Internet censorship news update

This video from the USA says about itself:

Big Tech’s dangerous crackdown on social media – with Abby Martin (Ep. 23)

27 August 2018

Moderate Rebels episode 23 – Max Blumenthal and Abby Martin discuss the suppression of dissident voices on social media by Silicon Valley, at the behest of the US national security state. Facebook is partnering with the warmongering NATO-funded think tank the Atlantic Council, and leftist anti-imperialist pages like TeleSUR English and Venezuela Analysis are being taken down.

Neoliberals and neoconservatives are using Russiagate and the attack on RT to justify a further crackdown on media outlets that criticize American foreign policy. And while many liberals cheered at tech giants banning far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, the left could be the next to be censored.

Blumenthal and Martin also speak about the corporate media’s propaganda on Venezuela and Nicaragua, and the lack of independent reporting on the violent US-backed right-wing opposition.

By Kevin Reed in the USA, 8 September 2018:

On May 17, Facebook announced a partnership with the Atlantic Council, the bipartisan think tank that has participated in every political and military crime of US imperialism over the past half-century. In a brief blog post by Katie Harbath, Facebook’s Global Politics and Government Outreach Director explained that the relationship was necessary “to prevent our service from being abused during elections.”

Harbath went on, “We’re more actively working with outside experts, governments and other companies because we know that we can’t solve these challenges on our own. … Today, we’re excited to launch a new partnership with the Atlantic Council, which has a stellar reputation looking at innovative solutions to hard problems.” The other governments and outside experts that Facebook is working with were not mentioned by name.

That Harbath—a former digital strategist for the Republican Party Senatorial Committee—can speak of the Atlantic Council as having a “stellar reputation” dealing with “hard problems” shows that Facebook is being staffed with functionaries of the US political establishment. In reality, the Atlantic Council has a reputation as a clearing house for political and ideological propaganda—including perpetrating and defending election abuse throughout the world—in the service of the strategic interests of American capitalism.

Behind the coordinated social media censorship by Facebook, Twitter and Google. What is FireEye? Here.

By Andre Damon in the USA:

New York Times covers up Google’s censorship

7 September 2018

Last September, the New York Times published an article, appearing on the first page of its business section, reporting allegations by the World Socialist Web Site that the internet search monopoly Google was censoring left-wing, anti-war and socialist web sites.

The article prominently cited, and linked to, the WSWS’s open letter to Google, “Stop the censorship of the Internet! Stop the political blacklisting of the World Socialist Web Site!” The open letter presented evidence that “Google is manipulating its internet searches” in order to “block news that your company does not want reported and to suppress opinions with which you do not agree.”

But on Wednesday, the Times posted on its website (and published Thursday on the front page of the business section of its Thursday print edition) an article by the same author, Daisuke Wakabayashi, which is a white-wash of Google’s censorship regime, echoing the company’s self-serving denials without any serious examination of the facts.

US schools hiring private companies to spy on students’ social media: here.