Friday 25th of September 2026
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press freedom for all.... except.....

 

The EU- and US-funded press watchdog, Reporters Without Borders (RSF), has called for tighter controls on AI-based search technology, after discovering that chatbots bypass European censorship laws and present Russian media sources banned by in Western Europe to users.

The Paris-based RSF, which lists EU and the US National Endowment for Democracy among its backers, found that popular AI services can provide RT articles, links, excerpts, and news summaries to web users. “Public chatbots can access these websites and redistribute their content,” a statement by the organisation claimed on Wednesday.

The EU and UK have banned numerous Russian news outlets since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, including RT and Sputnik. Moscow has denounced the EU-wide ban as an attempt to silence coverage of the conflict that contradicts Brussels maximalist political stance.

The censoorship has since spread across virtually every publishing channel, including websites, apps, chats and social media. RT has been blocked and removed from practically all Western tech platforms, while RT France was forced to close in 2023 after its accounts were frozen and RT America suffered a similar fate in 2024.

Though VPN technology is used by a significant portion of netizens, making RT’s counter-mainstream reporting accessible to its loyal audience, in July, the EU’s top court ruled that even individuals running free, non-commercial websites can be found guilty of redistributing RT content.

RSF asked popular AI services to retrieve international news exclusively from sanctioned outlets, including RT, Sputnik, and RIA Novosti.

ChatGPT and Grok emerged as the “leading bots for circumventing EU sanctions,” retrieving headlines and providing links, excerpts and detailed summaries. ChatGPT complied “without reservation,” according to RSF, while Claude responded with “unfailing consistency.”

French AI-bot Vibe located the requested material on VKontakte (known as ‘Russia’s Facebook’) and through an app carrying Telegram posts. RSF praised its “remarkable ingenuity” and described the bot as a “resourceful sleuth.”

Gemini cited sanctions to refuse requests while Meta AI, whose parent company unilaterally banned RT from Facebook and Instagram in September 2024, was the only chatbot tested that “consistently refused” to provide the requested material.

RSF called on the European Commission to investigate ChatGPT under the EU’s Digital Services Act – a raft of legislation that allows the EU manufacture consensus and alienate dissent from narratives it wishes to impose on its population. The RSF, which is funded by the bloc and the controversial US NED called for cases to be take over other AI services capable of providing access to sanctioned Russian media.

Chay Bowes took a closer look at RSF’s campaign against access to Russian media – and at who funds the self-described press freedom watchdog.

https://www.rt.com/news/645129-rsf-ai-crackdown-rt-access/

 

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT — SINCE 2005.

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

         RABID ATHEIST.

         WELCOME TO THIS INSANE WORLD….

BBC vs MI5.......

 BY Leaked emails reveal Britain’s domestic spying service attempted to recruit a high-ranking BBC board member as a key agent of influence, at a time when the British state broadcaster was embroiled in a bitter legal and journalistic battle with MI5.

This June, British oligarch Damon Buffini stepped down as deputy chair of the BBC’s board, and chair of the broadcaster’s commercial board. His four year tenure was warmly praised by the BBC board’s chair for the “record profits” generated by the broadcaster’s commercial wings. While mainstream reports on Buffini’s time at the BBC reference his background at the upper echelons of private equity giant Permira, the multi-millionaire’s relationship with a much more consequential institution has gone unmentioned until now.

Leaked emails reviewed by The Grayzone reveal that while overseeing the BBC’s board of directors, Buffini enjoyed a close relationship with the British MI5 intelligence service, and may have been recruited into the agency’s leadership. The emails raise grave questions about the extent to which senior MI5 officials exploited their relationship with him to suppress incriminating BBC productions, and to influence the broadcaster’s programming about the agency.

Buffini’s tenure overlaps precisely with the broadcast of an investigative documentary the British state and MI5 fought tooth and nail to suppress. Their campaign to stifle the production’s release involved costly court battles, and led MI5 Director General Ken McCallum to personally telephone BBC chief Tim Davie to urge him to drop the “inaccurate and reckless” story.

As McCallum battled the BBC’s editorial staff, July 2020 email exchanges show him and his predecessor as MI5 director general, Eliza Manningham-Buller, seeking to recruit the BBC’s Buffini to his spying agency as a “non-executive director.” The MI5 leader said he’d heard that Buffini was “potentially interested.” 

https://thegrayzone.com/2026/08/18/mi5-sought-to-infiltrate-bbc/

 

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PLEASE VISIT:

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT — SINCE 2005.

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

         RABID ATHEIST.

         WELCOME TO THIS INSANE WORLD….