Author Topic: It’s true: Government agents are infiltrating online communities  (Read 708 times)

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Offline happyg

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If you have been following Glenn since his days at Fox News, you may remember the expose he did on Obama ‘regulatory czar’ Cass Sunstein and his nudge theory. One of Sunstein’s more disturbing ideas involved government operatives infiltrating online communities in order to disseminate false information. As Glenn describes it, the goal was to “pose, infiltrate, and discredit.” Anyone who actually took Sunstein’s words at face value were mocked and labeled conspiracy theorists. But, as it turns out, it was all true.

“The English version of the NSA is the GCHQ… The English NSA has now revealed that that’s exactly what our government is doing,” Glenn said on radio this morning. “What Cass Sunstein proposed in a purely academic setting – that was his excuse – the British NSA has now verified. That’s exactly what we are doing. And so there are operatives posing as regular citizens on our web sites and in our organizations. I mean how crazy is that? Wake up, America! Wake up!”

Glenn Greewald – the former Guardian reporter who worked to publish the material exposed by Edward Snowden – released a thorough report on his new website, FirstLook.org, dissecting the data.

Greenwald reports:
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Over the last several weeks, I worked with NBC News to publish a series of articles about “dirty trick” tactics used by GCHQ’s previously secret unit, JTRIG (Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group). These were based on four classified GCHQ documents presented to the NSA and the other three partners in the English-speaking “Five Eyes” alliance. Today, we at the Intercept are publishing another new JTRIG document, in full, entitled “The Art of Deception: Training for Online Covert Operations.”

By publishing these stories one by one, our NBC reporting highlighted some of the key, discrete revelations: the monitoring of YouTube and Blogger, the targeting of Anonymous with the very same DDoS attacks they accuse “hacktivists” of using, the use of “honey traps” (luring people into compromising situations using sex) and destructive viruses. But, here, I want to focus and elaborate on the overarching point revealed by all of these documents: namely, that these agencies are attempting to control, infiltrate, manipulate, and warp online discourse, and in doing so, are compromising the integrity of the internet itself.

Among the core self-identified purposes of JTRIG are two tactics: (1) to inject all sorts of false material onto the internet in order to destroy the reputation of its targets; and (2) to use social sciences and other techniques to manipulate online discourse and activism to generate outcomes it considers desirable. To see how extremist these programs are, just consider the tactics they boast of using to achieve those ends: “false flag operations” (posting material to the internet and falsely attributing it to someone else), fake victim blog posts (pretending to be a victim of the individual whose reputation they want to destroy), and posting “negative information” on various forums.

More of article at link:  http://www.glennbeck.com/2014/02/26/its-true-government-agents-are-infiltrating-online-communities/?utm_source=Daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2014-02-26_303699&utm_content=71540480&utm_term=_303699_303706

Offline massadvj

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Re: It’s true: Government agents are infiltrating online communities
« Reply #1 on: February 26, 2014, 09:37:37 pm »
Sink, is that you?  :nometalk:

Offline Gazoo

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Re: It’s true: Government agents are infiltrating online communities
« Reply #2 on: February 27, 2014, 01:35:50 pm »
How Covert Agents Infiltrate the Internet to Manipulate, Deceive, and Destroy Reputations - The Intercept
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/02/24/jtrig-manipulation/
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Offline mountaineer

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Re: It’s true: Government agents are infiltrating online communities
« Reply #3 on: February 27, 2014, 01:45:35 pm »
I heard the tail end of this story yesterday. It certainly sounds plausible.
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fake victim blog posts (pretending to be a victim of the individual whose reputation they want to destroy)
I think we'll see a lot of this as the general election draws near.
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Offline alicewonders

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Re: It’s true: Government agents are infiltrating online communities
« Reply #4 on: February 27, 2014, 02:03:45 pm »
I heard the tail end of this story yesterday. It certainly sounds plausible.I think we'll see a lot of this as the general election draws near.

I think you're right!
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Oceander

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Re: It’s true: Government agents are infiltrating online communities
« Reply #5 on: February 27, 2014, 02:08:31 pm »
Does this really surprise anyone?  This is precisely the same sort of thing that spy/covert agencies have been doing since time immemorial.  Perhaps the only real difference is the degree to which technology has faciliated this sort of agit-prop.

Offline mountaineer

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Re: It’s true: Government agents are infiltrating online communities
« Reply #6 on: February 27, 2014, 02:11:09 pm »
Does this really surprise anyone?  This is precisely the same sort of thing that spy/covert agencies have been doing since time immemorial.  Perhaps the only real difference is the degree to which technology has faciliated this sort of agit-prop.
Agreed. The technology makes it easier and faster.
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Oceander

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Re: It’s true: Government agents are infiltrating online communities
« Reply #7 on: February 27, 2014, 02:14:59 pm »
Agreed. The technology makes it easier and faster.

But it hasn't started something that wasn't already taking place before.

As counterpoint, tho', there is the distinct possibility that the internet, and technology in general, can also make it easier to spot and expose, particularly since the technology allows the recording and comparison of seemingly disparate posts and posters in order to find patterns and make identifications in a way that was not possible before.

Offline Gazoo

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Re: It’s true: Government agents are infiltrating online communities
« Reply #8 on: February 27, 2014, 04:26:07 pm »

Cass Sunstein wrote a 'theoretical' paper on Internet site infiltration and subversion back in 2008.



"The Tea Party has a right to feel cheated.

When does the Republican Party, put in the majority by the Tea Party, plan to honor its commitment to halt the growth of the Federal monolith and bring the budget back into balance"?

Offline Bigun

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Re: It’s true: Government agents are infiltrating online communities
« Reply #9 on: February 27, 2014, 04:35:49 pm »
Does this really surprise anyone?  This is precisely the same sort of thing that spy/covert agencies have been doing since time immemorial.  Perhaps the only real difference is the degree to which technology has faciliated this sort of agit-prop.

Not me! The problem is that many still have great difficulty recognizing it for what it is while it is occurring!
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Oceander

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Re: It’s true: Government agents are infiltrating online communities
« Reply #10 on: February 27, 2014, 04:47:00 pm »
Not me! The problem is that many still have great difficulty recognizing it for what it is while it is occurring!

That has always been the problem with agit-prop operations, which is why they can be so useful.

Offline Gazoo

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Re: It’s true: Government agents are infiltrating online communities
« Reply #11 on: February 28, 2014, 06:40:58 pm »
is this the same thing as, cyber warriors for Obama?
"The Tea Party has a right to feel cheated.

When does the Republican Party, put in the majority by the Tea Party, plan to honor its commitment to halt the growth of the Federal monolith and bring the budget back into balance"?

Offline Sanguine

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Re: It’s true: Government agents are infiltrating online communities
« Reply #12 on: June 19, 2016, 08:11:29 pm »
And, don't forget who Sunstein is married to:

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On July 4, 2008, Sunstein married Samantha Power, professor of public policy at Harvard, now United States Ambassador to the United Nations, whom he met when they worked as campaign advisors to Barack Obama, their friend and his former colleague at the University of Chicago Law School.[45]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cass_Sunstein