{"id":59730,"date":"2016-12-10T11:29:54","date_gmt":"2016-12-10T15:29:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=59730"},"modified":"2016-12-10T11:29:54","modified_gmt":"2016-12-10T15:29:54","slug":"us-lawmakers-move-to-criminalize-fake-news-propaganda-on-the-web","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=59730","title":{"rendered":"US Lawmakers Move to Criminalize \u2018Fake News, Propaganda\u2019 on the Web"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n

By GPD
\n<\/a>Veterans Today<\/p>\n

VT is at the top of the PropOrNot list yet is anti-Trump and pro-Russian (much of the time anyway). The Washington Post, cited as a source by Congress, has long been found by VT’s psychological warfare experts to be the largest fake news site out there.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

\"1041837869\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The witch hunt for \u201cfake news\u201d and \u201cRussian propaganda\u201d has been kicked up a notch, after the House passed a bill quietly tucked inside the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017, designed to crack down on free speech and independent media. Under \u201cTitle V\u2014Matters relating to\u00a0foreign countries,\u201d the bill seeks to \u201ccounter active measures by\u00a0Russia to\u00a0exert covert influence \u2026 carried out\u00a0in coordination with, or at\u00a0the behest of, political leaders or the security services of\u00a0the Russian Federation and the role of\u00a0the Russian Federation has been hidden or not acknowledged publicly.\u201d<\/p>\n

It lists media manipulation as:<\/p>\n

Establishment or funding of\u00a0a front group.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Covert broadcasting.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Media manipulation.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Disinformation and forgeries.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Funding agents of\u00a0influence.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Incitement and offensive counterintelligence.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Assassinations.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Terrorist acts.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is easy to\u00a0see how this law, if passed by\u00a0the Senate and signed by\u00a0the president, could be used to\u00a0target, threaten, or eliminate so-called \u2018fake news\u2019 websites, a list which has been used to\u00a0arbitrarily define any website, or blog, that does not share the mainstream media\u2019s proclivity to\u00a0serve as\u00a0the Public Relations arm of\u00a0a given administration,\u201d Global Research reported.<\/p>\n

The frightening attack on\u00a0speech and independent media was opposed by\u00a0only 30 members of\u00a0the House, including Tulsi Gabbard, Thomas Massie, and Justin Amash\u00a0\u2014 who stated that he fought against\u00a0it. \u201cAs long as\u00a0the government engages in\u00a0intelligence activities that violate our rights secured by\u00a0our Constitution, any Intel Authorization bill should be opposed,\u201d Justin Amash told Sputnik News.<\/p>\n

The bill must now pass through\u00a0Senate, though a senior Rand Paul aide has told Sputnik News that the Senator is currently holding the intelligence bill for\u00a0several reasons\u00a0\u2014 and that they are looking at\u00a0this specific issue very closely.<\/p>\n

\u201cCuriously, the bill which was passed on\u00a0November 30, was introduced on\u00a0November 22, two days before\u00a0the Washington Post published its Nov. 24 article citing \u2018experts\u2019 who claim Russian propaganda helped Donald Trump get elected,\u201d Zero Hedge noted. The \u2018experts\u2019 the newspaper cited was a group called \u201cPropOrNot,\u201d although it have refused to\u00a0name the experts behind\u00a0the operation.<\/p>\n

The organization has promoted a Ukrainian hacker group on\u00a0their Twitter feed. PropOrNot also listed over\u00a0200 websites that they accuse of\u00a0peddling Russian propaganda, including extremely popular news websites on\u00a0all sides of\u00a0the political spectrum, including The Drudge Report, Zero Hedge, TruthOut, Sputnik News, and even WikiLeaks.(of the sites listed, that Sputnik, yes an obvious propaganda site\u2026nobody misses that one\u2026would pick these, \u201cDrudge\u201d and \u201cWikileaks,\u201d oh god\u2026.they just don\u2019t get it.g)<\/em><\/p>\n

Former presidential candidate Ron Paul\u2019s website is also mentioned in\u00a0many of\u00a0the articles on\u00a0so-called fake news, an issue that should be concerning to\u00a0those who believe in\u00a0free speech, including his son, Senator Rand Paul. The elder Paul has long been a vocal supporter of\u00a0freedom of\u00a0speech, as\u00a0it is enshrined in\u00a0the Constitution of\u00a0the United States, and he and his supporters have repeatedly been the target of\u00a0finger pointing and demonization.<\/p>\n

In 2012, a risk-assessment report from\u00a0a Missouri-based fusion center stated that support for\u00a0Ron Paul\u2019s presidential bid was a sign of\u00a0membership in\u00a0a \u201cdomestic terrorist group.\u201d \u201cFor purposes of\u00a0this definition it does not matter whether the sites listed here are being knowingly directed and paid by\u00a0Russian intelligence officers, or whether they even knew they were echoing Russian propaganda at\u00a0any particular point: If they meet these criteria, they are at\u00a0the very least acting as\u00a0bona-fide \u2018useful idiots\u2019 of\u00a0the Russian intelligence services, and are worthy of\u00a0further scrutiny,\u201d the so-called experts cited by\u00a0PropOrNot state.<\/p>\n

Many of\u00a0those listed on\u00a0censorship hit lists are speaking out\u00a0against the attempt to\u00a0stop independent media. \u201cInformation is dangerous and with\u00a0this new reactionary shift of\u00a0people making ban lists of\u00a0so called \u2018fake news,\u2019 it shows us how afraid they are of\u00a0knowledge and differences of\u00a0opinion that spur people to\u00a0have an open mind,\u201d Luke Rudkowski, the owner of\u00a0We Are Change, one of\u00a0the sites on\u00a0the blacklist, previously told Sputnik News. \u201cInformation is very dangerous for\u00a0the establishment status quo that tried to\u00a0keep things the way they are.\u201d The bill, Zero Hedge notes, will soon proclaim much of\u00a0the internet to\u00a0be \u201ccriminal Russian propaganda if it is allowed to\u00a0pass.<\/p>\n

___
\nhttp:\/\/www.veteranstoday.com\/2016\/12\/05\/us-lawmakers-move-to-criminalize-fake-news-propaganda-on-the-web\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=59730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59730\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=59730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=59730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=59730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}