Slashdot Mirror
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."
Is climate change one of the topics being manipulated in this way?
See topic.
============> APK
Wait, people are getting paid to post on social media sites, and I've been giving it away to Slashdot for free? I feel so cheap.
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.
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Message sponsored by American taxpayers.
It is so painfully obvious on the cbc.ca comments. Bought and paid for by religious, anti-science right-wing groups.
They are remarkably smart about how they look stupid. They know their audience and how to write for them.
If people didn't tend to be such stupid, fucking sheep, this wouldn't work - but it does.
So it is an easy push to villify them.
Those godless Democrats are trying to push an atheist addenda source with those few people who happen to be democrats and push an atheist adgenda.
Those idiot republicans who are trying to bring the country back a century. Reference by those few people pushing a racist agenda who have red trump hats.
If you are on the side of the Democrats you may be a god fearing individual and you realize that these people are not representative of you but a subset group.
If you are a Republican however you are very inclusive and tolerant, you see the racist as not representative of you and the republicans on whole.
We see the news headlines liberals/conservatives are doing something you don’t like. Not a subset of the group is doing something you don’t like. So it just reinforces tribalism tendencies that we have and bypass common sense and you make sure those other guys don’t get power, because they are far more dangerous then your side is.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Governments have always done this. Why is this news?
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/influence-toronto-2017-conference-registration-38636886969
http://buy.influenceorbis.com/
Canada's first "Influence" conference...
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.
You know we are already at war and have been almost constantly for the past 16 years? Oh wait... look at that cute kitten on Youtube on your shiny iPhone made in China!
The article is a big LOL.
Which are the 30 manipulating countries? Where is the information itself? How many clicks away?
Talking about manipulation of what people think and George Soros is not mentioned?
UK and Germany in the green zone in Internet freedom?
What do these people smoke?
That used to be anyone who had an opinion and shared it. Now we need a new phrase for it in order to generate clicks. I hate what the world is becoming....
.... we had our own little army of opinion shapers for decades, way before the advent of social medias, they are called pundits on cable news.
Russia seems to do well by climate change. They get more arable land, more access to areas to mine that are normally locked in permafrost, and their enemies lose arable land and become more vulnerable to resource wars, further destablizing them.
I wonder if there are strong correlation between such armies and economic corruption, i. e. stealing from the people. I'd bet there are.
Harvey Weinstein should run for president. If you'd asked me a year ago, I would have said that something so unbelievably ludicrous was absolutely impossible. But then the U.S. election happened, and someone every bit as disgusting, if not more, ended up at the White House.
So now I'm totally convinced that, given the appropriately crafted campain of disinformation and propaganda, there are more than enough fucking retarded morons in the U.S. (and, since I have no reason to believe that americans are any worse than everybody else, in the rest of the world as well), to democratically elect absolutely anyone at the highest positions of power in the world.
if you think the USA is all good and benevolent and honest then you are part of the problem because the USA has been meddling in politics in both the USA and worldwide for over a century
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
>> "factual news and authentic debate"
Where can I get this, so called, factual news?
All news sources have a slant. Some much worse than others...
--I like turtles...
I live in Argentina and I am astounded that the country is marked as "free". Specially since the government of Macri came to power in 2015, the situation with the media, both traditional and new, is truly dire. The government routinely operates thousands of so-called trolls--some bots, some human--to further its agenda. I personally know people involved in this, who have been involved in furthering the agenda of this center-right party even before they came to power (I first learned of this situation in 2011, when the scope of these operations were still comparatively small).
"Freedom House," like many other NGOs, operates to further U.S. interests in foreign countries; hence they tend to only include real or perceived "enemies" of the U.S. in their (useless) reports. A country like Argentina, whose government has about 50 officials listed in the Panama Papers (including the President himself) and which is one of the most corrupt and authoritarian since the end of the last dictatorship in 1983, is marked as "Free" simply because it opens its arms (or figuratively, its legs) to foreign capital. No matter if the major newspapers routinely engage in intoxication/disinformation campaigns in alliance with the state espionage services and in direct communication with high-ranking government officials, or if there are documented cases of tens of thousands of Facebook posts and tweets in favor of the government which could only originate in automated bots (such as a Twitter "user" sending a thousand tweets in an hour).
"Freedom House" even handed a "Freedom of Expression Award" to Hector Magnetto, owner of the largest media conglomerate who is very probably even implicated in crimes against humanity (the illegal acquisition of a paper manufacturing plant during the dictatorship, for which the plant's legitimate owners were kidnapped and tortured).
The previous government, not half as authoritarian and corrupt as this one (albeit still corrupt and authoritarian of course, this being South America) indulged in "left-wing" retoric, and so was treated as a demon by the likes of "Freedom House". In the seventies, the U.S. funded coups d'etat in Latin America; today they exert their influence by this kind of bullshit NGO.
Here's a relevant article by The Intercept which, while not listing "Freedom House", mentions several of the networks linked to it:
https://theintercept.com/2017/08/09/atlas-network-alejandro-chafuen-libertarian-think-tank-latin-america-brazil/
If nothing is done to stop the nations of the earth from talking, we're but a single crisis away from World Argument I. Imagine an entire generation of youth lost to the comment sections of the Western Front.
Every time you talk to someone, you "manipulate" him. Spending tax dollars on communicating with the tax payers is perfectly legal in most countries — including, since recently, the US.
I fail to see, how a country with anything like the First Amendment can possibly ban any entity, private, commercial, or governmental — except the country's own government — from performing such "opinion shaping".
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
It's been so corrupted by shit like this, and greedy corporations, and shitty ISPs, that the Internet is now just a huge metasticized malignant cancerous tumor. When somewhere like 4chan is more honest and up-front with you about what it is and who is there, you know the Internet is doomed.
The Soviets provided more money to the US based anti-Vietnam war protests then they gave to the actual Viet-Cong. And it worked.
.. that disagrees with me is a paid shill. Got it. I feel smugger already!
This isn't news. Our own country does it (and has been doing it for decades -originally through carefully placed news stories and advertising) to our own people in order to keep us divided because, heaven forbid, if we were to actually unite as a nation, then the government would have no choice but to follow. As it is, they just keep us fighting over the crumbs that fall off the table we don't have and never will have a seat at.
It's bad enough when it happens without people even conspiring to make it happen, but now people are actively (and openly enough to be caught?) conspiring to make it happen, too?
-Forrest Cameranesi, Geek of all Trades
"I am Sam. Sam I am. I do not like trolls, flames, or spam."
- Climate change
- Trump/Russia
See topic.
============> Not APK
A Russian here. I would say that these "opinion shapers", as they are called here, together with RT have much greater impact (and in a more general way) on public opinion than the current nothingburger (my favorite word indeed) of Russian "election meddling" using Facebook ads and microscopical investments at the level of 100s of thousands of dollars. These sockpuppets can be found everywhere in the comment sections of major media. They exist on Slashdot too, although I haven't seen many of them here.
Doesn't specify a 50 cents club per se, but https://xkcd.com/1019/ was the same idea.
From: It describes itself as a "clear voice for democracy and freedom around the world". The organization was 66–85% funded by grants from the U.S. government from 2006–15... Freedom House is a nonprofit organization. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., it has field offices in about a dozen countries, including Ukraine, Hungary, Serbia, Jordan, Mexico, and also countries in Central Asia.
So when they talk about government funded 'opinion shapers', they know the business.
Meanwhile, the Smith–Mundt Act has been repealed, and that 90% of the media is owned by just six major corporations allowing for near total consolidation of message. We're rife with super PACS that have millions for funding groups like Correct The Record and other astroturfing agencies. The major social media sites are deplatforming, shadow banning, and outright censoring anyone with an opinion they don't like under the guise of combating 'extremism'. Net Neutrality is being dismantled, to help ensure that competing platforms that actually support free speech can't compete.
But, Russian meddling!
One of the country is us, the US.
Amen. I couldn't said it better.
None of that is happening at all. Fake news. Nothing here worth noting, comrade.
L'Idiot
Why do people assume that democracy = good? If a majority of people get together and vote to murder you and take your stuff, that is democracy, but it is also evil.
https://fee.org/articles/a-presidential-moron-is-democracy-perfected/
Democracy is simply a might makes right approach to civilization. What we need is liberty.
Governments launch PR campaigns that are false knowing there base will repeat via social media all the time. All countries participate in propaganda against the respective citizens, it's intrinsically a part of governance. I guess these countries just aren't that concerned with plausible deniability.
of fake news like CNN and Wapo Wapo Wapo. And huffpo.
The only real news I get is on /.
Get a few actors to act out some allegations then keep the story at the top while other stories fall by the wayside. The RNC (which has been against Moore at all stages of his campaign) first pushed the story onto the Washington Post then has run a daily leaks campaign up to the point where, now, they claim they will vote to expel him from the Senate if Alabamans actually vote him into office (although the choice is locked in as the RNC or DNC candidate at this point). All from little more than a week's worth of unsubstantiated allegations and high pressure manipulated stories will the RNC attempt to subvert democracy.
Much like the DNC did with Bernie.
The US is not a democracy. You all knew that right?
They are on /. to the extent that it's challenging to find the actual discussion.
Requiem for the American Dream
I would have guessed, most countries in the world would do this in some form.
In the US, for instance, I know that both parties maintain their own armies of private bloggers who are basically paid to push their party's talking points on every available forum. (They are, probably, real people who genuinely believe most of what they post. But the principle is the same.)
In New Zealand, there was what threatened to be a major scandal about 4-5 years ago when a journalist published a whole book documenting in exhaustive detail how the prime minister's office had collaborated with certain supposedly-private right-wing bloggers. (Didn't noticeably affect the election, though.)
That's New Zealand. The country that tops Transparency International's ratings.
Where exactly is the line?
Like the debate CNN held in favor of Clinton using their paid DNC propagandist at the time, Donna Brazile, to secretly and illegaly slip Clinton the questions ahead of time, not to mention made sure the questions were in Clintons and DNC's favor.
Those are some of the "authentic debates" they prefer.
This reads like one of those lousy patent applications for something that has always been done with the words "using the internet" added on to make it patentable. Wasn't there always voice of america, BBC world service, RT etc. not to mention all the state run TV stations in tinpot nations. This isn't suddenly much worse just because it's on facebook. If that were true Kim Jong Unhinged would let his people have internet.
Nullius in verba
The rest of us have Rupert Murdoch telling us what to think.
j'ai découvert une démonstration vraiment admirable (de ce théorème général) que cette si
Don't these countries have major news networks? In America it is the main stream media that shapes opinion. Though their power to shape opinion has been going down in recent years do to people seeing they are controlled by the Democrat party and their opinions contradict what most of America thinks.
Murdoch - News Limited has always affected elections in Australia
Go well
Its not fair! Only mainstream media is allowed to manipulate opinion domestically.
Alien telepathy has also run amok in society
Man, Slashdot is becomming more and more Mycathyite by the day.
When mentioning Russia meddling in American politics, please preface it with 'ALLEDGED'.
Soon, Slashdot will become another member of the Presstitute Media
I came here to state the same. It's strangely evident how this report excludes several other countries with troll armies such as France and Argentina.
'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' ..
... and water is wet ..
"It’s only a matter of time before the new behavioural economics and so-called science of nudging decision-making is applied to influencing the population’s voting behaviour as well." ref
Obviously the US is now using such opinion shapers for its own nefarious purposes. It is all pretty sick and i fear it may get worse. We can not trust one word that Trump utters and many are willing to back up his chronic lies. Trump mumbles about making deals but no nation in its right mind would have any kind of deal with Trump as Trump will surely lie to them just like he lies to everyone else. Our nation is sick as a dog with these types of politicians allowed to exist.
They all work and reside in Langley, VA. Although they don't strictly bother about writing anything, they simply hack their way in and deploy a writing bot.
The volume of crap is different. Where you used to have a few news sources that were widely distributed and heavily vetted (more people to vet less news) you now have piles of sources and many, notably Fox, only care about who is paying and who they can manipulate and not about the information. The volume of propaganda and distortion vastly outweighs the truth, and people can easily find other people who agree with them and avoid listening to other viewpoints.
I had a friend tell me NASA didn't believe in global warming. I did a google search with him and there were dozens of entries, most looking sort of like official sources and containing nothing factual. The NASA entry was midway down the first page and, obviously, said that global warming is real and stop misquoting us. The truth is obvious if you are looking for it, but if you are looking to win an argument and prove that educated people and liberals are all idiots it's pretty easy to ignore the correct options and go with the many, many other ones. My friend is not an idiot, he's bright and capable, but he dropped out of school early and he's hostile to mainstream "book learning" so he gets manipulated by a lot of these sites that play to his biases.
Problem is a lot of the manipulation is harmful. Not just global warming, but all the crap about taxes. Check the new budget, poor people get "double the tax deductions" so twice zero. Rich people get real money. Once the deficit balloons who do you thing is going to pay it back? The guys who pay off the politicians and the news sources or the guys who got twice zero?
The whole "small government" thing is sort of insidious as well. All those think tank slogans, but the middle class is pretty much a government creation via taxes. Everyone thinks that they are special and they got where they are because of how good they are, but the goal in the US is Putin's Russia, a kleptocratic dictatorship. In Russia there is not much of a middle class, mostly people working for other countries, not many taxes. Just rich friends of the leader, vairous connections, and lots and lots of people who don't have much.
Funny about "the good old days." I suppose they were from 1952-1978 with some exclusions, and the relatively high taxes are a figment of our collective imaginations. Or maybe the real goal is to go back to the middle ages when leaders really had control?
You got me into this! You were the ideologue! I'm only a poor assassin! - Twenty evocations, Bruce Sterling
Democracy is worth nothing if the 'demos' is gullible and dumb as fuck and get their 'news' from social media.
sudo rm -r -f --no-preserve-root /
By saying that anyone who supports a political position is “meddling in the democratic process,” [George Soros has] really set [himself] up to get knocked down.
Outlaw social media.
I'm serious.
They may have started out with good intentions, but their negative consequences have totally eclipsed any positive ones. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and the whole host of ones that I'm not cool enough to have heard of -- ban them all.
Yes, the first few months will be horrible as people go through withdrawal. However, once sober, people should return to a more sane and rational, less neurotic and narcissistic existence.
your post itself is a classic KGB technique used to shut down discussion of an issue by introducing doubt. I'm not even sure you're aware you're doing it. John Oliver just did a nice piece on it.
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30 countries? What about _ALL_ countries.
On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.