More On the "Cuban Twitter" Scam 90
We mentioned a few days ago the USAID-funded SMS social network that was connecting Cubans against the wishes of the Cuban government. Now Glen Greenwald's The Intercept has more on this kind of back-channel government intervention via what he characterizes as "the Internet propaganda bucket." Advocatus Diaboli (1627651) writes with an excerpt: "These ideas–discussions of how to exploit the internet, specifically social media, to surreptitiously disseminate viewpoints friendly to western interests and spread false or damaging information about targets–appear repeatedly throughout the archive of materials provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. Documents prepared by NSA and its British counterpart GCHQ–and previously published by The Intercept as well as some by NBC News–detailed several of those programs, including a unit devoted in part to "discrediting" the agency's enemies with false information spread online.
The documents in the archive show that the British are particularly aggressive and eager in this regard, and formally shared their methods with their U.S. counterparts. One previously undisclosed top-secret document–prepared by GCHQ for the 2010 annual "SIGDEV" gathering of the "Five Eyes" surveillance alliance comprising the UK, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and the U.S.–explicitly discusses ways to exploit Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and other social media as secret platforms for propaganda."
The documents in the archive show that the British are particularly aggressive and eager in this regard, and formally shared their methods with their U.S. counterparts. One previously undisclosed top-secret document–prepared by GCHQ for the 2010 annual "SIGDEV" gathering of the "Five Eyes" surveillance alliance comprising the UK, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and the U.S.–explicitly discusses ways to exploit Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and other social media as secret platforms for propaganda."
It's more than that ! (Score:1)
We're watching you, so behave
It's more like "We will make sure that you'll be very miserable if you do not behave"
Thank you, England, for teaching America how to take this program worldwide.
What does it mean to be British? (Score:1)
It has been said that the essence of Britishness is fair play. Speaking as a public school educated (that's private boarding school, to you Yanks) toff, I can say with certainty that this is not true at all. The essence of Britishness is hypocrisy. In our hearts we are not standard-bearers of freedom and democracy, but temporarily embarrassed imperialists. And those of us whose mathematical aptitude did not win us a place in the City find themselves landed with a Civil Service job, a job with much the same
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Let everyone speak, but control the podium supply. Make podiums expensive, but give them away free to those saying what you want to be heard. Use this to control the discussion. Give the illusion that every position you think is important is supported by a rational majority and opposed by a fringe of maniacs. If a subject isn't important to your agenda but is contentious, keep it constantly in the public sphere and use it to keep people divided against each other. Say as little as you can yourself.
That
from a year ago (Score:2)
and this is from a year ago..
Bolivian President Evo Morales expels USAID, 1 May 2013 (http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-22371275)
Bolivian President Evo Morales has said he will expel the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Mr Morales accused the agency of seeking to "conspire against" the Bolivian people and his government. US state department spokesman Patrick Ventrell rejected the allegations as "baseless and unfounded".
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Patrick Ventrell rejected the allegations as "baseless and unfounded"
Legalese for "true."
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BMO
Three interesting things (Score:4, Interesting)
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The real question is, to what extent was the US involved in other countries? Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Syria, Turkey, Ukraine? Different counties, same scenario. Social media play a major role at the beginning and during each uprising.
Which also raises the question whether blocking social media is an act of censorship or an attempt to neutralize foreign involvement in internal affairs.
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I guess you never heard of radio free Europe.
This has happened since the start of the cold war. The US has done this with Cuba in some form or another since castro confiscated private industry and expelled the foreign owners and workers.
And yes, closing down twitter in a country is about the same as jamming a radio signal with the added benifit of hampering opposition communications.
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Please... I lived it. But the situation is a bit different here: radio free Europe, Voice of America, BBC etc. were mass media, they claimed higher ground and freedom from government censorship, but they still had owners, countries of origin and so on.
Social networks are controlled differently, the agents there pose as common people, changing and influencing the opinion of those who read but doesn't post (i.e. the majority of users). Often post from social networks are used in the western media to form an o
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Which also raises the question whether blocking social media is an act of censorship or an attempt to neutralize foreign involvement in internal affairs.
It is censorship. The rationale for the censorship may be to reduce foreign involvement, but it is still censorship. It doesn't magically become "not censorship" based on your reason for doing it.
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Yawn (Score:1, Informative)
This is just a mountain made out of a molehill by leftists who are fans of the government of Cuba and don't like when Western governments try to undermine it. I have news for them: doing things like this is the intelligence agencies' *job*. They're supposed to spy; that's why they're called spy agencies, and Cuba couldn't be a more deserving target.
If Cuba doesn't do such things itself, it's only because of lack of budget in these post-Soviet days, not lcak of scruples. (Remember when Cuba used to send "
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Idiot, this is not spying, it is a propaganda campaign.
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... this is not spying, it is a propaganda campaign.
"Yawn" indeed. What baffles me is how anyone think this differs from any other propaganda campaigns throughout human history. It is because it's "on a computer", which means that most people will forget all precedent and pretend that it's something new?
In particular, the mass media here and everywhere else has always cooperated with the wishes of the people in power. That's part of the price of staying in business, regardless of what your local laws (or Constitutions) might say. The distribution of i
jc42: resident troll (Score:1)
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Well, I didn't mention the propaganda on /. because it didn't occur to me that anyone would think it special. The astroturfers and other propagandists have been here since before I had an account, and a lot of their work is so blatant that it's hard to miss. So it's not that the propaganda here didn't occur to me; it's more like I thought it such a cheap shot that I'd be criticized (and possibly downloaded) for wasting reader time by mentioning something so obvious.
Not that there's anything about this
Still walking around the main issue (Score:1)
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Idiot, this is not spying, it is a propaganda campaign.
And the best propaganda is the truth. If Cuba's government can be undermined by citizens having access to social media, then it is time for a new government.
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Actually it gives Cuban citizens a non-governmental channel they can use to communicate with one another. Such communication doesn't necessarily need to be political in nature. Twitter was born out of the efforts to provide Iranians with a way to communicate that could bypass the government controls.
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This is just a mountain made out of a molehill by leftists who are fans of the government of Cuba and don't like when Western governments try to undermine it. I have news for them: doing things like this is the intelligence agencies' *job*. They're supposed to spy; that's why they're called spy agencies, and Cuba couldn't be a more deserving target.
I have news for you: USAID is *not* an intelligence agency. From their website under "What We Do":
For a second, I thought you might've simply posted in the wrong thread...but you didn't, did you. So you ARE an idiot.
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I have news for you: The Intelligence Agencies use other agencies as cover for their activities. USAID has a long, long history of being used for intelligence purposes. In was an open secret even before documents were released in 2007 that proved it. Countries routinely kicked USAID out for spying, like Eritrea in 1995.
Re:Yawn (Score:5, Insightful)
False dichotomy. Rejecting A does not mean accepting B.
See above.
Just because someone is paid to do something does not mean that anyone has to support that.
Since Cuba is not a threat to the USofA in any way that statement is incorrect. There are many ways Cuba could be "a more deserving target".
Circular reasoning. And you even admit that Cuba is not doing the same to the USofA.
That entirely depends upon how YOU define YOUR "morality".
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I'd rather live in Cuba then some of Americas right wing allies such as Saudi Arabia or their right wing puppet countries such as Haiti. Now you might look at Saudi Arabia as a libertarian right wing paradise where the citizens don't pay taxes and can do what ever they want as long as they follow the social mores which comes naturally but I don't like the slavery. And of course in Haiti you're free to struggle to get a job for $3 a day, save and become rich but the truth is it is hell on Earth for most of i
They can't touch me (Score:2)
I don't read twitter, no facebook account. And on YouTube i watch only funny cat videos!
Sneaky. (Score:2)
I don't mind a government overseas propaganda division, really. It's one of the few effective counters against countries that operate their own censorship and propaganda systems. It's the sneaking around that I really don't like. Be honest about it.
Re:Sneaky. (Score:4, Interesting)
Reminds me of a map about the Maidan tweets here: http://www.ibtimes.com/ukraine... [ibtimes.com]
One may wonder, how many of those UK and US tweets were from Ukrainians living in these countries (US has a rather large Ukrainian diaspora, the UK doesn't) and how many were associated with intelligence agencies. Interesting are the blips on the map from Bahrain at the crucial moments.
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I agree with you. But propaganda MUST be clearly identified as such. Thats why you have the [Advertisement] logo on newspapers or in the Google search page.
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The US operates a propaganda program. Not much of a censorship program though.
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Did he ever have legitimacy ?
There was never any doubt that this was being done. The questions is do you want the NSA having your info or Facebook and Google.
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Yes, there was doubt.
Lots of people bought into the gov't saying "oh, no, we would never do that" as earlier whistleblowers came forward. The gov't just switched tactics to "we need to spy on you for your own good".
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Why? Because there may be no "angry common people overthrowing a corrupt tyranny and dying for freedom", merely "people misled by foreign provocateurs into destabilizing their own country"?
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Remember when Snowden's leaks were about blowing the whistle on illegal wiretapping of American citizens? Does anyone else feel like he's long lost all legitimacy?
This "Cuban Twitter" kerfuffle was exposed by the Associated Press. It has nothing to do with Snowden or the NSA.
Re: Snowden's leaks has gone off the rails (Score:3)
Do I think he's lost legitimacy? No.
At the very start he turned over all his data to a few journalists (Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras, etc.) and they are the ones who choose to publish articles based on the data he gave to them. Snowden has said he doesn't retain any of the documents or data himself, and has no control over what is published or not. That's entirely up to the journalists.
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Does anyone else feel like he's long lost all legitimacy?
No. The worst you can say is he should have given the data to a different journalist. He hasn't had anything to do with these releases for a long time.
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What does Snowden have to do with this? I haven't seen his name associated with it before.
This isn't criticism; maybe he is involved; I don't know. Can you give a few cites that explain the link?
how long before COINTELPRO agents post here... (Score:1)
... trying to derail/distract/deride/divert
Cheney should be shitting bricks right now.
Qui Bono (Score:2)
How much did all of this cost?
Let's be blunt here. The purpose of this program was never to in any way seriously affect the Cuban regieme. The purpose of this program, like so many others at the NSA, was to "legitimize" bonuses and to buy new Cadillacs for NSA managers and senior officers. If General Alexander's Star Trek office revealed one thing, it is that the NSA has a culture of gorging at the public trough.
Why should I be outraged? (Score:1)
The Soviets and their proxies have been running very successful propaganda/disinformation campaigns in the West for almost 100 years.
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The US is supposedly selling Democracy, free speech, and freedom of the press.
Government propaganda, particularly covert government propaganda, has no place in Democracy. By using these methods to influence foreign populations not only is the US is undercutting its own message, they're doing through the agency (USAID) that is supposed to be spreading that message.
This is why sunlight is essential, because without it governments fall victim to group think and short sighted objectives and lose the ability to
Humans use tools available to them (Score:1)
The same as VoA (Score:2)
This is no different than Voice of America radio which has been broadcasting propaganda for decades without anyone getting their panties in a bunch.
It seems the Cold War never ended (Score:1)
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It's worse then that. Cuba is the symbol of American Imperialism. When they first decided to become a major player, they planned a war with Spain, did a false flag operation, surprised and defeated Spain and made Cuba a puppet state in the name of freedom and gave it to the Mafia to run. Then those awful Cubans revolted, threw out Batista (sp?) and did awful things like giving the average person shoes and free medical. The truth is that in that part of the world, the average Cuban is better off then lets sa
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Cuba is a horrible shithole in every way imaginable. I won't waste my time trying to convince somebody like you but look it up yourself:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H... [wikipedia.org]
Not to mention the economy where workers are paid on average $19/month and lack even basic necessities and cannot legally change jobs, move, own property, own a cellphone or a computer without government permit etc etc.
Yes they are better of than Haiti, the country that compares badly even with worst African countries, so you got that one ri
Um, what? (Score:1)
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