SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
nobbis writes "In an article entitled 'How Covert Agents Infiltrate the Internet to Manipulate, Deceive, and Destroy Reputations' Glenn Greenwald publishes training material from the Snowden archive that illustrates how GCHQ uses "cyber-offensive techniques against people who have nothing to do with terrorism or national security threats", for example against "Hacktivism".
These techniques include disseminating deception on-line and harming the reputations of their targets with a honey trap , a blog from a purported victim of the target, or 'changing their photos on social media sites'. Similarly companies are discredited by leaking of confidential information, or posting negative information on appropriate forums. The covert agents' play book includes infiltration, false flag, disruption and sting operations.
When questioned GCHQ replied "It is a longstanding policy that we do not comment on intelligence matters""
(Score: 5, Interesting) by VLM on Tuesday February 25 2014, @08:57PM
My dumpy local newspaper website comments section is near 100% propaganda.
The funniest comments are not the .gov people but the hopelessly incompetent .com people, like local real estate agents trying to talk up some slum of crack dens into the next Beverly Hills, or apparently high school dropout employees of companies covered in a negative light obviously ordered by the boss to post something in support. Also comments from relatives of criminals are often beyond hilarious, although that's getting pretty far away from the .gov control theme.
Its worst around elections when the comments become exclusively paid political astroturfers from each side. Obviously paid piecework per post.
I don't think you need to bother to manufacture consent anymore if .com and .gov have merged and everything you see on TV comes from like 5 megacorps. So what GE wants, both NBC and .gov are going to agree with, for example.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by keplr on Tuesday February 25 2014, @09:30PM
My local (Southern California) newspaper website is full of comments by bigoted baby-boomers who hate taxes, Mexicans, young people, and especially young Mexicans using up their taxes.
I don't respond to ACs.