• Hyperlich@lemmygrad.ml
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    6 months ago

    It sounds like they’re not just admitting to this, but admitting to creating thousands of accounts on all US controlled social media platforms since 2001 to influence everyone.

    Why are they admitting this?

    Why is Reuters claiming that propagandizing Americans was not allowed when, I believe, the patriot act gave them permission to do just that? And it’s very obvious lots of users on Reddit, Twitter, YouTube etc all glow so bright you could light a city?

    I feel this is sort of a damage control thing. Admitting to something they perceive as less horrible (with lame justifications) in order to continue hiding the larger campaign being performed on the English speaking internet. Like a sort of “ok we’re bad, we did this thing and we admit it, there is nothing else we’re hiding ok?”

    I recall operation songbird (?) was this exact thing?

    I don’t have any sources, just what I remember. So please feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.

    Also why is the military the ones doing this? Does the CIA outsource their dumber operations to the military?

    And once again why are they even admitting to any of this?

    • DamarcusArt@lemmygrad.ml
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      6 months ago

      Because by admitting to it, they can pretend to be “transparent” and can say “those evil bad guy countries never admit to anything like this.” It’s like how redditors started joking about how a CIA agent watches their every move and then just…didn’t do anything about it. An intense violation of their personal freedom that they claim to love, and they were joking about how it’s totally fine to have a government agent watch their every move. It normalises this sort of police state where every thought and opinion is carefully controlled. That’s why they admit to it, because they know that despite all the American’s bluster about “freedom” they will always fold and accept whatever “big government” is doing.

    • die_livster@lemmygrad.ml
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      6 months ago

      Why is Reuters claiming that propagandizing Americans was not allowed when, I believe, the patriot act gave them permission to do just that?

      us dod is only legally allowed to conduct psyop domestically during national emergencies - such as covid.

      I recall operation songbird (?) was this exact thing?

      mockingbird was the recruitment of news journalists, media figures, left wing commentators, etc. (so the parallel would be the authors of this article)

      Also why is the military the ones doing this? Does the CIA outsource their dumber operations to the military?

      most us psyop falls under the military

      And once again why are they even admitting to any of this?

      a few guesses at motives: 1// you noted that they aren’t allowed to target us audiences and they make it clear in the article. 2// concealing their capabilities - the images & text posts they show are unsophisticated. they say facebook employees easily identified posts. 3// they lay the blame on trump, biden is the dod’s preferred candidate.

      my paranoid stoner ass best effort anyway