Hamilton 68, published via Disobedient Media.

The establishment’s deranged fantasies regarding Twitter trolls culminated recently in Robert Mueller’s indictment of members of a Russian click-bait farm. Disobedient Media and other independent media figures were quick to point out that the indictment was an utter joke.

The establishment’s hysteria regarding bots on social media unintentionally provides key insight into their view of the masses they have abused for so long. Calling your opponent a bot dehumanizes them from the start. It strips the subject of the essence of their humanity, their right to free speech and dissent.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

This Is The Worst Purge Of Conservative Voices In The History Of The Internet

March 7, 2018

This Is The Worst Purge Of Conservative Voices In The History Of The Internet

In recent weeks, we have witnessed an unprecedented social media crackdown on conservative voices. YouTube’s war with Alex Jones has gotten the most attention, but literally hundreds of conservative content creators have had their accounts penalized, suspended or deleted by YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other social media giants. There appears to be a coordinated effort to target conservative viewpoints, because similar voices on the left are not receiving equal treatment. If I win my race for Congress on May 15th, I am going to make fighting this sort of censorship one of my top priorities once I get to Washington.

How would you feel if you spent years creating videos and building up a subscriber base only to have all of that work wiped out in a single moment by a leftist YouTube moderator?

Sadly, that is precisely what is happening to dozens upon dozens of conservatives right now…

Writing for Polygon.com, Julia Alexander noted that, “Whenever YouTube institutes a tougher moderation stance, a common debate emerges over censorship—especially from notable conservative voices.”

Specifically, she explained, “Questions over YouTube’s moderators and the power they hold were raised this week after notable conservative pundits, gun advocates, conspiracy channels and other right-wing voices received community strikes or were locked out of their channels. Creators who are affected by lockouts, strikes and suspensions are referring to it as the ‘YouTube Purge,’ claiming that YouTube is purging all right-wing or pro-gun content. The move follows the company’s attempt to clamp down on dangerous content following the Parkland shooting.”

One of the most disturbing examples of censorship was what happened to the Health Ranger channel. Mike Adams is a personal friend, and I am extremely upset about what YouTube has done to him…

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Should Facebook, Google and Twitter Be Public Utilities?

March 5, 2018

Should Facebook, Google and Twitter Be Public Utilities?

This opaque corporate censorship amounts to a private-sector Stasi, pursuing an Orwellian world of profits reaped from the censorship and suppression of dissent

My longtime friend GFB recently suggested I revisit my position on RussiaGate, the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 US election.

I have been dismissive of the investigation because the idea that a pinprick of Facebook advertising ($100,000) could influence the sprawling ocean of public opinion struck me as preposterous.

But GFB suggested I look a bit deeper and consider the consequences of the Russian interference, however modest it might have been; and I have taken his sage advice and reconsidered.

I’ve reached the conclusion that Facebook, Google and Twitter should be operated as public utilities, not as for-profit corporations beholden solely to their shareholders and managers.

Here is my thinking:

1. As GFB so insightfully observed, Facebook says it sells advertising, as this is uncontroversial. But what Facebook is actually selling is data on its users. This enables enterprises to deliver adverts to highly specific audiences (surfers between the ages of 18 and 34 with an interest in traveling overseas, etc.), campaigns that are known only to the advertiser and Facebook, not to the targeted users. But it also enabled the Russian crew to target audiences most likely to be receptive to divisive, inflammatory content.

2. If we follow this dynamic to its conclusion, we realize that these for-profit corporations are threats to democracy, or incompatible with democracy, if you prefer that wording, as they directly enable the relatively affordable and easy sowing of intentionally divisive content.

A recent wired.com article, Inside the Two Years that Shook Facebook–and the World, describes Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s realization that the technology he’d assumed was both incredibly profitable and helpful could be used as a force for exploitation and propaganda.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Kim Dotcom proposes Twitter alternative over ‘censorship of Seth Rich tweets’

March 4, 2018

Kim Dotcom proposes Twitter alternative over ‘censorship of Seth Rich tweets’

Kim Dotcom has called on Twitter to stop ‘censoring’ tweets, saying he’ll create an alternative to the social network if it continues. Dotcom told RT he believes Twitter is targeting tweets about late DNC staffer Seth Rich.

Tweeting early Saturday, the Megaupload founder urged Twitter’s Jack Dorsey to “stop messing with our free speech” and warning that if Dotcom creates an alternative platform, “Twitter could be toast within a year”.

Kim Dotcom
✔@KimDotcom

If you keep messing with our free speech @jack I will build a team to create a Twitter alternative, without censorship. Twitter could be toast within a year. I hear you’re hurting about the Trump presidency.Don’t let your frustration destroy your business. #StopTwitterCensorship

3:47 AM – Mar 4, 2018

Dotcom had earlier tweeted at Dorsey to ask why Twitter was preventing retweeting on certain tweets. He shared a screenshot of a notice from Twitter claiming a tweet he wished to retweet was “no longer available” despite it still being on the network.

Other Twitter users wrote that they too had experienced similar issues with retweeting, with some accusing Twitter of ‘shadowbanning’ certain users. This is when the person is not aware their account’s reach has been limited, but their followers don’t see their tweets or a warning appears over their tweets. Twitter has denied this practice is in place.

Last year, it publicized new anti-abuse measures which limit accounts deemed as abusive so their tweets are only seen by their followers. If a follower retweets their tweet, it doesn’t get shown to others.

View image on Twitter

Kim Dotcom

✔@KimDotcom

Hello @jack, quick question. How come @Twitter is stopping its users from retweeting certain tweets that are active and haven’t been deleted? I wanted to help @RealMattCouch to get on the #ReasonableDoubt podcast to talk about #SethRich. Censorship?

3:35 AM – Mar 4, 2018

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

AI Censorship and the Power of Steem to Preserve Truth

January 24, 2018

AI Censorship and the Power of Steem to Preserve Truth

Just read a great article by Caitlin Johnstone over at Medium where she discusses the automation of censorship tools by companies like Twitter and Google.

Putting paid Julian Assange’s warning last year on this, Ms. Johnstone details just some of the abuses that Twitter and Google engaged in to subtly and not-so-subtly shift public perception of major issues that run counter to the narrative the power structure wants us to believe.

And it is for this reason that projects like Steemit are so very important.

I talked about how important Steem is after James O’Keefe’s latest expose of Twitter (read it here). Watching people like Mrs. Johnstone wake up to the problem is great, but she also needs to take the next step.

You can’t hack something whose underlying content is stored in a distributed blockchain. Because the blockchain’s ledger is immutable, what you wrote is preserved in all of its glory (ignominious or otherwise) forever.

As she points out, type of censorship is far worse than simply throwing books into piles and burning them. With DRM and all digital assets, inconvenient truths can be memory-holed off your Kindle never to be seen again.

Abridged versions of books can be substituted for the original text and worse.

So, the blockchain as it pertains to how we communicate is a fundamental need to disrupt this communications super-state they are building.

I can’t stress enough how important this is today.

Now, more than ever, the information war is heating up. And the ability to control not just the validity of what people produce but what everyone consumes is the single most important issue of the age.

If we are to finally break the backs of the people working so hard to maintain their gravy train, we have to build systems that are beyond their control.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Project Veritas Exposes Twitter “Shadow Banning”, Blocking Opposing Views

January 11, 2018

Project Veritas Exposes Twitter “Shadow Banning”, Blocking Opposing Views

In the latest of a series of undercover operations targeting the mainstream media and now Social Media, James O’Keefe of Project Veritas has just dropped a new undercover video which reveals Twitter “shadow banning” and creating algorithms that censor certain ideas.

The first clip features a former Twitter software engineer who explains how/why Twitter “shadow bans” certain users:

Abhinav Vadrevu: “One strategy is to shadow ban so you have ultimate control. The idea of a shadow ban is that you ban someone but they don’t know they’ve been banned, because they keep posting but no one sees their content.”

“So they just think that no one is engaging with their content, when in reality, no one is seeing it. I don’t know if Twitter does this anymore.”

Meanwhile, Olinda Hassan, a Policy Manager for Twitter’s Trust and Safety team explains on December 15th, 2017 at a Twitter holiday party that the development of a system of “down ranking” “shitty people” is in the works:

“Yeah. That’s something we’re working on. It’s something we’re working on. We’re trying to get the shitty people to not show up. It’s a product thing we’re working on right now.”

In the full video (see below) Twitter Content Review Agent Mo Nora explains that Twitter doesn’t have an official written policy that targets conservative speech, but rather they were following “unwritten rules from the top”:

“A lot of unwritten rules, and being that we’re in San Francisco, we’re in California, very liberal, a very blue state. You had to be… I mean as a company you can’t really say it because it would make you look bad, but behind closed doors are lots of rules.”

“There was, I would say… Twitter was probably about 90% Anti-Trump, maybe 99% Anti-Trump.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

First France, Now Brazil Unveils Plans to Empower the Government to Censor the Internet in the Name of Stopping “Fake News”

January 10, 2018

Photo: Mark Schiefelbein/AP

First France, Now Brazil Unveils Plans to Empower the Government to Censor the Internet in the Name of Stopping “Fake News”

YESTERDAY AFTERNOON, the official Twitter account of Brazil’s Federal Police (its FBI equivalent) posted an extraordinary announcement. The bureaucratically nonchalant tone it used belied its significance. The tweet, at its core, purports to vest in the federal police and the federal government that oversees it the power to regulate, control and outright censor political content on the internet that is assessed to be “false,” and to “punish” those who disseminate it. The new power would cover both social media posts and entire websites devoted to politics.

“In the next few days, the Federal Police will begin activities in Brasília [the nation’s capital] by a specially formed group to combat false news during the [upcoming 2018 presidential] election process,” the official police tweet stated. It added: “the measures are intended to identify and punish the authors of ‘fake news’ for or against candidates.” Top police officials told media outlets that their working group would include representatives of the judiciary’s election branch and leading prosecutors, though one of the key judicial figures involved is the highly controversial right-wing Supreme Court judge, Gilmar Mendes, who has long blurred judicial authority with his political activism.

Among the most confounding aspects of the Twitter announcement is that it is very difficult to identify any existing law that actually authorizes the federal police to exercise the powers they just announced they intend to wield, particularly over the internet. At least as of now, they are claiming for themselves one of the most extremist powers imaginable – the right of the government to control and suppress political content on the internet during an election – with no legal framework to define its parameters or furnish safeguards against abuse.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Today’s The Day: Twitter To Start Purging Users And Prevent “Certain Content From Trending”

December 18, 2017

Today’s The Day: Twitter To Start Purging Users And Prevent “Certain Content From Trending”

Twitter will begin suspending accounts which engage in “hateful conduct” or affiliate with organizations which “use or promote violence against civilians to further their causes” both on and off the platform, following a November announcement. The new rules apply to whatever Twitter deems “hateful,” including “hateful images or symbols in your profile image or profile header.”

Jack Dorsey, Twitter CEO

Moreover, Twitter will officially begin restricting “trending” content, to wit:

At times, we may prevent certain content from trending.

While many conservative Twitter users have suffered unfair account suspensions, mysterious drops in retweets and likes on controversial tweets, overnight drops in follower count, and unexplained disappearances of trending topics which paint liberals in a bad light, Twitter’s new rules effectively allow the social media giant to openly engage in censorship without repercussion.

Via Twitter Help Center:

Abusive Behavior

We believe in freedom of expression and open dialogue, but that means little as an underlying philosophy if voices are silenced because people are afraid to speak up. In order to ensure that people feel safe expressing diverse opinions and beliefs, we prohibit behavior that crosses the line into abuse, including behavior that harasses, intimidates, or uses fear to silence another user’s voice.

Context matters when evaluating for abusive behavior and determining appropriate enforcement actions. Factors we may take into consideration include, but are not limited to whether:

the behavior is targeted at an individual or group of people;

the report has been filed by the target of the abuse or a bystander;

the behavior is newsworthy and in the legitimate public interest.

Violence: You may not make specific threats of violence or wish for the serious physical harm, death, or disease of an individual or group of people. This includes, but is not limited to, threatening or promoting terrorism.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Big Brother Is Here: Twitter Will Monitor Users Behavior ‘Off Platform

November 20, 2017

Big Brother Is Here: Twitter Will Monitor Users Behavior ‘Off Platform‘

In perhaps the most intrusive move of social media platforms’ efforts signal as much virtue as possible and appease their potentially-regulating government overlords, Twitter has announced that it is cracking down on what it defines at hate-speech and not just by looking at its own site.

In what amounts to a major shift in Twitter policy, Mashable’s Kerry Flynn reports that the company announced on Friday that it will be monitoring user’s behavior “on and off the platform” and will suspend a user’s account if they affiliate with violent organizations, according to an update to Twitter’s Help Center on Friday.

Abusive Behavior

We believe in freedom of expression and open dialogue, but that means little as an underlying philosophy if voices are silenced because people are afraid to speak up. In order to ensure that people feel safe expressing diverse opinions and beliefs, we prohibit behavior that crosses the line into abuse, including behavior that harasses, intimidates, or uses fear to silence another user’s voice.

Context matters when evaluating for abusive behavior and determining appropriate enforcement actions. Factors we may take into consideration include, but are not limited to whether:

the behavior is targeted at an individual or group of people;

the report has been filed by the target of the abuse or a bystander;

the behavior is newsworthy and in the legitimate public interest.

Violence: You may not make specific threats of violence or wish for the serious physical harm, death, or disease of an individual or group of people. This includes, but is not limited to, threatening or promoting terrorism.

You also may not affiliate with organizations that – whether by their own statements or activity both on and off the platform – use or promote violence against civilians to further their causes.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Mark Zuckerberg’s Long Litany Of Failings – Mainstream Media Turns On Social Media

November 17, 2017

Mark Zuckerberg’s Long Litany Of Failings – Mainstream Media Turns On Social Media

The mainstream media is a fickle beast beholden to the direction of the prevailing political winds. Unfortunately for Facebook, Google and Twitter, those winds have turned about face in recent weeks as the political establishment thrashes about in its misguided efforts to prove that – aided by social media – Russia changed the course of the 2016 presidential election. While Facebook’s share price has suffered very little so far, the mainstream media is going to work on the reputations of Facebook and its billionaire founder. For example, according to Vanity Fair last month.

“…the tech giant is broadly focused on repairing its reputation following revelations that its platform was weaponized by Russia in the 2016 election.”

“Weaponized” seemed a very strong word to use.

With the social media platform deemed “fair game” in the mainstream media, the Financial Times has lined up Mark Zuckerberg in its crosshairs. The FT journalist who penned the piece on Zuckerberg, Edward Luce, is cut from establishment cloth…and then some. Luce is the son of Richard Luce, now Baron Luce, the former MP, former Lord Chamberlain to the Queen and Knight of the Garter. Edward Luce read PPE at Oxford, took a sabbatical as a speech writer for Larry Summers and is the FT’s chief US commentator.

We are no fans of Zuckerberg and sympathise with some of it, but we recognise a hatchet job when we see it. In the article, Luce accuses Zuckerberg of…

Self-evident observation, or “stating the bleeding obvious”, to use the English vernacular:

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

How Facebook and Google threaten public health – and democracy

November 11, 2017

How Facebook and Google threaten public health – and democracy

The sad truth is that Facebook and Google have behaved irresponsibly in the pursuit of massive profits. And this has come at a cost to our health

woman holds smartphone — ‘Substance cannot compete with sensation, which must be amplified constantly, lest consumers get distracted and move on.’ Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

In an interview this week with Axios, Facebook’s original president, Sean Parker, admitted that the company intentionally sought to addict users and expressed regret at the damage being inflicted on children.

This admission, by one of the architects of Facebook, comes on the heels of last week’s hearings by Congressional committees about Russian interference in the 2016 election, where the general counsels of Facebook, Alphabet (parent of Google and YouTube), and Twitter attempted to deflect responsibility for manipulation of their platforms.

The term “addiction” is no exaggeration. The average consumer checks his or her smartphone 150 times a day, making more than 2,000 swipes and touches. The applications they use most frequently are owned by Facebook and Alphabet, and the usage of those products is still increasing.

In terms of scale, Facebook and YouTube are similar to Christianity and Islam respectively. More than 2 billion people use Facebook every month, 1.3 billion check in every day. More than 1.5 billion people use YouTube. Other services owned by these companies also have user populations of 1 billion or more.

Facebook and Alphabet are huge because users are willing to trade privacy and openness for “convenient and free.” Content creators resisted at first, but user demand forced them to surrender control and profits to Facebook and Alphabet.

The sad truth is that Facebook and Alphabet have behaved irresponsibly in the pursuit of massive profits. They have consciously combined persuasive techniques developed by propagandists and the gambling industry with technology in ways that threaten public health and democracy.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Twitter Revises Terms Of Service, No Longer Believes In “Speaking Truth To Power”

November 6, 2017

Twitter Revises Terms Of Service, No Longer Believes In “Speaking Truth To Power”

Having been caught in a crossfire over internet free speech and Russian conspiracy theories, Twitter has quietly made a significant change in its stated “Twitter Rules” terms of service.

Following several Congressional hearings meant to root out “Russian interference” by Twitter accounts, as well as an incident in which a disgruntled, now former employee, disabled Donald Trump’s twitter account for 11 minutes, it appears that Twitter no longer believes in “speaking truth to power.”

The change can be seen in Twitter’s TOS, in the “Abusive Behavior” section, which currently states that “We believe in freedom of expression and open dialogue, but that means little as an underlying philosophy if voices are silenced because people are afraid to speak up.”

This is a material change from what this section stated as recently as November 2, when the section read “We believe in freedom of expression and in speaking truth to power”…

… with believing in “speaking truth to power” replaced with “open dialogue.”

The change took place just two days after November 1, when Twitter, along with Google and Facebook, were questioned by Congress in the ongoing witch-hunt, as dubbed by Donald Trump, for “Russian influence” that may have led to interference in the 2016 presidential election. As @Jack twitted at the time, the changes to Twitter’s rules were made as part of a November 3 attempt to “clarify” them.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

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