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Hawkish, gov’t funded think tank behind Twitter decision to delete thousands of Chinese accounts

Twitter’s decision came after close collaboration with a deeply controversial U.S. and Australian government-funded think tank that has been denounced by Australia’s former ambassador in Beijing as “the architect of the China threat theory in Australia.” by Alan Macleod  Part 3 - Big tech and the military industrial complex While the exposure of minor Chinese manipulation of social media has made headlines, the news that a senior Twitter executive was unmasked as an officer in a British Army brigade dedicated to online and psychological operations was roundly ignored. Only one mainstream outlet in the West covered the story at all, and that journalist was forced out only a few weeks later. Despite supposed foreign interference in social media becoming the number one story between 2016-2019, with many, including Hillary Clinton herself, arguing that Russia was responsible for Trump’s victory, concrete evidence of Western infiltration of these companies has garnered very

Project Venezuela: right-wing activists push Wikipedia to blacklist MintPress, other Alternative Media

A group of right-wing Venezuelans has managed to ban the use of a range of alternative media outlets covering Venezuela, including MintPress News. by Alan Macleod  Part 3 - A tool to propagate the biases of the ruling elite While the popular view of Wikipedia is that it is a collective public undertaking that anyone and everyone can add to, in reality, the online encyclopedia has come to mirror the inequalities present in society.  The more edits you do, the more power, prestige and influence you accrue, allowing individuals to wield unreasonable power over the world’s 13th most visited website. A class of powerful editors has emerged, who spend hours every day editing and changing content how they see fit. There are strong suspicions that governments and other wealthy organizations are paying people – or teams of people using the same account – to moderate the site full-time, and these power users openly advertise their services to corporations or other groups who

Meet Wikipedia’s Ayn Rand-loving founder and Wikimedia Foundation’s regime-change operative CEO

Wikipedia has become a bulletin board for corporate and imperial interests under the watch of its Randian founder, Jimmy Wales, and the veteran US regime-change operative who heads the Wikimedia Foundation, Katherine Maher. by Ben Norton and Max Blumenthal Part 3 - The Wikimedia Foundation’s Katherine Maher: US regime-change operative with deep corporate links Jimmy Wales and the Wikimedia Foundation claim to have little power over the encyclopedia itself, but it is widely known that this is just PR. Wikimedia blew the lid off this myth in 2015 when it removed a community-elected member of its board of trustees, without explanation. At the time of this scandal, the Wikimedia Foundation’s board of trustees included a former corporate executive at Google, Arnnon Geshuri, who was heavily scrutinized for shady hiring practices. Geshuri, who also worked at billionaire Elon Musk’s company Tesla, was eventually pressured to step down from the board. But just a year later,

Trump's "brigades" are ready to start a civil war in case he loses November's election

globinfo freexchange Signs show an extremely explosive situation now in the America of Donald Trump.  Starting with the murder of George Floyd, we witness almost in daily basis some very disturbing incidents, which unveil a deeply divided society that was hiding for decades behind the "American dream" facade. As the facade now rapidly collapses, due to a major financial crisis and a pandemic, in less than fifteen years, the reality looks terrifying. In a latest incident, Common Dreams reported that members of a far right militia group were arrested Monday evening in Albuquerque after a standoff at a statue of a notoriously brutal conquistador in the New Mexico city turned violent with a demonstrator advocating for the removal of the monument shot and sent to the hospital. As dusk fell, demonstrators began attempting to pull the monument down from its pedestal on the Albuquerque Museum grounds. At that point, members of the New Mexico Civil Guard militia gro

The Spanish Right wants to create another Venezuela

Ever since the PSOE and Unidas Podemos formed a governing coalition in January, Spain’s right-wing opposition has denied its democratic legitimacy. Calls for police mutiny and resistance against the COVID-19 lockdown show how the Spanish right is imitating its Latin American counterparts, seeking to create a climate of chaos that can bring down the government. by Iker Itoiz Ciáurriz  Part 4 - Spain Post-COVID-19 These two strategies of anti-lockdown resistance and the legal assault on the government have gone hand in hand. But more importantly, the PP-Vox offensive has tapped into strong opposition to the government’s plans coming from the IBEX 35 — the alliance of Spain’s thirty-five biggest companies. In particular, the IBEX 35 oppose plans to replace the current Labor Law, a document approved in 2012 amid the last economic crisis. This law represented not only a symbol of the austerity imposed on Spain by the European Union, but also accelerated the precaritization

Η «λίστα Πέτσα» και η εξαγορά της μιντιακής προπαγάνδας

της Μαρίνας Αλεξανδρή Οι «νόμιμοι ιδιοκτήτες της χώρας» συνελήφθησαν – για δεύτερη φορά μετά τα vouchers του Βρούτση – με την γίδα στην πλάτη: Ο κυβερνητικός εκπρόσωπος Στέλιος Πέτσας, στο πλαίσιο της επικοινωνιακής εκστρατείας για τον κορονοϊό, διένειμε 20 εκατομμύρια ευρώ σε περίπου 1.200 μέσα μαζικής ενημέρωσης που περιλαμβάνουν  από τα κανάλια εθνικής εμβέλειας και τις μεγαλύτερες εφημερίδες έως τα sites του… Φουρθιώτη, ανύπαρκτες και ανενεργές ιστοσελίδες και τοπικά media πολιτευτών και «φίλων της ΝΔ. Εως εδώ η υπόθεση κινείται στα όρια της αδιαφάνειας, της (μη) πολιτικής ηθικής και του παλαιοκομματισμού. Από την στιγμή όμως που επίσης ο κ. Πέτσας, παρά τα επαναλαμβανόμενα αιτήματα σύσσωμης της αντιπολίτευσης, αρνείται να δώσει στην δημοσιότητα τα ποσά και τα κριτήρια με τα οποία μοιράστηκε σε κάθε μέσο το δημόσιο χρήμα, η υπόθεση μπορεί να άπτεται πια και των ορίων του νόμου. Το ερώτημα, δηλαδή, δεν είναι μόνον εάν τα χρήματα των ελλήνων φορολογουμένων διατέθηκαν με όρου

Πόρισμα του ΕΟΠΥΥ «καίει» τον σύζυγο της Ράικου

Πόρισμα υπηρεσίας του ΕΟΠΥΥ σύμφωνα με το οποίο ο γιατρός σύζυγος της εισαγγελέως Ελένης Ράικου φέρεται να προέβη σε κατευθυνόμενη συνταγογράφηση, ζημιώνοντας το δημόσιο κατά 1,5 εκατομμύρια ευρώ, εστάλη στην προανακριτική επιτροπή της βουλής για να συσχετισθεί με την έρευνα που διενεργεί για την υπόθεση Novartis. Σύμφωνα με πληροφορίες ,το πόρισμα που εστάλη ήδη από την επικεφαλής της Εισαγγελίας κατά της Διαφθοράς Ελένη Τουλουπάκη, στην προανακριτική, συνέταξε η ΥΠΕΔΥΦΚΑ (Υπηρεσία Ελέγχου Δαπανών Υγείας Φορέων Κοινωνικής Ασφάλισης) του ΕΟΠΥΥ, και –σύμφωνα με τις ίδιες πηγές– στο πλαίσιο ελέγχων διαπίστωσε ότι υπήρξε εκ μέρους του συγκεκριμένου γιατρού κατευθυνόμενη συνταγογράφηση προσδιορίζοντας το ύψος της εκτιμώμενης ζημίας για το δημόσιο σε περίπου 1,7 εκατ. ευρώ. Κατά τις ίδιες πληροφορίες, οι ελεγκτές διαπιστώνουν ότι ο συγκεκριμένος γιατρός από τους 1.033 ασθενείς για τους οποίους εξέδωσε σχετικές συνταγές, είχε εξετάσει μόνο τους 5 από αυτούς. [...] Σημειώνεται

Τα «ellinika hoaxes» παραδέχθηκαν πως διέδωσαν fake news

Με μισή καρδιά τα γνωστά «ellinika hoaxes» αναγκάστηκαν να παραδεχθούν πως υπέπεσαν σε λάθος και χαρακτήρισαν ως fake news κάτι αληθές. Με απλά λόγια πως διέδωσαν fake news μέσω της ιστοσελίδας τους και μέσω του facebook. Οι ειδησεογραφικές σελίδες που είχαν γράψει για την κατάργηση των καλλιτεχνικών μαθημάτων και της μουσικής στην Δευτεροβάθμια Εκπαίδευση από την Νίκη Κεραμέως έλαβαν το μήνυμα πως διαδίδουν ψεύδη. [...] Η σπουδή όμως των «ellinika hoaxes» να υπερασπιστούν την κυβέρνηση ήταν πολύ βραχύβια καθώς οι αντιδράσεις ήταν έντονες.  Πέραν της λεπτομέρειας πως δεν υπήρξε κατάργηση στο Γυμνάσιο αλλά στο Λύκειο, οι ιστοσελίδες αντέδρασαν έντονα, ζητήθηκε επίσημη τοποθέτηση και από την ΕΣΗΕΑ, ενώ υπήρξε μεγάλη αντίδραση από τους χρήστες του διαδικτύου και ιδιαίτερα από την εκπαιδευτική κοινότητα. Δεν είχαν άλλη επιλογή τα «ellinika hoaxes» από το να πάρουν πίσω τον χαρακτηρισμό, δεν έγινε ωστόσο καμία ειδοποίηση προς τους χρήστες που είχαν λάβει τον προηγούμενο

As the pandemic subsides, Greeks will soon want answers on public finances

As the country reopens its borders, a series of opaque government contracts is beginning to ring alarm bells by Apostolis Fotiadis To the outside world, Greece has had a relatively successful experience with the Covid-19 pandemic. In early March, the prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis – of the rightwing New Democracy party – and his administration grasped the risks the virus posed to a country with a decimated public health system. They imposed a tough lockdown early, which saved lives. Greece has counted 3,121 cases and 183 deaths. And, after more than three months of relative isolation, the country has just opened its borders to tourists. But there is another side to this apparent success story. It has also become increasingly clear that the Mitsotakis government is using the emergency as a pretext to rush through highly opaque and questionable public-finance deals. A series of revelations have dented the government’s reputation. And while the economy teeters on a kn

Hong Kong’s ‘pro-democracy’ movement allies with far-right US politicians that seek to crush Black Lives Matter

As a Hong Kong protest leader promotes far-right condemnations of US anti-racism demonstrations and activists shut down a Black Lives Matter rally in the city, Hong Kong organizers forge close ties with hardline Republicans in Washington. by Ajit Singh Part 2 - Hong Kong “pro-democracy” leader denounces George Floyd protests As Dan Cohen reported for The Grayzone , Jimmy Lai is a billionaire media tycoon widely referred to as “ the Rupert Murdoch of Asia ” who is a major financial and media backer of Hong Kong’s protest movement. In addition to pouring millions of dollars into Hong Kong’s opposition in recent years, the self-described “ head of opposition media ” and founder of the anti-government Apple Daily tabloid has provided protesters with “ unswervingly favorable coverage, ” according to The New York Times . Lai has received glowing coverage in the US and Western media, with the oligarch often being praised as a “ ‘troublemaker’ with a clean conscience ” wh