Techdirt reports that the US embassy in Berlin has been offering to pay organisations to produce pro-TTIP propaganda.
If you haven't been following the TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) negotiations, that's no surprise given they are taking place in secret. The 'free trade' agreement negotiations are less to do with free trade and more about standardising issues like providing corporate sovereignty over national sovereignty, and ratcheting up copyright and patent laws in secret.
The key negotiators have long been complaining about "misinformation" being spread about this and other agreements [...] But instead of transparency, it appears that the US State Department has settled on another option: paying for propaganda.
No joke, the US Embassy in Berlin has apparently been tweeting out offers to give out between $5,000 and $20,000 to organizations willing to produce pro-TAFTA/TTIP propaganda.
Related Stories
Associate professor, David Eaves, writes about the essential role of the commodification of services in digital sovereignty. The questions to ask on the way to digital sovereignty are not as much about owning the stack but about the ability to move workloads. In other words, open standards for protocols, file formats, and more are the prerequisites. The same applies to the software supply chain. However, as we recently discussed here, PHK recently pointed out that Free and Open Source reference implementations would be of great benefit. Associate professor Eaves writes:
There is growing and valid concern among policymakers about tech sovereignty and cloud infrastructure. A handful of American hyperscalers — AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud — control the digital substrate on which modern economies run. This concentration is compounded by a US government increasingly willing to wield its digital industries as leverage. As French President Emmanuel Macron quipped: "There is no such thing as happy vassalage."
While some countries appear ready to concede market dominance in exchange for improved trade relations, others are exploring massive investments in public sector alternatives to the hyperscalers, advocating that billions, and possibly many many billions, be spent to on sovereign stack plans, and/or positioning local telecoms as alternatives to the hyperscalers.
Ironically, both strategies may increase dependency, limit government agency and increase economic and geopolitical risks — the very problems sovereignty seeks to solve. As Mike Bracken and I wrote earlier this year: "Domination by a local champion, free to extract rents, may be a path to greater autonomy, but it is unlikely to lead to increased competitiveness or greater global influence."
Any realistic path to increased agency will be expensive and take years. To be sustainable, it must focus on commoditizing existing solutions through interoperability and de facto standards that will broaden the market (and enable effective) national champions. This should be our north star and direction of travel. The metric for success should focus on making it as simple as possible to move data and applications across suppliers. Critically, this cannot be achieved by regulation alone, it will also require deft procurement and a willingness to accept de facto as opposed to ideal standards. The good news is governments have done this before. However, to succeed, it will require building the capacity to become market shapers and not market takers — thinking like electricity grids and railway gauges, not digital empires .
The essential role of commodities has been widely known and acknowledged for decades. We are in this situation because key companies and/or monopolies saw that long ago and were allowed to fight so hard all this time against ICT remaining as commodities. Sadly, the discussion about commodification probably peaked in the years just after the infamous Halloween Documents, particularly the first one. Eric S Raymond, author of The Cathedral and the Bazaar and early FOSS developer, published these leaked documents which covered potential strategies relating to M$ fight against free and open source software and, in particular, against Linux back in 1998. In retrospect these documents have turned out to be blueprints, used against FOSS and open standards by other companies as well.
Previously:
(2026) Sorry, Eh
(2026) Poul-Henning Kamp's Feedback to the EU on Digital Sovereignty
(2026) A Post-American, Enshittification-Resistant Internet
(2025) This German State Decides to Save €15 Million Each Year By Kicking Out Microsoft for Open Source
(2025) Why People Keep Flocking to Linux in 2025 (and It's Not Just to Escape Windows)
(2025) Microsoft Can't Guarantee Data Sovereignty – OVHcloud Says 'We Told You So'
(2014) US Offering Cash For Pro-TAFTA/TTIP Propaganda
(Score: 5, Interesting) by AnonTechie on Tuesday June 24 2014, @09:58AM
Wonderful, now Spam Companies have a new business opportunity, they can get paid by the US Embassy to spam !
Albert Einstein - "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
(Score: 2) by WizardFusion on Tuesday June 24 2014, @10:35AM
Why do they never learn.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by azrael on Tuesday June 24 2014, @10:43AM
Maybe they're learning the wrong things?
People will do anything for money...
Other people will believe anything they're told...
(Score: 4, Insightful) by choose another one on Tuesday June 24 2014, @11:18AM
They have learnt - that doing it this way gets them nice fat pay packets while negotiating, working with minimal/no review required, followed by nice fat pensions and/or nice fat consultancy engagements later, and with minimal hassle from those awkward media people and the nasty/smelly/poor ordinary people during the process.
What lesson was it you wanted them to learn again ?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by morgauxo on Tuesday June 24 2014, @12:55PM
So, who can come up with some propaganda that is pro TTIP on the surface and these guys will be fooled into buying but is really sarcasm that the public will see as anti-TTIP.
(Score: 2) by Rune of Doom on Tuesday June 24 2014, @01:50PM
Step 1: Shell Company
Step 2: Churn out some sarcastic 'pro-TAFTA/TITIP' propaganda
Step 3: Profit!!!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 24 2014, @02:08PM
Who needs sarcasm? Just write promotions for those who like anal sex telling them they can get what they need by turning their backs on the problems that can/will arise from TAFTA/TTIF, bending over, grabbing their ankles and waiting for the governments of the world to take care of them and their families and friends from cradle to grave. Relax and enjoy, government is there for you!
(Score: 1) by meisterister on Tuesday June 24 2014, @11:28PM
You forgot a step:
Step 2.5: ???
There you go.
(May or may not have been) Posted from my K6-2, Athlon XP, or Pentium I/II/III.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by gallondr00nk on Tuesday June 24 2014, @12:57PM
"TTIP - What you don't know can't hurt you"
I expect my payment promptly, thanks US.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Thexalon on Tuesday June 24 2014, @01:10PM
With TTIP, everyone will get rich, nobody will have to work ever again, and there will be sunshine, rainbows, motherhood, and apple pie! This will bring peace and prosperity never before seen to billions of people!
(Dear US State Department: I accept my $20,000 in cash or check.)
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 24 2014, @01:19PM
Is this what the USA thinks democracy means?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by JeanCroix on Tuesday June 24 2014, @02:16PM
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 24 2014, @02:46PM
"Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none." -- Thomas Jefferson
"Tis our policy to stay clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world." -- George Washington
"Alliance. In International politics, the union of two thieves who have their hands so deeply inserted in each other's pockets that they can not separately plunder a third." -- Ambrose Bierce
And the USA was never supposed to be a democracy but a democratic republic, many of those in the USA recognize its steady decline into tyranny though.
"When the tyrant has disposed of foreign enemies by conquest or treaty, and there is nothing more to fear from them, then he is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require a leader." -- Plato
There is nothing new under the sun after all, rinse and repeat.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 24 2014, @03:10PM
TTIP = Total Tyranny and Imperialism Pact?
(Score: 2, Insightful) by PinkyGigglebrain on Tuesday June 24 2014, @05:28PM
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/apr/21/americas-oligarchy-not-democracy-or-republic-unive/ [washingtontimes.com]
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Wednesday June 25 2014, @01:45AM
1) Start company
2) Spew badly under built propaganda
3) Get official recognition
4) Turn 180° and ruin your own propaganda and others
5) While also taking the credibility of the hand that gave credibility with you in a cesspool of distrust!
Pr0f1t?