Demon-rats EXPOSED for outright TREASON definitively--they're actively conspiring, working to impose censorship upon American people.

Apollonian

Guest Columnist

With the Twitter Files, Democrats Support Government Censorship of Lawful Speech​

Welcome to the era of state-sponsored thought police

by William J. Astore Posted onMarch 13, 2023

Link: https://original.antiwar.com/Willia...pport-government-censorship-of-lawful-speech/

Reprinted from Bracing Views with the author’s permission.
Yesterday, journalists Matt Taibbi and Michael Shellenberger testified before the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. Their testimony, and the risible reactions of Democrats on the subcommittee, are well worth watching; I watched the entire hearing, which lasted 140 minutes. Kim Iverson has an excellent summary here which lasts about 23 minutes. As Iverson notes, the Democrats on the subcommittee demonized the journalists while supporting censorship of ordinary Americans for political advantage, a clear violation of freedom of speech and the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Clearly, the Twitter Files have revealed government-directed censorship of lawful speech. The reactions and strategy of the Democrats on the subcommittee were as follows:
  1. To smear the two journalists who volunteered to appear before Congress as “so-called” journalists; as being biased witnesses in favor of the right (even though Shellenberger testified he’d voted for Biden, and Taibbi described himself as a traditional ACLU liberal); as having the basest of motives, such as taking payments and otherwise profiting from their journalism; and of being willing or unwilling dupes of Elon Musk.
  2. To repeat, again and again, that Russia massively interfered in the 2016 and 2020 elections, therefore government-directed efforts to suppress “foreign interference” in US elections was both legitimate and praiseworthy.
  3. To associate Elon Musk with Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Russia, China, and other alleged bad actors, thereby suggesting that the Twitter Files are tainted and compromised by foreign information ops and influence.
  4. To defend the FBI and other government agencies like the DHS and CIA as trustworthy and reliable defenders of truth as well as upholders of the First Amendment.
  5. To suggest that the journalists involved posed a “direct threat,” e.g. to workers at Twitter, not the federal government or powerful corporations like Twitter itself or Facebook.
  6. To imply the subcommittee’s purpose wasn’t about free speech at all; that its purpose was purely political and intended to advance right-wing agendas.
  7. Specific to the Hunter Biden laptop story, one Democrat implied the hard drive could have been altered, thus calling into question the validity of emails and other data on that drive.
  8. To change the subject by accusing Republicans of being worse offenders since they’re trying to ban books; also that Donald Trump is worse because he jailed one of his opponents.
Not one Democrat on the subcommittee expressed concern about the peril of state-sponsored censorship and suppression of free expression. Indeed, the Democrats took pains to portray the journalists in front of them as the real peril, along with Russia, Elon Musk, Republican book-banners, and other bad actors.
It was all rather amazing, a “shit storm” to quote Kim Iverson.
So many important points made by Taibbi and Shellenberger could easily get lost in this political shit storm, which I suppose was the Democrats’ strategy. Here’s a short list of those points:
  1. As Taibbi said, state-directed censorship on Twitter didn’t just affect the right but also people on the left and publications like Consortium News and Truthout.
  2. We’re looking at an emerging censorship-industrial complex, an unholy alliance between government and private corporations to filter, constrain, and otherwise control information sources. A form of “digital McCarthyism.”
  3. Ordinary Americans are being deprived of their free speech rights without due process. Not only that: some are de-platformed and then denied access to pay sources (like PayPal) as punishment. So, not only can’t you speak freely: you also can’t support yourself financially.
  4. Government calls (in this case by the FTC) to investigate the backgrounds of Taibbi, Shellenberger, and other journalists involved in the Twitter Files creates a chilling effect on journalism. As Shellenberger noted, it’s reminiscent of the Stasi (secret police) in East Germany.
Democrats on the subcommittee had no interest in any of this. Their strategy was to dismiss the hearing as politically motivated and the journalists involved as greedy opportunists handpicked by Elon Musk (whom, you might recall, was associated with Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Russia, China, and perhaps Hitler, Stalin, and Darth Vader).
Interestingly, I learned a new word in the hearings: “pre-bunking.” Apparently, the Democrats in 2020 knew the Republicans had Hunter Biden’s laptop, so they engaged in an exercise to “pre-bunk” the release of embarrassing details from that computer. To wit, mainstream media “journalists” were encouraged not to follow the “Pentagon Papers” model of publishing leaked and legitimate material quickly. Rather, they were primed not to cover such a story, or to cover it as a case of Russian disinformation.
And that’s exactly what the mainstream media did in October 2020: as a group, they wrongly dismissed the Hunter Biden laptop revelations as Russian disinformation as the government worked hand-in-glove with Twitter, Facebook, and others to suppress the story as malicious and false. As we now know (and as was known then), the Hunter Biden laptop story was well-sourced and accurate. There was no Russian connection whatsoever. (Kudos to the Democrats for their dirty tricks here; even Richard Nixon couldn’t have done it better.)
Again, Democrats on the subcommittee showed no interest in or concern about an emerging censorship-industrial complex and its suppression of free speech rights. They painted the journalists before them as bad or sketchy actors and the FBI and other government agencies like DHS and the CIA as the good guys, working selflessly and without bias to protect us all from the “dangerous” ideas of our fellow citizens.
Welcome to the era of state-sponsored thought police, brought to you by your Democratic friends in Congress.

Addendum (3/11): All those Democrats so eager to pillory Taibbi and Shellenberger: they all took an oath to support and uphold the Constitution.
I’m not sure there’s any more fundamental right to that oath than freedom of speech.
If you take your oath seriously as a Member of Congress, your focus at the hearing should – must – have been on upholding that fundamental right against government-directed interference and censorship.
Yet none of them mentioned this or their oath – their sworn duty – to the Constitution.
This is worse than mendacity; they are derelict in their duties as representatives and public servants.
 

Grants Reveal Feds’ Horrific Plans To Censor Americans’ Speech​

TOPICS:CensorshipPatrick WoodTechnocracy
MARCH 24, 2023

Link: https://www.activistpost.com/2023/0...orrific-plans-to-censor-americans-speech.html

The founding fathers should have included extra text in the First Amendment: “Congress shall not make any law, Executive shall not make any rule or order, Judiciary shall make no ruling” abridging freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, the right to peaceable assembly and right to protest the government for redress of our grievances.

There is indisputable evidence that our own government is the driving vehicle to completely obliterate free speech in America. The Congress can rein in the Administration but, unfortunately, many in Congress are complicit and even encouraging Biden and staff to intensify the attack.
The current trajectory of this war on the First Amendment will result in criminalizing speech, imposing penalties like fines, court cases and imprisonment. — Technocracy News & Trends Editor Patrick Wood


By Margot Cleveland

Our government is preparing to monitor every word Americans say on the internet—the speech of journalists, politicians, religious organizations, advocacy groups, and even private citizens. Should those conversations conflict with the government’s viewpoint about what is in the best interests of our country and her citizens, that speech will be silenced.
While the “Twitter Files” offer a glimpse into the government’s efforts to censor disfavored viewpoints, what we have seen is nothing compared to what is planned, as the details of hundreds of federal awards lay bare. Research by The Federalist reveals our tax dollars are funding the development of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine-learning (ML) technology that will allow the government to easily discover “problematic” speech and track Americans reading or partaking in such conversations.
Then, in partnership with Big Tech, Big Business, and media outlets, the government will ensure the speech is censored, under the guise of combatting “misinformation” and “disinformation.”

AI and ML Technology Will Monitor Everything We Say and Read​

The federal government has awarded more than 500-plus contracts or grants related to “misinformation” or “disinformation” since 2020. One predominant area of research pushed by the Department of Defense involves the use of AI and ML technology to monitor or listen to internet “conversations.”
Originally used as a marketing tool for businesses to track discussions about their brands and products and to track competitors, the DOD and other federal agencies are now paying for-profit public relations and communications firms to convert their technology into tools for the government to monitor speech on the internet.

Privacy Action Plan – Live Your Life Online Again With Zero Fear

The areas of the internet the companies monitor differ somewhat, and each business offers its own unique AI and ML proprietary technology, but the underlying approach and goals remain identical: The technology under development will “mine” large portions of the internet and identify conversations deemed indicative of an emerging harmful narrative, to allow the government to track those “threats” and adopt countermeasures before the messages go viral.
With AI and ML identifying in real-time the origins of supposed influence operations and how the messages spread, the government will have the ability to preempt the amplification of the speech, squelching even true reporting before the general populace has an opportunity to learn the news. To appreciate fully the danger this poses to free speech requires Americans to consider the use of that technology with these seven additional details.

1. Everything Everywhere All At Once​

First, the AI and ML technology under development will mine every conceivable mode of conversation for the government. Consider, for example, the databases monitored by just a few of the companies the government is paying to develop this AI and ML technology.
PeakMetrics, the recipient of a $1.5 million award, tracks millions of news sites, blogs, global social platforms, podcasts, TV and radio, and email newsletters.
Omelas Inc., which received more than $1 million in taxpayer money, culls data from “the most influential newspapers, TV channels, government offices, militant groups, and more across a dozen social networks and messaging apps, thousands of websites, and thousands of RSS feeds.”
Alethea Group, which received a Phase I award of nearly $50,000 to develop a “machine learning tool for proactive disinformation/misinformation detection, assessment, and mitigation,” boasts it covers data sources including mainstream and “fringe” social media platforms, peer-to-peer messaging platforms, blogs and forums, state-affiliated media sites, “gray” propaganda sites, and the dark web.
Newsguard, awarded $750,000 by the DOD, offers two databases, including its unreliable reliability ratings database of thousands of news and information websites and a second database of purported hoaxes.
Technocracy Rising: The Trojan Horse Of Global Transformation
by Patrick Wood

Primer, which scored a $3 million award to develop its technology, offers a database that looks to news and media data sources, publicly captured images, the dark web, cyberattacks shared by the general public, and classified—presumably for government clients—and unclassified data sources. Primer also partners with Flashpoint, which adds “Telegram, Reddit, Discord, and “the deep and dark web” to the databases mined.

2. We’re Talking Americans, Not Just Russian Bots​

It is also important to recognize that the AI and ML technology under development will not just mine foreign or state-connected actors, but will monitor everyone’s speech. Both the government grants and the web pages of the monitoring companies confirm this reality.
We also know from the “Twitter Files” that the government and its fellow residents in the Censorship-Industrial Complex view the speech of Americans as related to foreign influence operations merely because the viewpoint matches what they claim is an adversary’s perspective. And we know the government pushed for the censorship of ordinary Americans.

By its nature, AI and ML technology has unlimited potential to flag problematic speech on any imaginable subject. Here, the past is prologue: Speech need not involve terrorism, acts of war, or even our electoral process for our government to consider it within its purview to fact-check. (It also need not be false; see point 4).
The “Twitter Files” and recent events provide Americans a glimpse into the breadth of the topics the government may deem harmful narratives worthy of censor—from elections, to vaccines, to runs on grocery stores. Underlying the government’s obsession with silencing misinformation, disinformation, and mal-information is the “Great Power Competition” perspective of foreign relations, under which China and Russia represent a constant threat to America’s power, influences, and interests.
With the government viewing foreign relations through the Great Power Competition paradigm, speech on any topic, touching even tangentially on America’s “power, influences, and interests,” will be fair game for censorship efforts.

3. The Great Power Competition Renders Everything Fair Game for Censorship​

While to convincingly prove this reality requires a deeper exposé—coming soon—on the Great Power Competition’s connection to the government’s focus on misinformation, disinformation, and mal-information, last week Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Arizona, showcased the current thinking inspiring our leaders. During a conference call with the Federal Deposit and Insurance Corporation about the Silicon Valley Bank bailout, Kelly asked whether there was “a way to censor information on social media to prevent a run on the banks.”
Kelly’s question was “couched” “in a concern that foreign actors would be doing this,” Rep. Thomas Massie told Public, but, according to Massie, Kelly “didn’t suggest the censorship should be limited to foreigners or to things that were untrue.”
The move from the censorship of terrorism to the silencing of supposed interference in elections to censoring posts about “bank runs” follows naturally from the shift in foreign relations paradigms from the War on Terror to the Great Powers Competition. The latter views anything affecting American power or influence as fair game. We also saw this shift with the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA) proposal to consider “financial misinformation” within its purview.
The government’s censorship efforts won’t stop at supposed “financial misinformation,” however, because anything and everything journalists report and citizens discuss affects America’s “power, influence, and interest.” So, the government’s development of technology to monitor the entirety of the internet foretells a much more dangerous threat than apparent on the surface.

4. The Government Brands True Speech Misinformation​

The threat to free speech stemming from the government’s monitoring of the internet is further increased by our overlords’ willingness to brand true speech “misinformation, disinformation, or mal-information” and then seek to censor it. The “Twitter Files” also exposed this reality, with our government and its lackeys seeking the censorship of true facts that might lead to “vaccine hesitancy” or reveal runs on grocery stores.
That our government would seek to silence true speech on such matters gives Americans reason to fear further censorship of true information.

5. Faulty Analysis and Biased Censors​

The “Twitter Files” also revealed that censorship demands by the government, think tanks, and academic institutions relied on faulty misinformation analyses, including ones that identified innocent Americans as foreign actors. Also, many of those involved in the disinformation industry maintain left-leaning bias and a penchant for targeting conservatives.
In furthering its plans to monitor the internet for supposedly harmful narratives to silence, the government is continuing to work with biased groups, including ones that pushed faulty analyses, adding to the threat to free speech.

6. The Government’s Partners Are Poised to Censor​


The government’s push to develop AI and ML technology to mine the internet is even more terrifying knowing that a Censorship Complex has already been built. The “Twitter Files” revealed the breadth and depth of the complex, with every alphabet-soup federal agency working with the social media giants and an array of think tanks and academic institutions, and with the legacy media providing an assist when censorship requests went ignored.
While Elon Musk may have exited Twitter from the group, the Censorship Complex still stands tall and ready to silence the speech of those who dare dissent. This public-private collaboration makes the government’s move to monitor the internet even more threatening to free speech.

7. Those Who Could Warn the Public or Stop the Plot Are All-In​

The threat is further heightened because those with the power to warn the public and demand the government stop silencing Americans’ speech are complicit. The corrupt media’s coverage, or lack thereof, of Matt Taibbi and Michael Shellenberger’s congressional testimony on the Censorship Complex proves this point. So too does the Democrats’ pathetic performance during the hearings, when they exposed themselves as enemies of free speech.
With Democrats, the legacy media, and many Republicans all in on the government’s efforts to censor misinformation and disinformation, it will be extremely difficult for the public to recognize the risks free speech faces—especially since those trying to sound the alarm have already been falsely branded purveyors of disinformation.
A chance remains, though, that enough ordinary Americans will hear the message before it is too late and demand Congress close the Censorship-Industrial Complex.

The Federalist

Sourced from Technocracy News & Trends
 
"Never let a good crisis go to waste"--Demon-rats and globalist-satanists have a "solution" for allowing Chicoms prop. over their "Tik-tok" importations--heavy, intensive censorship & punishments

 
Here's a little more info fm FOX News about the SERIOUS efforts of globalist-satanists, fronted by creepy Joe, to impose censorship, suckers--u need to take note, fools

 
Jews-media and gov. actively conspired to censor the people on top of trying to mass-murder them w. the poison vaxxes on top of the original covid bio-weapon--they need to be exterminated for TREASON, morons

 

BOMBSHELL REVELATION: State Department’s GEC, Soros’s Open Society, the EU, and UK Are Funding the “Disinformation Index”: A Pseudo-Nonprofit that “Blacklists” Conservative News from Online Advertisers​

By Joe Hoft Apr. 7, 2023 8:15 am

Link: https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/20...hat-blacklists-conservative-news-for-adverti/

Ministry-of-Truth-600x483.jpg

Unmasking the Disinformation Index: A pseudo-nonprofit that “blacklists” conservative news from online advertisers.
Guest Post by Bob Bishop
The Constitution’s First Amendment allows freedom of expression from government regulations or restrictions; in other words, no censorship. The “fourth estate” term describes the news media that is the watchdog over the government. The amendment extends free speech to the independent media that delivers news and investigative journalism to the general public. Only a free press, based on truth and transparency, can effectively criticize and expose the government’s potential or actual wrongdoings.

The public is awakening to social media censorship (Twitter and Facebook) and the extreme bias of prominent media outlets (i.e., the New York Times) promoting and supporting the Federal and state governments’ narratives and totalitarian behavior. An emerging and highly destructive new strategy is “blacklisting” independent conservative media to defund them of advertising revenue, leading to their financial demise.
Read: Demand For Physical Precious Metals Skyrockets As Central Banks Buy Everything In Sight
Censorship Think Tank
The mission of the Disinformation Index (“DI”), with its U.K. parent organization, Disinformation Index LTD. (“GDI”), is to defund conservation online news sites with claims of alleged disinformation. GBT\DI disinformation focus is LBGT, climate denial, election fraud, illegal immigration, the Russia\Ukraine border conflict, abortion, the Biden family’s foreign business dealings, and anti-vaccine content. The organizations invert facts and truth to create an adversarial political narrative.
Their rating system creates a blacklist shared with major advertising companies and advertising exchanges, including Google and Microsoft, to shut down disfavored speech by defunding advertising. These companies contract with GDI\DI for information on who to target for defunding. When comparing GDI’s risk sources, the bias is highly apparent.
GDI-list-of-firms.jpg

Evading Charity Laws
GDI was founded in the U.K. as a private limited corporation and is not registered as a charitable organization. It is led by extremists British Clare Melford and American Danny Rogers, CEO of DI.

GDI-Presentation-600x299.jpg

Clare Melford’s YouTube presentation.
According to its IRS Determination Letter DI operates in Long Island City, NY. DI’s covert sibling charity, AN Foundation, shares the same address and mission statement. Danny Rodgers serves as CEO of both organizations. The organizations are Delaware corporations to hide the directors’ identities and protect them from personal liability.
DI and AN Foundation are headquartered in San Antonio to avoid filing their legal documents and tax returns with the New York state including required audited financial statements. Neither organization is registered with the New York State Charities Bureau, violating New York’s charity law.
A Washington, D.C., law firm responded to an online request for DI’s current 990 tax return by requiring a payment for the PDF tax return and sending the payment to DI’s San Antonio address. AN Foundation ignored a request for its tax return. The address is a shared office space that rents workspace by the month. The manager informed me that DI and AN Foundation are not renters but use the service that forwards their mail to an Oregon address. The two charities are also not registered with the State of Texas.

DI sent by certified mail the 2021 990 return, which was redacted to hide identities. The postage stamp was New York City (Zip Code 10017). Evidence it is operating in New York State.
Gateway Pundit Targeted

In a podcast on The Safety Tech Podcast last year, Clare Melford, GDI CEO, discussed its strategies for defunding conservative websites. She stated that the Gateway Pundit was on GDI’s exclusion hit list, which led to advertising companies and Google not monetizing its content. A link to the podcast is here, and the segment starts at 24.10.
Gateway Pundit appears regularly in GDI’s weekly tracker. GDI has scrubbed the weekly tracker reports from its website. However, below is an example from the Wayback Machine on the 2020 election fraud. The Wayback Machine link includes numerous weekly research lists that target leading conservative websites like Breitbart News, American Thinker, Fox Nation, and World News Daily.
GDI-attack-on-TGP-Advertiser-600x335.jpg

State Department Funding
The Washington Examiner reported that U.S. taxpayer-funded National Endowment for Democracy and the State Department’s Global Engagement Center during 2020 and 2021 funded $665,000 to U.K. GDI. Funds used domestically to defund conservative websites.

Other high-profile funders are George Soros’s Open Society, the European Union, and the United Kingdom. The foreign governments have an adverse influence with the freedom of the press. Could DI be considered an agent for foreign governments and be required to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA)?
GDI-funders-600x167.jpg

Pseudo Charities
DI and AN Foundation are pseudo-nonprofits founded and controlled by the GDI parent organization, which is also a pseudo-charity. They serve as feeder funds to finance GDI operations. GDI and DI are intertwined by sharing key employees, a website, a rating database, and international partnerships with a mission to obstruct the freedom of the press. Is this a violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) as well?

DI and AN Foundation failed to legally organize and operate as nonprofits; they are in defacto for-profit businesses and should be subject to Federal and New York corporate income taxes. Their efforts to prevent conservative speech go against the constitutional rights of conservative media.
 

ALERT! Biden Federal Government To Create New ‘Disinformation’ Office​

Infowars.com
May 7th 2023, 1:45 pm

Link: https://www.infowars.com/posts/alert-biden-federal-government-to-create-new-disinformation-office/

[see vid at site link, above]

Deep state is attempting to resurrect another Ministry of Truth after disastrous DHS rollout of Disinformation Governance Board.

Foreign Malign Influence Center will support State Department’s Global Engagement Center (GEC), which the Twitter Files have shown targeted and censored conservative voices on social media.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) formed a new office to oversee the intelligence community’s efforts to fight “disinformation” and foreign influence campaigns in the United States, Director Avril Haines announced Thursday.

In a hearing with the Senate Armed Services Committee, Haines unveiled the Foreign Malign Influence Center (FMIC), which would be focused on “foreign malign influence” aimed at U.S. elections but also “public opinion within the United States.”


“Congress put into law that we should establish a foreign malign influence center in the intelligence community. We stood that up and it encompasses our election threat executive work essentially looking at foreign influence and interference in elections, and deals with disinformation more generally,” Haines said.

The center was created after approved funding by Congress in September 2022 but little was known about how it would operate.

From The Intercept:

From its perch atop the intelligence community, the FMIC has been designated the U.S. government’s primary authority for analyzing and integrating intelligence on foreign influence, according to a brief entry on ODNI’s website. The FMIC’s acting director, Jeffrey K. Wichman, is a former CIA executive who previously served as chief of analysis for the agency’s Counterintelligence Mission Center.
“Exposing deception in defense of liberty” is the center’s motto, ODNI’s website says. It enjoys access to “all intelligence possessed or created pertaining to FMI [foreign malign information], including election security.”
Haines said the FMIC would work with the State Department’s Global Engagement Center (GEC) to fulfill its mission, which the Twitter Files revealed works as a malicious censorship arm of the federal government.


“What we have been doing is effectively trying to support the Global Engagement Center and others throughout the U.S. government in helping them to understand what are the plans and intentions of the key actors in this space: China, Russia, Iran, etc.,” she said.

Specifically, the “GEC funded the Global Disinformation Index (GDI), a foreign data-driven advocacy organization, which ‘created blacklists of U.S. domestic media voices to cripple U.S. citizen journalists’ advertising revenue,’ according to House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (TX), Foreign Affairs Oversight and Accountability Subcommittee Chair Brian Mast (FL), and GOP Reps. Chris Smith (FL), Darrell Issa (CA), Maria Salazar (FL), Keith Self (TX), Cory Mills (FL), and Ken Buck (CO),” Breitbart reported.

This comes ten months after the Department of Homeland Security scrapped its planned “Disinformation Governance Board” in the wake of massive public backlash.

This is just another attempt by the government to establish a Ministry of Truth that will be weaponized against, not “foreign adversaries,” but the American people.

Watch the Haines’ full testimony: [ck site link, above, top]
 

US launches new 'ministry of truth'​

Link: https://www.rt.com/news/575936-us-foreign-disinformation-intelligence-redundant/

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence has set up a body to counter foreign ‘disinformation’
US launches new 'ministry of truth'

FILE PHOTO © Getty Images / Igor Stevanovic
The US has established a Foreign Malign Influence Center to address foreign threats to elections as well as the “public opinion” within the country, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines revealed in a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Thursday.
Operating under the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the FMIC has access to “all intelligence possessed or created pertaining to foreign malign information, including election security.” Its director, Jeffrey Wichman, was formerly chief of analysis for the CIA’s Counterintelligence Mission Center.
For the agency’s purposes, ‘foreign’ means originating in Russia, Iran, China, North Korea, or “any other foreign country that the Director of the Center” deems appropriate, while ‘foreign malign influence’ is defined as “any hostile effort undertaken by, or at the direction of, or on behalf of or with the substantial support of,” one of the named countries in order to influence, covertly or overtly, US government or state policy or the “public opinion within the United States.”
Ukraine working with FBI to censor social media – official
Read more [see https://www.rt.com/news/575515-ukraine-fbi-online-censorship/]
Ukraine working with FBI to censor social media – official

While the FMIC was apparently founded in September at the behest of recent legislation, Thursday’s hearing was the first public mention of its existence. Its establishment was controversial, as some senators and intelligence officers questioned the need for another agency with the same remit as the Global Engagement Center, the State Department subsidiary tasked with disseminating American propaganda to fight the foreign variety.
Haines addressed some of those concerns in Thursday’s hearing, insisting the FMIC was working to “support the Global Engagement Center and others throughout the US government in helping them to understand what are the plans and intentions of the key actors in this space: China, Russia, Iran, etc.”
Countering ‘foreign disinformation’ has become something of an obsession for government bureaucrats since the 2016 election of Donald Trump, with half a dozen agencies springing up since then. In addition to the GEC, launched in 2017, the Pentagon quietly launched an Influence and Perception Management Office last year, joining the Department of Homeland Security’s Foreign Influence and Interference Branch, Countering Foreign Influence Task Force, and the ill-fated Disinformation Governance Board, as well as the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force.
However, Pentagon contractor RAND Corporation recently acknowledged Russia’s role is probably overstated. The think tank warned in a study conducted last year that blaming Moscow for all information Washington doesn’t like is likely to backfire, urging the Defense Department to reduce “overattribution of disinformation on social media to Russia.”
“Pointing the finger at Russia in every instance of activity on social media resembling Russian interference distorts the understanding of the threat,”
the report stated.
 
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