5 minutes unearthed very little News but a far greater pro-Israel partisan flood of social media-organized noise than that of pro-Palestinian and an increasing amount from Elon Musk himself.
Yesterday, the Australian Senate voted 56-12 to condemn the use of the phrase “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”, because it allegedly “opposes Israel’s right to exist, and is frequently used by those who seek to intimidate Jewish Australians via acts of antisemitism”. And yet there was no similar motion condemning (or even adequately acknowledging) the ongoing slaughter that stands in opposition to Palestine’s right to exist. If your suss-O-meter isn’t firing yet, it is well and truly broken.
“If you’re not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing”. Today, you will not find a clearer example of the phenomenon Macolm X was referring to than Israel’s wholesale slaughter of Gaza and the mesmerising cover provided by truth-discordant imperial apologia we sometimes call “the news”.
Reject it all. It is swallowing your humanity.
Source: Primetime genocide apologists and the annihilation of Gaza – The Shot
The war behind the war we aren’t allowed to see. Information without conclusion.
But with all eyes on Gaza, violations against journalists in the West Bank have multiplied. Israel now ranks sixth among the top countries for jailed journalists, tied with Iran. Over the past seven months, 52 journalists have been detained, all but two in the West Bank, the Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) told Global Voices. Nearly all are being held without trial or charge under Israeli military law.
Source: Israeli Violations against Journalists in Palestinian West Bank Multiply
Instagram’s parent company — refuses to provide evidence refuting widespread reports that it’s censoring Gaza-related content on its platforms. This week on Deconstructed, technology reporter Sam Biddle joins Ryan Grim to discuss his recent reporting on the efforts of Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., to press Meta for specifics.
Grim and Biddle dig into debates blaming the horrifying images coming out of Gaza for turning young people against the war. “When people see images of horrific bloodshed,” Biddle says, “when they see bodies blown apart by bombs, that’s upsetting to most people. There doesn’t have to be any ideology attached.” They also dive into how pressures to sanitize Israel’s war is being used to ban TikTok, and how X, formerly known as Twitter, is profiting off of government surveillance.
Source: Deconstructed: How the Gaza War Is Reshaping Social Media
This doesn’t typically happen as a result of any grand monolithic conspiracy; it’s mostly just the natural consequence of having all the major news platforms controlled by wealthy and powerful people who each have a vested interest in manufacturing consent for the status quo upon which their wealth and power are premised.
The oligarchs control the media, and they hire the executives who run the media, and the executives hire the editors who write the headlines and guide the reporters to report a certain way, and this gives rise to a system where everyone working for the outlet conducts themselves in a way that just so happens to suit the powerful people on top.
Then before you know it you’ve got editors at The New York Times — a paper that’s been published by the same family for over a century — packaging a story about starvation caused by an Israeli siege to look like it’s a story about an innocent crop failure.
Odds are nobody told them to do that; they just learned over the years that that’s how you rise to the top in an outlet like The New York Times.
Descartes “I think therefore I am” However Zionists police your thinking. If they think you’re a terrorist or antisemite you are and any criticism proves you are. The Bethlehem Doctrine allows them to kill on presumption. However not so anybody else. If an action or “doing is being” then I’m free to think you’re a turd “Free” is the operative word and criticise surely? Aren’t the 10 commandments about “doing” isn’t International law about “doing”? Israelis see fit to break all the rules. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” is a template for honesty. Yet Israel’s Rabbis call for mothers of unborn babies to be killed because of what they might grow to think. Sounds to me like the voice of the guilty or a Fascist rather than the wise
Slow, terrifying months into Israel’s genocidal attacks on Palestine and every day the moral weakness of our political and cultural systems is discovered.
Source: Silence over Israeli genocide provokes social media backlash
When the usurpers claim victimhood you know truth is being denied. If October 7th never occurred Israel would still continue to “Mow the Lawn”. Continue to break the peace and kill innocent Palestinians as they have in the past. Assassinations wouldn’t stop neither would the colonization of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. It’s what Israel does and has been doing since 1948 and intends to complete. They don’t intend to be a minority in Palestine.
They assassinated Yitzhak Rabin the only Prime Minister who was prepared to negotiate Peace and did the same to hundreds of other targets in third countries like the FSB pretending it wasn’t them. One might say they were role model for what Putin denies today. In Dubai, they even disguised themselves as Australians their allies without informing them. They arrested a Mossad agent, an Australian, and allowed him to commit suicide in a prison they claimed was suicide proof. However worse still they never told his parents he was arrested or dead. Yes, that’s the true nature of the beast and it cries victimhood.
When supporters of Palestinian rights use this phrase, “from the river to the sea” Zionists allege that it is murderous toward Israelis. They are wrong — it is a demand for political rights for Palestinians.
He’s been walking free in Dutton’s and Cash’s world for years. They never said a word
Former radio host Alan Jones has been accused by The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH), in an article written by journalist Kate McClymont titled “‘He’d go the grope’: Alan Jones accused of indecently assaulting young men”, of sexual assaulting 4 males which includes staff at radio station 2gb and other men.
Soundproofing the Twitter
I got suspended from Twitter yesterday. I’m one of at least eight journalists who were casualties of Elon Musk’s “Thursday Night Massacre,” after the billionaire went on a power-hungry suspension spree. Twitter didn’t explain what rules I allegedly broke — but that’s to be expected under the new management, whose transparency has mostly consisted of Musk personally replying to tweets explaining his decision-making. My suspension is likely temporary, or it could be permanent. Who knows?
Source: Elon Musk Is Taking Aim at Journalists. I’m One of Them.
No simple answers
So, to return to where we began: is the internet a liberation technology? Or are social media incompatible with democracy?
There are no simple yes or no answers. There is, however, evidence that digital media impact political behaviour globally. This evidence warrants concern about the adverse impacts of social media on democracy.
On the one hand are the mainstream corporate social media, which, for all their faults, have in fact deplatformed people like Donald Trump. And on the other hand, we have alt-right social media, which fosters bigotry.
The result is we miss out on innovations in platform governance that both go beyond the corporate model and actually do a very good job at marginalizing hate speech and undermining surveillance capitalism.
Source: Citizens’ Social Media can provide an Antidote to Propaganda and Disinformation
How is it that Dr. Wilson sounds as if she stands shoulder to shoulder with Andrew Bolt when I’m sure she doesn’t intend to? Bolt likened Greta Thurnberg to an irresponsible misguided mentally ill child. A victim of dark forces, a troll on the global landscape who gained attention and recognition for what she “isnt” and adult. In fact, she gave rise to children around the world “not knowing their place and rebelling”.
“Free Speech” let loose by technology doesn’t need policing it certainly has changed the landscape and open it up. Smashing through the once traditional cultural barriers that are there “ageism”, “gender” “Race” and “Class” are just some examples. Trolling however, is a petty issue compared to the potential benefits Twitter and Social media offer. Algorithms for profit are far more dangerous as is government control of the space. They are changing the system. The excuse that Trolls have taken over and that the space needs policing is a Duttonism. Do you cut down a forest for a tree? If the algorithms didn’t link and herd the like-minded for the purposes of profit maybe Jan 6th wouldn’t have occurred. The sideeffect of these algorithims is to put like minded peole together.
Of course “we” need to learn to cope, and learn that new process with our children but not necessarily in traditonal ways. I certainly believe our children are happier than when learning lifes coping skills in isolation because of the cultural barriers that still exist between them and their parents. How great it is for a kid to feel they are being treated as an adult an independant being rather than being told they are just a kid. They might be treated for who they are and not just a stereotype. Sure mistakes are made but can we learn anything without them? We didn’t cancel the Industrial Revolution because extended families declined and social dysfunction increased with urbanisation.
There’s a danger of throwing the baby out with the bathwater in policing the Internet, social media, and other platforms as the LNP would now like to do. They have lost the power of messaging they had with our MSM. Their grip on the message has been weakened and it bothers them. The equality of voice and communication has improved age, gender, race, class differences lessened if the algorithms didn’t simply rearrange the playing field by a design for accelerating profit.
Hopefully there’s a responsible adult somewhere in the teenager’s life who can protect and guide them through this experience. And perhaps some adults need to think a bit more deeply about risking a teenager’s well being for the sake of their notions of liberty.
Source: Who am I talking to? – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Currently, AG Cash is desperately trying to regulate Social Media before the 2022 election as it’s the main source where painful and inconvenient anti-government truths can be found in influential numbers. The LNP has calls it “trolling” whereas it in fact it’s opposition News and Opinion not found in our biased MSM or even the LNP neutered ABC. It seems we have a public that needs a voice and government that wants it shut down at all costs.
But he also noted the tweet “was not published in any mainstream media and was published to a relatively small number of people”. Mr Dutton’s case resulted in a relatively small damages award, falling well short of the maximum of $432,500 that could have been awarded.
Source: Peter Dutton’s $35k defamation win disputed by Shane Bazzi
After Peter Dutton’s somewhat meager success in the courts, the rush is on to ID and shut down anyone that AG Cash or other Government Parliamentarians may or may not be offended by. Couple that with the call Dutton made for Government MP’s to be allowed to sue or when sued to be covered at our, the tax payer’s, expense they’re demanding to be untouchable. Dutton probably foresaw that he was going to have to shell out his own costs but didn’t, it seems, predict, he’d have to pay some of the costs of the person he was suing.
The Government gets bad PR on Social Media which it doesn’t get from the privatized “cash for comment” MSM. It can’t close the ABC down and doesn’t like it. The biggest trolling on Social Media is anti- Government and the algorithms amplify that anti-government sentiment. While they have Parliamentary Privilege we have Social Media and our privilege needs to be regulated as we roar and they merely squeak on Social Media..
“This is a very simple bill that says we’ve had enough with online trolling,” Senator Cash said. “If Anthony Albanese and Labor cannot support that then quite frankly, they are failing Australians.”
Source: ‘We’ve had enough with trolling’: AG Cash pressures Labor on social media crackdown
For the second time this year, Prime Minister Scott Morrison, bereft of the will and the capacity to announce anything useful, has again declared he will go after “anonymous trolls” on social media. His cunning plan requires forcing tech giants who own the platforms to either identify the “trolls” so they can be pursued for defamation, or pay defamation costs themselves. The proposal also requires social media users to provide proof of identity before being allowed to use the platforms. You can’t sue anonymous. This proposal is unlikely to be legislated and equally unlikely to be useful in the event it becomes law, except for the privileged few who can afford to pursue legal remedies.
LIBERAL MPs : While Parliamentary Privilege protects politicians’ anonymity protects individuals but Morrison wants that protection removed. Politician, regarded by many as trolls like Peter Dutton wants the freedom to say what he wants whenever he wants and the taxpayers to pay the legal costs to defend and sue whoever he chooses. While the individual citizens should bear their own costs. This seems to be the autocratic capture of free speech and the justice system in Australia. When compounded by Morrison’s want to also diminish class action suits by individuals against corporations it’s hardly democratization o the law but quite a reactionary desire.
Source: Scott Morrison renews crackdown on social media users – » The Australian Independent Media Network
What Morrison says is divorced from Reality
Despite Morrison saying this week that he wanted these laws “to protect women”, defamation is a tool mostly used by the rich and powerful, especially politicians and especially men. Related Article Sydney teenager Tilda, 15, uses Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat. Social media Dossiers and cover-ups: Facebook puts profits before safety, whistleblower reveals This year alone, Defence Minister Peter Dutton, former attorney-general Christian Porter, federal MP Andrew Laming and NSW deputy premier John Barilaro have all sued for defamation and either settled out of court or won. Greens Senator Sarah Hanson Young and former treasurer Joe Hockey have also successfully sued for defamation in the past. Dutton even suggested a few months ago that politicians should have access to a fund of public money to pay for defamation cases as a workplace entitlement. Yet despite Morrison calling social media a “coward’s palace”, in each of these cases the politicians were suing someone who put their name to their statements.
Source: Defamation isn’t the biggest worry about social media
For all the benefits wrought by the information revolution, social media has become a tool of dictators. Its profit-driven, surveillance-based business model favours those with deep pockets and deadly motives. In the first of two articles, cybersecurity expert and human rights activist Manal al-Sharif suggests way to invent the digital world for the better.
Source: Social media: time to turn around the weapons – Michael West Media
When the PM who dominates our Corporate MSM starts to do the “Trump Whinge” about individuals you know his pollsters are telling him he’s between a rock and a hard place. Yelling foul hasn’t shown that Trump has turned a corner it simply shows pathetic desperation.
If Prime Minister Scott Morrison wants to weed out anonymous trolls on social media, he might want to start with his own government, writes Andrew P Street.
Source: A brief history of the Coalition’s fake social media accounts
An adviser to former President Donald Trump has hinted at his return to social media in a new podcast, describing the alleged comeback in the most Trumpian of ways, saying: “It will be a tectonic plate shift in the world of social media, because anything that he touches is going to be big.”
Trump plans ‘tectonic plate shift’ return to social media despite being blocked by almost every site | The Independent
A new Netflix film, The Social Dilemma, would have us believe that increasing social division and polarized political rhetoric is the product of Facebook and Twitter, and not the fact that income inequality has returned to pre–Great Depression levels.
Don’t Blame Social Media. Blame Capitalism.
News Corp is I believe happy to amplify these fake messages.(ODT)
Online posts exaggerating the role of arson are being used to undermine the link between bushfires and climate change
Isn’t this what Trump is doing currently and is going to do in 2020 along with the Russians, Nth Koreans and any other donations he can muster. Fox has a Quid pro Quo arrangement withhim under the guise of “news” and “opinion” Trump has excluded other media agency access to the White House even cancelling subscriptions. Is domestic Quid pro Quo not required to be declared as a political donation? (ODT)
“If you pay them, Facebook will run any ‘political’ ad you want, even if it’s a lie. And they’ll even help you micro target those lies to their users for maximum effect,” he said.
“Under this twisted logic, if Facebook were around in the 1930s, it would have allowed Hitler to post 30-second ads on his ‘solution’ to the ‘Jewish problem’.”
The killings in Christchurch are part of an international pattern of attacks on Muslims, which seem to have increased over the past two years. In January 2017, a man entered a mosque in Quebec City and shot and killed six people. He was sentenced to at least 40 years in prison this year. The killer followed white supremacists, conspiracy theorists and right-wing commentators online, and he was fixated on Muslims and immigrants. He was a fan of President Donald Trump and his Muslim ban.
Since 2016, at least three U.S. mosques have been set afire, and at least three other Islamic institutions across the country have targeted for terrorist attacks.
via Despite Crackdowns, White Supremacist and Neo-Nazi Videos Take Stubborn Root on YouTube
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