Thirty Countries Use 'Armies of Opinion Shapers' To Manipulate Democracy (theguardian.com)

The governments of 30 countries around the globe are using armies of so called opinion shapers to meddle in elections, advance anti-democratic agendas and repress their citizens, a new report shows. From a report on The Guardian: Unlike widely reported Russian attempts to influence foreign elections, most of the offending countries use the internet to manipulate opinion domestically, says US NGO Freedom House. "Manipulation and disinformation tactics played an important role in elections in at least 17 other countries over the past year, damaging citizens' ability to choose their leaders based on factual news and authentic debate," the US government-funded charity said. "Although some governments sought to support their interests and expand their influence abroad, as with Russia's disinformation campaigns in the United States and Europe, in most cases they used these methods inside their own borders to maintain their hold on power."

Comments

Re:Meanwhile in the U.S....

[AHuxley]

Yes the Operation Mockingbird https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... and the Mighty Wurlitzer.
The Mighty Wurlitzer: How the CIA Played America (review) https://muse.jhu.edu/article/4...

Re:Everything old is new again

[bobbied]

back in my day we just called it propaganda. Folks do know the US Government does this every time we go to war, right? We did it before Iraq and we're starting to do it for North Korea.

Not to make too much of a fine point on this... You do realize that we ARE at war with NK now, technically. The Korean War never really ended, all we really got was a cease fire agreement...

Also, I'd like to point out that NK represents a "clear and present danger" (to use the legal term) to the USA given they have demonstrated both the technologies necessary to launch a nuclear strike on our main land and have expressed their desire to actually DO it. (ICBMs with sufficient range and Nuclear bomb technology).

They threaten the world in general and the USA specifically along with it's allies in the region.... The USA is right to object and seek both diplomatic, economic and military options to enforce the NK compliance with proper world order and end the open threat to the USA, it's allies and the world. It's the right thing to do.

That North Korea refuses to go willingly toward giving up their WMD programs is not OUR choice, but it is our problem.