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The US Military's Vision for State Censorship

posted by martyb on Tuesday October 09 2018, @04:49PM   Printer-friendly
from the usa-usa-usa dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

In March, the United States Special Operations Command, the section of the Defense Department supervising the US Special Forces, held a conference on the theme of "Sovereignty in the Information Age." The conference brought together Special Forces officers with domestic police forces, including officials from the New York Police Department, and representatives from technology companies such as Microsoft.

This meeting of top military, police and corporate representatives went unreported and unpublicized at the time. However, the Atlantic Council recently published a 21-page document summarizing the orientation of the proceedings. It is authored by John T. Watts, a former Australian Army officer and consultant to the US Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security.

[...] The private sector, therefore, must do the dirty work of the government, because government propaganda is viewed with suspicion by the population. "Business and the private sector may not naturally understand the role they play in combating disinformation, but theirs is one of the most important.... In the West at least, they have been thrust into a central role due to the general public's increased trust in them as institutions."

But this is only the beginning. Online newspapers should "consider disabling commentary systems—the function of allowing the general public to leave comments beneath a particular media item," while social media companies should "use a grading system akin to that used to rate the cleanliness of restaurants" to rate their users' political statements.

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/10/05/pers-o05.html

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by EvilSS on Tuesday October 09 2018, @05:46PM (11 children)

    by EvilSS (1456) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday October 09 2018, @05:46PM (#746525)
    First off, nice source. And interesting interpretation of a paper on combating disinformation (you know, the stuff every one was mad about with Russia and the election?) You can't have it both ways. Either you want governments and social media companies to combat this type of interference or you don't (and if you don't then don't complain when you get Trumps).

    And for anyone interested (since the outstanding source article left it out) here is the paper:

    In an era of increasing technological, cultural and geo-political change, the rise of disinformation undermines the institutions that nations rely on to function and creates risks across society. At the heart of the challenge is the battle of truth and trust. In this report, “Whose Truth: Sovereignty, Disinformation and Winning the Battle of Trust, John Watts draws upon a rich discussion on the threat that disinformation poses to state’s sovereignty by a diverse group of experts as part of a US Special Operations Command program. The paper explores the themes and key takeaways of a discourse that explored the causes and impacts of the current complex information environment, its implications for state sovereignty, the range of threats it poses and how a natural maturation of the changed environment can be accelerated by groups at every layer of society.

    http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/publications/reports/whose-truth-sovereignty-disinformation-and-winning-the-battle-of-trust [atlanticcouncil.org]

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  • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 09 2018, @05:55PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 09 2018, @05:55PM (#746529)

    WSWS actually runs some pretty good original research. I've never seen anything like this from the news: https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/03/07/dems-m07.html [wsws.org]

  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 09 2018, @07:13PM (6 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 09 2018, @07:13PM (#746568)

    Can we having an educated populace that can find the truth themselves, instead of needing it spoon fed to them by anyone?

    • (Score: 4, Insightful) by EvilSS on Tuesday October 09 2018, @07:21PM (1 child)

      by EvilSS (1456) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday October 09 2018, @07:21PM (#746571)
      Not really. As a whole we tend to suck at it due to our internal biases. Just look at the anti-vax movement (which is a textbook example of what the paper is in this article is actually talking about). Hell look at the reactions to this post from a bunch of people who didn't read the paper but accepted without any question the narrative from the article. That's a powerful weapon and easy to wield.

      • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday October 10 2018, @11:12AM

        by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday October 10 2018, @11:12AM (#746900) Journal

        As a whole we tend to suck at it due to our internal biases.

        Because what has been delivered to you wasn't education, it was conditioning.
        And the conditioning is continuing, yet you are still accepting it. Why would be that?

        --
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford

    • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Virindi on Tuesday October 09 2018, @09:35PM (2 children)

      by Virindi (3484) on Tuesday October 09 2018, @09:35PM (#746644)

      Not in a society where every child spends their entire childhood being conditioned to sit still and memorize facts from authority, and questioning of the presented facts is punished. This is modern education.

      And by now, almost the entire population has been raised that way.

      Since they have been trained to merely accept 'facts' from one authority, they react poorly when it is obvious the authority is trying to manipulate them. Rather than examine the situation themselves logically, the only way they can react is to try to find a new authority to get facts from. We are seeing this play out all over right now: cable news networks, conspiracy theorists, politicians, etc.

      Of course those in power don't see this as a problem at all; they want a population who can only choose an authority and follow them rather than thinking for themselves. They are just upset that people are choosing someone other than them.

      Given the amount of the population which thinks like this at this point, we are pretty screwed. Education is not getting better in this regard, it is getting worse. The only way to "solve fake news" would be to reverse this trend in schools, and I don't think that's happening anytime soon. Until then it will just be a battle of potential overlords fighting over the minds of their subjects.

      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday October 10 2018, @08:12AM (1 child)

        by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Wednesday October 10 2018, @08:12AM (#746866) Homepage Journal

        Many Republican elected officials have long opposed the teaching of Critical Thinking in schools for such reasons as that they claim it leads children to disobey their parents.

        My own education had quite a lot of Critical Thinking study.

        This was always taught in English or Literature classes. Math and Science admit no or little ambiguity, but natural language is chock full of it.

        --
        Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]

        • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 10 2018, @01:22PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 10 2018, @01:22PM (#746936)

          (Sorry, this one's a bit off topic. Not terribly I hope.)

          Don't worry. The witch hunt started by the #metoo movement will soon eliminate the last vestiges of critical thinking. #MeToo-style allegations used to oust popular University of Michigan professor [wsws.org]:

          Rubadeau is one of the most distinguished professors at the university, and is widely admired and even beloved by his students. In 2005, he received the Golden Apple Award, which is awarded to the most engaging and inspiring teachers at the university, based on student nominations.

          Rubadeau’s page on RateMyProfessor.com shows he has a perfect overall quality score of five. One student review there says, “If you like writing, cursing, blasphemy, having fun, and working your tail off, take this class. If you want to inspired to be your best self, take this class. If you value trust, friendship, and universal truths, take this class. English 425 with John was the best three hours of my week every week. I would follow John to the end of the earth.”

          ...According to the [anonymous] claimant..., Rubadeau has not even committed an offense which falls under the “mandatory reporting” provision of Title IX civil rights law. This means that Rubadeau has not engaged in discrimination, nor has he engaged in unfair treatment on the basis of sex or sexual harassment.

          This sordid episode validates the World Socialist Web Site’s analysis of the #MeToo movement—that it has become, among other things, a foul arena for the settling of various political, financial or professional scores and the source as well for an unknown number of personal tragedies.

    • (Score: 2) by Dr Spin on Wednesday October 10 2018, @09:14AM

      by Dr Spin (5239) on Wednesday October 10 2018, @09:14AM (#746880)

      Can we having an educated populace that can find the truth themselves, instead of needing it spoon fed to them by anyone?
      Not while you have the right to remain stupid, and a large part of the population that considers this their biggest priority.
      Note that the allies would not have won WW2* without massive amounts of lies and propaganda that would have been destroyed without censorship.

      * Well it might have been won two years later - opinions differ. (The UK might have staved to death before this).

      --
      Warning: Opening your mouth may invalidate your brain!

  • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday October 10 2018, @11:00AM

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday October 10 2018, @11:00AM (#746899) Journal

    Either you want governments and social media companies to combat this type of interference or you don't (and if you don't then don't complain when you get Trumps).

    Why exactly should I not complain?
    If I can tell a false dichotomy and call it out, why shouldn't I expect everyone to be able to do it?

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 10 2018, @12:59PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 10 2018, @12:59PM (#746926)

    Very seriously. Look at what they [wsws.org] say about this and then compare it with the official material referenced in the summary.

    Pretty 1:1 if you ask me.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 10 2018, @01:33PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 10 2018, @01:33PM (#746942)

    I'm a daily reader of World Socialist Web Site. What pulled me in is that they share my disdain for both of the major parties in the USA. They will slam Trump, and then they will slam Hillary. They slammed Kavanaugh, and then they promptly slammed Senator Hirono (D-HI) for her comments [wsws.org]¹.

    I'd say they tend to slam the Democratic Party more often than the Republican Party, but I think that is because the Democratic Party pretends to be advancing left-wing values when they are actually a pro-war pro-bankster pro-austerity right-wing abomination. The Republican Party doesn't tend to make such pretensions about what it is.

    ¹ "'Guess who’s perpetuating all of these kinds of actions? It’s the men in this country,' [Hirono] told a news conference. 'And I just want to say to the men in this country: Just shut up and step up.' There is nothing remotely progressive or democratic about smearing half the adult population of the United States over what may or may not have happened to a teenage girl 36 years ago."