UN Declares War on ‘Dangerous’ Conspiracy Theories: ‘The World Is NOT Secretly Manipu

[Dachsie]

https://jameshfetzer.org/2022/08/un-declares-war-on-dangerous-conspiracy-theories-the-world-is-not-secretly-manipulated-by-global-elite/

https://jameshfetzer.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/UN-decalres-war-featured-image-1024x557.jpg

UN Declares War on ‘Dangerous’ Conspiracy Theories: ‘The World Is NOT (https://jameshfetzer.org/2022/08/un-declares-war-on-dangerous-conspiracy-theories-the-world-is-not-secretly-manipulated-by-global-elite/)

Secretly Manipulated By Global Elite’
August 7, 2022 James Fetzerblog
VIA : NEWSPUNCH.COM

[Editor’s note: Bullshit is bullshit, even when it comes from a source such as the UN. For antidotes to nonsense, check out my publications (available on-line): “Thinking about ‘Conspiracy Theories’: 9/11 and JFK” and “What’s Wrong with Conspiracy Theories?”. Then watch “How to Spot a False Flag (Part 1)” and “How to Spot a. False Flag (Part 2)” and evaluate the evidence. This is an embarrassing development that all-but-discredits the UN as having a voice in international affairs. It has hereby discredited itself.]

The United Nations has declared war on conspiracy theories, describing the rise of conspiracy thinking as “worrying and dangerous”, and providing the public with a toolkit to “prebunk” and “debunk” anybody who dares to suggest that world governments are anything but completely honest, upstanding and transparent.

The UN also warns that George Soros, the Rothschilds and the State of Israel must not be linked to any “alleged conspiracies.”

UNESCO has teamed up with Twitter, the European Commission and the World Jewish Congress to launch the campaign dubbed #ThinkBeforeSharing: Stop the spread of conspiracy theories.

The UN wants you to know that events are NOT “secretly manipulated behind the scenes by powerful forces with negative intent” and if you encounter anybody who thinks the global elite are conspiring to consolidate power and dictate global events, you must take action.

According to UNESCO, “if you are certain you have encountered a conspiracy theory” on the internet then you must “react” immediately post a relevant link to a “fact-checking website” in the comments.

(Never mind the fact that “fact checkers” are mostly untrained and unqualified hacks performing “fact checks” from the comfort of their bedroom in between posting far-left political content on personal blogs and getting high.)

https://ci4.googleusercontent.com/proxy/T9-peRYqkHP5HD5ly5_IArvqmZa1noGh7r6EuK1Lr5xY-vWK-ofsFjf0XHl8YzYLmIVFpr4cU1KQQkk_sgycEgCtK43TXCFjqIq uLnFyTfxN4axl6LqluLjB98gE66mVxwQKIx7YwX12lcmKHjQ0a 8d8zMg_=s0-d-e1-ft#https://cdn.newspunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/unesco-conspiracy-english-0-522x1024.jpg.webp

UNESCO also provides advice for anyone who encounters a real live conspiracy theorist in the flesh. According to the UN agency, you must not under any circumstances be lured into an argument with the conspiracy theorist. “Any argument may be taken as proof that you are part of the conspiracy and reinforce that belief” and the conspiracy theorist will probably “argue hard to defend their beliefs.“

Instead you must show “empathy“, avoid “ridiculing them“, and if you are a journalist you must “report” them to social media and “contact your local/national press council or press ombudsman.”

https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/zgL2aMKV_qe0V0PcaRO0NwIBZPpwpxuNFANTNnAWdPSmOvg2IT DgOUq0UAhyAUhvUQN9h_wAAo23OIhAhIY67kwhKegeLM9jcUPt mggHXfbn1jco04ptUrzfz9dwETeTpTii1s-80RMiS4v1BZwkV6rJ8BTa=s0-d-e1-ft#https://cdn.newspunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/unesco-conspiracy-english-8-668x1024.jpg.webp

Remarkably, hidden in the fine print, UNESCO admits that conspiracy theories do exist. Under the heading “What is a real conspiracy?” the United Nations bureaucrats explain that “real conspiracies large and small DO exist.”

According to the UN, it’s only a REAL conspiracy theory if it’s “unearthed by the media.”

“They are more often centered on single self-contained events, or an individual like an assassination or a coup d’etat. They are unearthed by whistleblowers and the media, using verifiable facts and evidence.“

https://ci4.googleusercontent.com/proxy/KcXaimzwDNODVhKb58b_46W-rAUBwb3WaHol6GVt2pVSL6Sao8kQlAHCOxDCn8O5onw_luvdrn-LJ8FCBn24PSGIk5zGcxviLExRhwrDXPo8WtCXNTIi8vg_8OZ1R ZkI6Vmsbh3usGp7eqFdhd3AMTIYdSb0=s0-d-e1-ft#https://cdn.newspunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Screen-Shot-2022-08-01-at-5.00.32-PM.png.webp

There is just one problem with the UN’s definition of a “real” conspiracy theory. The media has been fully bought and paid for by the elite. And it’s the elite who are conspiring against the masses.

Ask yourself, when was the last time the media unearthed a conspiracy?

Also ask yourself, when was the last time the media covered up a conspiracy?

[woodman]

"The world is not secretly manipulated by Global Elite". Oh yeah? Where did the UN come from then?

[keehah]

https://en.unesco.org/themes/gced/thinkbeforesharing

A new campaign helps you learn how to identify, debunk, react to and report on conspiracy theories to prevent their spread. Check out the infographics and social media pack below and help spread the word that facts matter and no one is to blame. Thinking critically and being informed about conspiracy theories is key to challenging them.

This UNESCO campaign is implemented jointly with the European Commission, Twitter and the World Jewish Congress.

I don't think this UNESCO campaign is new.
The World Economic Forum used the exact same graphics back in 2020

weforum.org/agenda: Conspiracy theories have flourished during the pandemic – here’s how to stop them in their tracks (https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/09/conspiracy-theories-prevent-spread-covid-19-unesco/)

Sep 2, 2020

https://en.unesco.org/sites/default/files/unesco-conspiracy-english-0.jpg

[osoab]

#ThinkBeforeSharing (http://gold-silver.us/forum/showthread.php?105247-ThinkBeforeSharing)

[keehah]

Clown World

unesco.org: UNESCO social media study exposes virulent Holocaust denial and distortion (https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/unesco-social-media-study-exposes-virulent-holocaust-denial-and-distortion)
July 13, 2022

unesdoc.unesco.org: Holocaust denial and distortion on social media (https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000382159)


Denial and distortion of the Holocaust attacks truth and knowledge. It feeds on and spreads antisemitism and jeopardises the understanding of one of the most tragic and violent episodes in the history of humanity: the genocide of 6 million Jews by Nazi Germany, its allies and collaborators. This publication by the United Nations and UNESCO studies the extent and nature of Holocaust denial and distortion on Facebook, Instagram, Telegram, TikTok and Twitter ...

The genocide of six million Jews by Nazi Germany, its allies and collaborators. In countries across Europe, people became complicit in the persecution and murder of their neighbours. Holocaust denial and distortion can prevent society from reckoning with this past. It impedes our comprehension of the causes and warning signs of genocide, and that might strengthen efforts for genocide prevention. It is insulting to the victims and survivors of the Holocaust, and risks the rehabilitation of violent, antisemitic ideologies. At its most extreme, it celebrates and glorifies this history, inciting violence against Jews and calling for another genocide.

The United Nations and UNESCO condemn the rise of Holocaust denial and distortion online as a dangerous form of hatred, and commissioned this report in partnership with the World Jewish Congress to raise awareness of the forms and functions of Holocaust denial and distortion on social media, and determine a series of policy and educational responses.

This report is a data-driven investigation into the extent and nature of Holocaust denial and distortion on online platforms. It is based on a manual review of almost 4,000 pieces of content collected in June and July 2021 that related to Jews, the Holocaust, antisemitism and Holocaust denial and distortion from five major online platforms and messenger apps. It looks at content posted on Facebook, Instagram, Telegram, TikTok and Twitter: some of the world’s largest online platforms and collectively home to billions of users. It addresses content in four different languages: English, French, Spanish and German, with the aim of providing a wide-ranging review that addresses multiple countries and contexts. This report aims to answer four questions:
1. How much Holocaust-related content on social media either denies the Holocaust or distorts key elements of history?
2. What are the key narratives in contemporary Holocaust denial and distortion?
3. How are Holocaust denial and distortion communicated, and how are they situated within wider discourses and frames?
4. What can online platform companies, policy-makers, educators and organizations promoting Holocaust remembrance, education and research do to tackle the problem?

Based on the findings of this report, it provides a series of recommended actions that online platforms, policy-makers, civil society, researchers and educators can implement to prevent and counter Holocaust denial and distortion online.

unesco.org: Addressing conspiracy theories through education: UNESCO guidance for teachers (https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/addressing-conspiracy-theories-through-education-unesco-guidance-teachers)

July 6, 2022
Conspiracy theories thrive in troubled times with serious real-world impacts. In the horrific mass murder recently targeting African-Americans in the U.S. city of Buffalo, the alleged suspect invoked the false “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory, which purports there is a plot to replace people of European ancestry, driving an international white supremacist narrative founded on racism, antisemitism and anti-Muslim hatred.

Education can play a central role in building the resilience, knowledge and analytical skills needed to “pre-bunk” and debunk conspiracy theory narratives, including through media and information literacy. To strengthen educational responses through advocacy, research and training, UNESCO and the European Jewish Congress organized the International Symposium on Addressing Conspiracy Theories through Education on 27 June 2022 in Brussels to convene academia, governments, civil society and the private sector for joint action.

“Whenever there is another murder, killing spree or terrorist attack, whenever there is a new manifesto chock full of conspiracy theories and hatred … Whether you think of Utoya, Norway, or Christchurch, New Zealand, of Halle or Hanau in Germany, of Pittsburgh or El Paso in the U.S., or Buffalo, New York, just a few weeks ago, each and every time it was conspiracy theorists who became the perpetrators of unfathomable violence,”

[ziero0]

Just ask questions. Don't make statements. You can't lie when you are questioning. ASKING breaks down to AS ....KING.

Assume everything is NOTICE. Notice is the first element of due process. The second element of due process is called opportunity to inquire. Inquiry is ASKING.

When your opportunity to inquire is gone then so is your due process and off to court you go where you will be guilty. What are you guilty of? Perhaps not agreeing with your opponent?
Perhaps coming to a premature judgment?

[keehah]

thegatewaypundit.com: UN Representative Declares “We Own the Science” at World Economic Forum – Admits Working with Big Tech to Suppress Other Viewpoints (https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/10/un-representative-declares-science-world-economic-forum-admits-working-big-tech-suppress-viewpoints-video/) (VIDEO)

October 3, 2022
Melissa Fleming, UN’s Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications, was one of the speakers at the World Economic Forum event.

Melissa Fleming boasted that the elites want people to follow the science because they “own the science” during her talk on ‘Tackling Disinformation at the Sustainable Development Impact Meetings 2022 (https://www.weforum.org/events/sustainable-development-impact-meetings-2022/sessions/tackling-disinformation),’ held in New York last September 19-23, 2022...

“We partnered with Google. For example, if you Google climate change, at the top of your search, you will get all kinds of UN resources,” Fleming said during a one-on-one talk with Adrian Monck, the Managing Director, Head of Public And Social Engagement at the World Economic Forum.

“We started this partnership when we were shocked to see that when we Googled climate change, we were getting incredibly distorted information right at the top, so we’re becoming much more proactive.”

“We own the science and we think that the world should know it, and the platform themselves also do. But again, it’s a huge challenge that I think all sectors of society need to be very active,” she said.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKoAoPi8sc0
0:42
wikipedia.org: Melissa_Fleming (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melissa_Fleming)

Fleming holds a bachelor's degree in German studies from Oberlin College, Ohio and a masters' degree in broadcast journalism from Boston University, Massachusetts...

From July 2009 to 2019, Fleming worked as Head of Global Communications for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees...

On September 1, 2019 she was appointed an Under Secretary-General of the United Nations, taking over from predecessor Alison Smale as head of the UN Department of Global Communications


New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, in her latest UN speech, about Internet freedom

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZcDZ-BS1vA
2:18
newsweek.com: Fact Check: Did New Zealand's Jacinda Ardern Call To Censor Free Speech? (https://www.newsweek.com/fact-check-did-new-zealands-jacinda-ardern-call-censor-free-speech-1747546)

9/29/22
The arguments being made about Ardern's speech, in the rough, appear to be that any type of online censorship or regulation, from any authority, is damaging to the principle of freedom of speech, no matter how it manifests. Instead what she was referring to is the weaponization of free speech societies and platforms by misinformation agents.

This is the face of authoritarianism - even though it looks different than you were taught to expect. And it's the mindset of tyrants everywhere:

This is someone so inebriated by her sense of righteousness and superiority that she views dissent as an evil too dangerous to allow: https://t.co/kmG4zTgPwh

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) September 28, 2022

[keehah]

health.clevelandclinic.org: Why You Should Consider a Second Medical Opinion (https://health.clevelandclinic.org/why-you-should-consider-a-second-medical-opinion/)

Become a more educated healthcare consumer.
By seeking a second opinion, you gain more knowledge of your condition and your options. You are more equipped to make informed decisions that can have long-term consequences.

Confirm that your diagnosis is appropriate.
Have all of the appropriate studies and tests been completed and interpreted properly? Are there other diagnoses that should be considered?

Confirm that the recommended treatment is appropriate.
Is the treatment plan correct and complete? Is it providing the desired results? Have all of the treatment alternatives been discussed?

Compare outcomes of the treatments you are offered.
By obtaining a second opinion, you help ensure that you have been diagnosed appropriately and that you will receive the most up-to-date and optimal treatment plan. A second opinion may recommend treatments that may eliminate the need for unnecessary invasive procedures or surgery.

Ultimately, a second opinion can empower you to make the best decisions for your health.

blog.youtube: A long term vision for YouTube’s medical misinformation policies (https://blog.youtube/inside-youtube/a-long-term-vision-for-medical-misinformation-policies/)

AUG 15, 2023
Here’s what the framework will look like:

Prevention misinformation: We will remove content that contradicts health authority guidance on the prevention and transmission of specific health conditions, and on the safety and efficacy of approved vaccines. For example, this encompasses content that promotes a harmful substance for disease prevention

Treatment misinformation: We will remove content that contradicts health authority guidance on treatments for specific health conditions, including promoting specific harmful substances or practices. Examples include content that encourages unproven remedies in place of seeking medical attention for specific conditions, like promoting caesium chloride as a treatment for cancer.

Denial misinformation: We will remove content that disputes the existence of specific health conditions...

Starting today and ramping up in the coming weeks, we will begin removing content that promotes cancer treatments proven to be harmful or ineffective, or content that discourages viewers from seeking professional medical treatment. This includes content that promotes unproven treatments in place of approved care or as a guaranteed cure, and treatments that have been specifically deemed harmful by health authorities...

We’ll continue to monitor local and global health authority guidance to make sure our policies adapt.

theepochtimes.com: YouTube to Censor Content Contradicting WHO Guidelines (https://www.theepochtimes.com/article/youtube-to-censor-content-contradicting-who-guidelines-5472977?utm_source=partner&utm_campaign=KABC&src_src=partner&src_cmp=KABC)

8/17/2023
YouTube earlier (https://twitter.com/0rf/status/1691652238819623361) had a “COVID-19 Misinformation Policy” webpage (https://web.archive.org/web/20200521091938/https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/9891785?hl=en) that stated that the platform doesn’t allow any content that “poses a serious risk of egregious harm” and spreads “medical misinformation” contradicting what the WHO or local health authorities (LHA) say about the COVID-19 pandemic. The webpage now redirects (https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/13813322?hl=en&visit_id=638278848736558131-349177462&rd=1) to a “medical misinformation policy” page that expands the censorship rule to “specific health conditions and substances” rather than COVID-19 alone.

YouTube stated that the policy could be arbitrarily enforced, as it “may not cover” all guidance from the WHO or LHAs related to “specific health conditions and substances.”

[keehah]

breitbart.com: Judge Denies Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s Request to Halt YouTube Censorship (https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2023/08/28/judge-denies-robert-f-kennedy-jrs-request-to-halt-youtube-censorship/)

28 Aug 2023
... YouTube recently doubled down on its “medical misinformation” policy, which it has used as a pretext to censor RFK Jr., who is Joe Biden’s closest competitor in the Democrat party primary, on several occasions (http://YouTube recently doubled down on its “medical misinformation” policy, which it has used as a pretext to censor RFK Jr., who is Joe Biden’s closest competitor in the Democrat party primary, on several occasions.).

“The Court finds that the First Amendment claim is unlikely to succeed on the merits because Google and YouTube are not state actors,” wrote Judge Trina Thompson, who was nominated to serve on the Court by Joe Biden in 2021, and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2022.

“Second, Plaintiff was not, and will not, be irreparably harmed if a temporary restraining order is not issued because he does not demonstrate urgency or that he will not be able to share his videos through other sites and methods.”

In the application for a restraining order, attorneys for Kennedy sought to prevent YouTube from using its “medical misinformation” policy to censor videos of the candidate during his campaign in the 2024 election.

In the ruling, Judge Thompson also argued that even if Kennedy could establish that YouTube is a state actor, the First Amendment does not necessarily protect “medical misinformation.”

Citing previous cases that recognized a public interest consideration in First Amendment cases, Thompson wrote “the coronavirus still poses a health risk to certain individuals, and it would not serve the public interest to let medical misinformation proliferate on YouTube.”

The case is Kennedy Jr. v. Google, 3:23-cv-03880-TLT in the United States District Court
arstechnica.com: YouTube under no obligation to host anti-vaccine advocate’s videos, court says (https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/09/anti-vaccine-advocate-mercola-loses-lawsuit-over-youtube-channel-removal/)

9/5/2023
A prominent anti-vaccine activist, Joseph Mercola, yesterday lost a lawsuit attempting to force YouTube to provide access to videos that were removed from the platform after YouTube banned his channels.

Mercola had tried to argue that YouTube owed him more than $75,000 in damages for breaching its own user contract and denying him access to his videos. However, in an order (https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Mercola-v-Google-Motion-to-Dismiss.pdf) dismissing Mercola's complaint, US magistrate judge Laurel Beeler wrote that according to the contract Mercola signed, YouTube was "under no obligation to host" Mercola's content after terminating his channel in 2021 "for violating YouTube’s Community Guidelines by posting medical misinformation about COVID-19 and vaccines."

"The court found no breach because 'there is no provision in the Terms of Service that requires YouTube to maintain particular content' or be a 'storage site for users’ content,'" Beeler wrote.

Because Mercola's contract with YouTube was found to be enforceable and "YouTube had the discretion to take down content that harmed its users," Beeler said that Mercola did not plausibly plead claims for breach of contract or unjust enrichment.

Mercola's complaint was dismissed without leave to amend.

Ars could not immediately reach Google or Mercola for comment.

In his complaint (https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Mercola-v-Google-Complaint-2022.pdf), Mercola described himself as "a board-certified physician and leader in the field of natural health" who "was an early user of YouTube and began sharing video content in or around 2005, the year YouTube was founded."

Over time, Mercola amassed 300,000 subscribers to a YouTube channel that "garnered 50 million views" by boosting professionally made videos that linked to his website, "which promotes natural health and provides health articles, optimal wellness products, medical news, and a free newsletter."

Researchers and regulators described Mercola's background to The New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/24/technology/joseph-mercola-coronavirus-misinformation-online.html) a little differently. They claimed that he was at one point the "most influential spreader of coronavirus misinformation" and profited "from misleading claims about Covid-19 vaccines."

...Mercola claimed that he first became aware that YouTube was planning to ban his channel when The Washington Post published an article (https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/09/29/youtube-ban-joseph-mercola/) about it.

[keehah]

cti-league.com (https://cti-league.com/)

The CTI League is the first Open Global Volunteer Emergency Response Center aims to create a safer cyber-space for hospitals, the medical sector and life-saving organizations world wide

The members of the League are CTI experts, Incident responders, and Industry experts working together with law enforcement organizations. The League services for the life-saving sectors are offered pro-bono and are volunteer-driven. We are looking to protect medical organizations, public healthcare facilities, and emergency organizations from threats from the cyber domain.

The CTI League has 4 main goals, to achieve our mission:


Reduce the level of threat to the MS-LSO by preventing cyber-attacks.
Neutralize cyber threats looking to harm MS-LSO and to exploit the current COVID-19 pandemic
Support the law enforcement organizations in their fight against threats that are a danger for the public safety.
Create a disinformation resilience of the MS-LSO

substack.com: CTIL Files #1: US And UK Military Contractors Created Sweeping Plan For Global Censorship In 2018, New Documents Show (https://public.substack.com/p/ctil-files-1-us-and-uk-military-contractors)

MICHAEL SHELLENBERGER, ALEX GUTENTAG, AND MATT TAIBBI
NOV 28, 2023
A whistleblower has come forward with an explosive new trove of documents, rivaling or exceeding the Twitter Files and Facebook Files in scale and importance. They describe the activities of an “anti-disinformation” group called the Cyber Threat Intelligence League, or CTIL, that officially began as the volunteer project of data scientists and defense and intelligence veterans but whose tactics over time appear to have been absorbed into multiple official projects, including those of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The CTI League documents offer the missing link answers to key questions not addressed in the Twitter Files and Facebook Files. Combined, they offer a comprehensive picture of the birth of the “anti-disinformation” sector, or what we have called the Censorship Industrial Complex.

The whistleblower's documents describe everything from the genesis of modern digital censorship programs to the role of the military and intelligence agencies, partnerships with civil society organizations and commercial media, and the use of sock puppet accounts and other offensive techniques.

"Lock your shit down," explains one document about creating "your spy disguise.”

Another explains that while such activities overseas are "typically" done by "the CIA and NSA and the Department of Defense," censorship efforts "against Americans" have to be done using private partners because the government doesn't have the "legal authority."

The whistleblower alleges that a leader of CTI League, a “former” British intelligence analyst, was “in the room” at the Obama White House in 2017 when she received the instructions to create a counter-disinformation project to stop a "repeat of 2016."

Over the last year, Public, Racket, congressional investigators, and others have documented the rise of the Censorship Industrial Complex, a network of over 100 government agencies and nongovernmental organizations that work together to urge censorship by social media platforms and spread propaganda about disfavored individuals, topics, and whole narratives.

The US Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Information Security Agency (CISA) has been the center of gravity for much of the censorship, with the National Science Foundation financing the development of censorship and disinformation tools and other federal government agencies playing a supportive role...

Now, a large trove of new documents, including strategy documents, training videos, presentations, and internal messages, reveal that, in 2019, US and UK military and intelligence contractors led by a former UK defense researcher, Sara-Jayne “SJ” Terp, developed the sweeping censorship framework. These contractors co-led CTIL, which partnered with CISA in the spring of 2020.

In truth, the building of the Censorship Industrial Complex began even earlier — in 2018.

Internal CTIL Slack messages show Terp, her colleagues, and officials from DHS and Facebook all working closely together in the censorship process.

The CTIL framework and the public-private model are the seeds of what both the US and UK would put into place in 2020 and 2021, including masking censorship within cybersecurity institutions and counter-disinformation agendas; a heavy focus on stopping disfavored narratives, not just wrong facts; and pressuring social media platforms to take down information or take other actions to prevent content from going viral.

In the spring of 2020, CTIL began tracking and reporting disfavored content on social media, such as anti-lockdown narratives like “all jobs are essential,” “we won’t stay home,” and “open America now.” CTIL created a law enforcement channel for reporting content as part of these efforts. The organization also did research on individuals posting anti-lockdown hashtags like #freeCA and kept a spreadsheet with details from their Twitter bios. The group also discussed requesting “takedowns” and reporting website domains to registrars.

CTIL’s approach to “disinformation” went far beyond censorship. The documents show that the group engaged in offensive operations to influence public opinion, discussing ways to promote “counter-messaging,” co-opt hashtags, dilute disfavored messaging, create sock puppet accounts, and infiltrate private invite-only groups.
[cont'd]

[keehah]

More from the Substack report linked in the above post:



In one suggested list of survey questions, CTIL proposed asking members or potential members, “Have you worked with influence operations (e.g. disinformation, hate speech, other digital harms etc) previously?” The survey then asked whether these influence operations included “active measures” and “psyops.”

These documents came to us via a highly credible whistleblower. We were able to independently verify their legitimacy through extensive cross-checking of information to publicly available sources. The whistleblower said they were recruited to participate in CTIL through monthly cybersecurity meetings hosted by DHS...

[T]he documents suggest that government employees were engaged members of CTIL. One individual who worked for DHS, Justin Frappier, was extremely active in CTIL, participating in regular meetings and leading trainings.

CTIL’s ultimate goal, said the whistleblower, ”was to become part of the federal government.,,

The documents also show that Terp and her colleagues, through a group called MisinfoSec Working Group, which included DiResta, created a censorship, influence, and anti-disinformation strategy called Adversarial Misinformation and Influence Tactics and Techniques (AMITT). They wrote AMITT by adapting a cybersecurity framework developed by MITRE, a major defense and intelligence contractor that has an annual budget of $1 to $2 billion in government funding.

Terp later used AMITT to develop the DISARM framework, which the World Health Organization then employed in “countering anti-vaccination campaigns across Europe.” (https://www.disarm.foundation/framework)...

The sum total of the documents is a clear picture of a highly coordinated and sophisticated effort by the US and UK governments to build a domestic censorship effort and influence operations similar to the ones they have used in foreign countries. At one point, Terp openly referenced her work “in the background” on social media issues related to the Arab Spring. Another time, the whistleblower said, she expressed her own apparent surprise that she would ever use such tactics, developed for foreign nationals, against American citizens.

According to the whistleblower, roughly 12-20 active people involved in CTIL worked at the FBI or CISA. “For a while, they had their agency seals — FBI, CISA, whatever — next to your name,” on the Slack messaging service, said the whistleblower. [a CTIL leader] Terp “had a CISA badge that went away at some point,” the whistleblower said.

The ambitions of the 2020 pioneers of the Censorship Industrial Complex went far beyond simply urging Twitter to slap a warning label on Tweets, or to put individuals on blacklists. The AMITT framework calls for discrediting individuals as a necessary prerequisite of demanding censorship against them. It calls for training influencers to spread messages. And it calls for trying to get banks to cut off financial services to individuals who organize rallies or events...

The timeline of CISA’s work with CTIL leading up to its work with EIP and VP strongly suggests that the model for public-private censorship operations may have originated from a framework originally created by military contractors. What’s more, the techniques and materials outlined by CTIL closely resemble materials later created by CISA’s Countering Foreign Intelligence Task Force and Mis-, Dis-, and Maliformation team...

Bloomberg, Washington Post and others published credulous stories in the spring of 2020 claiming that the CTI League was simply a group of volunteer cybersecurity experts. Its founders were: a “former” Israeli intelligence official, Ohad Zaidenberg; a Microsoft “security manager,” Nate Warfield; and the head of sec ops for DEF CON, a hackers convention, Marc Rogers. The articles claimed that those highly skilled cybercrime professionals had decided to help billion-dollar hospitals, on their own time and without pay, for strictly altruistic motives.

In just one month, from mid-March to mid-April, the supposedly all-volunteer CTIL had grown to “1,400 vetted members in 76 countries spanning 45 different sectors,” had “helped to lawfully take down 2,833 cybercriminal assets on the internet, including 17 designed to impersonate government organizations, the United Nations, and the World Health Organization,” and had “identified more than 2,000 vulnerabilities in healthcare institutions in more than 80 countries.”...

[Another CTIL leader and former US Navy commander and military contractor Pablo] Breuer admitted in a podcast that his aim was to bring military tactics to use on social media platforms in the U.S. “I wear two hats,” he explained. “The military director of the Donovan Group, and one of two innovation officers at Sofwerx, which is a completely unclassified 501c3 nonprofit that's funded by U. S. Special Operations Command.”

Breuer went on to describe how they thought they were getting around the First Amendment. His work with Terp, he explained, was a way to get “nontraditional partners into one room,” including “maybe somebody from one of the social media companies, maybe a few special forces operators, and some folks from Department of Homeland Security… to talk in a non-attribution, open environment in an unclassified way so that we can collaborate better, more freely and really start to change the way that we address some of these issues.”

The Misinfosec report advocated for sweeping government censorship and counter-misinformation. During the first six months of 2019, the authors say, they analyzed “incidents,” developed a reporting system, and shared their censorship vision with “numerous state, treaty and NGOs.”

In every incident mentioned, the victims of misinformation were on the political Left, and they included Barack Obama, John Podesta, Hillary Clinton, and Emmanuel Macron. The report was open about the fact that its motivation for counter-misinformation were the twin political earthquakes of 2016: Brexit and the election of Trump...

The authors advocated for police, military, and intelligence involvement in censorship, across Five Eyes nations, and even suggested that Interpol should be involved.