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New Snowden Docs: British Spies Manipulate Polls and Pageview Counts, Censor Videos They Don't Like and Amplify Messages They Do
We've noted for years that the Pentagon and spy agencies manipulate the Internet - including social media - in order to promote false propaganda and to stifle dissenting information.
We've also discussed some of the methods used to game popularity on social media sites.
A new report from the Intercept adds to our understanding of these tactics:
The secretive British spy agency GCHQ has developed covert tools to seed the internet with false information, including the ability to manipulate the results of online polls, artificially inflate pageview counts on web sites, “amplif[y]” sanctioned messages on YouTube, and censor video content judged to be “extremist.” The capabilities, detailed in documents provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, even include an old standby for pre-adolescent prank callers everywhere: A way to connect two unsuspecting phone users together in a call.
The tools were created by GCHQ’s Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group (JTRIG), and constitute some of the most startling methods of propaganda and internet deception contained within the Snowden archive. Previously disclosed documents have detailed JTRIG’s use of “fake victim blog posts,” “false flag operations,” “honey traps” and psychological manipulation to target online activists, monitor visitors to WikiLeaks, and spy on YouTube and Facebook users.
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The “tools” have been assigned boastful code names. They include invasive methods for online surveillance, as well as some of the very techniques that the U.S. and U.K. have harshly prosecuted young online activists for employing, including “distributed denial of service” attacks and “call bombing.” But they also describe previously unknown tactics for manipulating and distorting online political discourse and disseminating state propaganda, as well as the apparent ability to actively monitor Skype users in real-time—raising further questions about the extent of Microsoft’s cooperation with spy agencies or potential vulnerabilities in its Skype’s encryption. Here’s a list of how JTRIG describes its capabilities:
• “Change outcome of online polls” (UNDERPASS)
• “Mass delivery of email messaging to support an Information Operations campaign” (BADGER) and “mass delivery of SMS messages to support an Information Operations campaign” (WARPARTH)
• “Disruption of video-based websites hosting extremist content through concerted target discovery and content removal.” (SILVERLORD)
• “Active skype capability. Provision of real time call records (SkypeOut and SkypetoSkype) and bidirectional instant messaging. Also contact lists.” (MINIATURE HERO)
• “Find private photographs of targets on Facebook” (SPRING BISHOP)
• “A tool that will permanently disable a target’s account on their computer” (ANGRY PIRATE)
• “Ability to artificially increase traffic to a website” (GATEWAY) and “ability to inflate page views on websites” (SLIPSTREAM)
• “Amplification of a given message, normally video, on popular multimedia websites (Youtube)” (GESTATOR)
• “Targeted Denial Of Service against Web Servers” (PREDATORS FACE) and “Distributed denial of service using P2P. Built by ICTR, deployed by JTRIG” (ROLLING THUNDER)
• “A suite of tools for monitoring target use of the UK auction site eBay (www.ebay.co.uk)” (ELATE)
• “Ability to spoof any email address and send email under that identity” (CHANGELING)
• “For connecting two target phone together in a call” (IMPERIAL BARGE)
NSA engages in the same types of dirty tricks.
We're not very confident that the spies are only going after actual bad guys and promoting the messages of the good guys, given that:
- Any criticism of government policies is considered "extremist" and potential terrorism
- Top NSA whistleblowers Bill Binney and Thomas Drake both say that the U.S. has become a police state
- They say that the U.S. government has become like the Stasis or Soviets, and Binney says that the NSA has become like “J. Edgar Hoover on super steroids”
- Mass surveillance isalways used to crush dissent
And see this.
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I said as much on MarketCrotch and, as usual, it got deleted.
MarketCrotch is among the purest forms of the new amerikan propaganda machine.
• as to MINIATURE HERO all I can say is "Paging Dr Freud....Dr. Sigmund Freud...You are needed on the bridge of the USS Enterprise"
Point taken - is there a law somewhere that says every covert operation has to have a cute/silly name?
From some of the names chosen - I gotta wonder if many of our secret operatives also have comic books stashed in their desks, and Star Wars figures on top of them.
@bilbert, the boys and girls at NASA do the same thing naming comets, galaxies etc (cute/silly names usually from cartoon characters).
Thanks as usual GW. This is probably obvious but maybe for me still bears repeating. More everyday, am glad I still have old snail books. Nothing, absolutely nothing online, including "free public education" is NOT a vehicle for manipulation. Old books were too in many respects, but now the ones in my hands cannot be re-written while I read them. Online material no matter how innocent seeming must be inspected carefully for manipulative changes. Let the buyer/consumer beware of any so-called free information ...we must be more careful than ever before.
This has been going on since Churchill's time with the OSA. It is more refined today.
Great Read: Churchill and Secret Service. Details Sir Winston's adventures with MI5, 6, etc thru the years. Great story when he suspected a Scots Lord using a searchlight to signal the Krauts. Turns out it was for spotting deer. Nevertheless, Winnie charged the turret of the guy's castle with a Mauser, scaring his comrades by trying to figure out how the loaded Mauser worked inside a crammed car, pointing the muzzle this way and that.
Corporations do this too. They even pay trolls. It's pretty comical.
so what's new?
They have moved on from James Bond to Austin Powers... and even then they prefer the plans of Dr. Evil.
No. 2: Why not use your knowledge of the future Dr. Evil, to play the stock markets? We could make trillions.
Dr. Evil: Why make a trillion when we could make... billions?
Here are these dastardly tactics in action:
http://deadspin.com/is-pete-carroll-a-9-11-truther-513149713/1292466293
Check out the comments section. It's blatantly obvious.
When it comes to interesting comments on how society is changing. In mid July of 2008 an article by James Grant appeared in the Wall Street Journal titled "Why No Outrage?". In the article Grant writes about how the turmoil and problems in the financial sector would in the past created a huge outpouring of anger from the public.
It seems that we are numb and powerless to respond, words like stupid and lazy come to mind. Silent and safe within the the huddled mass it is more comfortable to move with the crowd. The same noted Lack of outrage is being shown when it comes from the government manitulating the internet and social media. More on this subject in the article below.
http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2013/01/why-no-outrage.html
Govt. sanctioned Wall St. looters? pffttt.
I save my outrage for important stuff like gays, Mexicans, urban yoots, free birth control, lesbian truck drivers, people who say unkind things and global warming.
And goddam George Bush.
hmm. my last comment had 273 down arrows, and 2 up. clearly some unauthorized manipulation going on. can't believe anything on the internet anymore.
The way I see it is anyone against the system has kiddie porn on their computers and most likely they dont know about it lol
That would be one way to discredit someone publically. Especially if they are elected officials.
They can fabricate any kind of evidence against anyone anytime. But why bother = they can just bypass the whole judicial process, evidence be damned.
Face it. As the wealthy get more wealthy and you and your family get ever poorer then the levers of a democratic society start to become ever more dangerous to the elite.
Right now money can buy political outcomes that cater solely to the rich. But as the trend toward wealth consolidation continues and basic issues like filling one's stomach take center stage then individuals and organizations will step forward to lead revolts.
The NSA and the USA police state are gearing up for this inevitability.
The enemy of the future is the American people as they attempt to take back their democracy.
" The enemy of the future is the American people as they attempt to take back their democracy. "
what? are you from alternative universe or you just forget the sarc tag?
one can't just ignore SNAP and the stupidity of american sheeple. domestic military gear stockpiles are probably for the FreeShitArmy, as they will take over the USSA.
and they will be the majority so just hang on, you'll see some real democracy real soon.
if you dont have proof , you're a conspiracy theorist nutjob,
if you have proof, you're a traitor.
lol
The SCARY one is changeling.
They can send email using your address. Or insert it on your computer.
Like kiddie porn, if they really want you dead.
I had a discussion once with a district attorney about that very topic. He boasted about all of the people they had put away for the above. He was very upset when I asked him how he knew for a fact the person ruined was the person who put the material on the computers they found it on. His answer was "we look at the logs of course." Riiiiiight, that's all you need to ruin someone's life, ehh? Brilliant! Logs cannot possibly be faked of course, and obviously the person in question was definitely the one using the account that logged into the system.
well if I'm ever on a jury and any evidence from the prosecution that has come in contact with any internet connection what so ever will be discounted by me --automatic not guilty----
Ive been out there since Gordon Kahl. 40 years. Plus now, Jury Nullification. Now the Austrians and Libertarians.
Never once gotten jury duty.
Go figure.
Trust is a weakness and a vice. Trust in government, web statistics, polls, government statistics, government testimony from police/FBI/forensic experts, banks, or the government sycophant media is waning. OJ was acquitted, because the jury wanted to send a message about police testimony. Trust can become contagious distrust. Without trust control weakens. Distrust is a virtue.
Hmmm, could GW be a NSA plant to put out disinformation on the disinformation?
Hmmm, then you must be a disinfo plant spreading disinfo against the disinfo plant, who is spreading disinfo against the disinfo.
That was a joke, but I actually think that is the business model. It's so fucked up you don't know what to believe.
What a complete fucking waste of time and money.
Anyone else notice that this thread appears to have terminated early with far fewer than the normal cascade of comments?
Haha you expect people to say more when talking about you
Yes. By the look of it ,this topic didn't intereste anybody? I was expecting a torrent. It doesn't make sense.
There are some serious softballs here in this latest release! I mean stinging snowballs flying that will surely crush the status quo!
thanks GW, connecting dots is a full time job these days, no matter, the mind is under used..a little zen mix with common sense, and you can cut thru the bs..connecting dots..truth is it's own reward, but is always paid for. they never built a prison that can keep me.
Just plain evil.
There is ZERO honor in this, and we should treat EVERY PERSON involved with this as a barbarian thug.
NO HONOR for anyone involved.
Given the amount of obvious propaganda and lies on TV, in the papers etc. is anyone surprised by this?
Anger is the only sensible emotion here.
We already know that, they are all over this site.
What do you expect to happen when you give them all of the keys to all of the cars and all of the machines?
Much worse.
Be patient.
• “For connecting two target phone together in a call” (IMPERIAL BARGE)
In other words, producing phony phone logs which can then be used in a "court of law" against the target(s). So, why WERE you talking to those Jijhadis?
The legal system is just another cog in the dictators control machine.
It is not applied equally to all, which makes it worse than useless.
RIP rule of law.
Great point!
GW, I am confused. Am I still to believe those emails you have been sending me about plans to raise money for a covert militant libertarian agenda by selling semi-automatic weapons to Mexican drug cartels? Am I still supposed to meet you behind the mosque with a truckload of pressure cookers this weekend?
so GW works for HSBC???
Yes, but where are their badges?
http://youtu.be/VqomZQMZQCQ
Wow, you're just begging for a TSA fisting at the airport, aren't you?
Don't frame me, bro ...
Did you read the recent article were they were inviting tenders for software to detect irony, sarcasm etc.. so they don't confuse themeselves. This is happening.
Now, I am wondering if that email begging me to sell you raw milk for your suffering hyper-allergic child was really from you.
I am personally greatly comforted by the fact that this "crazy conspiracy stuff" as it was often called 5-10 years ago is now fully disclosed and out in the open. Anyone who refuses to accept the dark reality of our situation can either be educated via a handful of articles, or written off as a lost cause.
Too much fluoride/chlorine/bromine/prozac/zoloft/etc, not enough iodine, magnesium and other minerals creates brain dead zombies who no amount of facts will awaken.
I want Snowden to start telling us what the CIA does too. He has admitted he was an agent. If he is just dumping on the NSA then he is a CIA op against the NSA. Binney, Drake and Perkins (Confessions of an Economic Hit Man) are the real deal.
Snowden stuff being released by Wa Post and the Guardian make me even more skeptical. Watergate was the CIA dumping that story in Wa Post lap. Nixon started getting uppity about tariffs - that was when he crossed the line. Presidents who mention fiat money problems face harsher justice.
The Guardian is an Mi6 Red Shield paper. I don't trust Glen Greenwald or Pieere Omidar either.
One thing is certain: nothing has changed, and these revelations certainly achieve a degree of intimidation. It has already been noted that there is barely any outcry, so if you are one of the bad guys, weighing the pros and cons of a limited hangout....