[liberationtech] Intentional Big Tech Leftist Bias in Social and News Media Corrupts Elections and Defrauds Peoples

[Richard Brooks]

Thank you for your interesting reply. I will take some time to digest
your insights on Bellingcat. I still like the idea of providing
students with the tools for looking at information campaign mechanics
to discern their motivations and possible deceptions. They could likely
learn from you and your references as well.

The point in your mail where I would beg to differ is:

"Humans with a conscience will always eventually win on social media, as
the war narrative is always a drumbeat of the same talking points and
arguments. Reality is complex, ambiguous, and subject to surprises –
which is what we see in the citizen reporter stories."

I hate to say it, but it does not look like the people with
a conscience are winning. Russian disinformation
campaigns have been very successful (You have
to give Putin credit for playing his hand well). Whatever
the guiding spirit behind QAnon has been, it does not have
a conscience.

Of late, the most shameless and extreme voices seem to have
the advantage.

On 12/30/20 4:01 PM, Peter Jones | Redesign wrote:
> Hi Richard - Its interesting you'd suggest Bellingcat on this list
> (Liberation Tech) as an exemplar for investigative techniques that
> purport to identity motive and source. In my observation of their work,
> they have the resources to conduct very  sophisticated study - because
> that are a dedicated insider info ops (hybrid warfare) group of the
> NATO-sponsored Atlantic Council - their DFRL organization
> https://www.digitalsherlocks.org
> 
>  
> 
> Bellingcat started up two days /before/ the infamous MH17 airliner
> shootdown in Ukraine 7.17.2014 (a problematic case that is still
> definitely unresolved in the Dutch special court). They immediately
> entangled themselves in evidence production from the "fog of war" among
> the various actual investigators on the ground. Their notoriety and
> founding were started up in sync with this event, which would give them
> interesting context for their own motives.
> 
>  
> 
> The  founders Higgins and Toler are senior fellows at the NATO DFRLab
> https://www.digitalsherlocks.org/360-os-2018  which verifies not
> necessarily a guarantee of income, but at least the level of
> establishment of their primary client. I’d suspect they aren’t hurting
> for a job.
> 
>  
> 
> The goals of the DRFL program are ostensibly to "counter
> disinformation." But the explicit means of doing so are to construct
> preferred information that is certified by their vast network of the
> military complex that requires such "bottom up"  narratives to justify
> their own interventions and weaponization of social media. After all
> Obama shelled out  $250M in his last gift to the Mil Complex December
> 2016. Also for “countering (primarily Russian) disinformation”  which is
> a neat way of saying “creating disinformation for the public.” All US
> wars have been started and justified by such information ops long before
> kinetic  actions, and this was done with newspapers before electronic
> media.  
> 
>  
> 
> Put your McLuhanist hats on. Who has the most to gain from these
> operations? Who has skin in the game and who is paying for these
> investigations? Who is working at their OWN risk and conscience to
> develop and expose (or whistleblow) truthful reporting?
> 
>  
> 
> The anti-Bellingcats are actual citizen sleuths  such as Northern
> Ireland’ Patrick Watson, who was disgusted by what he saw as obvious
> fake videos with the White Helmets, used to promote the Syrian “chemical
> weapons” videos.  He did hos own research and blew open quiet a bit of
> trouble.
> 
>  
> 
> His website https://hiddensyria.com/ covers a number of his
> investigations – he’s clearly not a “Russian” anything, as I’ve followed
> his work from  the very first tweet I think (I happened to see his
> easily outbursts) AND he doesn’t’ have a lot of followers. A troll
> tries  to sensationalize and get a lot of attention. Philip has also
> worked hard, and at risk, to show the OPCW organization is at fault for
> covering up their field evidence that exonerates the Syrian government,
> a very inconvenient finding. There are whistle-blower memos and support
> from the founding OPCW General  Director for their exposure. It’s a
> significant scandal, and on this issue Bellingcat is arguing (and was
> caught fabricating) for the establishment, again, and every time, for
> the wars.
> 
>  
> 
> I would also confirm  regard for the small UK academic team, the 
> Working Group on Syria, Propaganda and Media that has done open sources
> and deep investigative reporting on the  Syrian hoaxes and White Helmets
> (along with Vanessa Bealey's fieldwork).
> 
>  
> 
> has also been heavily attacked by mainstream reporters, (Guardian types)
> and 77^th Brigade (the British military info ops soldiers)
> https://syriapropagandamedia.org/  Because they have been on-0tagert,
> the BBC and Guardian have smeared their work on front page stories to
> try to recover their Syrian war “information superiority.” In the
> shadowy world of information ops, this is a war on real people. And the
> establishment will lose, over time, regardless of how many more millions
> they throw at 77^th Brigades and projects like the UK’s FCO-sponsored
> Integrity Initiative
> https://syriapropagandamedia.org/the-integrity-initiative
> 
>  
> 
> Humans with a conscience will always eventually win on social media, as
> the war narrative is always a drumbeat of the same talking points and
> arguments. Reality is complex, ambiguous, and subject to surprises –
> which is what we see in the citizen reporter stories.
> 
>  
> 
> As a professor I would at least present students with case studies from
> “both sides.”
> 
>  
> 
> To a more peaceful 2021,  Peter Jones
> 
>  
> 
> *PETER JONES, PH.D.**
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