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Tech investors organize to silence pro-Palestinian voices

The Cradle | December 9, 2023

A group of pro-Israeli tech investors and executives in California’s Silicon Valley are seeking to influence media coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza and “combat the slightest deviations from the pro-Israel script,” a new investigation by journalists Lee Fang and Jack Poulsen shows.

The investors and executives have joined with pro-Israeli activists and Israeli government officials to terminate pro-Palestinian employees at multi-national corporations from their jobs, smear Palestinian journalists, cancel speaking events at US universities by Palestinian writers and politicians, remove social media posts critical of Israel, “ridicule” pro-Palestinian social media influencers and lawmakers, and send military equipment to Israeli forces.

The Following Hamas’ 7 October attack on Israeli military bases and settlements surrounding Gaza, the group formed a WhatsApp group to coordinate their activities.

The WhatsApp group, officially named the “J-Ventures Global Kibbutz Group,” is a project of J-Ventures, a US-Israeli investment fund.

The journalists obtained access to thousands of the group’s WhatsApp messages dating back to mid-October showing the group’s efforts to help Israel in its public relations war, in particular as Israel’s killing of Palestinians in Gaza quickly reached shocking levels, resulting in harsh international condemnation.

They described how members of the group coordinated on WhatsApp to have Courtney Carey, a Dublin-based employee of the Israeli website building company Wix, fired. Carey posted the Irish words “SAOIRSE DON PHALAISTIN” which means, “Freedom for Palestine” on her LinkedIn page, and was terminated 24 hours later.

The group includes prominent Silicon Valley venture capitalist Jeff Epstein – a former CFO of Oracle – and Andy David, a diplomat-cum-venture capitalist who also serves as the Israeli foreign ministry’s head of innovation, entrepreneurship, and tech.

Adam Fisher, the head of the Israel office of Bessemer Venture Partners, gave a presentation to the group on how US “high-tech leaders, investors, and entrepreneurs,” such as himself, could help the Israeli army win the “information war” on social media.

The Israel-based venture capitalist spoke of how to “sow doubt” among young people in the US sympathetic to the Palestinian cause so they would not speak out or attend protests against Israel’s killing of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. “So it’s really about creating some kind of confusion,” Fisher said,” to make it clear to them that it’s really a lot more complicated.”

The group also petitioned Netflix to remove the award-winning Jordanian film “Farha,” claiming that its accurate portrayal of the actions of Israeli soldiers during the 1948 massacre and forced displacement of Palestinians constituted “blood libel,” while another said the film was based “antisemitism and lies.”

J-Ventures documents and affiliated WhatsApp discussions also show support for a variety of automated attempts to remove pro-Palestinian content on social media, including via DigitalDome.io, an initiative that promotes itself as an online version of Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system, promising that “offensive and malicious content is intercepted here.”

Digital Dome’s “recent achievements” included the censorship of Hamas’s channels on the Telegram communications platform using Android phones and the removal of pro-Palestinian content from Instagram and Twitter/X.

Members of the WhatsApp group successfully lobbied to have speaking events of Palestinian-US Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib and Palestinian writer for the Nation Magazine, Mohamed al-Kurd, canceled.

The group circulated a push poll suggesting Representative Tlaib should resign from Congress.

Finally, the group has also attempted to provide tactical gear to Israel’s equivalent of the US Navy SEALs, known as Shayetet-13, and donated to a foundation dedicated to supporting the Israeli army’s undercover “Duvdevan” unit, which is known for assassinating Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

December 9, 2023 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Deception, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Full Spectrum Dominance | , , , , | Leave a comment

If The Pro-Israel Position Was Based On Truth And Morality, It Wouldn’t Depend On Lies And Slander

By Caitlin Johnstone | December 8, 2023

If your position is based on truth and morality, you don’t need to make up lies to defend it, and you don’t need to hurl false accusations at those who disagree with it.

If your position was based on truth and morality, you wouldn’t need to circulate bogus atrocity propaganda about decapitated babies, babies cooked in ovens, and murdered pregnant women.

If your position was based on truth and morality, you wouldn’t have to circulate lies claiming actual dead Palestinian babies in Gaza are plastic dolls.

If your position was based on truth and morality, you wouldn’t have to falsely present phony audio clips as intercepted Hamas communications and claim they exonerate you of war crime allegations.

If your position was based on truth and morality, you wouldn’t have to circulate lies and propaganda about the hospitals you plan to attack being secret Hamas headquarters.

If your position was based on truth and morality, your official government social media accounts wouldn’t have to keep deleting posts after getting caught circulating lie after lie.

If your position was based on truth and morality, you wouldn’t have to circulate amazingly cringey propaganda videos like Israeli children singing about how great it will be to destroy Gaza and Israeli women doing yoga over the pictures of Israeli hostages.

If your position was based on truth and morality, you wouldn’t find yourself engaged in bizarre mental contortions trying to pretend history began on October 7 while sweeping all the mountains of murder and abuse which led up to it under the carpet.

If your position was based on truth and morality, you wouldn’t have to keep pointing at something that happened months ago to defend what you’ve been doing in the present moment in all the days since.

If your position was based on truth and morality, you wouldn’t need to resort to hurling false accusations of anti-semitism at those who criticize your side instead of producing robust counter-arguments.

If your position was based on truth and morality, you wouldn’t need to resort to accusing those who disagree with you of supporting terrorism and serving Hamas instead of defending your position like a normal adult.

If your position was based on truth and morality, you wouldn’t need to lie and claim that longstanding pro-Palestine slogans are actually calls for the genocide of Jews to try and get them silenced.

If your position was based on truth and morality, you wouldn’t feel the need to censor and silence everyone who disagrees with you online, on college campuses, and on all platforms of major influence.

If your position was based on truth and morality, you would get curious and do some self-examination when young people overwhelmingly reject that position instead of insisting that the young people are the problem and trying to kill TikTok and outlaw demonstrations.

If your position was based on truth and morality you would be defending it with facts, logic and rational argumentation instead of vitriol, online troll mobs and incendiary false accusations.

If your position is based in truth and morality, you can defend it in a truthful and moral way, instead of the exact opposite.

December 9, 2023 Posted by | Deception, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Full Spectrum Dominance, Timeless or most popular | , , | Leave a comment

Demands for journalists to be allowed into Gaza

MEMO | December 8, 2023

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has demanded Egypt and Israel open the Rafah border crossing, the only outlet connecting the besieged Gaza Strip with the outside world, so that journalists can enter the besieged and cover Israel’s genocidal bombing campaign.

Journalists in the Strip should also be allowed to leave, should they wish to, RSF added.

“The Rafah crossing into Egypt is currently the Gaza Strip’s only connection to the outside world. However, Israel is monitoring all activity at the southern border and bombed the crossing four times early in the war,” RSF said in a statement yesterday.

“‘Open the gates!’ This is the call that RSF is issuing to the Israeli, as well as Egyptian authorities so that journalists can finally come and go across the border between Gaza and Egypt,” the statement said, explaining that with few exceptions, no journalists have been allowed to leave Gaza since 7 October, and the few who have been able to leave have not been allowed back.

Journalists who have been able to enter the Gaza Strip have been embedded with the Israeli army, and submitted to strict restrictions.

“Palestinian journalists are literally imprisoned in the Gaza Strip, from which they cannot escape to safety. This violates UN Security Council Resolution 2222, which requires member states to protect journalists like other civilians.”

At least 75 Palestinian journalists and media workers have been killed as a result of Israel’s bombing of Gaza over the past two months, the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate revealed this week.

December 8, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Full Spectrum Dominance, War Crimes | , , , | Leave a comment

Martyrdom of Dr. Refaat Al-Areer, the PIC social media founder and manager

Palestinian Information Center | December 8, 2023

The Palestinian Information Center (PIC) mourns with grief and pride Dr. Refaat Al-Areer (Abu Omar) one of the pillars of the PIC English language site and the founder and manager of its social media department.

Abu Omar was killed along with his brother, sister and her four children in an Israeli shelling that targeted her house in Gaza City in yet another proof of the barbarity of the Israeli genocidal campaign on the Gaza Strip that has been ongoing for more than two months.

Dr. Refaat was an English language professor in the Islamic University that was destroyed in the barbaric Israeli aggression and whose rector was also killed by Israeli shelling along with his family.

The martyr was distinguished for advocating the Palestine cause at various western and international media platforms. He wrote a book about Gaza titled “Gaza Writes Back” in the English language and had numerous notable interviews with western media outlets.

While mourning our academic and media expert colleague Abu Omar, we strongly condemn Israel’s escalating targeting of reporters and journalists in a bid to cover up its army’s crimes that have violated and continue to violate all human rights laws and doctrines.

We further call on international human rights institutions worldwide to adopt whatever is necessary to protect journalists and enable them to do their job without hindrances or harassment. We also call on world organizations concerned with protecting journalists to condemn the premeditated Israeli targeting of journalists and deliberate targeting of Palestinian civilians. We also call for bringing all those responsible for such crimes to justice.

75 Palestinian journalists have so far been killed and 80 others were injured while two are still missing due to the Israeli aggression on Gaza Strip that started on October 7.

December 8, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Full Spectrum Dominance, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

Democrat congressman has ‘no evidence’ to back up ‘wild’ Hunter Biden laptop scheme

Sky News Australia | December 4, 2023

‘Twitter Files’ co-author Michael Shellenberger says Democrat Congressman Dan Goldman has “no evidence” to back up his “wild conspiracy theory” about the Hunter Biden laptop scandal.

Mr Goldman tried to regurgitate claims to Mr Shellenberger that the laptop’s contents could have been manipulated by Rudy Guiliani or the Russians.

Mr Shellenberger testified to the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponisation of the Federal Government last week about the existence of a “Censorship Industrial Complex” which, he says, includes the Department of Homeland Security, big tech companies and government contractors.

“The Democrats the whole time were saying that’s just a conspiracy theory, and here we were presenting them with files – and it’s Twitter files, Facebook files … like actual documents,” Mr Shellenberger told Sky News Australia host Rita Panahi.

“Then he goes and presents this wild conspiracy theory for which there has never been any evidence and there has only been evidence going the other way.

“When the New York Post published that article … they provided not only the computer store signature of Hunter Biden on the receipt left at the computer store repair shop he left the laptop at and the New York Post published the FBI subpoena for the laptop from him.

“Twitter’s own internal staff evaluated the New York Post article and they said there’s no evidence that this was the result of a Russian hack and leak operation.

“To have a sitting member of Congress, over three years later, continue to perpetuate a conspiracy theory without any evidence … that is literally the definition of conspiracy theorising.”

December 7, 2023 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance, Russophobia, Science and Pseudo-Science, Timeless or most popular, Video | , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Israel revokes UN humanitarian coordinator’s visa for ‘not condemning Hamas’

The Cradle | December 6, 2023

Israel’s Foreign Minister Eli Cohen announced on 5 December the state’s decision to revoke the resident visa of UN humanitarian coordinator Lynn Hastings.

“We will no longer be silent in the face of the bias of the UN!” the foreign minister said via social media. “I decided to revoke the residence visa to Israel of the UN humanitarian coordinator Lynn Hastings.” 

“Someone who did not condemn Hamas for the brutal massacre of 1,200 Israelis, for the kidnapping of babies and the elderly and for the horrific acts of abuse and rape, and for using the residents of Gaza as human shields, but instead condemns Israel, a democratic country that protects its citizens, cannot serve in the UN and cannot enter Israel!” Cohen’s social media statement continued.

The Israeli foreign minister’s remarks came on the heels of comments made by Hastings, in which she voiced concern for the Palestinian people after Israel resumed indiscriminate attacks on residential neighborhoods, hospitals, and UN shelters.

“Nowhere is safe in Gaza, and there is nowhere left to go,” Hasting’s statement read. “The conditions required to deliver aid to the people of Gaza do not exist. If possible, an even more hellish scenario is about to unfold, one in which humanitarian operations may not be able to respond.”

Israel’s UN envoy, Gilad Erdan, had also voiced his condemnation of the organization’s view regarding the war between Israel and Palestinian resistance. 

“There is no justification or point in talking to those who show compassion for the most terrible atrocities committed against the citizens of Israel and the Jewish people. There are simply no words,” Erdan said on social media. 

Cohen had also voiced his displeasure in October to a UN-fronted ceasefire despite Hamas being open to such a resolution. 

“We reject outright the [UNGA]’s despicable call for a ceasefire,” Israel Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said. “Israel intends to eliminate Hamas just as the world dealt with the Nazis and ISIS.”

December 6, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Full Spectrum Dominance | , | Leave a comment

German state requires would-be nationals to express support for Israel

MEMO | December 6, 2023

Individuals applying for naturalisation in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt are now mandated to express their endorsement of Israel’s right to exist, announced Minister Tamara Zieschang in Magdeburg.

The directive, issued by the Ministry of the Interior to districts and independent cities last month, emphasises the acknowledgement of Israel’s right to exist as a matter of national significance for Germany, according to the decree obtained by the German Press Agency.

The document states: “Obtaining German citizenship requires a commitment to Israel’s right to exist.”

Moreover, as part of the naturalisation process, applicants are required to provide a written statement immediately before the finalisation of their naturalisation, stating that they acknowledge Israel’s right to exist and denounce any attempts aimed at challenging the existence of the state of Israel.

When considering naturalisation, Zieschang emphasised the importance of assessing “whether there are indications that anti-Semitic attitudes are present.”

The letter to local authorities clarifies that naturalisation is not an option for individuals engaging in activities that oppose the principles of the free democratic system, including anti-Semitic offences or the rejection of Israel’s right to exist.

The decree instructs local authorities to define the precise language of the declaration. Should applicants decline to provide such a statement, the issuance of the naturalisation certificate is prohibited. This refusal must be duly documented in the file, leading to the rejection of the naturalisation application.

The decree advises local authorities to “specify” the language used in the declaration,  reported the German Press Agency. Failure by applicants to provide this declaration may result in the withholding of the naturalisation certificate. According to the letter, such cases should be duly recorded in the file, leading to the rejection of the naturalisation application.

The move comes after a new poll revealed last month that the German government’s pro-Israel stance on the Gaza war is not supported by the public.

The poll by the Allensbach Institute found that the majority of Germans are against taking sides in the Israel-Palestine conflict, and strongly oppose providing military support to Israel.

Some 43 per cent of those surveyed said Germany should stay out of the conflict, and only 34 per cent said they agree with the view that Germany bears special responsibility for Israel due to its Nazi past.

Since 7 October, Israel, supported by the United States and Europe, has been waging a devastating war on the Gaza Strip, causing massive destruction and tens of thousands of civilian casualties, most of them children, in addition to an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe, according to official Palestinian and UN sources.

December 6, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Full Spectrum Dominance | , , | Leave a comment

Dying to be free: Releasing Palestinian captives is not a numbers game

By Ramzy Baroud | MEMO | December 5, 2023

There is a reason why Palestinians are keen on releasing their prisoners, despite the heavy price they continue to pay for their freedom.

It may seem rational to ask the question: what is the point of releasing a few Palestinian detainees from Israeli prisons, if the price of doing so is the death of over 15,000 Palestinians in Gaza?

In fact, even if all Palestinian prisoners – numbering about 7,000 – are released, they would not even amount to 30 per cent of the total number of Palestinian dead and missing, so far, in the ongoing Israeli genocide in the Strip.

The logic may sound even more puzzling when we consider that, between 7 October and 28 November, Israel detained over 3,290 Palestinians in the Occupied West Bank and Occupied East Jerusalem.

Namely, the number of Palestinian women and children detainees released – following several prisoner swaps between the Palestinian resistance and the Israeli army, in the period between 24-30 November – is insignificant compared to those who were detained over the same period.

But mathematical equations are irrelevant in liberation wars. Because if we resort to this kind of logic, then, perhaps, it is more rational for colonised nations and oppressed groups not to resist in the first place, because doing so could multiply the harm inflicted upon them by their colonisers and oppressors.

While Israelis see their captives, whether civilians or military, held in Gaza in terms of numbers, Palestinians approach the issue from an entirely different perspective.

All Palestinians are captives, according to the reality on the ground, because all Palestinians are victims of Israeli colonialism, military occupation and apartheid. The difference between being a prisoner in Megiddo, Ofer or Ramleh prison, for example, and being a prisoner in an isolated, walled-off Palestinian town under Israeli military occupation in Area C in the West Bank, is rather technical.

True, those in Megiddo are subjected to more violence, torture even. They are denied proper food, medicine, and the freedom to move about. But how is that fundamentally different from the incarceration of 2.3 million people living in Gaza now?

Some would even argue that living in Gaza during a time of genocide is more confining and far less safe than being a political prisoner in Israel, under ‘normal’ circumstances.

So clearly, the issue is not related to numbers, but to power relations.

Under international law, Israel is the Occupying Power. This entitles Israel to certain rights per, for example, the Fourth Geneva Convention, but also numerous responsibilities. For decades, Israel has abused those ‘rights’ and completely ignored all its responsibilities. Over the same period, Palestinians have appealed to – even implored – the international community to enforce international law on Israel, unsuccessfully.

This was illustrated in the pitiful display by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas during a speech at the United Nations General Assembly on 15 May. “Protect us,” he said, repeatedly, before making an analogy between Palestinians and animals. “Aren’t we human beings? Even animals should be protected. If you have an animal, won’t you protect it? Protect us!”

Most Palestinians know well that the US, West-dominated international institutions will not provide protection for Palestinians based on any kind of moral rationale or even their love for animals.

This realisation dawned on Palestinians generations ago, when the international community failed to enforce a single UN resolution on Israel. Regarding the ongoing Gaza genocide, it proved particularly irrelevant, to the extent that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres pronounced it outright when he said, on 8 November, that the UN has neither “money nor power” to prevent genocide in Gaza.

Guterres and other top UN officials must be aware of the marginal role that the international community is able to play in the Israeli war on Gaza because of the strong US stance in support of Israel. As long as Washington continues to serve the role of the vanguard of Israeli war crimes in Palestine, Tel Aviv has no reason to stop.

So, Palestinians do what every other occupied, colonised people did in this situation. They resist. Through their resistance, they hope to introduce a new factor to a long-skewed equation, largely controlled by Israel and its Western allies.

By releasing their prisoners, as a direct result of their own resistance, Palestinians are, therefore, able to influence outcomes. It means that they are political agents; in fact, political actors who can redefine the rules of the game altogether.

Indeed, Palestinians approach the issue of prisoners as part of a larger campaign of liberation struggle. Those who can free 100, or 7,000 detainees would, then, set an historical precedent that would, eventually, allow them to free the whole Palestinian people.

Israel is fully aware of the power and representation of the prisoners’ issue because Israel imprisons Palestinians as an expression of power and control over every aspect of Palestinian lives. Though some of the Palestinian detainees are considered, in the eyes of Israel, ‘security prisoners’, many were detained for social media posts, for WhatsApp status, or for no reason at all.

Many Palestinian women were detained for visiting the families of other prisoners, or for mourning the deaths of Palestinian youths killed by Israel. Israel detained these women for the same reason that far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir had outlawed the rights of Palestinians to celebrate their children’s freedom.

Specifically, Israel wants to control every aspect of Palestinian lives – their actions, real or symbolic, but even their anger, their joy and all other emotions.

When Palestinians are released through prisoner exchanges, they emerge, proudly and with heads held high, from Israeli dungeons, despite the numerous obstacles, restrictions and Israel’s insistence on keeping all Palestinian captives. For Palestinians, this is an unparalleled victory.

So, no, this is not a numbers game. Though every Palestinian individual matters, whether those being killed in Gaza, or those held captive in Israeli prisons, for Palestinians all issues are linked to one single project called liberation.

It is for this coveted collective freedom that Palestinians have fought, generation after generation, whatever the cost of death, imprisonment and perpetual captivity.

December 5, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Full Spectrum Dominance, Solidarity and Activism, Subjugation - Torture | , , , | Leave a comment

Google removes Israel boycott app

MEMO | December 5, 2023

Google has removed a mobile app from its store that helps people boycott companies linked to Israel.

The @NoThanks boycott account on social media confirmed that its NoThanks app was temporarily removed because its description contained a sentence about determining if “your hand supports killing children in Palestine or not.”

“The app has been suspended from the Google store for this sentence, I have removed it in the new update and the store will review it and release it again.”

However the new version was also suspended, but the developer is in talks with Google Play to have it reinstated.

“This app,” NoThanks explained on X, “is a peaceful form of protest, and it’s essential to clarify that the app is not antisemitic, despite attempts by other certain news and reports to describe it as such.”

The creator of the NoThanks boycott app revealed on 7 November that it will assist individuals in identifying companies that support Israel by scanning product barcodes to obtain information about the product’s origins and the company selling it.

By 29 November, the app had been downloaded over 100,000 times on Google Play. Earlier today, the developer said emails had now been circulated calling for him to be sacked from his internship for trying to harm “businesses run by Jews”, according to the author of the email.

December 5, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Full Spectrum Dominance, Solidarity and Activism | , , , , | Leave a comment

More Journalists Killed as Israel Resumes Military Operations in Gaza

By Kyle Anzalone | The Libertarian Institute | December 4, 2023

At least three Palestinian journalists have been killed in the Israeli onslaught in Gaza since Tel Aviv broke a truce and resumed military operations on Friday. Human rights groups have described the dozens of dead journalists in the besieged enclave as unprecedented.

Anthony Bellanger, the general secretary of the International Federation of Journalists, told the Associated Press that three or four journalists have been killed in Gaza since Friday. He said, “Unfortunately, we received the bad news this weekend — after the end of this cease-fire — and at least three or four were killed.”

Tel Aviv told Reuters and Agence France Presse that Israel could not ensure the safety of their reporters in Gaza.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reports over 50 journalists have been killed in Gaza since Israel began military operations following the October 7 Hamas attack. Three other reporters are missing, and 11 have been injured. Additionally, five Israeli journalists were killed on October 7, and Tel Aviv’s military operations in southern Lebanon killed three reporters.

Israel has also cracked down on journalists in other areas. At least 19 reporters have been arrested.

Bellanger said the killing of journalists in Gaza is unlike what has occurred in other war zones. “In a war, you know, a classical war, I can say that in Syria, in Iraq, in ex-Yugoslavia, we didn’t see this kind of massacre,” he explained.

CPJ says the war in Gaza produced the deadliest month for journalists since the group began keeping count. “The Israel-Gaza war has taken a severe toll on journalists… which has led to the deadliest month for journalists since CPJ began gathering data in 1992,” a statement from the group said.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) warned journalism was being eradicated in Gaza. The group said, “Journalism is in the process of being eradicated in the Gaza Strip as a result of Israel’s refusal to heed calls to protect media personnel.”

December 4, 2023 Posted by | Full Spectrum Dominance, War Crimes | , , , | Leave a comment

Glenn Greenwald explains how threats to ban TikTok are part of the effort to expand US censorship through big tech

By Adam Dick | Ron Paul Institute | December 3, 2023

Five years back, technology companies were hitting their stride with cracking down on alternative voices. That crackdown has continued over the ensuing years. Further, evidence has increasingly been revealed that fills out the story of how United States government agents have behind the scenes been pushing the crackdown.

Given this context, one is wise to be skeptical of politicians and bureaucrats of the US government, along with their media allies, clamoring that TikTok needs to be banned because it is spreading propaganda for the government of China. It sure sounds like a fox guarding the henhouse sort of situation. Is the US taking a break from its censorship fixation to defend Americans from censorship here? Isn’t a more likely explanation for this talk of banning TikTok that making this threat is part of an effort to further bring this social media company into the US propagandizing operation — that the US government is seeking to advance its own interests, not to protect users of the company’s social media platform?

That’s Glenn Greenwald’s take that he expertly presented in the Tuesday episode of his news program System Update. Summing up the situation, Greenwald commented:

The big tech platforms — Facebook and Google, and Twitter before Elon Musk — as we know were subject to constant orders from the government about what to censor, and they did it. And the reason they’re so fixated on Elon Musk and the reason they hate Rumble and any other site that doesn’t obey them is because they can’t stand the notion that Americans can go on a platform and communicate ideas that they can’t stop.

And this is what the threats to ban TikTok are about. It’s about trying to have the American government be able to commandeer those censorship decisions so that critical videos of [Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky] and the war in Ukraine or videos about the [Osama Bin Laden] letter get censored because the US government wants it to and they can easily get Google and Facebook to censor it. It’s a little harder with TikTok. And TikTok has had to agree more and more because they don’t care about political censorship; they care about profit. These are capitalists. They don’t care about giving the US government control over content moderation. They are happy to do it if that’s the condition they have to meet in order to keep access to the very lucrative US market.

Watch Greenwald’s discussion regarding TikTok in the System Update episode here:

In the video, Greenwald further discusses how TikTok has already largely capitulated to US government control over its actions. But, the US government is not yet satisfied.

December 4, 2023 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance, Timeless or most popular, Video | , | Leave a comment

Washington State GOP Submits Official Ethics Complaint Against Secretary of State for Alleged Misuse of Public Money in Monitoring and Suppressing Criticism

By Didi Rankovic | Reclaim The Net | December 3, 2023

Washington (State) Secretary of State Steve Hobbs is facing a formal legal challenge in the form of a complaint filed by local Republicans, alleging the use of public funds to launch spying and censorship against political opponents (but mostly, it would seem, those opposed to Hobbs.)

We obtained a copy of the complaint for you here.

The election period surveillance, introduced through what is known as a sole source contract, was awarded for at least $147,600 and the company was able to put its tools in motion even before the contract was approved.

The Washington State Republican Party (WSRP) on Thursday announced that it, in cooperation with a Long Law office attorney, had submitted its complaint to the Washington State Ethics Board.

Hobbs is accused of spending public money to bankroll the AI company whose “specialty” is voter surveillance via methods like “fact-checking” and subsequent suppression of information unfavorable to the state secretary and her political camp.

The company, called Logically, is registered offshore.

The complaint makes a note of the fact that as secretary of state, regardless of political affiliation, Hobbs has a duty to act in an unbiased and fair manner when it comes to elections.

The state Republicans, however, allege that she violated these (state and federal) constitutional requirements and her oath of office.

Related: AZ Governor Katie Hobbs Asked Twitter To Censor Her Critics, Emails Show

One of the provisions that Hobbs is accused of ignoring is the obligation stemming from the US Constitution, specifically its First Amendment, about the government (i.e., its officials at various levels) not being allowed to take any action that “abridges freedom of speech.”

Proper discharge of office and electioneering at public expense are some of the other unlawful behaviors that the Washington Republicans want her investigated for.

What Hobbs was doing was through a creation of her own, known as Information Security & Response Division; the AI company’s task was surveillance of citizens/opponents of Hobbs’ policy who were expressing themselves on the internet.

According to the complaint, terms as “threats to electoral integrity and (those) targeting the (Washington State) secretary of state or staff” were used as justification for “monitoring voter communications in order to alert Secretary Hobbs of critical or unwelcome ‘narratives’, providing bi-weekly analysis and producing reports of citizen comments, trends, and statistics.”

These bi-weeklies were available to Hobbs, and “outside stakeholders.”

Logically was scouring X, Rumble, Truth Social, Substack, etc, but it was on Facebook where it “conspired to label citizen comments as false, apply warning labels, and suppress distribution of the unwelcome speech” which let Hobbs “suppress and abridge free speech on a massive scale.”

“This is nothing but state-funded electioneering with no public benefit and an Orwellian Totalitarian State promoting the views of the Democrat party and censoring their rivals. WA SoS (secretary of state) actions are part of the destruction of civil society and have absolutely no consideration for the people or the Constitution,” reads the complaint.

December 3, 2023 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Corruption, Deception, Full Spectrum Dominance | , | Leave a comment

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