China: How a fake network pushes pro-China propaganda

A sprawling network of more than 350 fake social media profiles is pushing pro-China narratives and attempting to discredit those seen as opponents of China's government, according to a new study.

The aim is to delegitimise the West and boost China's influence and image overseas, the report by the Centre for Information Resilience (CIR) suggests.

The study, shared with the BBC, found that the network of fake profiles circulated garish cartoons depicting, among others, exiled Chinese tycoon Guo Wengui, an outspoken critic of China.

Read more at: How a fake network pushes pro-China propaganda - BBC News

USA - Trump administration's confusion and lack of a unified coronavirus strategy will cost lives, say a dozen experts

Donald Trump Press Briefings: gibberish and gobbledygook

Each day that passes without such a national strategy, the experts say, will raise the ultimate U.S. death toll from COVID-19, the disease associated with the virus. Right now, there aren't enough tests and gear as states compete with one another to buy them on the open market. And there is very little ability to trace who has the virus and where it is spreading.

The only way to win what President Donald Trump has called a war against an "invisible enemy" is to establish a unified federal command, the experts insist — something Trump has yet to do. So far, the federal government hasn't leveraged all its authority and influence to dramatically expand testing and tracing measures, ensure a sufficient supply of crucial medical equipment or require residents of all 50 states to stay at home.

At his daily Press Propaganda meeting Trump recently announced proudly the US was the best in the world,when it comes to testing for the coronavirus ,because the US had already done 6 million tests. "Hello", mr Trump, that is just 2% of the total US population of 327 million people.

 In relation to these daily Trump Propaganda meetings  Vox news  recently wrote:  "For the sake of public health, journalistic integrity, and the public’s basic mental health, it’s time to stop broadcasting President Donald Trump’s daily “coronavirus task force” briefings live. 

Every president has had occasion to call upon broadcasters to air his words to the public when he has newsworthy or urgent announcements to make. When Trump said he wanted to address the nation from the Oval Office about coronavirus, it was right to extend him the opportunity to address the crisis. It was even right to offer some forbearance to his history of incessant lying once he started making himself the star of daily coronavirus briefings". 

But no president in American history has ever had the privilege of having his every word simulcast across news networks. And we’ve now seen enough of Trump’s daily events to know that these are not briefings in any conventional sense. As James Fallows puts it, they are “Trump campaign rallies with scientists rather than local-government officials as the supporting cast.” 

On top of that, Trump at these briefings insults journalists who ask him questions  he does not like. 

It is high time to put an end to this charade and have Press briefings on the corona virus done only by qualified medical experts and professional  US government officials.

EU-Digest

USA: Corona virus: Bill Gates calls out federal government for disorganized COVID-19 testing in Reddit AMA

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, a leading philanthropist on global public health, offered predictions and advice for coping with the COVID-19 pandemic Wednesday during a Reddit AMA. He urged everyone who can stay home to do so, calling social distancing, “the only model that is known to work.”…

Read more at:
https://www.geekwire.com/2020/bill-gates-calls-federal-government-disorganized-covid-19-testing-reddit-ama/

USA - State of the Nation: Partisan passions overtake Trump’s State of the Union speech

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump highlighted economic gains and his reelection bid in a sweeping State of the Union address Tuesday, but his impeachment overshadowed the text as the traditional address to a joint session of Congress devolved into theatrical outbursts and unmasked partisan disdain. Republican lawmakers loudly chanted “four more years!” before Trump began speaking, setting an intensely political tone for an address that offered few major policy proposals

Read more at:
https://www.registerguard.com/news/20200205/partisan-passions-overtake-trumps-state-of-union-speech

USA: State of the Union 2020: Trump addresses the nation - propaganda on steroids

This speech will be remembered for the bitter partisanship underlying it. From the snubbed handshake of Pelosi by Trump, to the awarding of the presidential Medal of Freedom to a man who has professionally insulted people, especially women, for decades; to the instantly viral clip of Pelosi ripping up Trump’s partisanship underlying it. Trump’s speech, we learned more tonight about the state of America’s disunion than anything else.

Read more: State of the Union 2020 live updates: Trump addresses the nation

USA: Donald Trump Jr: ‘Here We Go Again With Instagram Censorship’

Donald Trump Jr. took to Instagram stating Monday that he was censored and shadow banned by the social media platform.

The President’s son posted a screenshot Monday morning of his father’s campaign video that aired during the Super Bowl. It reads, “Give me a break. Here we go again with the @Instagram censorship.”

“As we’ve gotten closer to the caucuses/primaries I’ve seen my numbers drop but this ad, which was one of the most talked about from the #SuperBowl put out by the President, to only have 57,000 views and 265 comments on my account after being up for four hours is literally unprecedented,” Trump Jr. wrote.

Note EU-Digest: the truth is that Trump's Ad at the super-bowl low numbers is that very few people in the US were interested to hear the propaganda nonsense coming from the Republicans about Trump. 

Read more at: Donald Trump Jr: ‘Here We Go Again With Instagram Censorship’ | The Daily Caller

Switzerland - Davos: Trump in his Davos speech plays down the threat of climate change - by Ishaan Tharoor

In the buildup to the World Economic Forum, the focus was all on climate change. On its first day, the forum’s organizers announced an ambitious agenda that would enlist a broad consortium of banks, companies and civic leaders to make this year’s event a “tipping point” for global climate action.

In the hour that preceded an address from President Trump, an envoy from Pope Francis urged the throng of gathered billionaires, corporate executives, politicians and celebrities to recognize their “moral responsibility” to safeguard future generations. Simonetta Sommaruga, the president of the Swiss Confederation, went to the dais and warned of “a world on fire.” 

She told the crowd, which included figures such as former U.S. vice president Al Gore and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. “We need politicians to take action in their own country and internationally to ensure that the ecological balance is ensured and global warming is stopped.”

In the first of two speeches Tuesday, Greta Thunberg, the Swedish teenage climate activist, once more scolded political leaders and media elites, accusing them of not making expressly clear the scale of the catastrophe facing the planet. “Without treating it as a real crisis, we cannot solve it,” she said.

Then Trump spoke. 

He used his plenary moment — the forum’s first speech by a major world leader — to take a victory lap of sorts, celebrating the U.S. economic “boom” under his watch. “America is flourishing, and, yes, America is winning again like never before,” Trump declared in what was essentially a 30-minute campaign stunt, albeit devoid of the familiar xenophobic demagoguery.

Read more at: Trump in his Davos speech plays down the threat of climate change - The Washington Post

Amaq News Agency: Isn't it high time for anti-terrorist forces to neutralize this major terrorist propaganda tool?

WIKIPEDIA reports that the Amaq News Agency was established during the Siege of Kobanî in 2014 as an alternative to Western media coverage of the siege.^[1] It became more widely known after it began reporting what have been taken as claims of responsibility of terrorist attacks in Western countries, such as the 2015 San Bernardino attack. IS officially claimed responsibility the next day.^[1]

It has featured embedded reporters at the scene of IS battles, including an Amaq cameraman who shot the first footage of the capture of Palmyra in 2015.^[1]

Amaq has launched an official mobile app and has warned against unofficial versions that reportedly have been used to spy on its users.^[2] It also uses a Telegram account.^[3]

The obvious question is: with all the Western technical resources amd know-how at their disposal why hasn't the Intelligence Community not yet taken this News Agency out, or at least infiltrated them?

EU-Digest 

Russia: Putin Claims Russia Does Not Have ‘Propaganda Machine’ Like the West - by Damien Sharkov

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he “regrets” that his country does not have a propaganda machine, but alleged that the West does, Russian daily newspaper Kommersant reports.

Putin, whose three terms as president since 1999 have seen a large state takeover of Russian media, used a speech at the annual Valdai Club summit in Sochi on Thursday to address allegations that the Kremlin has tried to influence western electorates to vote in ways favorable to Russia. Most recently the U.S.

Democratic Party has accused Putin of attempting to influence the presidential election there, suggesting he would prefer they elect the Republican candidate, Donald Trump.

Read more: Putin Claims Russia Does Not Have ‘Propaganda Machine’ Like the West

The US Corporate Press: "The Fable Of Good and Bad Deaths in the Middle East

Note how differently The New York Times prepares the American public for civilian casualties from the new U.S.-backed Iraqi government assault on the city of Mosul to free it from the Islamic State, compared to the unrelenting condemnation of the Russian-backed Syrian government assault on neighborhoods of east Aleppo held by Al Qaeda.

In the case of Mosul, the million-plus residents are not portrayed as likely victims of American airstrikes and Iraqi government ground assaults, though surely many will die during the offensive. Instead, the civilians are said to be eagerly awaiting liberation from the Islamic State terrorists and their head-chopping brutality.

“Mosul’s residents are hoarding food and furtively scrawling resistance slogans on walls,” writes Times’ veteran war correspondent Rod Nordland about this week’s launch of the U.S.-backed government offensive. “Those forces will fight to enter a city where for weeks the harsh authoritarian rule of the Islamic State … has sought to crack down on a population eager to either escape or rebel, according to interviews with roughly three dozen people from Mosul.

The Times article continues: “Mosul residents chafed under social codes banning smoking and calling for splashing acid on body tattoos, summary executions of perceived opponents, whippings of those who missed prayers or trimmed their beards, and destroying ‘un-Islamic’ historical monuments.”

So, the message is clear: if the inevitable happens and the U.S.-backed offensive kills a number of Mosul’s civilians, including children, The New York Times’ readers have been hardened to accept this “collateral damage” as necessary to free the city from blood-thirsty extremists. The fight to crush these crazies is worth it, even if there are significant numbers of civilians killed in the “cross-fire.”

By contrast, the Times routinely portrays the battle for east Aleppo as simply a case of barbaric Russian and Syrian leaders bombing innocent neighborhoods with no regard for the human cost, operating out of an apparent lust to kill children.

Rather than focusing on Al Qaeda’s harsh rule of east Aleppo, the Times told its readers in late September how to perceive the Russian-Syrian offensive to drive out Al Qaeda and its allies. A Sept. 25 article by Anne Barnard and Somini Sengupta, entitled “Syria and Russia Appear Ready to Scorch Aleppo,” began:

“Make life intolerable and death likely. Open an escape route, or offer a deal to those who leave or surrender. Let people trickle out. Kill whoever stays. Repeat until a deserted cityscape is yours. It is a strategy that both the Syrian government and its Russian allies have long embraced to subdue Syrian rebels, largely by crushing the civilian populations that support them.

“But in the past few days, as hopes for a revived cease-fire have disintegrated at the United Nations, the Syrians and Russians seem to be mobilizing to apply this kill-all-who-resist strategy to the most ambitious target yet: the rebel-held sections of the divided metropolis of Aleppo.”

Again, note how the “rebels” are portrayed as local heroes, rather than a collection of jihadists from both inside and outside Syria fighting under the operational command of Al Qaeda’s Nusra Front, which recently underwent a name change to the Syria Conquest Front. But the name change and the pretense about “moderate” rebels are just more deceptions.

Read more: Consortiumnews – Independent Investigative Journalism Since 1995

Propaganda: ′Divide Europe′: European lawmakers warn of Russian propaganda - what about propaganda from other sources?

The Russian government channels propaganda aimed at disrupting democratic values across Europe, targeting "specific journalists, politicians and individuals in the bloc," lawmakers of the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee said in a resolution passed on Monday.

"The Russian government is aggressively employing a wide-range of tools and instruments, such as think tanks […], multilingual TV stations (i.e. Russia Today), pseudo-news agencies […], social media and internet trolls, to challenge democratic values, divide Europe, gather domestic support and create the perception of failed states in the EU's eastern neighborhood," the resolution said.

European lawmakers called on media representatives in the EU to compile facts on the "consumption of propaganda," worrying that "with the limited awareness amongst some of its member states, that they are audiences and arenas of propaganda and disinformation."

The resolution urged European authorities to turn the EU's Strategic Communication Task Force, an initiative mandated by the European Council aimed at dispelling propaganda, into a "fully-fledged unit" within the bloc's diplomatic office, "with proper staffing and adequate budgetary resources."

MEP Anna Fotyga, the chief rapporteur for the resolution, told DW that more needs to be done to expose the "mechanism of propaganda" directed at the bloc's member states, and more broadly the EU and the West.

However, Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of RT (formerly Russia Today), told DW that the resolution, in effect, targets free speech in the 28-nation bloc.

"This a rather interesting interpretation of the much-touted western values, particularly that of the freedom of speech - which in action apparently means attacking a rare voice of dissent amongst literally thousands of European media outlets," Simonyan said in an emailed statement.

"If anything is eroding public confidence in European institutions, it's that," she added.

Note EU-Digest: Good move by EU lawmakers, but propaganda is coming to the EU citizens and politicians from a variety of sources and directions - countries and industry, and the question should not only be focused on one potential culprit, but other sources as well, including, the US, China, multi- nationals, etc. If the EU lawmakers don't approach the issue in a far more broader and objective way, it unfortunately does start to smell like censorship, and that, one can only hope is not the purpose of this exercise ?

Read more: ′Divide Europe′: European lawmakers warn of Russian propaganda | Europe | DW.COM | 11.10.2016

Terrorism: Press and.Governments should stop identifying this band of deranged murderers as IS

Press and Government better start calling a spade a spade

Sad story ( click on link below for full report) reminding us about the cruel practices of these deranged, derelict, murderers, who call themselves IS

The press and.Governments should stop identifying this band of deranged murderers and killers as IS.

There is no country or so called "Caliphate" called IS. It is all dreamworld fiction.

We must start to call a spade a spade, so why not identify these Deranged Psychotic Murderers Trash as DPMT- Deranged Psychotic, Murderous, Trash.

Press and.Governments should stop "glorifying" the exploits of these murderers and Social Media must be far more vigilant in localizing and eliminating Jihadist propaganda from the Internet.

Read more: Flash - Syrian teen's amputated hand a cruel reminder of IS rule - France 24

Social Media: YouTube's Battle Against ISIS - by Jaweed Kaleem

On a Thursday night late last fall, after leaving the Manhattan office where he works as a digital products specialist, Aman Ali -- a well-known comedian in American Muslim circles -- received an unusual email from YouTube.

“We need you,” read the note, which invited Ali to the company’s sprawling, 41,000-square-foot production facility in Los Angeles and promised a free flight and two nights in a hotel. “Muslim community leaders [are] struggling to have their voices heard against the overwhelming extremist and bigoted content currently surfacing the web.”

The words “Islamic State” appeared nowhere in the note asking Muslims like Ali to “change the discourse,” but the message was clear. The terrorist organization's vast media arm, with its slick recruitment videos, was winning the propaganda war. Muslims needed to figure out a way to fight back and “get your voices heard.”

\YouTube, facing pressure after unwittingly hosting execution clips before the company could realize and take them down, was offering its helping hand.

Nearly two months later, on a Saturday in January, about 70 Muslims arrived at a closed-door meeting at YouTube’s studios. They comprised a who’s-who of imams, scholars, activists, Muslim vloggers and entertainers from across the U.S. Many had witnessed extremism first-hand, such as imam Suhaib Webb, who was the face of the Boston Muslim community in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings. For nine hours, experts, many of them Muslims, briefed participants and brainstormed how to combat online extremism.

Imams were paired with entertainers; scholars were seated with a few of YouTube’s non-Muslim power users, who peppered the crowd and gave tips on how they had built up millions of subscribers with pop culture commentary. Mimicking a tech startup camp, attendees broke into small groups to debate what technologies and strategies worked best.

YouTube's Battle Against ISIS

Propaganda: The Insidious Power of Propaganda - by Karel van Wolferen

To study the effects of political propaganda in what used to be called the ‘free world’ there could hardly be a better time than now. We are living through an in stance of insidious propaganda that has clean contours.

It fills a common need. In a period of large-scale slaughter and other man-made disaster the morally conscious person can do with some clear categories of good and bad, desirable and despicable. Political certainty, in other words. You can even sell wars using ‘moral clarity’ as a sales pitch, as happened with Iraq and Afghanistan.

Good-evil classification is easy enough when we have imprisoned journalists decapitated by jihadis. Those who “will do something about that” are automatically placed in the ‘good guys’ category. But there is a problem of murkiness in this sample. Syria’s Assad has been listed for years at the top of the bad guy list, and yet he appears to be changing into something of an ally of those who are intent now on setting things straight.

On top of which, the fact that the radical Islamists out of which ISIS emerged were funded and encouraged by the United States and its Arab allies is not a deep secret, and the fact that none of this mayhem would now exist were it not for the sorcerer’s apprentice effect of the decapitation of the Iraqi state in 2003 has been pretty much agreed on.

The Ukraine sample is more clear-cut. Here we have fighters for democracy and other Western values in Kiev vs a character who is throwing a spanner in the works, who does not respect the sovereignty of neighbors, and whose intransigence does not lessen, no matter what sanctions you throw at him.

Read more: The Insidious Power of Propaganda - The Unz Review

French Presidential Elections: Sarkozy 'embarrassed France' with Obama video conference TV stunt - by Angelique Chrisafis

 
Nicolas Sarkozy has been accused of using a video conference with Barack Obama to boost his election campaign. In an unprecedented move in French diplomacy, newscasts on several TV channels showed the first few minutes of a video link-up between the French president and his Washington counterpart.

Days before the 22 April first-round vote in the French presidential election, the rare glimpse of banter between world leaders shows Obama saying of the campaign, "It must be a busy time." He adds: "I admire the tough battle you are waging." Sarkozy replies, grinning and with arms folded: "We will win, Mr Obama. You and me, together." The cameras leave before the presidents talk about Syria, Iran and oil.

The Socialist party accused Sarkozy of breaking diplomatic protocol and embarrassing France on the world scene in order to boost his struggling campaign for re-election, saying the images "weakened France's credibility in Washington and across the world".

For more: Sarkozy 'embarrassed France' with Obama video conference TV stunt | World news | guardian.co.uk