British Spy Agency GCHQ Used URL Shortener To Honeypot Arab Spring Activists (vice.com) 40
The British spy agency GCHQ used a custom URL shortener and Twitter sockpuppets to influence and infiltrate activists during the Iran revolution of 2009 and the Arab Spring of 2011, reports Motherboard, citing leaked documents by Edward Snowden. From the article: The GCHQ's special unit, known as the Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group or JTRIG, was first revealed in 2014, when leaked top secret documents showed it tried to infiltrate and manipulate -- using "dirty trick" tactics such as honeypots -- online communities including those of Anonymous hacktivists, among others. The group's tactics against hacktivists have been previously reported, but its influence campaign in the Middle East has never been reported before. I was able to uncover it because I was myself targeted in the past, and was aware of a key detail, a URL shortening service, that was actually redacted in Snowden documents published in 2014. A now-defunct free URL shortening service -- lurl.me -- was set up by GCHQ that enabled social media signals intelligence. Lurl.me was used on Twitter and other social media platforms for the dissemination of pro-revolution messages in the Middle East.
Re:fake news again (Score:4, Informative)
What changed is the protests scared the leadership so much they arrested many reformists and disqualified them from future elections. Former speaker Karroubi is still under house arrest today, and the media is still forbidden to even publish pictures of former president Khatami.
Iran revolution of 2009??? (Score:1)
There was no revolution in Iran in 2009.
The last one was in the 1970s when they overthrew the Shah and installed the current theocracy.
Re: (Score:1)
GCHQ is getting as bad as the CIA for screwing with other countries. Eventually it will come back to bite us in the arse.
Also, there is no democratic mandate for this.
Re: (Score:2)
Guess you've never heard of the KGB.
No (Score:4, Insightful)
The leaked information shows the edge of the map, not the map. Look at political turmoil world wide, not just in what is convenient. Look at oppression world wide, not just the edge of the map. This is not some specific high tech attack that takes huge funding and technical skills. It's easy and cheap, and only requires the desire to influence other Governments.
Here, the UK is called out for influencing other Governments. If you believe it was only in those two countries you are a fool, sorry.
By the way people in the US, isn't this the same thing people are claiming Russia is doing and we are so offended by it? Spitting in the wind often leaves your face messy.
secret _is_ censorship (Score:2)
So the Russian Government funding programs to trick UK citizens into reading propaganda is fine, and me simply stating that they should not do this is "censorship".
You are either a troll or a shill, because nobody that stupid can type in sentence/paragraph form.
Blinders (Score:2)
Lurl.me was used on Twitter and other social media platforms for the dissemination of pro-revolution messages in the Middle East.
They were not just listening. Try again keeping my quote in mind when reading the FULL context of the article, not the parts you want to cherry pick as acceptable behavior. I know it's hard, confirmation bias is easy.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Go home, Donald, you're drunk.
Hey, I think you have a good idea here! A debate between Donald and Hilary promises to be both viscous and boring.
Let's add a new rule, that would require each candidate to drink a shot of Tequila after answering each question.
After an hour, the debate would be both entertaining, and a hoot and a half!
Let's make that happen!
Re: (Score:2)
From the story I'm not really so sure. Is it the terrorists, or the secular democratic revolutionaries opposing them who were targeted? Arab Spring wasn't the people you're describing, but your brush sounds so broad I don't think you'd fit another group of people in the picture.
Re: (Score:2)
If someone were keeping score, it'd be MR 5000-something, Z-0
LOL I guess that... (Score:1)
JTRIG is a Bureau of Peace (Score:1)
> implying GCHQ didn't sell every one of these poor bastards out to Iran as part of the nuclear deal
Google, Twitter, Quora et al do this every day (Score:2)
There is nothing shocking in the article and the evidence presented actual proves very little, other than they are using analytics's just like every body else using the web. Why is this shocking when spooks do this but not when Google, Twitter and other do this all the time?
Hell I've done it on occasions to track how many people have downloaded things I've published in different places.