Media Hypocrisy in the Snowden Files
Media Hypocrisy in the Snowden Files
by Tanner Stening / March 3rd, 2014
We’ve all become accustomed to hearing about Edward Snowden and the NSA scandal. In fact, it’s almost become a daily ritual: checking major news outlets and discovering new revelations which never seem to fail in shocking us about the extent and invasiveness of what’s been called the “national security apparatus”—at least, the reaction tends to be one of shock, though often without the surprise.
The latest chapter in the saga is the disclosure of a new document coming out of JTRIG (Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group)—a secretive unit inside Britain’s spying agency (GCHQ—Government Communications Headquarters). The document reveals an insidious effort on behalf of these spying agencies to infiltrate social media platforms in order to manipulate online discourse and destroy targets’ reputations.
“Insidious” might seem to be an apt description when one considers who the targets of such tactics are: online activist groups like Anonymous. In fact, it’s unquestionable now—the knowledge that western governments are devoting significant resources to combating and disrupting the online communications of various activist groups for purposes unrelated to defense or security.
This comes as a surprise to no one, but confirmation should not be taken through the filter of second-hand reporting. Open the document and read through it for yourself as I did. What you’ll find is an obscenity reserved for novelists of dystopian fiction: a secretive program using such techniques as “cognitive infiltration” as a means to influence how these individuals and groups are perceived in an online setting. Using research from psychology and the social sciences, JTRIG developed a method that uses a host of dirty tactics ranging from harmful viruses and malware, denial of service attacks, to so-called “honey traps” (using sex to lure individuals) to effectively destroy the reputations of those targeted.
More:
http://dissidentvoice.org/2014/03/media-hypocrisy-in-the-snowden-files/
