The Intercept’s Story About Government Policing Disinfo Is Absolute Garbage | Hacker News Reader

The Intercept’s Story About Government Policing Disinfo Is Absolute Garbage

techdirt.com

17 pointsdate3 comments

Very odd article. This author is trying a little too hard to poo-poo the Intercept article but has lost the plot. The reveal here was that the US government has the ability to shape and influence what people think on private platforms. Yes, maybe this has been known to people in the government watchdog space but I highly doubt the average US citizen knows. This has a direct impact on the Democratic process yet the author doesn't think this is even a little bit interesting?

The whole point of this article is that nothing of the sort was revealed. The article specifically and repeatedly falsifies claims made in the Intercept article to that effect, as well as pointing things out like the Intercept citing fuzzy draft printouts of documents that are publicly available to create the impression that they leaked.

Masnick (who I'm not a fan of) was even more specific about this on Twitter, where he claims that literally every factual assertion about monitoring and suppression in the Intercept article has now been refuted. Not most of them, not the gist of them, all of them.

In a March meeting, Laura Dehmlow, an FBI official, warned that the threat of subversive information on social media could undermine support for the U.S. government. Dehmlow, according to notes of the discussion attended by senior executives from Twitter and JPMorgan Chase, stressed that “we need a media infrastructure that is held accountable.”

To the author, this appears inconsequential. (Why is JPMorgan Chase, a bank that is quite conveniently heavily 'regulated', even involved in federal law enforcement discussions on social media?)

Maybe if we translate this statement, it would be easier for some people to understand:

"In a March meeting, Li Shulei, a CCP official, warned that the threat of subversive information on social media could undermine support for the government. Li, according to notes of the discussion attended by senior executives from Weibo and Ant Group, stressed that “we need a media infrastructure that is held accountable.”

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