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The US Government Funds A War On Online Fake News (bangordailynews.com)
An anonymous reader quotes the Washington Post:
Congressional negotiators on Wednesday approved an initiative to track and combat foreign propaganda amid growing concerns that Russian efforts to spread "fake news" and disinformation threaten U.S. national security. The measure, part of the National Defense Authorization Act approved by a conference committee, calls on the State Department to lead government-wide efforts to identify propaganda and counter its effects. The authorization is for $160 million over two years...
The Senate Intelligence Committee, meanwhile, has approved language in the fiscal year 2017 intelligence authorization bill calling for new executive branch efforts to combat what it characterized as "active measures" by Russia to manipulate people and governments through front groups, covert broadcasting or "media manipulation." "There is definitely bipartisan concern about the Russian government engaging in covert influence activities of this nature," Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a statement. "If you read section 501 of this year's intelligence authorization bill, it directs the President to set up an interagency committee to 'counter active measures by Russia to exert covert influence over peoples and governments.'"
Several senators on the intelligence committee also asked President Obama to declassify any information relating to the Russian government and the U.S. election.
The Senate Intelligence Committee, meanwhile, has approved language in the fiscal year 2017 intelligence authorization bill calling for new executive branch efforts to combat what it characterized as "active measures" by Russia to manipulate people and governments through front groups, covert broadcasting or "media manipulation." "There is definitely bipartisan concern about the Russian government engaging in covert influence activities of this nature," Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a statement. "If you read section 501 of this year's intelligence authorization bill, it directs the President to set up an interagency committee to 'counter active measures by Russia to exert covert influence over peoples and governments.'"
Several senators on the intelligence committee also asked President Obama to declassify any information relating to the Russian government and the U.S. election.
Let the US government fake news win!
We called it propaganda for hundreds of years? Why change now? Is this some form of doublenextplusgoodspeak?
I use a high quality source for my news. TheOnion.com is America's finest news source (it says so in Google) and provides me with everything I need to know about news. If everyone would use high quality news sources, we would all know the truth like I do.
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The time is coming where any news expressing something the government doesn't want us to hear will
just have a FAKE label slapped on it, followed by a "Fake News Removal Order" (Evolution of the DMCA) sent to the hosting website.
If it were really about eliminating the fake news threat; a major goal would instead be to improve education of the people to more readily spot suspicious content, evaluate it logically and rationally, and not be fooled by snake oil.
What, the US mainstream media didn't work hard enough disparaging Donald Trump for the last year? Let's dredge up the Russia boogeyman again and say Russian propaganda is a threat to US propaganda. We need to install a new government branch called the Department of Propaganda to counter such danger to national security. Citizens and countrymen, it's time to double, nay triple our propaganda efforts this time, so that it doesn't fail again!
The Smith-Mundt Modernization Act of 2012 (part of the National Defense Authorization Act) has repealed the domestic prohibition, allowing the government's propaganda to be directed at/created for Americans for the first time in over 40 years.
The current state of affairs is too complicated for an AC analysis in a single post but I will say a few things. The two main political parties are closer to each other than we realize. If you look at Europe and elsewhere, you find greater differences and more parties. Because they are so similar, they have spent decades attempting to distinguish themselves and their supports from the each other. They have played the people against each other through sensationalist rhetoric, attack campaigns (good ol' muckraking as it used to be called), lies and incessant fear that the other party is trying to destroy your life and family. We've dug a 3 mile deep trench in a 10 foot wide field and convinced everyone that the people on the other side are monsters. Incidentally, this sort of dehumanizing psychology is what allowed so many soldiers to view the enemy as animals and treat them accordingly. When we no longer see people, we are no longer bound by any empathy.
So how is this relevant to fake news? The connection is simple imo. If you believe that the other side is a manipulative, pathological liar, then everything they say and everything that agrees with their viewpoint must be wrong. It can't be considered or even analyzed. So what do you do? You seek out views that reflect your own side and you end up in an echo chamber.
While I believe that the internet has the greatest potential we have ever seen to bring us together and unite us as a species on a path to a better future, that potential is not being realized. We may be here together on this site right now, collectively considering the consequences of fake news, the recent election, the growing surveillance across the globe, and we may share the same shock and dismay and even fear, but this is yet another echo chamber. All forms of social media seem to reinforce this and the potential of the itnernet is lost in groupthink.
We have reached a point where the American government is going to start policing media for fake news in the interest of national security. This is the motivation of China with their great firewall. That was the motivation of the old Soviet governments. Censorship and control are not the answer. Meaningful dialogue and a critical eye are. We need to stop with the vehement rhetoric and the everpresent need to prove the other side wrong or scream about how the sky is falling. We need to calmly start asking for citations and weigh the evidence presented. We need to remember that most issues are finely nuanced and that sometimes both sides are partially right and partially wrong. We need to stop seeking out spurious information that confirms our own worldview and re-inforces our comfy bubble, but rather seek out contrary information and evaluate it.
If we can do that then all the BS in the world from foreign state agents won't make a difference. We are only susceptible to it now because of all the ridiculous infighting. Decades of that have left us uncritical, petulantly defensive, blind to facts, and obstinate to an impossible degree.
If your response to this is to just blow it off as "yeah, people are stupid, you can't do anything about it" or make more sarcastic comments then you are part of the problem. This can be changed. Shitty government can be changed. Shitty news agencencies can be run out of business. It just won't happen if we're all sitting around mouthing off about how bad everything is on the internet instead of discussing ways to fix it.
Of course, the pessimistic cynic in me says that this won't even show up on the page. Prove that voice wrong.
It's yet another government waste of money. Fake news is effective because all the major news outlets have lost their credibility by not even trying to hide their bias. I know that CNN usually doesn't tell outright lies though, even if sometimes they report things with a certain slant or ignore some stories. I know that 99 percent of what I see on twitter is bogus. Still, the fact that the MSM has become so obviously pro left has pretty much enabled all these crazy stories. Now, having the government chime in is only going to make people double-down on the fake stuff. If there is any organization less trusted than the media it's the government.
Remember all those years where Sarah Palin was the effective leader of the GOP base? Remember the absolute gong show of the 2012 GOP Presidential Primary with the parade of ridiculous not-Romneys?
2016 isn't the first time the GOP has gone off the deep-end, if media coverage seems skewed it's because it's difficult to give an intellectually honest defence of the US right when it regularly rallies around conspiracy theories.
If anything the media helped Trump with constant coverage of Clinton's emails and controversies around her foundation, while paying no attention to the actual policies being discussed.
I stole this Sig
Yes, we know. All mainstream media are fake news. All hail the trustworthy Fox News and Breitbart. Wikipedia has a left-wing bias, as has physics, universities, Einstein (dirty Jew) and science in general. All hair our great Fuerer Trump and his new Mobocracy.
Let's see who the snowflakes are. In the past week or so, Trump supporters have been triggered by:
1. A Broadway play.
2. Starbucks
3. cornflakes
The main Trump, Donald even tweeted a demand for a safe space at the theater:
https://twitter.com/realDonald...
There is nobody more sensitive and thin-skinned than a Donald Trump supporter.
You are welcome on my lawn.
I see you're still in "denial". Wake me when you make it past "anger" and get to "bargaining". But don't rush - if the left can keep its echo chamber intact for 4 more years, Trump get re-elected. Delay introspection all you like.
I'm in denial of what?
I know Trump won the election. I knew that was a very real possibility for at least a month beforehand.
I also know that he's ridiculously unprepared and still doesn't really understand what the job entails.
I know that he's moderating some of his positions as he talks to the Obama administration during the transition.
At the same time he's filling his administration with some of the most extreme characters from the right, so that moderation may be gone by February when the extremists are back in charge.
The guy isn't even in office and he's already caused 1 potential corruption scandal (using his new position to get construction approvals) and two diplomatic incidents (phone calls with Pakistan and Taiwan).
Trump was supposed to learn the job and start acting presidential during the primary. He didn't.
Trump was supposed to learn the job and start acting presidential during the general. He didn't.
Trump was supposed to learn the job and start acting presidential once he became President-elect. He hasn't.
When is he supposed to grow up and learn the job? 2025?
When is the right going to stop being in denial and realize there's no brilliant statesman hiding under the hair extensions. The Trump you see is the Trump you get and he is not remotely suited for the position of US President.
I stole this Sig