Day 89 Disinformation

Blues

I have the blues today.  Blues from the campaigns of disinformation that starts at the top and within the conspiracy theorists of the far right.

Plant Ideas

Three things to plant in your brain:

First — spreading the poison:

Twitter, too, confirmed that an “Antifa” account, running for three years, was tied to a now-defunct white nationalist organization that had helped plan the Unite the Right rally that killed Heather Heyer and injured hundreds more.

Second–the leader encourages the poison:

As researchers of disinformation, we have seen this type of attack play out before. It’s called “source hacking”: a set of tactics where media manipulators mimic the patterns of their opponents, try to obfuscate the sources of their information, and then slowly become more and more dangerous in their rhetoric. Now that Trump says he will designate Antifa a domestic terror group, investigators will have to take a hard look at social-media data to discern who was actually calling for violence online. They will surely unearth this widespread disinformation campaign of far-right agitators.

Third– the conspirators will try to invade the Black Lives Matter:

Journalists, politicians, and others must not waver in their attention to the ways black organizers are framing the movement and its demands. As a researcher of disinformation, I am certain there will be attempts to co-opt or divert attention from the movement’s messaging, attack organizers, and stall the progress of this movement. Disinformation campaigns tend to proceed cyclically as media manipulators learn to adapt to new conditions, but the old tactics still work—such as impostor accounts, fake calls to action (like #BaldForBLM), and grifters looking for a quick buck.

Source:

Protest propaganda is riding on the success of pandemic hoaxes in MIT Technology Review

For Change

Part of our help in support is calling out these attempts to take over the sincere community efforts to move from control to care in our communities through the Black Lives Matter protests, organizations, and civic actions– for the United States of Americans.

Support the organizations:

Movement for Black Lives

Color of Change

Reclaim the Block

Media Justice

Campaign Zero

8 Can’t Wait