Facebook CIA Project: The Onion News Network

[DMac]

Onion knocks it out of the park with this one!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqggW08BWO0

[added Youtube- JQP]


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqggW08BWO0

[Uncle Salty]

Pretty much right on.

Americans embraced Big Brother voluntarily.

[BrewTech]

no can view at work... tagging for later...

[ximmy]

the pathetic little human...

[mick silver]

i always knew facebook was a way the cia could learn what people are doing and saying ... i have never sign up for facebook nor will i .

[Sparky]

Nice! That's really well done. :D

[Trinity]

Very informative video!

[k-os]

Hilarious, and likely mostly true.

[willie pete]

i have to agree 110%.....even though i have a fb a/c..... :D ...with one small detail; absolutely nothing on my fb page is true.... :plll

[BrewTech]

i have to agree 110%.....even though i have a fb a/c..... :D ...with one small detail; absolutely nothing on my fb page is true.... :plll
I was just talking about that with the Mrs...

If everyone on FB just "took one step to the right", rendering all of their info inaccurate, it would completely derail any intelligence efforts, and in a very comical way.

I've noticed that the Onion's "satire" has more and more taken on the tone of thinly veiled warnings as of late... I believe firmly the ideas put across in that sketch.

[Trinity]

I've noticed that the Onion's "satire" has more and more taken on the tone of thinly veiled warnings as of late... I believe firmly the ideas put across in that sketch.


"If man cannot deal with the truth in a serious manner, nature's default mode kicks in and the truth exposes itself in comedy as a fail safe."

unknown author

[po boy]

I used to work with women who were constantly texting, talking all the time annoying as all get out.

Took my Dad out fishing and all he did was talk on the phone. I stopped using cell phones 2+ years ago and don't miss it a bit.

Never facebooked tweeted you want to talk call and leave a message or come on over.

[nunaem]

I've noticed that the Onion's "satire" has more and more taken on the tone of thinly veiled warnings as of late... I believe firmly the ideas put across in that sketch.


"If man cannot deal with the truth in a serious manner, nature's default mode kicks in and the truth exposes itself in comedy as a fail safe."

unknown author


In medieval times the king's jester was the only one who could get away with speaking dangerous truths, in fact that was part of his job: to reveal to the king what the subjects were too afraid to say themselves.

Good essay on the subject: http://alumnus.caltech.edu/~ckank/FultonsLair/013/nock/jester.html


In the old days, before the king business went into practical liquidation, the court jester was an established institution. This functionary's job required him not only to be' entertaining, but also realistic; in fact, his success at entertainment was pretty strictly conditioned by his sense of reality. All the other court functionaries cooked up the king's facts for him before delivery; the jester delivered them raw. This was the curious convention of the time. The jester was the only person permitted to tell the king the plain, unupholstered truth about things as he saw them, even about royalty itself and the most intimate matters pertaining to royalty; and he was not only permitted but expected to do this. The jester criticized State policies in a full-mouthed way that would have insured anybody else a life sojourn in the Bastille; and he got praise and favor for it. He could tell the king that his favorite mistress was a mercenary old rip who should be thrown to the sharks and, as our phrase goes, he could get away with it, and be applauded for it, which no one else could do, either in the court or in the kingdom at large.

Historically, I believe, nobody knows how this peculiar institution grew up, or where it came from. It may have arisen out of the fundamental need of human nature for an occasional contact with fact and truth. A king was a vertebrated animal, like anyone else; and as such be could not live by pretense alone. Once in a while, probably, he had to brace up on a little refreshing go at fact and truth. But he could not approach fact and truth seriously because of their highly explosive quality. They might go off at any moment, and blow the political edifice into the air. His official or serious contacts could be only with pretense, because pretense was the foundation of the whole regime of absolutism. The institution of the jester, therefore, enabled royalty to have its fling, upon the strict conventional understanding that it should not "count," that the experience should be merely exhilarating, and not translatable into purpose and action.

[Trinity]

Wow good bit of info there nunaem. So today instead of just the kings getting the hard truth in an entertaining way we all get it fed to us like that.

[AndreaGail]

Wayne Madsen has written about intelligence in America for decades, having transitioned from a Naval officer to journalist, specializing in investigative reporting.
In the past he’s written about the FBI’s Carnivore Internet monitoring program, but now, he says, the government isn’t watching what we do online, but is using the web, rather, to tell us how to do it.
Using the media for propaganda purposes is nothing new for the CIA, says Madsen. He cites the 1960s pirate station Radio Swan as an example of the American government's attempt to discretely influence the public over 50 years ago, broadcasting messages in favor of the Bay of Pigs Invasion. Now, says Madsen, the government is taking to Twitter and Facebook to get their point across—but isn’t being clear at all on how it’s doing it.
What is happening today, says Madsen, is just the latest example of psychological operations perpetrated by the government to influence the public. Madsen attests that online messages claiming to be from US fronts overseas are actually from Americans—not the Libyans and their neighbors who we are led to believe are sending the tweets.
“I think the US is probably behind these Twitter feeds. We don’t know if they came from Libya,” he says. Madsen even suggest that the microblog messages could easily be constructed from military bases in America by our own officials—not war-ravaged and rebellious Libyans.
Madsen notes that Internet availability in Libya has barely saturated the country, with only five percent of the population having access to the web. It would make sense, then, that the tweets, blogs and status updates chronicling the drama in North Africa are being orchestrated by the US government as a means of making their message heard, even if it’s done through surreptitious means.
While these actions would jeopardize the ethics of the CIA, the organization has been sneaky before in its usage of conduits. The Agency would plant stories in foreign newspapers, which would then be picked up overseas and, from there, indirectly carried by US outlets.
Madsen also sites that relationships between the US government and major technology and communication corporations, such as AT&T and Google, as long-standing and apparent across the board.
Regardless of whether or not the CIA is covertly casting these tweets, Madsen says that US and NATO involvement in Libya has brought the situation to a stalemate and is thus one propaganda program that has furiously failed.

http://rt.com/usa/news/cia-government-us-madsen/

[keehah]

Its a dam fine time for satire!

Fiscally I'm A Right-Wing Nutjob, But On Social Issues I'm fucking Insanely Liberal (http://www.theonion.com/articles/fiscally-im-a-rightwing-nutjob-but-on-social-issue,20486/)
BY LARRY BOUDRIAS
MAY 19, 2011 | ISSUE 47•20

The world is a complicated place, and in this day and age, you just can't expect a person to fall on the same political side of every issue he is confronted with. Things are more nuanced than that, and the average American might think one way about one topic, and a completely different way about another. For instance, when it comes to fiscal issues, I consider myself to be a rabid, foaming-at-the-mouth, right-wing lunatic. But on the social front, I'm a completely out-of-his-mind, wacked-out liberal loon.

It's all about striking a balance, really... [cont'd]
______________

Nation Down To Last Hundred Grown-Ups (http://www.theonion.com/articles/nation-down-to-last-hundred-grownups,20491/)
'Mature Adults Could Be Gone Within 50 Years,' Experts Say
MAY 19, 2011 | ISSUE 47•20
______________

Government Official Who Makes Perfectly Valid, Well-Reasoned Point Against Israel Forced To Resign (http://www.theonion.com/articles/government-official-who-makes-perfectly-valid-well,20499/)
MAY 20, 2011 | ISSUE 47•20

...Milstrand, 63, will reportedly appear at an AIPAC conference to offer a full apology as soon as his trial concludes and his divorce is finalized
_____________

O-SPAN Classic: CIA Accidentally Overthrows Costa Rica
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cCLJieV9IY

[sirgonzo420]

I've noticed that the Onion's "satire" has more and more taken on the tone of thinly veiled warnings as of late... I believe firmly the ideas put across in that sketch.


"If man cannot deal with the truth in a serious manner, nature's default mode kicks in and the truth exposes itself in comedy as a fail safe."

unknown author



Very true.










I've noticed that the Onion's "satire" has more and more taken on the tone of thinly veiled warnings as of late... I believe firmly the ideas put across in that sketch.


"If man cannot deal with the truth in a serious manner, nature's default mode kicks in and the truth exposes itself in comedy as a fail safe."

unknown author


In medieval times the king's jester was the only one who could get away with speaking dangerous truths, in fact that was part of his job: to reveal to the king what the subjects were too afraid to say themselves.

Good essay on the subject: http://alumnus.caltech.edu/~ckank/FultonsLair/013/nock/jester.html


In the old days, before the king business went into practical liquidation, the court jester was an established institution. This functionary's job required him not only to be' entertaining, but also realistic; in fact, his success at entertainment was pretty strictly conditioned by his sense of reality. All the other court functionaries cooked up the king's facts for him before delivery; the jester delivered them raw. This was the curious convention of the time. The jester was the only person permitted to tell the king the plain, unupholstered truth about things as he saw them, even about royalty itself and the most intimate matters pertaining to royalty; and he was not only permitted but expected to do this. The jester criticized State policies in a full-mouthed way that would have insured anybody else a life sojourn in the Bastille; and he got praise and favor for it. He could tell the king that his favorite mistress was a mercenary old rip who should be thrown to the sharks and, as our phrase goes, he could get away with it, and be applauded for it, which no one else could do, either in the court or in the kingdom at large.

Historically, I believe, nobody knows how this peculiar institution grew up, or where it came from. It may have arisen out of the fundamental need of human nature for an occasional contact with fact and truth. A king was a vertebrated animal, like anyone else; and as such be could not live by pretense alone. Once in a while, probably, he had to brace up on a little refreshing go at fact and truth. But he could not approach fact and truth seriously because of their highly explosive quality. They might go off at any moment, and blow the political edifice into the air. His official or serious contacts could be only with pretense, because pretense was the foundation of the whole regime of absolutism. The institution of the jester, therefore, enabled royalty to have its fling, upon the strict conventional understanding that it should not "count," that the experience should be merely exhilarating, and not translatable into purpose and action.


Great followup post!


Gold star stickers for both of you!

http://blog.wegohealth.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Gold-star-sticker.jpg

[Son-of-Liberty]

Funny and yet disturbingly accurate.

[sirgonzo420]

Funny and yet disturbingly accurate.


That's the Onion, for ya!

[keehah]

[13th April 2011 ] Onion knocks it out of the park with this one!

Did they ever?!

'http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9217581/Facebook_loses_6M_U.S._users_in_May' (http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9217581/Facebook_loses_6M_U.S._users_in_May)

And while Inside Facebook reports that the social network is approaching 700 million users worldwide, the number of U.S. users has dropped. The study found that Facebook lost 6 million U.S. users in May.

The study noted that Facebook had 155.2 million U.S. users at the beginning of May but 149.4 million at the end of the month.

Other countries showed losses as well; Canada dropped by 1.52 million and the U.K. dropped by more than 100,000, but the U.S. showed the biggest loss for Facebook last month.

[keehah]

A previous home run.


Why Social Networking Has Been Best Tool for Criminals and Governments (http://www.dailysquib.co.uk/most-popular/2386-why-social-networking-has-been-best-tool-for-criminals-and-governments.html)
By by Alonzo Moseley 19/08/2010 The Daily Squib

WASHINGTON DC - USA - Once upon a time it used to be quite hard for the government and criminals to get private data from individuals, nowadays the information gleaned from social networking sites is so vast that they have been overwhelmed.

Call them lemmings, call them sheep, call them the mass of people who have been suckered into revealing their every thought and plans on social networking sites. They are a sign of our times, a gift to the intelligence agencies, criminals, government offices, conglomerates and marketing companies.

In a time where there are no qualms about revealing personal details to anyone, the governments of the world have seen a mass bonanza of informative data telling them more about the populations than they ever hoped for. These agencies have utilised the narcissistic shallow desire for these individuals to promote every banal detail of their lives to great effect.

The new gold mine

"It has been a beautiful ploy. We made it 'cool' to join a social networking site, then their friends joined up. We also got the populace addicted to data, addicted to cyber networking, addicted to news, addicted to useless information. By utilising the Pavlovian techniques, the control system has been perfected with precision. We now know everything about these people, their habits, their deepest fears, their relationships with others, their financial affairs, what toothpaste they use, etc, etc," a Pentagon official divulged to CNN.

Not only is the mass of data being mined by governments and shady organisations just below the periphery, the useful data is being mined by conglomerates and the consumerist network plugged into the social networking scam.

"We have so much data on everyone that we can actually plan out a day for any given person. This will be useful in the future because we know exactly how each person on these sites ticks, we know the strings to pull and we know how we can control you even better than we are already controlling you. Just you being on any of these sites is enough for us because we can gauge mass movements in population, your moods, your plans. As a government, we can manipulate you even further by implanting rumours into your social networking matrix, we can also see if there are small signs of rebellion and crush those early. We however have no fear of rebellion amongst you social networkers though, because you're all a bunch of fucking lemmings brainwashed to accept your fate as institutionalised sado-masochists. What I say to you now, you will understand, you will digest this, but you will also carry on what you're doing and after a few minutes forget about it," the Pentagon source added.

Television programs like 'Big Brother' also made it acceptable and 'cool' for overt surveillance by the social psychologists.

"The morons who go on such shows are guinea pigs, brainless fuckers with egos the size of mountains, these people were used to make camera surveillance acceptable and actually desirable. The brainwashed idiots who watch the Big Brother shows are no better than the participants, walking zombies bereft of any thoughts or dignity. This is the kind of dumbed-down society we have been striving for for centuries," a spokesman for an intelligence agency revealed...

[PatColo]

Onion knocks it out of the park with this one!




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9U4Ha9HQvMo

[keehah]

Originally Posted by DMac
Onion knocks it out of the park with this one!

I'm not sure where the Onion knocked this one. But as usual they swung enthusiastically and hit it hard.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7i2oSwpD1c

[PatColo]

I'm not sure where the Onion knocked this one. But as usual they swung enthusiastically and hit it hard.


that was weak, not to mention reinforcing classic anti-Semitic canards! >:(

Onion also did this odd one awhile back, with it's disturbing anti-Semitic undertones,:o

Overcome Stress By Visualizing It As A Greedy, Hook-Nosed Race Of Creatures (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4PC8Luqiws)



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4PC8Luqiws

[PatColo]

Onion also did this odd one awhile back, with it's disturbing anti-Semitic undertones,:o

Overcome Stress By Visualizing It As A Greedy, Hook-Nosed Race Of Creatures (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4PC8Luqiws)

^^^ I know what you're thinking: "OMG where's the Defamation Experts to screech OMG NEVER AGAIN NEVER AGAIN!!!!!"

http://www.theoccidentalobserver.net/authors/Grabbler.jpg
http://www.theoccidentalobserver.net/authors/Blabbler.jpg

It's obviously a testament to who owns The Onion, or at least the A.V. Club (http://www.avclub.com/), the entertainment-oriented sister publication to The Onion (http://www.theonion.com/content/index).

This is one guy's analysis of the mind-game at work in that skit, though he doesn't get to addressing this "Grabbler" skit until about half way through,

Jews Mocking the Tribe? (http://www.theoccidentalobserver.net/authors/Connelly-Grabblers.html)
Edmund Connelly
August 14, 2010


^^^ to keep this thread sort-of on track with the OP video, I wonder if it wouldn't be accurate to adapt one of the points made in the above "Jews Mocking the Tribe" article, and transfer it to the Onion Facebook skit - adaptations in blue:

"... As we go deeper, however, it gets more difficult to read. For starters, what they are showing about facebook is quite accurate. So how does using the truth perform as part of the humor? I don’t think the skit is making fun of facebook for its appearance or functionality. Rather, I think the writers are making fun, first, of their goy audience. “Look, we’re showing you explicitly what facebook is, yet you’re still too stupid to see it. What can’t we do and not get away with? There is no limit to your goyische kopf stupidity.”

[keehah]

German minister advises colleagues to shun Facebook (http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-09-german-minister-colleagues-shun-facebook.html)
Physorg, Sept. 11, 2011

Germany's consumer protection minister has warned her fellow cabinet members against using Facebook to promote their work citing data security concerns, in an internal letter obtained by Der Spiegel.

In an article to be published Monday, Der Spiegel said the minister, Ilse Aigner, a longtime critic of the privacy policies at the social networking site, had outlined her objections to the other ministers.

"After an intensive legal review, I have concluded that it is crucial to ensure that the Facebook button is not used on any of our official government websites," she wrote in the letter.

Aigner, who said she quit Facebook a year ago protesting its data security practices, added that "fan pages" which users can join to get information about organisations should also be avoided "in light of justified legal doubts".

She said ministries and members of parliament should "set a good example and give data protection its due".

German data protection authorities have raised the alarm in recent weeks over Facebook, and in particular its "Like" button with which users indicate their preferences as they navigate the site.
Privacy watchdogs warn the information is used to create personalised user profiles, for example for advertisers.

Aigner's ministry later released a statement outlining its objections and confirming the advisory to ministries, adding that the warning extended to private companies as well.

It cited authorities' findings that Facebook compiled data on Internet users visiting sites with an integrated "Like" button, even if they were not Facebook members.

"This data can be used to create a detailed user profile, although Facebook denies creating such profiles for Facebook non-users," it said.

It said Aigner would "soon" visit the United States to speak with executives from Facebook and other firms "about respect for German and European data protection policies".

Facebook said Thursday it would sign up to a voluntary code of conduct in Germany to protect users' data, the first time the site has agreed to such measures in a country particularly sensitive about privacy rights due to gross abuses under the Nazi and communist dictatorships.

[PatColo]

this from RT, 11 mins:

Death of Privacy: 'Your cell phone Big Brother's best friend'



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGHU8btqrrU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGHU8btqrrU


Uploaded by RussiaToday (http://www.youtube.com/user/RussiaToday) on Sep 17, 2011
Personal data being gathered on the worldwide web means bigger profits for the private sector and is also being shared with the police, argues Steve Rambam, founder and CEO of Pallorium Inc., an international online investigative service. *At a time when electronic gadgets and hi-tech innovations dominate our lives, violating privacy and mining people's personal data is easier than ever. The damage that this 24-hour surveillance could do to society and its freedoms is overwhelming.

[mick silver]

good vid pat ............... back up

[DMac]

Good clip Pat, not a surprise to most of us here but it is a solid overview of the shenanigans going on with data collection over the net.

[PatColo]

glad you guys liked the RT vid- the guy was informative, but he showed his "PTB loyalty" when he touted how "info/surveillance = safety", then defecated some turdage about how we coulda maybe got them scary moozlem 911 ter'sts, with greater surveillance... enshrining the Official 911 CT... sounded like he'd done a little checking, citing the make-believe moozlem ter'sts make-believe activities prior to 911-- and anyone who looks into 911, combined with having a functioning brain, doesn't truly believe the OCT as he pretended...

the heads-up about cell phones being like mini-facebooks, providing friend/contact dossiers and as well cells are location tracking devices-- was a useful reminder. Don't forget how the spooks can turn on the hands free mics even with the phones "turned off." Do they even make a cell anymore which doesn't have a built-in camera?

[PatColo]

Facebook is a CIA Databank (http://www.henrymakow.com/facebook_is_orwellian_wet_drea.html)

November 12, 2011

http://www.henrymakow.com/upload_images/facebook-big-brother.jpg

Remember when Mark Zuckerberg called his users ''dumb f****''?


by Sandeep Parwaga
(henrymakow.com)

more, w/reader comments:
http://www.henrymakow.com/facebook_is_orwellian_wet_drea.html

[AndreaGail]

In recent weeks, Facebook has been wrangling with the Federal Trade Commission over whether the social media website is violating users' privacy by making public too much of their personal information.

Far more quietly, another debate is brewing over a different side of online privacy: what Facebook is learning about those who visit its website.

Facebook officials are now acknowledging that the social media giant has been able to create a running log of the web pages that each of its 800 million or so members has visited during the previous 90 days. Facebook also keeps close track of where millions more non-members of the social network go on the Web, after they visit a Facebook web page for any reason.

STORY: Facebook targeted with porn, violent images
To do this, the company relies on tracking cookie technologies similar to the controversial systems used by Google, Adobe, Microsoft, Yahoo and others in the online advertising industry, says Arturo Bejar, Facebook's engineering director.

Facebook's efforts to track the browsing habits of visitors to its site have made the company a player in the "Do Not Track" debate, which focuses on whether consumers should be able to prevent websites from tracking the consumers' online activity.

For online business and social media sites, such information can be particularly valuable in helping them tailor online ads to specific visitors. But privacy advocates worry about how else the information might be used, and whether it might be sold to third parties.

New guidelines for online privacy are being hashed out in Congress and by the World Wide Web Consortium, which sets standards for the Internet.

If privacy advocates get their way, consumers soon could be empowered to stop or limit tech companies and ad networks from tracking them wherever they go online. But the online advertising industry has dug in its heels, trying to retain the current self-regulatory system.

Online tracking involves technologies that tech companies and ad networks have used for more than a decade to help advertisers deliver more relevant ads to each viewer. Until now, Facebook, which makes most of its profits from advertising, has been ambiguous in public statements about the extent to which it collects tracking data.

It contends that it does not belong in the same camp as Google, Microsoft and the rest of the online ad industry's major players. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg made this point to interviewer Charlie Rose on national TV last week.

For the past several weeks, Zuckerberg and other Facebook officials have sought to distinguish how Facebook and others use tracking data. Facebook uses such data only to boost security and improve how "Like" buttons and similar Facebook plug-ins perform, Bejar told USA TODAY. Plug-ins are the ubiquitous web applications that enable you to tap into Facebook services from millions of third-party web pages.

Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes says the company has "no plans to change how we use this data." He also says the company's intentions "stand in stark contrast to the many ad networks and data brokers that deliberately and, in many cases, surreptitiously track people to create profiles of their behavior, sell that content to the highest bidder, or use that content to target ads."

Conflicting pressures

Rather than appease its critics, Facebook's public explanations of how it tracks and how it uses tracking data have touched off a barrage of questions from technologists, privacy advocates, regulators and lawmakers around the world.

"Facebook could be tracking users without knowledge or permission, which could be an unfair or deceptive business practice," says Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., co-sponsor with Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, of a bill aimed at limiting online tracking of children.

The company "should be covered by strong privacy safeguards," Markey says. "The massive trove of personal information that Facebook accumulates about its users can have a significant impact on them — now and into the future."

Noting that "Facebook is the most popular social media website in the world," Barton adds, "All websites should respect users' privacy."

After Zuckerberg appeared on the Charlie Rose TV show last week, Markey and Barton sent a letter to the 27-year-old CEO asking him to explain why Facebook recently applied for a U.S. patent for technology that includes a method to correlate tracking data with advertisements. They gave Zuckerberg a Dec. 1 deadline to reply.

"We patent lots of things, and future products should not be inferred from our patent application," Facebook corporate spokesman Barry Schnitt says.

Facebook is under intense, conflicting pressures.

It must prove to its global financial backers that it is worthy of the hundreds of millions of dollars they've poured into the company, financial and tech industry analysts say. Those investors include Microsoft, Goldman Sachs, the Russian investment firm Digital Sky Technologies, Hong Kong financier Sir Ka-shing Li and venture capitalist Peter Andreas Thiel.

The success of the company's initial public offering of stock, expected sometime next year, hinges in part on Facebook's ability to move beyond the bread-and-butter text ads that appear on members' home pages and emerge as a key player in graphical display ads and corporate brand marketing campaigns, says Rebecca Lieb, advertising media analyst at the Altimeter Group.

In advertising, knowing more about consumers' preferences is key. "More data means better targeting, which means more revenue," says Marissa Gluck, managing partner of the media consulting firm Radar Research.

To meet rising expectations, Facebook must increase its annual revenue, now estimated at about $4 billion, by double-digit percentage points for years to come, Gluck says. The company is striving to keep its options open to do this. In doing so, it is bumping into pressure from critics who are concerned that leaving online privacy standards entirely in the hands of corporations might not be the best idea.

Ground rules needed

Companies are incorporating tracking data into new business models "without necessarily appreciating the long-term and collective consequences," says Craig Spiezle, executive director of the non-profit Online Trust Alliance.

Last week, consumer reporter Ric Romero of station KABC in Los Angeles showed how insurance companies monitor Facebook and Twitter, looking for reasons to raise premiums and deny claims. Previously, ABC News reporter Lyneka Little reported on how employers use Facebook information as part of the recruitment process.

Meanwhile, researchers at AT&T Labs and Worcester Polytechnic Institute have documented how tracking data culled from Internet searches and surfing can be meshed with personal information that Internet users disclose at websites for shopping, travel, health or jobs. Personal disclosures made on social networks, along with preference data gathered by new apps for smartphones and tablet PCs, are being tossed into this mix, too.

Privacy advocates worry that before long, corporations, government agencies and political parties could routinely purchase tracking data from data aggregators.

"Tracking data can be used to figure out your political bent, religious beliefs, sexuality preferences, health issues or the fact that you're looking for a new job," says Peter Eckersley, technology projects director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "There are all sorts of ways to form wrong judgments about people."

So far, it does not appear that this sort of data correlation is being done, at least not on a wide scale. But in the absence of ground rules, technologists, regulators and privacy advocates worry that companies involved in collecting tracking data could succumb to the temptation to cash in.

Says Michael Fertik, founder and CEO of Reputation.com: "We can only imagine that an advertising company with a richer trove of data will sell more and more of that data."

Facebook's trove of data

Facebook for the first time revealed details of how it compiles its trove of tracking data in a series of phone and e-mail interviews conducted by USA TODAY with Bejar, Noyes and Schnitt, as well as engineering manager Gregg Stefancik and corporate spokeswoman Jaime Schopflin. Here's what they disclosed:

•The company compiles tracking data in different ways for members who have signed in and are using their accounts, for members who are logged-off and for non-members. The tracking process begins when you initially visit a facebook.com page. If you choose to sign up for a new account, Facebook inserts two different types of tracking cookies in your browser, a "session cookie" and a "browser cookie." If you choose not to become a member, and move on, you only get the browser cookie.

•From this point on, each time you visit a third-party webpage that has a Facebook Like button, or other Facebook plug-in, the plug-in works in conjunction with the cookie to alert Facebook of the date, time and web address of the webpage you've clicked to. The unique characteristics of your PC and browser, such as your IP address, screen resolution, operating system and browser version, are also recorded.

•Facebook thus compiles a running log of all your webpage visits for 90 days, continually deleting entries for the oldest day and adding the newest to this log.

If you are logged-on to your Facebook account and surfing the Web, your session cookie conducts this logging. The session cookie additionally records your name, e-mail address, friends and all data associated with your profile to Facebook. If you are logged-off, or if you are a non-member, the browser cookie conducts the logging; it additionally reports a unique alphanumeric identifier, but no personal information.

Bejar acknowledged that Facebook could learn where specific members go on the Web when they are logged off by matching the unique PC and browser characteristics logged by both the session cookie and the browser cookie.

He emphasized that Facebook makes it a point not to do this. " We've said that we don't do it, and we couldn't do it without some form of consent and disclosure," Bejar says.

Bejar also acknowledged "technical similarities" in the cookie-based tracking technologies used by Facebook and the wider online advertising industry. "But we're not like ad networks at all in our stewardship of the data, in the way we use it, and the way we lay everything out," Bejar says. "We have a very clear and transparent approach to how we do advertising that I'm very proud of."

Even so, Facebook's public descriptions of its tracking systems have not satisfied some critics — particularly European privacy regulators. Ilse Aigner, Germany's minister of consumer protection, last month banned Facebook plug-ins from government websites and advised private companies to do the same.

And Thilo Weichert, data protection commissioner in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein, expressed alarm at how Facebook's technology could potentially be used to build extensive profiles of individual Web users.

"Whoever visits Facebook or uses a plug-in must expect that he or she will be tracked by the company for two years," Weichert said in a statement. "Such profiling infringes German and European data protection law."

Adding fuel to such concerns, Arnold Roosendaal, a doctoral candidate at Tilburg University in the Netherlands, and Nik Cubrilovic, an independent Australian researcher, separately documented how Web pages containing Facebook plug-ins carried out tracking more extensive than Facebook publicly admitted to.

Noyes says Germany doesn't understand how the company's tracking technologies work. And he blames "software bugs" for the indiscriminate tracking discovered by Roosendaal and Cubrilovic.

"When we were made aware that certain cookies were sending more information to us than we had intended, we fixed our cookie management system," Noyes says.

However, researcher Roosendaal says Facebook's tracking cookies retain the capacity to extensively track non-members and logged-off members alike. "They have been confronted with the same issue now several times and every time they call it a bug. That's not really contributing to earning trust."

Some corporate security executives have become concerned about cybercriminals getting hold of tracking data relayed by Like buttons, then using that intelligence to steal intellectual property. They've asked firewall supplier Palo Alto Networks to identify and block traffic from Facebook tracking cookies, while enabling their employees to continue using other Facebook services.

"The concern is that Facebook has rich personal information, which Google doesn't have," says Nir Zuk, founder and chief technology officer for Palo Alto Networks. "Combining that personal information with Web browsing patterns could be revelatory."
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/story/2011-11-15/facebook-privacy-tracking-data/51225112/1

[MNeagle]

I continue to be thankful I never signed up for FBIbook.

[PatColo]

there's prolly a better thread for this somewhere, I'm too lazy to find though.

How Israeli Spies Were Betrayed By Their Cell Phones (http://theuglytruth.wordpress.com/2011/11/22/how-israeli-spies-were-betrayed-by-their-cell-phones)

Posted: November 22, 2011 in Uncategorized (http://theuglytruth.wordpress.com/category/uncategorized/)

1 (http://theuglytruth.wordpress.com/2011/11/22/how-israeli-spies-were-betrayed-by-their-cell-phones/#comments)
http://www.planestupid.com/files/images/clouseau.jpg

www.forbes.com (http://www.forbes.com/)
As we all know by now (I hope), phones are very effective tracking devices. Location data from those phones can be valuable to advertisers (http://www.droid-life.com/2011/10/13/verizon-plans-to-start-tracking-your-mobile-information-instead-of-freaking-out-simply-opt-out-of-it/), to law enforcement (http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2011/03/28/the-tracking-device-weve-all-embraced-our-phones/) (ideally with a warrant (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45362192/ns/technology_and_science-security/t/judge-says-feds-need-warrant-cellphone-info/)) and to spy hunters. The AP reports how Hezbollah used cell phone data to sniff out spies:

Using the latest commercial software, Nasrallah’s spy-hunters unit began methodically searching for traitors in Hezbollah’s midst. To find them, U.S. officials said, Hezbollah examined cellphone data looking for anomalies. The analysis identified cellphones that, for instance, were used rarely or always from specific locations and only for a short period of time. Then it came down to old-fashioned, shoe-leather detective work: Who in that area had information that might be worth selling to the enemy?
via News from The Associated Press (http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_HEZBOLLAH_CIA?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-11-21-06-30-10).
That led to the arrest of over 100 Israeli spies in 2009, reports the AP.
Back at CIA headquarters, the arrests alarmed senior officials. The agency prepared a study on its own vulnerabilities, U.S. officials said, and the results proved to be prescient. The analysis concluded that the CIA was susceptible to the same analysis that had compromised the Israelis, the officials said.
via News from The Associated Press (http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_HEZBOLLAH_CIA?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-11-21-06-30-10).
The lessons the CIA learned did not prevent their own spies from getting caught (http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/cia-spies-caught-fear-execution-middle-east/story?id=14994428#.TsqsRvEzITl). Though they may have been more clever about how they used their cell phones, they weren’t very clever in coming up with code words. According to ABC News (http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/cia-spies-caught-fear-execution-middle-east/story?id=14994428#.TsqsRvEzITl), CIA agents were using “pizza” as a codeword for their secret rendezvous spot with spies, which Hezbollah deduced (http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/11/pizza-cia/) was a Pizza Hut in Beirut. According to unnamed government officials who spoke with ABC, monitoring the Pizza Hut delivered the identities of the Lebanese spies working with the CIA.

[BrewTech]

I don't know if it has been mentioned in this thread anywhere yet, but Facebook now offers a "delete account permanently" option, rather than just a "disable account" request option.

After choosing this option, the account is disabled for 14 days, then all content deleted.

Supposedly.

Wonder what happens to the tracking cookie? I'm guessing nothing.

[PatColo]

Wonder what happens to the tracking cookie? I'm guessing nothing.

Thread: Java Super Cookies MUST READ ! (http://gold-silver.us/forum/showthread.php?54607-Java-Super-Cookies-MUST-READ-%21)



It appears that free CCleaner (http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download) removes all cookies- even the super/forever cookies from google & FB & Co. Anytime you launch CCleaner in Win Vista and later, you get the dimmed screen & warning that this program wants to mess with your registry- which makes sense, coz the one time I read some manual step-by-step on how to remove GOOG & Co's forever-cookies, it involved some registry action.

I installed free MAXA cookie manager at the time of the above thread, and even it wouldn't remove the forever-cookies (without opening your wallet for "upgrade").

It bugs me that I can go to Firefox Tools- privacy/cookie tab, it pretends to list "all cookies", I click "delete all...", it apparently deletes all - but then it turns out it leaves the forever-cookies there, and just doesn't list them in the list of existing cookies! It's like Open-Source Firefox is "in on the conspiracy" of TPTB's efforts to (sneakily) build detailed dossiers on everyone's digital lives.

[PatColo]

This article makes like a couple malls are doing this, oooh aaah, but I expect the spooks have been doing this all along, and not just when you're visiting a particular mall.


Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Attention Black Friday Shoppers: You Will Be Tracked (http://www.activistpost.com/2011/11/attention-black-friday-shoppers-you.html)



http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ER4Fdvm-wjg/Ts0Qt_mRd9I/AAAAAAAAMvA/uODMSXEOIbk/s1600/cellphoneTracking.jpg (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ER4Fdvm-wjg/Ts0Qt_mRd9I/AAAAAAAAMvA/uODMSXEOIbk/s1600/cellphoneTracking.jpg)
John Galt
Activist Post (http://www.activistpost.com/2011/11/attention-black-friday-shoppers-you.html)

The busiest shopping day of the year is set for a new level of consumer exploitation at two American malls.

A notice appearing at Promenade Temecula in California, and Short Pump Town Center in Richmond, Va. will advise shoppers that their cell phone signal will be used to track them as they move from store to store.

Although the system that is being employed claims it is guaranteed not to collect personal data, and people can opt-out by turning off their phone, we have heard this all before when justifying why it is OK to track, trace, and database the movements of everyday citizens.

According to a CNN report (http://money.cnn.com/2011/11/22/technology/malls_track_cell_phones_black_friday/index.htm):
"The goal is for stores to answer questions like: How many Nordstrom shoppers also stop at Starbucks? How long do most customers linger in Victoria's Secret? Are there unpopular spots in the mall that aren't being visited?"This is supposedly being done, of course, to identify which stores and items people desire most, thus enhancing the shopping experience for store customers. This is the very same reason that was presented to encourage people to sign-up for "loyalty cards" and "frequent-shopper" cards. However, as we have come to find out, these systems of convenient shopping are more accurately described as data collection systems that can be used to profile people's shopping habits, their physical movement, as well as for other uses (http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2005/loyalty_cards.html) far beyond the scope of the shopping experience.

This overall database of collected information has been used in numerous cases by law enforcement to establish the time and place of potential suspects, which has sometimes caused innocent people (http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/02/security_risks.html) to be caught in the dragnet as a result of ordinary purchases that may suddenly look suspicious to law enforcement mining the data.

We know that there has already been a push by Federal agencies to employ warrantless cell phone tracking, so we can't reasonably expect the validity of reassurances by mall management that the system, "doesn't collect any personal details associated with the ID, like the user's name or phone number. That information is fiercely protected by mobile carriers, and often can be legally obtained only through a court order." An article by Declan McCullagh at CNET News states more accurately the following:
Whether state and federal police have been paying attention to Hollywood, or whether it was the other way around, cell phone tracking has become a regular feature in criminal investigations. It comes in two forms: police obtaining retrospective data kept by mobile providers for their own billing purposes that may not be very detailed, or prospective data that reveals the minute-by-minute location of a handset or mobile device.
(...)
Obtaining location details is now 'commonplace,' says Al Gidari (http://www.perkinscoie.com/professionals/professionals_detail.aspx?professional=0a69ed46-211a-4ceb-bb8b-9f41df8d92f7&op=news), a partner in the Seattle offices of Perkins Coie (http://www.perkinscoie.com/) who represents wireless carriers. 'It's in every pen register order these days.' (source (http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10451518-38.html))The Federal government is also fighting a recent Texas ruling (http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/18/texas-judge-says-warrantless-cellphone-tracking-violates-fourth/) declaring warrantless wiretapping to be a violation of the Fourth Amendment. So these are supposedly the "protectors" to whom we should surrender our data.

And in case one believes that store management really holds the customer in the highest regard and cares deeply for their shopping experience, the following quote should reverse that thought immediately. Vice president of digital strategy for the management group of both malls, Stephanie Shriver-Engdahl, makes it quite clear how her group views shoppers:
The system monitors patterns of movement. We can see, like migrating birds, where people are going to.The specific technology is called FootPath (http://www.pathintelligence.com/en/products/footpath/about-footpath)TM and utilizes data collection and mapping to chart physical movements and behavior patterns, offering a service to mall management that promises to help them make more accurate business decisions (demo here (http://www.pathintelligence.com/en/products/footpath/footpath-technology)). Again, this is one of the principal reasons given by the providers of customer loyalty cards.

As an aside, the U.K-based company that developed this technology -- Path Intelligence -- also employs tracking within transportation systems (http://www.pathintelligence.com/en/industries/transportation) such as airports and trains, even going as far as determining "What nationalities are the passengers passing through the transportation hub?"

None of this technology is necessarily bad in-and-of itself, but time and again we have seen its dual-use capabilities being exploited by law enforcement and government agencies which has resulted in innocent people being subjected to the data dragnet.

Whether knowingly, or unknowingly, the companies that offer this technology -- and the establishments that implement it -- are aiding and abetting the eradication of privacy, as well as the manipulation of human decision making.

And this is what it is really about: total surveillance being used to predict behavior in order to enrich and empower those who own the technology, and to disempower the individuals on the receiving end. It is merely one more data point in the overall matrix of information used by corporate-government groups to reduce human beings to numbers.

This cell phone tracking program, running from Black Friday to New Year's day, is clearly a test run for a system that will be rolled out on a much wider scale in the months and years to come if we don't oppose it from the outset. We must resist by reconnecting with our local communities and shun any store or institution that views its customers as traveling information sources, or a time will come when we won't even be notified that we are permitted to opt-out.

If you would like to voice your outrage over this tracking program, please contact the management company for both malls, Forest City Commercial Management, by clicking the home office indicated by a star on the map HERE (http://www.forestcity.net/offices/Pages/default.aspx).

You may also want to contact any of the stores that reside within these two malls to tell them you refuse to shop at their store while you are being surveiled. Pressure on individual stores might ultimately be more effective, as they will undoubtedly complain to management for the loss in sales due to the policy of management. Management tends to listen well to those who are paying the rent.

Promenade Temecula: HERE (http://www.promenadetemecula.com/)
Short Pump Town Center: HERE (http://www.shortpumpmall.com/)

RELATED ACTIVIST POST ARTICLE:
10 Ways We Are Being Tracked, Traced, and Databased (http://www.activistpost.com/2010/07/ten-ways-we-are-being-tracked-traced.html)

[BrewTech]

This article makes like a couple malls are doing this, oooh aaah, but I expect the spooks have been doing this all along, and not just when you're visiting a particular mall.


Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Attention Black Friday Shoppers: You Will Be Tracked (http://www.activistpost.com/2011/11/attention-black-friday-shoppers-you.html)



http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ER4Fdvm-wjg/Ts0Qt_mRd9I/AAAAAAAAMvA/uODMSXEOIbk/s1600/cellphoneTracking.jpg (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ER4Fdvm-wjg/Ts0Qt_mRd9I/AAAAAAAAMvA/uODMSXEOIbk/s1600/cellphoneTracking.jpg)
John Galt
Activist Post (http://www.activistpost.com/2011/11/attention-black-friday-shoppers-you.html)

The busiest shopping day of the year is set for a new level of consumer exploitation at two American malls.

A notice appearing at Promenade Temecula in California, and Short Pump Town Center in Richmond, Va. will advise shoppers that their cell phone signal will be used to track them as they move from store to store.


I have a passing familiarity with this place. It doesn't surprise me one bit. I guarantee nobody that shops that mall will give two shits if they are being tracked. In fact, they will probably think it's great that someone, somewhere cares what they are doing...

[AndreaGail]

Facebook Backdoor Interception: FBI wants P2P and social media wiretap-friendly

Published: 05 May, 2012, 14:34


The US is preparing to face FBI-drafted legislation enabling it to monitor any personal communication activities in the web. It aims to use preset backdoors in social networks, online messaging, internet telephony and even Xbox gaming servers.

*Tech media website Cnet.com has obtained information that the FBI is already in talks with internet giants on an unprecedented surveillance program, having the legislation approved by the Department of Justice.

The FBI intends surreptitiously to rush a law obliging companies like Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo to install government surveillance options into their software on default.

The agency confesses that it faces considerable difficulties in wiretapping suspects since more and more people are shifting their communications from phones to internet.


*

Surveillance: From broadband to Skype


*When the CALEA (Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act) was adopted back in 1994, the US government obliged only telecommunications providers to cooperate with its agencies, totally forgetting about the emerging internet capabilities.


In 2004, the Federal Communications Commission extended CALEA to cover broadband networks.

In 2012, it appears the turn has come for all the American web companies to lie under the government altogether.

The FBI wants everything that can be used for communicating to fall under the new amendment to CALEA. This means that social networking, emails, instant messaging and VoIP (anything resembling Skype and ICQ) will have an “extra coding” to strip those who use them of all of their secrets at any given time. And the companies providing those services will not be even asked for permission.

*

FBI struggles with the world ‘going dark’

*An unnamed FBI representative told Cnet.com that there are “significant challenges posed to the FBI” in the accomplishment of its “diverse mission”, and the rapidly changing technology influences that result a lot.


“A growing gap exists between the statutory authority of law enforcement to intercept electronic communications pursuant to court order and our practical ability to intercept those communications. The FBI believes that if this gap continues to grow, there is a very real risk of the government 'going dark,' resulting in an increased risk to national security and public safety,” the source told Cnet.com.

In February 2011 the FBI acknowledged the agency’s inability to keep up its surveillance capabilities with communications technological development calling it the “going dark” problem. Having admitted the bitter fact of technological incompliance, the agency initiated this new comprehensive web surveillance program.

An obvious solution to the problem was adopting legislation to the needs of the government which the FBI is busy realizing right now.

The FBI calls the program the National Electronic Surveillance Strategy. The Electronic Frontier Foundation reported that as early as in 2006 the FBI was already concerned with “going dark” and established a special division developing the "latest and greatest investigative technologies to catch terrorists and criminals." In 2009 the division employed 107 full-time specialists.

*

Another battle for human rights and privacy

*Internet companies might be not happy with the new legislation at all, righteously considering that the law will most probably spark a public revolt similar to unsuccessful attempts to push through notorious SOPA, PIPA and ACTA anti-pirate legislation. Moreover, clients’ privacy an integral part of IT products and by trading it off, software companies might ruin their business.

"If you create a service, product, or app that allows a user to communicate, you get the privilege of adding that extra coding," the IT industry representative familiar with the FBI's draft legislation told CNET.

The draft law also implies that IT companies will be allowed to supply the government with proprietary information to decode information obtained through a wiretap or other type of lawful interception.

IT companies cannot say “no” to the government right off the bat, therefore consultations between the FBI officials and internet company CEOs and top lawyers are already being held.

Reportedly, the FBI's draft legislation mentions some sort of “compliance costs” of internet companies.

Internet giants utilize lobbyist resources to try to protect their businesses interests in Washington, but the issue of mass control might be too hot for them to handle.

The situation strikingly resembles the one with the music and web content industry, which fails to adapt to new realities of free access to almost anything, including goodies that fall under the copyright laws. The entertainment industry, too, is using its lobbyists to push through punitive legislation to guarantee high profits without evolutionary changes to itself.

In the case with the web backdoor surveillance though, the FBI intends to violate basic human rights on such a high mass-involvement level that a 1984-scenario might appear almost no exaggeration.

If the FBI obtains the legislation it asks for, Lord forbid you should play on the terrorists’ side on an Xbox server, because your game console will report your terrorist sympathies. And this valuable information will definitely find a decent place in a personal dossier of yours somewhere in an underground FBI data center.

http://rt.com/news/fbi-legislation-surveillance-internet-648/

[PatColo]

Jeff Rense Radio Show - 2012.09.12 (http://grizzom.blogspot.com/2012/09/jeff-rense-radio-show-20120912.html)


Hour 2 - B.J. Mendelson (http://socialmediaisbullshit.com/) - Social Media Is B.S. SocialMediaIsBullshit.com (http://SocialMediaIsBullshit.com)

Download MP3 (http://k006.kiwi6.com/hotlink/cgq45xs8ap/rense.20120912.2of3.mp3) - 42 mins comm free

http://www.amazon.com/Social-Media-Bullshit-B-J-Mendelson/dp/1250002958

^ book released Sept 4, and same day or within just a few days, multiple 5 star reviews @ amazon-- smells like bagels! what kind of name is Mendelson?

"free chapter", haven't read it:
http://www.gigabounce.com/IsSocialMediaBS/SampleCh10SocialMediaIsBS.pdf

[PatColo]

CIA admits full monitoring of Facebook and other social networks

http://d38zt8ehae1tnt.cloudfront.net/images/news/700_20f7cd86b97176bbb1dd58792ac4adb3.jpg

February 8, 2013 - Most people use social media like Facebook and Twitter to share photos of friends and family, chat with friends and strangers about random and amusing diversions, or follow their favorite websites, bands and television shows.

But what does the US military use those same networks for? Well, we can't tell you: That's "classified," a CENTCOM spokesman recently informed Raw Story.

One use that's confirmed, however, is the manipulation of social media through the use of fake online "personas" managed by the military. Recently the US Air Force had solicited private sector vendors for something called "persona management software." Such a technology would allow single individuals to command virtual armies of fake, digital "people" across numerous social media portals.


Read more: http://www.disclose.tv/news/CIA_admits_full_monitoring_of_Facebook_and_other_s ocial_networks/90134 (http://www.disclose.tv/news/CIA_admits_full_monitoring_of_Facebook_and_other_s ocial_networks/90134)

[PatColo]

docu' coming soon I guess.


Terms and Conditions May Apply (2013)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzDgBITDaRY


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzDgBITDaRY

Official Site (http://anonym.to/?http://tacma.net/)
IMDB (http://anonym.to/?http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2084953/)
Download .torrent

(http://anonym.to/?http://torrage.com/torrent/A5A0DCEFA6402E5AEFF1FA91EB6A796306F4FCA0.torrent)

Posted by zapoper (http://www.blogger.com/profile/15726967138606494466) at 2:16 AM 1 comment: (http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=5440450620561193447&postID=7428818056614335864)

[PatColo]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7Quo20QOvw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7Quo20QOvw

[keehah]

Another The Onion run

The Onion: Congress Takes Group Of Schoolchildren Hostage (https://www.theonion.com/congress-takes-group-of-schoolchildren-hostage-1819572988)

9/29/11
As the dramatic standoff continues to unfold, the bipartisan gang of lawmakers has laid out additional terms for releasing the children. Among the demands are guaranteed re-election in 2012, reduction of the veto-override threshold from two-thirds to one half of the Senate, new desks, and safe transport to Reagan National Airport with a fueled-up private jet waiting on the runway.

According to sources close to the 535-member legislative branch, Congress has recently fallen on hard times. Neighbors reported overhearing heated arguments going on late into the night about dangerously stretched budgets, a failing health care system, and the potential for an all-out government shutdown.

With the ransom deadline nearing and no apparent resolution in sight, President Barack Obama was summoned in a last-ditch effort to diffuse the situation. Despite an emotional bullhorn appeal to return to "honest talks aimed at reducing the national debt and getting millions of unemployed Americans back to work," the chief executive was met with silence.

"There's just no way of getting through to these people," said Obama, holding his head in his hands.

WaPo: The Onion’s tweets about Capitol gunfire prompt panic, mockery (https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/the-onion-tweets-screams-and-gunfire—wheres-the-humor/2011/09/29/gIQASpCI7K_blog.html?tid=sm_twitter_washingtonpost )

September 29, 2011
The Onion office in New York confirmed that the tweet was not a hack, saying: “This is satire. That’s how it works.”

In Washington, people didn’t find the tweet so funny. One person wrote, “I work at the Capitol and I just yelled at my coworkers that there was gunfire... you scared the [expletive] out of me #fakenewsscares.”...

The Washington Post’s Federal Eye blogger Ed O’Keefe reports that Capitol Police have reacted “angrily” to the parody.

In a statement released to reporters, police said, “Conditions at the U.S. Capitol are currently normal... There is no credibility to these stories or the twitter feeds.”...

On Twitter and Facebook, much of the reaction is now shifting from panic to mockery of the panicked.

Journalist Josh Wolf compared the response to the Onion’s tweets to the Orson Welles War of the Worlds radio drama, which caused panic for listeners who thought the simulated narration of Martians attacking the world was real.

D.C.-based photographer Dave Stroup tweeted: “Not sure what's worse, people not knowing the Onion is fake, or that it seemed believable that Members of Congress would take kids hostage.”