Hi Richard - Its interesting you'd suggest Bellingcat on this list (Liberation Tech) as an exemplar for investigative techniques that purport to identity motive and source. In my observation of their work, they have the resources to conduct very sophisticated study - because that are a dedicated insider info ops (hybrid warfare) group of the NATO-sponsored Atlantic Council - their DFRL organization https://www.digitalsherlocks.org
Bellingcat started up two days before the infamous MH17 airliner shootdown in Ukraine 7.17.2014 (a problematic case that is still definitely unresolved in the Dutch special court). They immediately entangled themselves in evidence production from the "fog of war" among the various actual investigators on the ground. Their notoriety and founding were started up in sync with this event, which would give them interesting context for their own motives. The founders Higgins and Toler are senior fellows at the NATO DFRLab https://www.digitalsherlocks.org/360-os-2018 which verifies not necessarily a guarantee of income, but at least the level of establishment of their primary client. I’d suspect they aren’t hurting for a job. The goals of the DRFL program are ostensibly to "counter disinformation." But the explicit means of doing so are to construct preferred information that is certified by their vast network of the military complex that requires such "bottom up" narratives to justify their own interventions and weaponization of social media. After all Obama shelled out $250M in his last gift to the Mil Complex December 2016. Also for “countering (primarily Russian) disinformation” which is a neat way of saying “creating disinformation for the public.” All US wars have been started and justified by such information ops long before kinetic actions, and this was done with newspapers before electronic media. Put your McLuhanist hats on. Who has the most to gain from these operations? Who has skin in the game and who is paying for these investigations? Who is working at their OWN risk and conscience to develop and expose (or whistleblow) truthful reporting? The anti-Bellingcats are actual citizen sleuths such as Northern Ireland’ Patrick Watson, who was disgusted by what he saw as obvious fake videos with the White Helmets, used to promote the Syrian “chemical weapons” videos. He did hos own research and blew open quiet a bit of trouble. His website https://hiddensyria.com/ covers a number of his investigations – he’s clearly not a “Russian” anything, as I’ve followed his work from the very first tweet I think (I happened to see his easily outbursts) AND he doesn’t’ have a lot of followers. A troll tries to sensationalize and get a lot of attention. Philip has also worked hard, and at risk, to show the OPCW organization is at fault for covering up their field evidence that exonerates the Syrian government, a very inconvenient finding. There are whistle-blower memos and support from the founding OPCW General Director for their exposure. It’s a significant scandal, and on this issue Bellingcat is arguing (and was caught fabricating) for the establishment, again, and every time, for the wars. I would also confirm regard for the small UK academic team, the Working Group on Syria, Propaganda and Media that has done open sources and deep investigative reporting on the Syrian hoaxes and White Helmets (along with Vanessa Bealey's fieldwork). has also been heavily attacked by mainstream reporters, (Guardian types) and 77th Brigade (the British military info ops soldiers) https://syriapropagandamedia.org/ Because they have been on-0tagert, the BBC and Guardian have smeared their work on front page stories to try to recover their Syrian war “information superiority.” In the shadowy world of information ops, this is a war on real people. And the establishment will lose, over time, regardless of how many more millions they throw at 77th Brigades and projects like the UK’s FCO-sponsored Integrity Initiative https://syriapropagandamedia.org/the-integrity-initiative Humans with a conscience will always eventually win on social media, as the war narrative is always a drumbeat of the same talking points and arguments. Reality is complex, ambiguous, and subject to surprises – which is what we see in the citizen reporter stories. As a professor I would at least present students with case studies from “both sides.” To a more peaceful 2021, Peter Jones PETER JONES, PH.D. ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR FACULTY OF DESIGN T <tel:416%20799%208799> 416 799.8799 @redesign E <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected] <http://designdialogues.com/> Design Dialogues <http://slab.ocadu.ca/> Strategic Innovation Lab <https://systemic-design.net/> Systemic Design Association (RSD) OCAD UNIVERSITY Strategic Foresight & Innovation 205 Richmond St. West, Suite 410 Toronto, Canada M5V 1V3 -----Original Message----- From: LT <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Richard Brooks Sent: Wednesday, December 30, 2020 2:39 PM To: Doug Schuler <[email protected]>; Richard Brooks <[email protected]> Cc: LT <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [liberationtech] Intentional Big Tech Leftist Bias in Social and News Media Corrupts Elections and Defrauds Peoples The idea of thoughts and ideas being similar to a biological ecosystem has been around for a while. I think that Richard Dawkins, William S. Burroughs, and Robert Anton Wilson all have legitimate claims to having originated the idea. (It is likely to have roots in antiquity somewhere.) The US does have a certain anti-intellectualism deep in its subconscious and at least one (nameless) political party has worked hard to delegitimize science (evolution, economics, climate change, ...). That this would lead eventually to people being susceptible to having their innate biases exploited by other actors, is not surprising. Social media has exacerbated the process. One idea that I have been playing with is trying to introduce somewhere in curricula having students use tools/techniques like those used by Bellingcat to determine the source and motivation of online campaigns. I really am impressed by Bellingcat. On 12/30/20 2:12 PM, Doug Schuler wrote: > An article in the recent Science magazine talked about a “syndemic” > which > > "is the intersection of two epidemics—two diseases ravaging a > population at the same time, exacerbating each other. HIV weakens the > immune system, for instance, which makes people more likely to develop > tuberculosis. The world witnessed some- thing similar this year. We > live in an eco-system that allows viruses to cross from wildlife to > humans more often and spread farther and faster than ever before—that > gave us SARS-CoV-2. But the virus emerged in an information ecosystem > that helps misinformation and lies spread faster than scientific > evidence, weakening our ability to respond to new threats. That made > the pandemic far worse." > > <https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/370/6523/1395.full.pdf> > https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/370/6523/1395.full.pdf > > Without necessarily buying into the entire metaphor it seems pretty > useful, bringing up concepts susceptibility, vulnerable populations, > super spreaders, mode of transmission, and, of course, inoculation. > > It also fits well into my investigations into civic intelligence which > I believe is threatened like other natural resources. And if it gets > too low, our ability to address our problems cooperatively becomes > ever more helpless. > > I'd love to hear your thoughts on this! > > — Doug > > > > > On Wed, Dec 30, 2020 at 8:49 AM Richard Brooks <[email protected] > < <mailto:[email protected]> mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: > > Interesting. > > > <https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/2/21278601/mark-zuckerberg-facebook-tr> > https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/2/21278601/mark-zuckerberg-facebook-tr > ump-posts-employee-call-fact-checking-voter-misinformation > > <https://faculty.lsu.edu/fakenews/elections/thethreatofqanon.php> > https://faculty.lsu.edu/fakenews/elections/thethreatofqanon.php > > > <https://www.france24.com/en/20201006-qanon-conspiracies-go-global-in-p> > https://www.france24.com/en/20201006-qanon-conspiracies-go-global-in-p > andemic-perfect-storm > > > <https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1369118X.2017.1329334?jour> > https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1369118X.2017.1329334?jour > nalCode=rics20 > > > <https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/06/08/technology/youtube-radi> > https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/06/08/technology/youtube-radi > cal.html > > On 12/23/20 4:31 AM, grarpamp wrote: > > The Invisible Influence of Big Tech on Politics & Elections - Allum > > Bokhari #Deleted > > <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFJfGphZBmQ> > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFJfGphZBmQ > > #Deleted: Big Tech's battle to erase the trump movement and steal > the election > > <https://deletedbook.com/> https://deletedbook.com/ > > > > -- Liberationtech is public & archives are searchable from any major commercial search engine. 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