{"id":65074,"date":"2023-02-21T07:21:49","date_gmt":"2023-02-21T12:21:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=65074"},"modified":"2023-02-21T07:21:49","modified_gmt":"2023-02-21T12:21:49","slug":"how-new-zealand-dealt-with-disinformation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=65074","title":{"rendered":"How New Zealand Dealt with \u201cDisinformation\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"entry-header \">\n<div class=\"post-thumb-img-content post-thumb\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" src=\"https:\/\/brownstone.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Shutterstock_2207704461-800x469.jpg\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/brownstone.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Shutterstock_2207704461-800x469.jpg 800w, https:\/\/brownstone.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Shutterstock_2207704461-400x234.jpg 400w, https:\/\/brownstone.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Shutterstock_2207704461-768x450.jpg 768w, https:\/\/brownstone.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Shutterstock_2207704461-1536x900.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/brownstone.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Shutterstock_2207704461-600x352.jpg 600w, https:\/\/brownstone.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Shutterstock_2207704461.jpg 2048w\" alt=\"disinformation\" width=\"800\" height=\"469\" \/><\/div>\n<h3 class=\"entry-title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/brownstone.org\/articles\/how-new-zealand-dealt-with-disinformation\/\">How New Zealand Dealt with \u201cDisinformation\u201d<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"entry-content clear\">\n<p>The Lord of the Rings trilogy is spectacular, with Orcs, Elves and breathtaking scenery filmed on location in New Zealand. The special effects were good too \u2013 the eye of Sauron looked very realistic \u2013 perhaps it is.<\/p>\n<p>We have come across a minimally redacted 28-page draft of a Kiwi Government document entitled \u201cCommunications approach to managing disinformation, online harms and scams\u201d dated 10 Dec 2021 (Available\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/osf.io\/85x4m\">here<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>The document\u2019s aim appears to be coordinating countering disinformation seeking to harm \u201cby threatening public safety, fracturing community cohesion and reduced trust in democracy.\u201d All well and good then; it\u2019s a bit like saying, do not open fire on the Red Cross.<\/p>\n<p>Except that the object is \u201cdisinformation\u201d relating to the Kiwi government\u2019s response to the Covid pandemic. The definition of disinformation in the document is on page 5:<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-20276\" src=\"https:\/\/brownstone.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/b8e2a224-cdf5-447e-b873-c309ffce7e6c_311x336.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"311\" height=\"336\" \/><\/figure>\n<p>We will not summarise the complex and superficial content of the document other than to note that this is precisely the attempt at normalising the message of the pandemic that we have\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/open.substack.com\/pub\/trusttheevidence\/p\/more-on-escaping-from-social-and?r=1lcx51&amp;utm_campaign=post&amp;utm_medium=web\">reported<\/a>. The government has put out a message, and its credibility must be defended at all costs, with tech media partners, academics, the community and, of course, the armies of Sauron.<\/p>\n<p>One consideration is that the Covid narrative in Middle Earth (as elsewhere) is based on the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/open.substack.com\/pub\/trusttheevidence\/p\/the-sars-cov-2-transmission-riddle-3e1?r=1lcx51&amp;utm_campaign=post&amp;utm_medium=web\">misuse and misinterpretation<\/a>\u00a0of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and the death of clinical medicine, as we\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/trusttheevidence.substack.com\/p\/the-sars-cov-2-transmission-riddle-58e\">have made clear<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Cases may not have been active cases,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/open.substack.com\/pub\/trusttheevidence\/p\/covid-19-acquired-in-welsh-hospitals?r=1lcx51&amp;utm_campaign=post&amp;utm_medium=web\">hospitalisations<\/a>\u00a0may not be due to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/open.substack.com\/pub\/trusttheevidence\/p\/covid-19-acquired-in-uk-hospitals-771?r=1lcx51&amp;utm_campaign=post&amp;utm_medium=web\">SARS-CoV-2<\/a>, and deaths may be due to various causes related or unrelated to SARS-CoV-2. We will never know for sure. Why? Because the PCR cycle threshold for testing PCR \u201cpositive\u201d in Middle Earth was 40 to 45, ensuring that\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/open.substack.com\/pub\/trusttheevidence\/p\/the-sars-cov-2-transmission-riddle?r=1lcx51&amp;utm_campaign=post&amp;utm_medium=web\">most tested people would test positive<\/a>\u00a0even in the total absence of contamination (a very tall order).<\/p>\n<p>\u2026click on the above link to read the rest\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How New Zealand Dealt with \u201cDisinformation\u201d The Lord of the Rings trilogy is spectacular, with Orcs, Elves and breathtaking scenery filmed on location in New Zealand. The special effects were good too \u2013 the eye of Sauron looked very realistic \u2013 perhaps it is. We have come across a minimally redacted 28-page draft of a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[33712,29341,3717,379,512,1426,14545,26071,607,32732,33711],"class_list":["post-65074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-liberty","tag-carl-heneghan","tag-covid","tag-disinformation","tag-government","tag-media","tag-misinformation","tag-narrative-control","tag-narrative-management","tag-pandemic","tag-the-brownstone-institute","tag-tom-jefferson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=65074"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65074\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65075,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65074\/revisions\/65075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=65074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=65074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=65074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}