Facebook has deleted all of my posts from July 2017 to last week because I am, apparently, a Russian Bot. For a while I could not add any new posts either, but we recently found a way around that, at least for now. To those of you tempted to say “So what?”, I would point out that over two thirds of visitors to my website arrive via my posting of the articles to Facebook and Twitter. Social media outlets like this blog, which offer an alternative to MSM propaganda, are hugely at the mercy of these corporate gatekeepers.
Facebook’s plunge into censorship is completely open and admitted, as is the fact it is operated for Facebook by the Atlantic Council – the extreme neo-con group part funded by NATO and whose board includes serial war criminal Henry Kissinger, Former CIA Heads Michael Hayden and Michael Morrell, and George Bush’s chief of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, among a whole list of horrors.
The staff are worse than the Board. Their lead expert on Russian bot detection is an obsessed nutter named Ben Nimmo, whose fragile grip on reality has been completely broken by his elevation to be the internet’s Witchfinder-General. Nimmo, grandly titled “Senior Fellow for Information Defense at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab”, is the go-to man for Establishment rubbishing of citizen journalists, and as with Joseph McCarthy or Matthew Clarke, one day society will sufficiently recover its balance for it to be generally acknowledged that this kind of witch-hunt nonsense was not just an aberration, but a manifestation of the evil it claimed to fight.
There is no Establishment cause Nimmo will not aid by labeling its opponents as Bots. This from the Herald newspaper two days ago, where Nimmo uncovers the secret web of Scottish Nationalist bots that dominate the internet, and had the temerity to question the stitch-up of Alex Salmond.
Nimmo’s proof? 2,000 people had used the hashtag #Dissolvetheunion on a total of 10,000 tweets in a week. That’s five tweets per person on average. In a week. Obviously a massive bot-plot, eh?
When Ben’s great expose for the Herald was met with widespread ridicule, he doubled down on it by producing his evidence – a list of the top ten bots he had uncovered in this research. Except that they are almost all, to my certain knowledge, not bots but people. But do not decry Ben’s fantastic forensic skills, for which NATO and the CIA fund the Atlantic Council. Ben’s number one suspect was definitely a bot. He had got the evil kingpin. He had seen through its identity despite its cunning disguise. That disguise included its name, IsthisAB0T, and its profile, where it called itself a bot for retweets on Independence. Thank goodness for Ben Nimmo, or nobody would ever have seen through that evil, presumably Kremlin-hatched, plan.
No wonder the Atlantic Council advertise Nimmo and his team as “Digital Sherlocks”
Nimmo’s track record is simply appalling. In this report for the Atlantic Council website, he falsely identified British pensioner @Ian56789 as a “Russian troll farm”, which led to Ian being named as such by the British government, and to perhaps the most surreal Sky News interview of all time. Perhaps still more remarkably, Nimmo searches for use of the phrase “cui bono?” in reference to the Skripal and fake Douma chemical weapons attacks. Nimmo characterises use of the phrase cui bono as evidence of pro-Assad and pro-Kremlin bots and trolls – he really does. Most people would think to consider cui bono indicates a smattering more commonsense than Nimmo himself displays.
It is at least obvious cui bono from Nimmo’s witchfinding – the capacious, NATO and CIA stuffed pockets of Ben Nimmo himself. That Facebook allows this utterly discredited neo-conservative charlatan the run of its censorship operations needs, given Facebook’s pivotal role in social media intercourse, to concern everybody. The freedom of the internet is under fundamental attack.
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From the other thread: cheap flights from Britain to Ireland and continental Europe are one thing, but many flights within Britain are utterly ridiculously expensive, including from e.g. the remoter parts of Scotland to Glasgow and from Glasgow to London. Not funny at all when you have no other option but flying, which can happen.
Leeds to Belfast has APD exceeding the fare. No doubt if you paid the flight crew nothing and received free aviation fuel the Treasury would still make it too expensive to fly…..but how else do you get from Leeds to Belfast ?
Bus and ferry.
This article gives stats on the effects of Google de-ranking sites they don’t like.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/09/19/goog-s19.html
I just did a search on “world socialist website” on Google and https://www.wsws.org/ came up first.
Second was the Wiki page for the site, the one edited this year by you know who, amending the criticism of the Google ranking algorithm.
Philip Cross also edits the wiki page of the Campaign Against Antis**itism (CAA) ”charity” group………The ”charity” group flooding social media with anti Labour anti Corbyn messages such as a reedited slogan ”For the Many, Not the J+w”. Shocked….
actually Craig,
you should take being nobbled on FB as a badge of honor, an endorsement almost, it raises your street cred no end!
I do accept that it seems important to you to gain wider coverage by linking to social media but I for one haven’t been using any social media for several years,
I found my way to your site from other websites run by independent analysts,
you are quoted by a lot of independent media authors, that’s sufficient to get people to search you out, you are part of the ‘in crowd’ here in the world of online dissent!
once I find a site that I judge as ‘legit’ & worth following I bookmark it and do the rounds daily getting all the different angles on what’s going on,
a lot of them follow you, you were a good source of info for them during the Skripal fiasco,
only today I was watching Ron Paul on his Liberty Report and he mentioned a guy I’ve been following for a few years and it made me smile, I’d hazard a guess one of his people keeps an eye on your output too!
the Moon of Alabama has referenced you several times, he has a lot of traffic and does some good analysis, good company to be in,
being kicked off FB might seem traumatic at first but but it’s the way things are heading, the stupefied sheep may stay mesmerised by twitter and FB but the ‘cool kids’ are creating their own networks outside of social media,
I don’t need FB or twitter to ‘like’ someone, I just create a bookmark to their homepage, I totally bypass social media.
a while back another prolific independent content publisher with a large following decided enough is enough with social media,
https://www.corbettreport.com/deletetwitter/
I think he’s pretty much totally reliant on his one man media operation yet has come to the conclusion that syndicating via social media isn’t really worth the hassle and increasing anguish it brings.
Think of the whole “post your radical message on Facebook” idea as a trap or, if you must, as a bait and switch operation. There is a drawing in. The radical message will get to fewer minds than it did. Somehow we have to deal with that. I don’t know how. But bleating that Mr Bossy Sir from the CIA should let us make our petrol bombs on his big country estate, because that’s where all the idiots have congregated and that’s where people are “supposed” to be able to say whatever they want (especially if they type it into their microwave trackers) will be demoralising. You have been warned.
Facebook is simply the front-end of the NSA just as Google was funded by the CIA Vencap firm In-Q-Tel through Stanford. There is simply no reason for Facebook to be profitable which was the IPO fear – however by selling private data wholesale to cover the transfer of Big Data to NSA so it could build relationship-trees and no doubt use Apple Facial Recognition database to pair off against DMV and passport and visa documentation – well, rarely have sheep been so willing to follow the judas goat
This is an OK piece by Melissa Benn calling for abolishing the private schools, but I don’t think she appreciates the scale of the hatred that such an idea evokes in the ruling class – or their belief that the reason why prole offspring who manage to go to such places mostly don’t achieve so much as their rich bastard contemporaries is because they were born inferior.
The British ruling class (English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish sections, and yes, to the extent that it can be divided like this, the English section is predominant) views the majority of the population as filth. I don’t doubt Melissa Benn’s good intentions, but those who don’t recognise the truth and importance of what I just said are condemned at best to talking out of the side of their mouths or naivety. It is a fundamental part of the British reality.
I would rather change the demographics in Holland Park which makes the Comprehensive there far too exclusive ! Though I have no objection to turning Public Schools into Direct Grant Grammar Schools and making Academic attainment the main criterion for admission.
Germany has a terrible system whereby Abitur is of variable quality depending on where you live and marked by teachers whose recommendation decides whether children go to Gymnasium or not. Of course, if your parents are educated and prosperous life is gilded but not if you are bright and poor or ethnic……..it is not permitted to administer intelligence tests or provide accelerated learning for intelligent pupils – hence wealthier parents use English public schools or Schloss Salem – for education.
Melissa Benn is as limited as the rest of the Stansgates and with a family background back to Josiah Wedgwood simply too distant from real lives of real people but living on hereditary influence rather than merit……she is Caroline’s daughter. I wonder if she is a US passport holder too ?
As one prole offspring who was lucky enough to attend a leading public school, I very much disagree with the project of abolishing private schools. Just because all schools are not equally good, it is NOT a great idea to begin by getting rid of most of the best ones.
Even if their good results are a result of greater resources, so what? We need the best schools we can possibly get, by whatever means. I can hardly think of a more important social goal. If I want to get to Edinburgh from Glasgow, it is not a good plan to start by catching a plane to Ireland.
I didn’t benefit at all from rubbing shoulders with the sons of the rich and famous – but I benefitted hugely from the very good education I was given. Actually, I was chippy enough even at 14 that I went out of my way to avoid those whom Orwell called “the cream – thick and rich”. In the first place, those of my age were mostly a year or two behind me in class, so it would have been awkward. Moeover, most of them wouldn’t have been seen dead befriending a poor, socially ignorant boy from strange origins who talked funny and always had his nose in a book. (And didn’t even play cricket well, partly because of the myopia consequent on having my nose in a book, partly from lack of intense coaching and practice from the age of four or five).
In spite of all that, I still insist that the main purpose of a school is to educate those who are willing to accept education. Everything else is far, far less important. As W.B. Yeats observed, education is not about the filling of a bucket but the lighting of a fire – and the few teachers who are able to light fires consistently in their pupils are our most precious resource.
…. or their belief that the reason why prole offspring who manage to go to such places mostly don’t achieve ….
Charles Moore in the Telegraph manages to squeeze in these two elitist statements before the paywall comes down:
“There are good reasons why so many prime ministers were from Eton – while none have come from comprehensives”
AND
“With Etonians shunned in the modern Cabinet, where will the new talent come from?”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2018/08/03/etonians-shunned-modern-cabinet-will-new-talent-come/
One can’t help but wonder if our dear oligarchs aren’t feeling the sands shifting under their feet just a bit – given their absolutely inane behavior regarding – well – just about everything lately. From Russiagate, to the Skripnals, to supporting the Saudi war on Yemen, to their unwavering support for their “moderate head chopping jihadist regime changer buddies” attacking Syria, and then of course doubling down on all this by labeling any and all narratives that counter their utter nonsense as “fake news” – “violating community standards” no less. Would these be the same “community standards” that defend killing a half-a-million Iraqi children as “worth it” one wonders? This level of crazy from our elites suggests something close to hysteria.
What, oh what, could our betters possibly be so afraid of? – A multi-polar world? The collapse of this house of cards global economy that would leave them all essentially paupers like the rest of us? Climate change and ecological collapse that would make 9 out of their 10 houses inaccessible – not to mention the yachts – how ever would they get to their precious yachts?
We haven’t seen this level of insane Western elite “off the charts” crazy since they were digging up the carcass’s of dead donkeys and dead dogs during the Holy Inquisition – convinced by reliable “new information” – (gained through torture of course) – that these creatures were demonically possessed and now needed to be burned forthright! The fact that our current elites cannot tolerate any truth-telling whatsoever in challenge to their lies suggests that what exists is a very brittle system of power indeed. One they realize they can only hope to maintain through blunt force, rather than subtle persuasion.
I hope I’m not being too optimistic here, but perhaps the 500+ years of rule of virtually the entire planet by Western mass violence and economic manipulation is finally coming to an end in spite of the valiant efforts of the idiots running the show – and perhaps those idiots are rapidly becoming increasingly aware of this inevitable reality.
Yup – all free thinkers are coming to that conclusion.
I don’t expect the super rich to become poor, unless like Buddah they give up everything and hit the road with a robe and a begging bowl as their only possessions.
I do expect them to lose their desire to turn the rest of the world into serfs and slaves though, and I aim to spend the rest of my days on this earth to that end.
Good comment, but I think what they’re worried about is much more immediate. If you think of western governments as regimes, things make more sense. In the UK, it’s hard to image a regime that is more discredited. Even their mouthpieces, the BBC, etc., are discredited too which makes it difficult to paste over their crimes and shameful antics.
I wish someone would compile a factual list of charges against the U.K. regime and make it a cornerstone of a campaign for real and meaningful change. Done thoroughly, it would make really dark reading and I don’t think anybody could seriously counter it with ‘baby and the bath-water’ type arguments — so shameful it is that I don’t think anyone would even want to be seen countering it.
And I think that’s what they really fear most. That people will look at the steaming pile of corrupt crap we call ‘the system’ and see it for what it is. When you look at most societies today, there’s really only about 20%of the population who are happy with the general shape of things in terms of having enough money to get by and being happy. This percentage is steadily in decline too.
The counter revolution on social media and the web is aimed at shielding that 20% from the truth. It’s the informational equivalent of a Strategic Hamlet program. It reeks of shameful desperation and is doomed to fail.
Give or take a small percentage of selfish fruitcakes, people are essentially well-meaning when you get right into it; when they see what’s going on, they object to it and come down on the side of humanity. That’s really what drives change when you look at history. The reformation, slavery, imperialism, human rights, opposition to wars etc., can all be explained in terms of information flow.
Craig, whether you are a bot or not is irrelevant… They just want an excuse to shut down any opposition.
Bert.
I just had a look at the Atlantic Council site and a blog post / Obituary for McCain; vomitous.
No doubt the target audience lap it up though.
WaPo column praises McCain as human rights champion with photo of him next to ‘literal neo-Nazi’
‘Author Jennifer Rubin describes how McCain “traveled the world to meet with dissidents, criticize dictators and support those struggling for freedom.” The chief example of his rooting for the “oppressed” was his trip to the Ukrainian capital Kiev during the beginnings of what would become the violent coup of 2014. On that trip, McCain, a belligerent and hawkish patriot of American interests, went on a makeshift stage at the Maidan, Kiev’s Freedom Square, and told the protesters: “The free world is with you. America is with you. I am with you.”
He did so while standing next to one of Ukraine’s most prominent ultranationalists, a man known for openly anti-Semitic rhetoric and deemed a neo-Nazi by a number of journalists, analysts and hate speech monitors.’
/..
https://www.rt.com/usa/437104-mccain-ukraine-nazis-washington-post/
We’re in a world where John McCain is a hero and Jeremy Corbyn – a man I’ve known off and on for 19 years who has never been anything other than kind and generous of his time and his love for humanity – is apparently Enoch Powell
To my mind this kind of gives the game away on Mr Sacks – Jeremy Corbyn is Enoch Powell and the Nation State law is not racist legislation that enshrines apartheid. Ho hum, sure…
Apartheid after all is a legal definition as described by the UN not some vague description
meant as an insult
http://legal.un.org/avl/ha/cspca/cspca.html
Amen
Sharp Ears – yes, how perfect: “McCain as human rights champion!” One is forced to smile wryly in response so as not to weep, as this is so off the charts theatre of the absurd bat-sh@t crazy that one is almost helpless to respond really. The WaPo might as well have just posted that they’ve determined that in fact the – “earth is flat” and “the pope is infallible.” I mean what can one say in the face of such unadulterated nonsense that is so totally disconnected from all actual “real” events that have occurred in the physical world we collectively inhabit? It’s just – “make up (‘reality’) as we go” – in the MSM.
I wonder if they can find a way to award the Nobel Peace Prize to McCain posthumously? Amazing!
Michael Crick asks Theresa May (a future member of the Atlantic Council perhaps?) what she did to assist the release of Nelson Mandela. She had visited the cell on Robben Island where he was held for 18 years and was shown looking suitably solemn.
I bet she wishes she had not agreed to this interview.
https://www.channel4.com/news/what-did-you-do-to-help-the-release-of-nelson-mandela-theresa-may-questioned-over-apartheid-stance
5 mins in
I have just visited Craig’s Twitter. I see he was there before me on Crick/May!
‘Craig Murray
@CraigMurrayOrg
·
10h
I was the South Africa (Political) desk officer in the Foreign Office at the time @MichaelLCrickrefers to in his excellent interview. The Tories were indeed striving desperately to defend apartheid South Africa. (link: https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2018/01/thatcher-many-still-active-tories-support-apartheid/) craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2018/…
Quote Tweet
Channel 4 News
@Channel4News
“I think you know full well I didn’t go on protests.”
@Theresa_May
is questioned by
@MichaelLCrick
about her stance on apartheid ahead of her visit to Robben Island, where Mandela was imprisoned.
Show this thread’
https://twitter.com/CraigMurrayOrg/status/1034543295979040769
Strangely, she seems to try very hard to look and sound like Thatcher. What a disgusting thing to aspire to.
Thought Gordon did a great job here: https://youtu.be/pUuornCZMLg
@Sharp Ears
She looked about as comfortable as a bulldog which had swalled a wasp.
The Tories have always been a racist party. I worked in London when Nelson Mandela was released, and one of my junior colleagues had gone to Eton and his dad was a civil servant. His reaction to the release was – “So, they have let the f*****g monkey out have they”.
Disgusting crowd.
Yes, Michael Crick was excellent in that interview: Political journalists need to put politicians on the spot like that more often and ask politicians questions like: Why they are so quick to promote war but never offer themselves, or members of their family, to go on the front line or: How dare they pretend to run the country as a democracy when they are so much in the pockets of big business?
That’s just for starters…
This far into the comments and no mention of Alex Jones? I’m impressed
oops.
how much more evidence do people require before they close down their facebook/twitter/social media accounts – if you sign up to a football website like toffeeweb you are agreeing to over 100 companies/websites to access your data – IS THAT WHAT YOU WANT?????? it’s surely better not to help these bastards??
Exactly.
Ben Nimmo
Facebook Partners with The Atlantic Council on Censorship
May 17, 2018
Oh Brother, as if Facebook couldn’t get any worse, Zuckerberg announced the new and exciting launch of a collaboration/partnership with The Atlantic Council, and here is their job description:
“security, policy and product teams” to offer “real-time insights and updates on emerging threats and disinformation campaigns from around the world. The Atlantic Council’s Digital Research Unit Monitoring Missions will help Facebook watch out for “misinformation and foreign interference” during “elections and other highly sensitive moments” and also work to “help educate citizens as well as civil society.”
What the heck!
/..
https://helenaglass.net/tag/ben-nimmo/
Some info within on the funding of the Atlantic Council.
The “freedom of the Internet” ? It’s a tool.
Those who use FB & Twitter, these companies ARE an attack un-controlled use of the Internet, just as states are a fundamental tool of control. We lost the Internets potential way back when they banned piratebay etc. Because they couldn’t control it. Just like states control of unsanctiond transactions outside the market.
It really frustrates me when those who use & promote these monopolies cry about what is fundamental to there character. It was snake oil from the start. They are built by corporations for social control in their interests. They are what they are. What do you expect?
In TCP/IP we trust.
When the coalition of angels bombed Iraq into the stone age during the first Gulf War in 1991, not many people were aware that they were actually testing for the first time the US defence department’s digital communications infrastructure.
DARPAnet was designed and implemented in the US in the 1970s, and was designed to withstand a nuclear attack. It had never been tested though until 1991 (Iraq had rolled out the technologies in the 1980s). The TCP/IP protocols and technologies that underpinned DARPA passed with flying colours, as intended, and miraculously data continued to flow in and out of Iraq even after the country was essentially destroyed.
Those same technologies provide the foundational backbone of the Internet, Web, and everything we do online today. It’s essentially indestructible: as long as one server and line of communications survives, all data will be routed through that server, sustaining the viability of the system as a whole.
What has this got to do with anything? It’s clear to me that there’s an online counter revolution underway in the West today. There’s more to it than snuffing out dissidents and anti-establishment viewpoints on social media too. They’re trying to hardwire bias into the social media system as a whole. It won’t work.
The DARPA system prioritises freedom of data-flow, that’s why the system is so robust. Any attempt to thwart data flow on layers above the TCP/IP level can easily be circumvented by re-routing beneath the level that the barriers exist on. The carpet bombing of dissidents voices on Twitter etc., then, cannot succeed. It will simply inspire new alternative layers of communications.
People like Craig Murray are going to face 3 choices in the next few years.
1) Continue using Facebook etc. as they do now and find themselves locked down and subject to all sorts of monitoring and hassle.
2) Stop criticising the state, US foreign policy, and the establishment, etc. and become good little citizens.
3) Join new alternative platforms that counter-revolutionary forces like Facebook, governments, and other wankers can’t control.
The new platforms are being developed as we speak, as anyone involved in what they call the Dark Web will know. They’re organic, bottom-up, and beautiful. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=E_kCCgsldjU
If they can’t stop bitcoin, software piracy, and torrents, they can’t stop freedom of speech. The future’s bright. The future’s anarchy.
Thanks for that great post Hatuey. For one thing it’s saved me a load of effort 😉
I agree with you, it won’t work in the end. People will move elsewhere. Who remembers MySpace? Hopefully Craig will be spreading his thoughts on Diaspora, tweeting his toots on Mastodon, and ..er…shooting his videos on Bitchute – or whatever. He can do this now, alongside current, mainstream channels.
It might be worth noting that some sort of regulation is in the air too – after all these platforms are legislated for as content-neutral, not publishers. By exercising censorship, they are no longer neutral.
You have omitted the fourth option – which, IMHO, is by far the best (and easiest).
Just stop using social media altogether. Don’t worry about PR – leave that to the revolting politicians and corporate rats.
Go on posting to your excellent blog, and if your circle of readers shrinks, reflect that at least it now consists of people who really want to hear your opinions.
Well they’re Hatuey’s points not mine, but yes. This is in fact the option I use (except YouTube I guess). I remember stopping using FB it was about 8 years ago after a blazing online row over Julian Assange, where I ended up being called a rape apologist!
I will add though, that the easiest path is not always the best to take.
Not a great suggestion in an information war. Remember, it’s information that transforms an ordinary uncaring, unknowing, westerner into a progressive driver of change.
Of course, information is available outside of the web and social media, but traditional print suffers from huge lag.
Who remembers MySpace?
The demise of MySpace isn’t proof of the impermanence of social media, it’s evidence of the thoroughness with which potential competition to Facebook was eliminated.
And I’m not presenting it as such (proof). Social Media is very much here to stay. I concede MySpace is perhaps a bad example, but the point is people do migrate to and from social mediaplatforms:
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jun/01/facebook-teens-leaving-instagram-snapchat-study-user-numbers
PS I hope when you say the future’s bright, you don’t mean in the Timbuk3 sense 😉
Oh god… timbuk3. Dark days.
I remember a jingle – ‘The future’s bright. The future’s Orange’
They’ve gorn. To EE.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_UK
A gentle reminder.
re:publica 2012 – Appelbaum & Kleiner – Resisting the Surveillance State and its network effects – https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3h46EbqhPo
And I note, despite your use as “the good guys” it works very well as behaviour control by thoes classes. Just like 100 years ago the capitalists to turned hate towards migrants & promoted nationalist/fascist, diverting conditions they create away from them (& funding both sides of war)
Today we get exactly the same use & results. Divide & rule. Same class that Nigel F represents.
You don’t control these tools, the rich elite do.
Some scary info:
Atlantic council funders $250,000 – $999,999:
*Foreign & Commonwealth Office of the United Kingdom
http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/support/supporters
Yes, your tax pounds hard at work doing good. I would like to see HMG’s justification of spending public funds on such an organization.
Tom Welsh
Its easy for them since they share this censorship/approach, world view 100%.
“that counter-revolutionary forces like Facebook, governments, and other wankers can’t control.”
I think we may be considered counter-revolutionary forces. Question is when do the death squads arrive? (White Helmets on their way) as far as I know…
Off topic but I think people will appreciate this, found via the paul craig roberts website. Another John McCain tribute, which contains the immortal line “Defecating into the cesspool of American politics doesn’t alter its chemistry much”. fantastic. https://cluborlov.blogspot.com/2018/08/a-senator-masquerading-as-gas-station.html
Dmitry Orlov is one of the very few writers whose work I would unhesitatingly recommend to everyone. I have never seen a bad, or even mediocre, piece by him. His books are really brilliant. And, for a Russian born in Russia, his English is so much better than the vast majority of native English speakers.
There must be a lot of suspended Twitter and Facebook accounts now. Remember, Twitter and Facebook are valued based on the number of users they have. They don’t want to lose users and they don’t want to lose US hegemony (which is were their money comes from). So if they suspend your account just delete it. Simples 🙂
Although I agree completely with your sentiment, somehow I doubt if it is easy – or, perhaps – even possible – to delete a Facebook acount once set up. For exactly the reason you give (among many others).
Anyway, how could you ever possibly know if your account has *really* been deleted? You may no longer be able to use it – but that doesn’t mean its data has been deleted fully and permanently (in all copies).
Interesting point. “Face-exited” more than a year ago… I may have the time to investigate.
Gangsters-in-charge cont’d
Aliko Dangote, a Nigerian, said to be the richest man in Africa, has given Mick Davis (of Fox and Werritty infamy) and Cherie Blair, seats on the board of his giant cement company, Dangote Cement.
23 April 2018
Move comes as firm is said to consider London listing
Nigerian company is Africa’s biggest cement producer
Dangote Cement Plc appointed former Xstrata Plc Chief Executive Officer Mick Davis as a non-executive director alongside Cherie Blair, a lawyer and the wife of ex-U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair, as Nigeria’s largest company looks to strengthen its board.https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-23/dangote-cement-appoints-ex-xstrata-ceo-cherie-blair-to-board
He is following in Usmanov’s footsteps at Arsenal.
Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote reveals plan for Arsenal takeover
25 Jul 2018
Aliko Dangote has promised to launch an offer to buy Arsenal. (Getty Images)
Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote has revealed he will attempt to buy Arsenal in the next two years. The Nigerian businessman, who is worth $13.8 billion (£10.4bn) according to Forbes, has been linked with purchasing a significant stake in Arsenal for……
https://metro.co.uk/2018/07/25/africas-richest-man-aliko-dangote-reveals-plan-arsenal-takeover-7756992/?
He has also obtained the services of Bill and Melinda Gates in his foundation. Do all oligarchs and would- be oligarchs have foundations? He has donated $1.2 billion in the fight against contagious diseases such as polio.
Oh and he was chosen for one of the 2015 Clinton Global Citizen awards.
https://www.clintonfoundation.org/clinton-global-initiative/meetings/annual-meetings/2015/clinton-global-citizen-awards
Note the World Economic Forum membership and the enrolments into the Honorary International Investor Council (whatever that is) and the McKinsey Advisory Council.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aliko_Dangote Four wives, so far.
Atlantic Council has deep roots. Markus Dohle, CEO of Penguin Random House, the world’s largest publisher, is on the International Advisory Board.
“Dohle … added that recently, publishing titles that add deeply to the cultural or political discourse has become especially important to him. He chose the memoir by former US first lady Michelle Obama, called Becoming, due out in November. Dohle also mentioned On Tyranny, by Timothy D. Snyder, The future Is History, by Masha Gessen, Democracy in Chains, by Nancy MacLean, and Collusion, by Luke Harding, all published last year.”
They own the means of cultural production.
“That Facebook allows this utterly discredited neo-conservative charlatan the run of its censorship operations needs, given Facebook’s pivotal role in social media intercourse, to concern everybody. The freedom of the internet is under fundamental attack”.
Sorry, Craig, your closing two sentences do not stand up. Everything you have said, in this article and many previous ones, cries out that Facebook is unreliable, treacherous, false and self-serving.
So why would any reasonable person use it?
Exactly the same goes for Twitter and the rest of them.
The only reason so many people default to interacting through those “social media” corporations is, well, laziness. It’s so much easier than finding the Web sites and blogs of people whose views are worth reading, and contributing thoughts (and perhaps money) to them.
The freedom of the Internet, to which you refer, is of course always “under attack” – because so many of the rich and powerful people who, more or less, run the world hate the idea of open discourse and do everything they can to suppress it.
But the Internet – and the Web, more precisely – remain open and free with a few minor limitations. The price of entry is just the willingness to use the Web itself, not some fake, false, walled garden set up by a lousy corporation for its own profit.
It makes sense to use it whilst it serves a purpose, though.
Tom Welsh,
Whilst I agree with you about schools, though my experience was almost the direct reverse of yours, I do not agree with everything you wrote here about Facebook. Yes I agree “Facebook is unreliable, treacherous, false and self-serving.”, and I have numerous other problems with it, including a horrendous invasion of privacy, and an outrageous use of mobile phone resources, particularly if you allow it to be installed.
So why would any reasonable person use it?
To give a simple answer, for me personally – over 75% of my friends I meet regularly use it, and around 25% of my family, who I don’t meet regularly.
If I didn’t use it, I would be unaware, of a lot of things, including forthcoming social events, that I may wish to attend.
There may well be better solutions to Facebook, and younger generations are rapidly moving to them.
Current Facebook policies, will hasten this move to other alternatives, but certainly, now for my generation, it provides a very useful social function.
I think it totally inappropriate for political or religious comment, as this is the fastest way to lose friends and family who you may otherwise have much in common with.
Tony
Certainly Facebook is marvellous for socialising – keeping in touch with family and friends, exchanging photographs, etc. Just as Skype is wonderful for keeping in touch. Who would have thought that when practical videoconferencing arrived it would be free worldwide?
But… don’t use it for anything political or controversial. Or, if you decide to do so, be aware that you may get cut off at any moment.
Or, that anyone using it (loved ones, family etc) who are not questioning the narrative will most likely, either ignore, or not see (shadow ban) any observations made. SH1TB00K – Share a mailing address or telephone number and then leave immediately, – Socialise in a bricks and mortar establishment. Play cards or something 🙂
The UK basic state pension still increases every year by either the increase in average earnings or the increase in prices (measured by the CPI) or by 2,5% – whichever is the highest. That “triple lock” survives, despite rumblings before the last general election that it should be done away with, and indeed the present government has committed to maintaining it.
What a contrast with France, a country which has from time to time been most favourably compared to the UK!
There – and despite promises by President Macron during the last Presidential election not to cut social security benefits including pensions – the government of PM Philippe has just announced that state pensions will be de-indexed in 2019 and 2020.
Now, formally, this is not a “cut” but it is only not a cut in nominal terms; with inflation at 2.60% this year, and unlikely to fall below that figure in the next couple of years, the French government has just in effect announced a cut of pensions in real terms.
Surprised that none of this blog’s exalters of all things Continental have mentioned this.
++++++++++++++++++++
Meanwhile, and far away, the number of Venezuelans fleeing the economic chaos in that oil-rich but sadly mismanaged country has reached an all time high. In reaction, the “government” of President Nicola Maduro Moros is, apparently, making it extremely difficult for people who do not already have a passport to obtain one.
Venceremos!
You love gloating about other’s misfortunes, while excitedly imagining it proves something or other in your sad little bubble of desperation.
Venezuala is only being mismanaged by the neo-con USA deep state pillock!
Yeah, right, President Nicolas Maduro Moron and his govt are all US double agents, I knew there was something not quite halal about them.
Seriously though, your view is a distinctly minority one and is not even shared by the other South American countries.
Speaking about South America, it appears that anti-American firebrand and former President of the Argentine Republic Mrs Cristina Kirchner is in deep dooh-dah. Something to do with corruption, apparently.
– “Surprised that none of this blog’s exalters of all things Continental have mentioned this”
On the contrary; you have mentioned it Charles! Maybe you’re not as different as you think.
Kissinger fascinates me. His shuttle diplomacy takes him to the heart of governments all over the world. He was first to turn up at No 10 after May moved in, strolling alone to the door in the shadows of dusk. I also saw him being interviewed on an African television programme (on youtube) in which he stated that when he visits Russia he stays with Putin. He has worked loyally with the architects of the global monopoly game for many decades, and his knowledge and stability will be much missed when he goes
He’s a war criminal. And he’s scared to “shuttle” around as you suggest, for good reason.
Don’t take my word for it;
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/henry-kissinger-human-rights_n_7454172?guccounter=1&guce_referrer_us=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvLnVrLw&guce_referrer_cs=bt3iuyu2Y-06fULyDnqaNg
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43377.The_Trial_of_Henry_Kissinger
Hatuey, here is the actual link, from what you posted for Huffington Post:
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/henry-kissinger-human-rights_n_7454172
Everything after the question mark probably contains coded information, possibly about your device and where you’ve been browsing. That’s this gobbledegook:
?guccounter=1&guce_referrer_us=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvLnVrLw&guce_referrer_cs=bt3iuyu2Y-06fULyDnqaNg
Readers wishing to view the article should use my link rather than yours, to protect your privacy as well as their own!
Your Goodreads link contains no such garbage.
In a link, forward slashes indicate the levels of hierarchy in the target directory structure – that’s a legitimate part of the web address. Beware question marks, ampersands and mathematical operator symbols! A lot can be worked out with a bit of common sense; for instance in a YouTube link, you need the “?v=GhtYkIl6” piece; v= for the video identifier, get it?
“Kissinger fascinates me.”
I agree.
Psychopaths chill me to the bone but they fascinate me.
@ Garth Carthy August 29, 2018 at 11:48
‘Confronting Henry Kissinger, August 1995’: https://etan.org/news/kissinger/ask.htm
Exposed as the lying, sociopathic War Criminal he is.
@ Alyson August 29, 2018 at 11:08
I’m sure ‘..his knowledge and stability..’ will be much appreciated in Hell.
He’ll be able to discuss old times with Hitler, Franco, Pinochet, Gerald Ford, Nixon, Mao, Stalin etc.
The point about Kissinger is his consummate success as one of the triumpherate that delivered dollar hegemony on a global scale. The ending of this era will bring a certain amount of creative chaos.
https://www.alternet.org/world/david-rockefeller-foreign-policy-cia-kissinger-chile
Allende could not be bought. Bear that in mind
NATO is a criminal organisation.
Yep just … Libya – a modern African state reduced to race slavery and enforced sectarian conflict – ray – go the whabist head choppers we love to fund with our taxes. Our government IS morally bancrupt. A full stop on that point I hope.
How To Get Your Dissident Ideas Heard In The New Media Environment
August 29th, 2018
‘In the old media environment, there were a few platforms which had total control over whose voice got heard and how often, and those outlets have been fully controlled by establishment power. Now, even alternative media outlets with a strong anti-establishment bent to them are becoming obsolete as individuals gain the ability to elevate anyone who shines bright and makes good arguments, allowing for a truly democratized media environment. This is exponentially more difficult for oligarchic power to control, which is why they’re currently trying to negotiate the extremely delicate dance of putting the squeeze on all the myriad dissenting voices without exposing themselves as totalitarian fascists and thereby losing their ability to manufacture consent. If more and more of us begin creating our own content, this will get harder and harder for them to do, and eventually it will become impossible.
And then the people will have won.’
/..
https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/how-to-get-your-dissident-ideas-heard-in-the-new-media-environment-d72cca3c8adf
Thanks for posting this. I’ve followed CJ over the past year mainly through Consortium News but never knew she had much to say other than the odd article. Love her sense of humour and I too will now tell people I’m a utopia prepper.
Good advice here for everyone looking to promote their own views outside of what will surely become stricter corporate and state censorship.
I have never had a Twitter account as I believe Twitter is the digital form of evidence-free conclusions. Very good for mob rule, very good for lynchings, less good for the Rule of Law.
I shut down my Facebook account once Zuckerberg became the digital CIA/NSA. Zuckerberg has no right to call himself an arbiter and certainly should be Imprisoned for violating the First Amendment of the US Constitution. He would buy himself out of that, so South Sea Bubble is the best hope to bring him to heel. Deplatform Zuckerberg: close down your account today!
You do have alternatives, Mr Murray: word of mouth for one. You are not yet big enough to use associate marketing, but in time that could be possible. Ensuring everytime you are interviewed on RT, Sky or whoever that the copy contains a link to your website. Having mutual admiration treaties with other alt-news blogs.
These things happen when they happen: chugging on growing slowly and steadily and then suddenly, you go viral. Not always clear what triggers it, but why did few challenge narratives in the Balkans but millions did over Iraq in 2002/3?
“but why did few challenge narratives in the Balkans but millions did over Iraq in 2002/3?”
A lot of people did challenge intervention in the Balkan war. Opposition didn’t go mainstream as you suggest for various reasons. For one, social media was more infantile in 1999 than it was in 2003. 4 years is a long time online.
Also, Blair and Clinton had a lot of credibility and trust back then. They both lost that but back then there was a sense that they represented a fresh approach — I.e humintarian intervention.
Also, there was a definite reluctance on the part of the US to get involved. Convincing them dragged on for months and the case for intervention was highly complicated.
@ Hatuey August 29, 2018 at 12:28
I was certainly fooled by the propaganda at the time, and thought it good that the West was intervening.
But that was before 2001; delving into that has taught me a great deal, and I now sport my tinfoil hat at a rakish angle!
Farcebook was always the CIA/NSA. It was a creation of American intelligence services from day one.
“When whole societies are gripped by delusion and hysteria, only bad things can happen. Groupthink takes over. Witch-hunts happen. And if you are not with the witch hunters, you are probably either already a witch or about to become one.” http://viewsandstories.blogspot.com/2018/08/america-is-truly-foreign.html
A summary of the case of british guy “Ian”, that was outed by Kimmo and labeled by the UK government as a russian troll/bot/agent:
“Oh Those Embarrassing Moments: Atlantic Council’s Ben Nimmo Outs ‘Russian Bot’ That Turns Out To Simply Be A UK Citizen Tired Of UK Government Warmongering”
https://steemit.com/news/@clarityofsignal/oh-those-embarrassing-moments-atlantic-council-s-ben-nimmo-outs-russian-bot-that-turns-out-to-simply-be-a-uk-citizen-tired-of-uk
This research, this article from Craig is precisely why at this time and going forwards towards the next general election, we need to concentrate our efforts on ensuring the victory of the British Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn. At the risk of upsetting Scottish Nationalists, time enough then to decide whether our nations should lose the ties which bind us together and Scotland, we need you so badly to help us defeat the enemies of all the ordinary people in the UK. We know what dangers we face from Craig’s extensive investigations into the corruption we as a people have faced for decades and are currently facing, especially under this Tory government. If we cannot build on what Corbyn is offering, then we, in whatever is left of the UK are all doomed. But, if we win under him, his plans ensure a better tomorrow for ordinary folk wherever we are in the UK, whether we are within or outside of the EU. His government will produce a better tomorrow, but Scotland must play her part in this for all our sakes.
If you haven’t already you can read or watch Corbyn’s vision for the future of UK broadcasting, an excellent start to the way he means to go about turning around the UK for the many. For us.
https:www.broadcastnow.co.uk/broadcasts/jeremy-corbyn-alternative-mactaggart-speech-infull/5131894.article
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEYy7EATHhQ
Look at all the young adults in the auditorium in your YouTube link! This is cause for hope!
– “I want us to be as ambitious as possible. The public realm doesn’t have to sit back and watch as a few mega tech corporations hoover up digital rights, assets and ultimately our money. This technology doesn’t have an inbuilt bias towards the few. Government is standing by and letting the few take advantage of the many using technology. So, one of the more ambitious ideas I’ve heard is to set up a publicly owned British Digital Corporation as a sister organisation to the BBC. […] A BDC could use all of our best minds, the latest technology and our existing public assets not only to deliver information and entertainment to rival Netflix and Amazon but also to harness data for the public good.
– A BDC could develop new technology for online decision making and audience-led commissioning of programmes and even a public social media platform with real privacy and public control over the data that is making Facebook and others so rich. The BDC could work with other institutions that the next Labour government will set up like our National Investment Bank, National Transformation Fund, Strategic Investment Board, Regional Development Banks and our public utilities to create new ways for public engagement, oversight and control of key levers of our economy. It could become the access point for public knowledge, information and content currently held in the BBC archives, the British Library and the British Museum. Imagine an expanded Iplayer giving universal access to licence fee payers for a product that could rival Netflix and Amazon. It would probably sell pretty well overseas as well.”
He’s right. Why should we just give away all the data harvested as we communicate? The tech giants merely appropriate it; by any moral reckoning, data we create by our behaviours belongs to us, not to Facebook, Apple or Google. It is ours to control and use for the public’s advantage, not a private asset to help private interests control and exploit the people.
Not too long ago I would of said that Facebook’s primary business model was information gathering in all it’s forms. Sure it made money off of selling that information to interested parties and government entities but that was the thinly veiled secret. Now that it has caved into pressure to censor it’s users it will limit the amount of more valuable info and amount of users that the “deep state” might want to keep an eye on thus undermining it’s primary function as a self defecating spying tool by the people who use it.
Unintended consequense of the whole “the russians are trying to control our minds” scenario? If so then good riddance as meaningful discussion will just move to other platforms that are less monitored and Facebook will just shoot itself in the foot as more and more people become awakened.
– “Now that it has caved into pressure to censor it’s users it will limit the amount of more valuable info and amount of users that the “deep state” might want to keep an eye on thus undermining it’s primary function as a self defecating spying tool”
This sounds hopeful, but unfortunately there are various kinds of surveillance for different purposes. Facebook will still make plenty of money from those who wish to know our deepest behavioural traits and subconscious biases so they can sell more stuff to the punters.
Capitalist power structures are more interested in exploiting the people through the market and as wage slaves, and less interested in which particular political opinions the people hold and which narratives they tend towards.
Capitalist power has had control of both major UK political parties for a long time, so your mix of beliefs mattered very little to them. Jeremy Corbyn and the redemocratisation of the Labour party have changed that; hence the hysterical accusations against Corbyn and all who support him.
The part of Facebook designed to get people to buy stuff was always the least intrusive of Facebooks MO. The part I was always worried about was the role of Facebook to help suppress dissent. Capatilist powers and governmental ones were always entwined scratching each others backs and Facebook as the goto platform for most people to voice concerns over their daily lives. This holds enormous amount of information that could be used to control the masses much the same as commercial advertising.
If a state actor only has to rely on one or a few sites where people give out as much information as Facebook and these companies are willing to self regulate and censor to the states wishes then the easier it is to curb dissent and protest. Those that are censored leave and those that stay get bombarded with “approved news”. Those that leave however will find it harder to remove others from the matrix.
Governments just buy the demographic and personal data from the tech giants; you may regard this as different, but within the business model governments are just another customer like any other corporation.
Likewise, political influence groups just buy the access to viewers, the same as any advertiser does. Cambridge Analytica did this recently for the Brexit and Trump political campaigns. Cambridge Analytica was formed / renamed from an outfit of mostly military / psyops background that had been swinging elections and starting “grass roots revolutions” in other countries for years.
The difference you think you see is an illusion convenient to the powerful. Power and manipulation are power and manipulation, whether they’re used to influence your choice of groceries or political ideologies.
But is’nt one type of manipulation more dangerous than the other? I’m ok with being deluded into thinking Samsung is better than LG. This is less harmful than being drowned in groupthink that if Jeremy Corbin becomes the next PM that all jews will have to wear the star of David on their arms.
One cannot function in a modern society by hiding from the lies but be able to recognize them. If Facebook or other such platforms censor dissenting opinions I believe that they’ll just invite pushback and force people into alternatives. I just used to think that it was smarter to have the information that Facebook provided to use as the state entities wished then to try and control the information flow.
I understand that you’re trying to say that any info we provide on any platform will still be used for whatever purpose but why make it harder to collect that information?
Some effects of the same type of manipulation are more dangerous than others, certainly.
I’ve long thought of Facebook as barely competent, and this latest episode is no surprise. People got freaked out because the UK voted Leave and Trump got elected. That led to criticism of news posted on social media, and Facebook’s response of getting the Atlantic Council to supply censorship lists is sadly typical. I bet they thought they were getting real professionals in, not a bunch of neocons.
I really don’t know what you do with an outfit like Facebook. It would be nice if you could just ignore it, but unfortunately people flocked to it in droves. I guessed it might be useless as for political activism the day it asked me to sign away what little privacy it permitted me to retain in order to ‘receive’ a virtual sheep some ‘friend’ had ‘thrown at’ me. “This is not a serious platform” I thought.
Anyone who does not follow the accepted mainstream narrative must be banned or removed.
The Government decides what is the truth and what we are allowed to discuss. Anyone who attempts to discuss matters outside this window of truth is going off-narrative and must be destroyed.