OFFICIAL U.S. FAKE NEWS…...

The huge disinformation campaign ran for almost five years. The reputation of Chinese, Russians and Iranians was blackened..Falsified accounts pushed stories in tandem with US govt media VOA, RFE and others.

A TORRENT OF DISINFORMATION about the Chinese and other communities painted as enemies of the Western allies ran for almost five years on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Twitter, researchers reported on Wednesday.

BY NURY VITTACHI

“These campaigns consistently advanced narratives promoting the interests of the United States and its allies,” said the shocking study by the Stanford Internet Observatory and the research company Graphika. [Click here to download a PDF of the report.]

The sophisticated system originated from the U.S. and the U.K., the study said. The perpetrators worked in tandem with groups which presented themselves as news organisations, but were really partner assets, or even major U.S. government operations such as Voice of America and the Radio Free Asia group, which includes Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty, and others.

Facebook and Twitter said they had taken down the sham accounts.

Assets focussed on China

The massive operation “used deceptive tactics to promote pro-Western narratives” the study said.

“Two assets concentrated on China and the treatment of Chinese Muslim minorities, particularly the Uyghurs in Xinjiang province,” the report said.

For example, researchers noted that one Twitter account said it operated on behalf of the U.S. military but also posed as an Iraqi individual sending tweets from his home country.

AI-generated people

The number of techniques used by the operations was remarkable, as was the length of time it ran before being discovered. The study is called: “Unheard Voice: Evaluating five years of pro-Western covert influence operations.”

a) Narrative creators made multiple fake personas with AI-generated faces to appear as authentic human beings. These appeared as accounts of “real people” on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other media;

b) Narrative creators posed as journalists running independent media outlets;

c) Narrative creators made memes and short videos (for sharing on Tiktok, Instagram and others);

d) Narrative creators ran hashtag campaigns across platforms;

e) Narrative creators launched online petitions on “change” style sites known for “human rights” campaigns.

The players had “an interconnected web of accounts on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and five other social media platforms” indicating a high level, well-organized operation to deceive. This enabled agents to back up false narratives by quoting each other: they backed up false news with quotes from what seemed to be small news operations or even large ones, like Voice of America, to promote a pro-west, anti-east narrative.

Exploited sympathy for women

Sham media outlets used the theme of women’s rights to create negativity towards non-western groups, the report said.

“For example, the Shestigrannik Facebook page repeatedly accused Russia and China of ignoring the Taliban’s ethnic cleansing of Afghan minorities and mistreatment of women,” the researchers said.

Agents sometimes created posts in Russian or other Central Asian languages, the researchers said. The one on the left, above, revives a long debunked allegation about organ-harvesting in China, and the one on the right paints China as the power behind Russian aggression.

While there were cases of some agents creating accounts which failed to win many followers, or were not widely shared, in other instances they succeeded in producing material which spread or went viral.

Focus on China

“A small cluster of assets within the Central Asia group focused almost exclusively on China,” the study said.

“These accounts—a fake persona and sham media outlet—mainly focused on the genocide of Uighurs and Muslim minorities in “re-education” camps in Xinjiang. Posts described alleged organ trafficking, forced labor, sexual crimes against Muslim women, and suspicious disappearances of ethnic Muslims in Xinjiang. The assets also posted about the Chinese Communist Party’s poor treatment of women in the country and often framed these stories around news about domestic violence.”

Danger to the World

Other assets in the sham network painted an image of China imperilling the world. They “asserted that Chinese authoritarianism and financial imperialism threatened Central Asia and other regions of the world,” the researchers said.

“The assets frequently referred to China’s cooperation with Russia, especially on military issues, and said Beijing should be held responsible for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine because the CCP had secretly supplied the Kremlin with weapons. The group rebuked China for buying stolen Ukrainian grain from Russia and predicted that Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine would precipitate a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.”

Fake Petitions

Western agents created petitions such as the one above, pretending to be people in Central Asia demanding that Kyrgyzstan curbs Chinese influence in the country, the study showed. The petitions were shared on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Agents’ petitions were sometimes shared on a well known U.S. human rights activism platform called Avaaz, and promoted by Radio Liberty, a partner of Radio Free Asia: these are groups which present themselves as journalists, while actually being arms of the U.S. government.

In reality, China has good relationships with Kyrgyzstan and have been having lengthy talks towards building a “New Eurasian Land Bridge”, which will be a convenient transport path from East and Southeast Asia to Central and Western Asia, Northern Africa and Europe. The plan is to create prosperity through improved infrastructure that creates opportunities for trade.

Projection Technique

For decades, a key technique of western intelligence forces has been to announce exactly what they are doing in the media – but ascribe it to “the enemy”. So there have been numerous false allegations of Chinese interference with politics in the U.S., while the truth was that the U.S. had massive operations interfering in politics in Chinese communities, particularly in Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Taiwan.

The existence of an artificial Western narrative is rarely acknowledged—and even more rarely confronted. China-friendly voices are seen being removed from Twitter frequently. But the other way round?

Renée DiResta, research manager at the Stanford Internet Observatory, told the New York Times: “It’s the first time we’ve seen a pro-U.S. foreign influence operation taken down by Twitter and Meta.”

Multi-lingual

Another remarkable aspect of the study was its revelation of how culturally wide the false narrative dissemination operation was. Just a few days ago, the New York Times printed a long feature bemoaning the ability of the west to control the discourse outside the Anglosphere.

Yet the new study reveals that the western narrative operation functioned in at least seven non-English languages on global social media such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram, and also on allegedly “secure” operations such as Telegram, and even on popular non-Western networks VK and Odnoklassniki, run from Russia.

Little Impact

The report, dramatic as it was, received relatively little coverage internationally. There were pieces in the New York Times and the Washington Post reporting the publication of the study, but without follow-up. Some media mentioned the report but played it down. Cyberwire headlined their report: “Not all coordinated inauthenticity is Russian”.

But even if there is no change in the narrative carried by the mainstream media, critics still welcomed the study. A Twitter user who has been banned three times for questioning the western narrative said: “This is just one more nail in the coffin of the narrative’s credibility, and that’s a good thing.”

First published in FridayEveryDay

https://johnmenadue.com/massive-secret-network-revealed-to-be-pushing-western-narrative/

THIS NETWORK OF FAKE NEWS ISN'T THE ONLY ONE OPERATED BY THE PENTAGON AND THE CIA. Voice of America and the Radio Free Asia group, which includes Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty, and others WILL USE OTHER secret CHANNELS OF DISINFORMATION, NOT YET EXPOSED TO DAYLIGHT BUT OBVIOUSLY OPERATING, BY STUDYING THEIR CONTENTS.

THE MAJOR THRUST OF THIS FAKE NEWS IS TO PREPARE THE GROUND FOR THE ULTIMATE CONQUEST OF THE HEARTLAND (RUSSIA AND CHINA) BY THE ANGLO/SAXONS (US/UK) USING WHATEVER MEANS....

NOTE THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IS ONE OF THE CULPRITS IN PROMOTING FAKE NEWS, EVEN IF IT CALLS IT THE "GOOD NEWS"....

more US provocations…...

BY Valery Kulikov

This autumn will be a momentous time for China – in the XX National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party the delegates will confirm China’s strategy and development priorities, and elect the country’s leader for the next five years. It is likely that Xi Jinping, the current head of the Party, will be reelected for a third term, as the rule limiting a General Secretary to serving a maximum of two consecutive terms was abolished back in 2018. Xi Jinping has already served almost ten years as head of the Chinese Communist Party, during which time he has consistently focused on strengthening China’s national sovereignty in the political arena, as well as in the fields of economics and trade, defense and the sciences. This policy has certainly served to strengthen his personal authority within China, but it has also raised Washington’s ire, and the latter is now determined to find some way of removing him from power.

Many members of Joe Biden’s administration have openly voiced their opposition to Xi Jinping’s policies. To cite just one instance, in May this year US Secretary of State Antony Blinken described China as “the most serious long-term challenge to the international order” and to the “future that Americans and people around the world seek.” The only answer, he added is an approach of “integrated deterrence” and of “investing in our strength.”

At the beginning of this year the 90-year old Georg Soros, who has earned himself an unenviable reputation as a sponsor of “color revolutions,” launched barely disguised calls for a change of regime in Beijing, calling Xi Jinping the “main threat to the liberal world order.”

As their main target in their bid to organize a “color revolution” in China, Mr. Soros and his various NGOs and other social organizations chose to focus on the country’s young political high-flyers, in the hope that they will be able to function as an effective opposition to China’s Party veterans and military. Aware that this section of Chinese society has a great deal of influence over the national economy and financial sector, Mr. Soros was calculating that Washington would only need to give the word for them to provoke a social crisis in China, thus pushing hundreds of millions of Chinese over the poverty line.

By means of his Foundation, Mr. Soros therefore attempted to follow the formula used to organize “color revolutions” elsewhere: working with young politically active Chinese, selecting the most “promising” candidates for internships in the US and Europe, where they could be trained to serve the interests of the US political establishment.

The former US diplomat Roger Garside published a book, China Coup: The Great Leap to Freedom, where he described how the Chinese leader might be toppled in a rebellion by political rivals – ideas which were also discussed in an article by Robert Wihtol, published on September 21, 2021, on the website of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, the Strategist. Roger Garside described a scenario in which China’s President is forced to retire following a “color revolution” in the run up to the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party this autumn. In this scenario, the trigger for this “palace coup” is the threat of a trade war with the US, which would damage China’s economy, after which Washington would expect to see a change in power and the beginning of political reforms in China.

But the ageing “gray eminence,” along with the current US president, who is only slightly younger, has clearly overlooked the fact that over the last five years Xi Jinping has set up a number of systems to counter foreign influence, including a strengthened command hierarchy within the Chinese Communist Party, as well as anti-corruption campaigns. As a result, the sabotage campaign failed to go as planned, and Washington changed tack and embarked on a new anti-Chinese policy, this time focused on the “Taiwan problem.”

Washington’s choice of Taiwan as the focal point of its attack on China is no coincidence. Its previous attacks, focused on the situation in Xinjiang, had failed. This became especially evident this spring, when Michelle Bachelet, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, returned from her visit to the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and confirmed that the situation there appeared normal. Moslem communities around the world united in resisting the attempt to use the situation in the region as a weapon against China.

Washington’s attempts in Summer 2019 to organize demonstrations against Xi Jinping in Hong Kong were no more successful. As yet the US’s hopes to undermine China by playing the Hong Kong card have met with disappointment. The US’s plans to recognize Hong Kong as an independent state and establish separate trading relations with it, thus cutting out China, were foiled, and the White House’s “experts” were then inspired to make use of Taiwan in their attacks on mainland China.

Hoping that China would want to avoid a direct confrontation with the US, including possible conflict with US forces across the Taiwan Strait, on August 2 Joe Biden sent Nancy Pelosi, leader of the Democratic Party in the House of Congress, on a trip to Taiwan. His goal was not just to undermine Xi Jinping, but to seduce US voters with the promise of a “short victorious war,” and hopefully boost his performance in the upcoming midterm elections. Washington is also well aware that at the moment, shortly before the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, stability – whether in the social, economic or foreign policy spheres – is of paramount concern to China.

After making the first move in its Taiwanese gambit, the US followed up its “success” with further political missions to the island. On August 14, a delegation from the US Congress, headed by Senator Ed Markey, supported by four other senators, arrived in Taiwan for a two week visit. Then Eric Holcomb, Republican Governor of Indiana, and, shortly afterwards, Marsha Blackburn, Senator from Tennessee, both visited the island.

In a show of loyalty to the US, Lithuania, ready to support any Washington-led project, sent a delegation headed by Deputy Transportation Minister Agne Vaiciukevičiūtė on a five-day trip to the island. Japan followed suit, sending a delegation headed by Shigeru Ishiba, a former Defense Minister and respected statesman, on a four-day trip to Taiwan. Shortly afterwards another Japanese lawmaker, Keiji Furuya, also traveled to the island.

By organizing a series of visits by politicians loyal to the White House, Washington is clearly trying to push Taipei into making an official declaration of independence, and hoping that China’s restrained response to these provocations will be seen as a blow to the authority both of its ruling party and of Xi Jinping himself.

While the above events have been unfolding both the US and China have been mounting displays of military might in the waters around Taiwan – although they are well aware of the potentially disastrous consequences for both countries, and for the rest of the world, of such saber-rattling by leading nuclear powers.

With the situation as it is, it’s most likely that the US will continue with its provocations, in the hope that China will miscalculate and find itself drawn into a conflict. But Beijing is well aware of Washington’s cynical plans. Xi Jinping made this clear in a recent seminar, in which he called on party officials to be vigilant in relation to the standoff with the US: “National rejuvenation will be no walk in the park, and it will take more than drum beating and gong clanging to get there.”

Valery Kulikov, political expert, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.

https://journal-neo.org/2022/08/30/biden-is-trying-to-bring-down-xi-jinping-and-organize-a-color-revolution-in-china/

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By Gus Leonisky at 30 Aug 2022 - 7:52pm
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porkied journalism…...

By Nury Vittachi

TRUST IN THE MAINSTREAM media has collapsed, a series of new studies show. Western journalists openly see their role as propagandists for their beliefs, in contrast with their readers, who seek balanced coverage.

Majority of U.S. reporters oppose ‘balanced’ news, preferring to take sides

Confidence in mainstream media plummets in the U.S. and worldwide

Massive financing enables industrial-level vilification of the Chinese

The overwhelming majority of ordinary U.S. citizens, 76%, believe news should balance both sides of a debate, a Pew Research Center survey showed. In contrast, the majority of mainstream journalists, 55%, believe it should not be balanced, but should push a political agenda. Only 22% of the public agree with the reporters.

“The disdain for even-handed reporting is even worse among younger journalists and those from left-leaning outlets: 63 percent of reporters ages 18 to 29 say both sides do not deserve equal coverage, as do 69 percent of journalists who say their outlet’s audience leans left,” said Marc Theiseen, reporting on the survey for the Washington Post.

Bias cannot be denied

That means it is no longer possible to deny that the Washington Post itself, plus the New York Times, AP, CNN, MSNBC, and most of the dominant forces in global media, are biased – because they are happy to admit it. Western journalists, especially younger ones, are open propagandists, no different to the reporters on the People’s Daily of China, although with an infinitely bigger and better distribution network to push their agenda. But the result is that the huge amount of trust that mainstream media used to have is evaporating.

This was predicted by venture capitalist and Chinese media boss Eric Xun Li in a Fridayeveryday interview last year. It’s clear that the western media is “highly biased”, but ultimately that factor damages itself and western society, he said.

They ‘just don’t care’

International journalists believe they have a job to do, and it is to push the superiority of western liberal democracy, with emphasis on liberal, research indicates. “They don’t believe in objectivity,” says Ari Fleischer, author of a statistics-filled new book, Suppression, Deception, Snobbery, and Bias: Why the Press gets So Much Wrong – and Just Doesn’t Care. “They don’t believe in two sides. They believe that their side, particularly on social issues and on racial matters, is the only right side.”

Separately, a July 2022 Gallup study shows a massive decline of trust in the mainstream media (see graphic below) by the American public. From a figure of 72% of people having high confidence in the press in 1977, numbers fell to 51% in 1979 and have plummeted to just 16% today. (In TV news, the figure is 11 per cent, and among right-of-centre voters, it is just five per cent.)

Global fall in trust

A regular global poll known as the Edelman Barometer shows that the fall of trust in mainstream media is a worldwide phenomenon. (A graphic summarising the results appears further down on this page.)

The world’s three big news agencies and all major news media slant their presentation of the news through a western prism, representing roughly 12% of humanity, largely ignoring or discarding the views of the 88% of people not in the west.

The distortion is magnified through “news reports” issued by media outlets such as Radio Free Asia, the BBC, Voice of America, and literally dozens of smaller groups which hide their finding sources. In addition to long-term financing for these, a new U.S. “poison pen” fund of more than US$1.5 billion to be used against China (see below) by 2024 means vilification of the Chinese is happening at an industrial level worldwide, and will continue to happen.

Specific events likely caused the loss of trust to accelerate. Numerous reports, over months, said that Russia and China interfered in the U.S. 2016 elections. This was later admitted to have not happened – while widespread political interference by the U.S. was taking place around the world, in Hong Kong, Cuba, Sri Lanka and other places.

US Democrats pushed the Steele Dossier, later discredited, while US Republicans used Hong Kong’s Trump-worshipping Apple Daily to create a Hunter Biden dossier attributed to a journalist who was later shown to have been generated by an artificial intelligence program.

Decades old

On a geopolitical level, the distortion process is decades old. A mainstream media campaign to vilify China by ascribing atrocities to them in coverage of Xinjiang and Hong Kong, was stepped up from 2018 onwards, but was built on the back of many years of demonisation. “For 20 or 30 years, they’ve been telling the public that China would fail, that there’s no way the Communist Party will succeed,” said Eric Li. The media led Westerners to believe that “history was on their side” and China was in danger of imminent collapse. But what happened? “Whoops! One morning they wake up and find China is so big and so successful,” he said.

To cover their embarrassment, some reporters work hard to falsely portray Hong Kong and Mainland China as dystopian police states, although this is clearly untrue. It is a low crime city with a free, critical press, and extraordinary levels of achievement in generating health and wealth.

Readers are fact checking

The problem for the western media is that truth has a tendency to leak out, and people know how to do their own fact checking.

So, for example, the media tells the world that press freedom in Hong Kong has gone, and quote as evidence “press freedom indexes” from NGOs that it is clear the US has influenced, infiltrated or funded.

Foreign correspondents push this fake narrative, fooling the world, but fail to deceive Hong Kong people, who see evidence for the real story in every pavement newspaper kiosk, where papers are filled with criticism of the government.

And it takes literally seconds for anyone in the world to surf to Hong Kong news sites to find that there has been no change in critics’ ability to criticise the government.

Who’s behind it

Who’s the dark power behind the problem? It’s not one individual or group, but a deep-set problem of confirmation bias from journalists who have spent years nurturing hostility for societies which are different, several commentators say. Fleischer says that there is “no central source of propaganda” for the media because there is no need for one. “It’s worse than that. It comes naturally to the media because they’re too much alike—they have a diversity problem.”

This is nothing to do with skin colour, but mindset. Years of indoctrination have to be undone.

Observers reckoned that one day, mainstream media journalists will have to set aside their prejudices and realise that the world is a big place, with societies which have a wide variety of ways of governing themselves—or they will lose their audiences to voices who do realise that, and who can see it around them.

“So their narrative is in trouble. They can’t deal with it,” Eric Li said.

First published in Fridayeveryday August 15, 2022

https://johnmenadue.com/yes-were-propagandists-say-western-journalists-as-public-confidence-falls/

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