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<\/a><\/p>\nRT.com<\/p>\n
Representatives from America\u2019s tech giants are meeting in private to discuss strategies for countering \u201cinformation operations\u201d ahead of the midterm elections. The meeting comes amid growing concern over social media censorship.<\/p>\n
The secret meeting, which will take place on Friday at Twitter\u2019s headquarters in downtown San Francisco, will focus on\u00a0\u201cinformation operations, election protection, and the work we are all doing to tackle these challenges,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0BuzzFeed News has\u00a0reported<\/a>, citing an email written by Facebook\u2019s head of cybersecurity policy, Nathaniel Gleicher. A dozen companies, including Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat, will reportedly be in attendance.<\/p>\n During the meeting, each company will explain the work they\u2019ve been doing to counter\u00a0\u201cinformation operations,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0with time allotted afterwards for a discussion about specific problems that each company is facing. The final agenda item, according to the leaked email, will be to decide if the tech giants should meet regularly to discuss their anti-meddling measures.<\/p>\n Around 10 of the companies expected to participate in Friday\u2019s meeting were present at a similar powwow\u00a0attended<\/a>\u00a0by US intelligence officials. Held at Facebook\u2019s headquarters in Menlo Park, California in May, the summit included a top official from the Department of Homeland Security, as well as a representative of the FBI\u2019s newly formed\u00a0\u201cforeign influence\u201d<\/em>\u00a0task force.<\/p>\n Social media companies have scrambled to reassure the US government that their platforms cannot be abused, after accusations of Russian meddling emerged in the wake of the 2016 presidential election.<\/p>\n As a result, tech giants have launched a crusade against so-called\u00a0\u201cRussian bots\u201d<\/em>\u00a0and other undesirables detected on their platforms, in some cases deleting thousands of accounts \u2013 some of which have since been shown to be owned by legitimate users.<\/p>\n In recent weeks, Facebook, Google and Twitter have cracked down on\u00a0\u201chate speech\u201d<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0\u201cfake news,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0which in Facebook\u2019s case is determined in partnership with the NATO-funded Atlantic Council. The bans and suspensions that have followed have been slammed by critics as thinly veiled censorship, with tech giants seemingly using the Russian meddling hysteria to target undesirable political speech.<\/p>\n As we have been trying to tell you the real target for neoliberal corporate censorship was always the left. Now that they have conditioned public to accept it as a result of Russiagate, the left is in their crosshairs. https:\/\/t.co\/zt2oMIbtDC<\/a><\/p>\n — Ajamu Baraka (@ajamubaraka) August 13, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n