Censorship monster…
Tag: censorship
YouTube to shift video flagging powers towards NGOs and Government Agencies
Starting in May, YouTube will not allow individuals in its controversial Trusted Flagger program, instead focusing “exclusively on key partnerships with a variety of NGOs and Government Agencies.”
The Trusted Flagger program began in 2012 as a communal volunteer effort to remove content that violates YouTube’s policies. It worked with NGO and government agencies as well as hand-picked individuals that were never publicly disclosed.
Those participating in the program have access to a variety of tools not available to ordinary users. For instance, they can flag multiple videos simultaneously, their reports are prioritized, and they get to understand how YouTube makes content removal decisions.
Last year, Tubefilter reported that individual flaggers had begun noticing a decline in their experience within the Trusted Flaggers program. Additionally, those who reached Google’s global director of information policy, government affairs, and public policy Derek Slater were reportedly told that the program would no longer be available to individuals.
The People Behind DHS’s Orwellian “Disinformation Governance Board”
A “Disinformation Governance Board” has just been created and is going to be run by the Department of Homeland Security. Their primary goal is going to be to “police” what is deemed to be “misinformation” or “disinformation.”
No clarification has been given as of yet as to what this policing will mean, but it has been pointed out that the creation of this new Disinformation Governance Board is going to have the full strength of the DHS behind it.
DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said, “the goal is to bring the resources of (DHS) together to address this threat.”
Nina Jankowicz has been chosen to head up the new disinformation office as the executive director.
YouTube CEO meets with group wanting curbs on Spanish-language “misinformation”
On Thursday, members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) met with YouTube’s CEO Susan Wojcicki to discuss Spanish-language “misinformation.”
In a press release, the CHC said addressing Spanish-language dis/misinformation was a priority as more Hispanics in the country are using social media to get information.
Chair of the CHC, Dr. Raul Ruiz said: “We appreciate Susan Wojcicki, YouTube CEO, for meeting with CHC Members today to answer our concerns on Spanish-language dis/misinformation. Lies cost lives, and the CHC continues to call for strengthened oversight and to push social media companies to bolster their infrastructure to combat dis/misinformation on their platforms. Addressing the rampant spread of Spanish-language dis/misinformation remains an urgent priority for the CHC as Hispanics across the country increasingly turn to social media for vital information.”
Member of the CHC, Rep. Darren Soto said: “In Florida, we’ve seen Spanish-language misinformation spread like wildfire and threaten our communities. With more and more people turning to social media to receive information, we must ensure that content is reviewed thoroughly before reaching mass audiences. As more and more bad actors purposely aim to spread lies to vulnerable populations, platforms like YouTube have a responsibility to prevent them from having the power to influence public opinion. I believe that our conversation with YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki was extremely productive, and I hope to see YouTube use ample resources to combat Spanish-language misinformation.”
Tulsi Gabbard suggests Obama behind ‘Ministry of Truth,’ says Biden just ‘front man’
Former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard suggested that former President Barack Obama is behind the effort to establish a Disinformation Governance Board, which she likened to George Orwell’s famed “Ministry of Truth.”
“Biden is just a front man,” Gabbard said on Twitter Sunday. “Obama, April 21: social media censors ‘don’t go far enough,’ so the government needs to step in to do the job. Six days later, Homeland Security rolls out the ‘Ministry of Truth’ (aka Disinformation Governance Board).”
Gabbard, a Democrat, was referencing Obama’s speech at Stanford University last week, where he argued tech companies have a hard time moderating content on their own and called for more oversight.
“Now the good news is that almost all the big tech platforms now acknowledge some responsibility for content on their platforms, and they’re investing in large team of people to monitor it,” Obama said during the speech. “Given the sheer volume of content, this strategy can feel like a game of Whac-A-Mole.”
Obama said he believes employees at the companies “are sincere” in trying to moderate violent content and hate speech, but argued more needs to be done to help the companies limit such posts.
Governments Worldwide are Working in Lockstep to bring in Digital I.D. & Social Credit System as EU agrees to Expand Online Censorship with ‘Digital Services Act’
Under pressure applied by both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, the European Union is working to expand online censorship to an extreme Orwellian level, as well as strictly regulate speech during what authorities deem to be times of crisis (we always seem to be in the middle of a “crisis”), and remove online anonymity by forcing the public to have a digital identity.
But these plans aren’t unique to the EU. They are also currently being rolled out in the UK and Africa, proving Governments worldwide are working in lockstep to bring in a digital identity and social credit system right under your nose.
Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama both lobbied for the EU to back the censorship bill known as the ‘Digital Services Act‘ on Thursday, April 21st, 2022.
From France 24, “EU agrees on new legislation to tame internet ‘Wild West’ “:
The Digital Services Act (DSA) — the second part of a massive project to regulate tech companies — aims to ensure tougher consequences for platforms and websites that host a long list of banned content ranging from hate speech to disinformation and child sexual abuse images.
[…] Tech giants have been repeatedly called out for failing to police their platforms — a New Zealand terrorist attack that was live-streamed on Facebook in 2019 caused global outrage, and the chaotic insurrection in the US last year was promoted online.
The dark side of the internet also includes e-commerce platforms filled with counterfeit or defective products.
[…] The regulation will require platforms to swiftly remove illegal content as soon as they are aware of its existence. Social networks would have to suspend users who frequently breach the law.
The DSA will force e-commerce sites to verify the identity of suppliers before proposing their products.
[…] The European Commission will oversee yearly audits [of Big Tech firms] and be able to impose fines of up to six percent of their annual sales for repeated infringements.
Looking over the outline of the new agreement it’s striking how they seamlessly conflate child sexual abuse material with “illegal hate speech.”
Both are jumbled together as “illegal content.”
‘Misinformation Fingerprints:’ The Pentagon Awarded ‘Fact-Checking’ Org NewsGuard a $750K Contract Last Year
In yet more evidence of the federal government/Deep State’s vested interest in advancing internet censorship (or, as they call it, tackling “misinformation”), the Department of Defense awarded NewsGuard Technologies a $750,000 contract in September of 2021 for the organization’s “misinformation fingerprints” project.
NewsGuard, which has been the subject of extensive Breitbart News reporting, is an establishment-backed project that aims to “rate” news outlets, policing the internet by telling users which news sources can be trusted and which ones cannot.
According to USASpending.gov, the contract was awarded for NewsGuard’s “misinformation fingerprints” project, which it describes as a “a catalogue of known hoaxes, falsehoods and misinformation narratives that are spreading online.”
It is unclear if hoaxes embraced by the establishment, such as the notion that material found on Hunter Biden’s laptop was “Russian disinformation,” are in NewsGuard’s “misinformation fingerprints” database.
NewsGuard’s own co-founder, Steve Brill, spread that false claim, as did advisory board member and notorious political partisan Michael Hayden.
I tried to warn you…
Ministry of Truth: Joe Biden’s New ‘Disinformation Board’ Director is a Ukrainian Govt Advisor Who Was ‘Pleased’ By The Censorship Of Hunter Biden’s Hard Drive.
The Executive Director of the Biden White House’s newly launched Disinformation Governance Board celebrated the censorship of news reports regarding Hunter Biden’s hard drive, appearing to describe the story as “Russian disinformation.”
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) created the board to “coordinate countering misinformation related to homeland security” focusing “on irregular migration and Russia,” according to POLITICO. The report also revealed that Nina Jankowicz – whose career has focused on partisan operations and advising foreign governments, rather than news reporting – will serve as its executive director.
Partisanship & Foreign Influence.
While participating in U.S. Congressional hearings, Jankowicz dismissed documented links between Ukrainian energy company Burisma and the Biden family, while calling for an increase in federally-funded media outlets and an “oversight” agency of social media platforms.
She described the well-documented business ties between the first son and Burisma as “perhaps the most well-known example of information laundering” and “unsubstantiated and misleading.”
Jankowicz is a former “disinformation fellow” at the partly government-funded Wilson Center, and even advised the Ukrainian government as recently as 2016.
PayPal Blocks Multiple Alternative Media Figures Critical Of US Empire Narratives
In what appears to be yet another escalation in Silicon Valley’s redoubled efforts to quash dissident voices since the beginning of the Ukraine war, PayPal has just blocked the accounts of multiple alternative media voices who’ve been speaking critically against official US empire narratives. These include journalist and speaker Caleb Maupin, and Mnar Adley and Alan MacLeod of MintPress News.
Just the other day MintPress published an excellent article by MacLeod titled “An Intellectual No-Fly Zone: Online Censorship of Ukraine Dissent Is Becoming the New Norm” documenting the many ways skepticism of the US government’s version of events in this war is being suppressed by Silicon Valley megacorporations, including financial censorship via the demonetization of YouTube videos that don’t regurgitate the imperial line on Ukraine.
Today, both MintPress and MacLeod have been banned from using the payment service that many online content creators have come to rely on to help crowdfund their work.
Hellbound and Down 
You must be logged in to post a comment.