[P2P-F] Fwd: Free speech on the ropes

Wed Oct 24 21:18:58 CEST 2018

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Thomas Greco <thg at mindspring.com>
Date: Wed, Oct 24, 2018 at 9:04 PM
Subject: Free speech on the ropes
To: Michel <michel at p2pfoundation.net>

------------------------------

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*If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what
they do not want to hear.*
     —George  Orwell

*What the Arab world needs most is free expression.*
*     —*Jamal  Khashoggi

In his famous dystopian novel, *1984*, George Orwell describes a world in
which people’s actions and words are closely monitored in order to detect
and punish *thoughtcrime
<https://beyondmoney.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=3cbee2e1cfc237bcae4ed6959&id=c3fc4f4f78&e=686d597d8c>*.
It is a world in which the ruling power structure has the means to preempt
the expression of any idea or story that might challenge the official
narrative of events and reality. Though a little late by Orwell’s
reckoning, that world has all but arrived.

The development of the internet and the worldwide web brought, for a time,
tremendous power to ordinary people to communicate and inform one another
directly, bypassing the established news filters and centralized control of
information. But in recent years, new corporate megaliths have emerged that
have the power to shift control back in favor of “Big Brother.” We have
become so dependent upon private corporate media platforms, like Facebook,
Twitter, Google and YouTube, that they are able to manipulate our thoughts
and behavior. To be banned from those channels means to effectively be
banished from participation in political discourse. Corporate power on such
a scale inevitably ends up being complicit with political oligarchies in
controlling  public perceptions and defining “reality.” The hyped-up battle
against “fake news” is really a battle against free speech.

*Facebook teams up with the “Thought Police” to purge dissenting voices*

Facebook’s purging of hundreds of pages and accounts in recent days has
been widely reported
<https://beyondmoney.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=3cbee2e1cfc237bcae4ed6959&id=4babb8b24d&e=686d597d8c>.
The purges have been done based on allegations of “spam,” and “inauthentic
behavior,” or of providing  “Russian propaganda.” But there’s much more to
it than that.

An article in the online journal, Global Research
<https://beyondmoney.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=3cbee2e1cfc237bcae4ed6959&id=83a0e80bf1&e=686d597d8c>,
describes the arrangement that Facebook made five months ago with the
Atlantic Council to,  “prevent [their] service from being abused during
elections.
<https://beyondmoney.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=3cbee2e1cfc237bcae4ed6959&id=c8979203ef&e=686d597d8c>”
And who is the Atlantic Council? According to the article, the Atlantic
Council “is a think tank that is essentially funded by NATO, weapons
manufacturers, Middle-Eastern oil-state monarchies, billionaires and
different branches of the US military. In short, it has been described as
being nothing less than NATO’s unofficial propaganda wing
<https://beyondmoney.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=3cbee2e1cfc237bcae4ed6959&id=abdd38b138&e=686d597d8c>.
The Atlantic Council doesn’t shy away from its political intents across the
world, which can be seen solely by looking at who sits on its directors
board – the crème de la crème when it comes to US neocons & war criminals
<https://beyondmoney.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=3cbee2e1cfc237bcae4ed6959&id=07b9aa7652&e=686d597d8c>:
Henry Kissinger, Condoleezza Rice, Frank Carlucci, James A. Baker, R.
George P. Shultz, James Woolsey, Leon Panetta, Colin Powell, Robert Gates,
and many more.”

The article goes on to say that, “Many of the pages and accounts taken down
have been political (often leftist), anti-war, independent journalists and
media outlets that are known to go against the grain of mainstream media
outlets.” You can read the complete article here
<https://beyondmoney.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=3cbee2e1cfc237bcae4ed6959&id=f873957cea&e=686d597d8c>
.

So, what can we do? *Let’s all dump Facebook, as well as Twitter, YouTube
and all the other  massive, proprietary, data mining and propaganda
platforms.* I know that is not so easy to do, but alternatives do exist,
and more of them are emerging every day. Here is a list of 6 Alternatives
to Facebook
<https://beyondmoney.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=3cbee2e1cfc237bcae4ed6959&id=bf68e08412&e=686d597d8c>.
This article
<https://beyondmoney.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=3cbee2e1cfc237bcae4ed6959&id=9a5b3b444c&e=686d597d8c>
provides a list of 11 Facebook alternatives, and Fox News, surprisingly,
provides a list of, Secure alternatives to Facebook, Instagram and Twitter
<https://beyondmoney.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=3cbee2e1cfc237bcae4ed6959&id=152e2ae8f6&e=686d597d8c>.
My search engine, DuckDuckGo, turns up several more.

One Facebook alternative that has gotten significant funding support of
late is MeWe. A recent article
<https://beyondmoney.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=3cbee2e1cfc237bcae4ed6959&id=e49641da43&e=686d597d8c>
reports that MeWe has thus far managed to raise $10 million to support its
development. The article quotes MeWe
<https://beyondmoney.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=3cbee2e1cfc237bcae4ed6959&id=93da2c75a7&e=686d597d8c>
founder and CEO, Mark Weinstein
<https://beyondmoney.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=3cbee2e1cfc237bcae4ed6959&id=b174badf34&e=686d597d8c>:
"It is clear that the world wants a better social network that treats its
member as customers to serve, not data to sell. We've built a social
networking experience that has a remarkable suite of features people love
and none of the BS. MeWe has no ads, no spyware, no content manipulation,
no facial recognition, and no Russians (or anyone) paying to show you fake
news."
Well, that sounds promising, but time will tell how real it is.
___________________________________

*Jamal Khashoggi’s murder and the U.S./Saudi connection*

The sensational case of the murder and dismemberment of Washington Post
journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul,
underlines just how desperate the power elite is to control the narrative
and manipulate our perceptions and beliefs. It would be a mistake to view
this horrendous atrocity in isolation from the wider geopolitical
propaganda campaign, much of it emanating from the U.S. government and
their NATO and middle-eastern allies.

Two weeks after Khashoggi’s disappearance, The Washington Post published his
last editorial
<https://beyondmoney.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=3cbee2e1cfc237bcae4ed6959&id=61e363dab0&e=686d597d8c>,
in which Khashoggi wrote:

“Arab governments have been given free rein to continue silencing the media
at an increasing rate. There was a time when journalists believed the
Internet would liberate information from the censorship and control
associated with print media. But these governments, whose very existence
relies on the control of information, have aggressively blocked the
Internet. They have also arrested local reporters and pressured advertisers
to harm the revenue of specific publications.”

The reaction of Donald Trump to this affair has been what we would expect.
While paying lip service to justice and accountability, he immediately
tried to provide cover for the Saudi regime by suggesting that the murder
may have been the work of “rogue killers.”
<https://beyondmoney.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=3cbee2e1cfc237bcae4ed6959&id=7b68c5e138&e=686d597d8c>
He also made it clear that he would not halt weapon sales to the Saudi
government, a clear signal that money trumps “American values,” and belies
the myth of the United States as champion of democracy and human rights.

But the cozy relationship between Saudi Arabia and the United States goes
back way before Trump. Recall that, according to the official report on the
9/11 terror attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, 15 of the
19 terrorists were from Saudi Arabia. Why then did the United States attack
Iraq and Afghanistan instead? It is also established fact that the Bush
family and the bin Laden family were longtime business associates.
Furthermore, according to this article
<https://beyondmoney.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=3cbee2e1cfc237bcae4ed6959&id=ab0126f477&e=686d597d8c>
by Cindy Rodríguez
<https://beyondmoney.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=3cbee2e1cfc237bcae4ed6959&id=165e2b7d76&e=686d597d8c>in
the Denver Post, “While all flights were halted following the terrorist
attacks, there was one exception made: The White House authorized planes to
pick up 140 Saudi nationals, including 24 members of the bin Laden family,
living in various cities in the U.S. to bring them back to Saudi Arabia,
where they would be safe. They were never interrogated.”
#     #     #

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