by John-Michael Dumais, Childrens Health Defense:
In an interview with Jay Bhattacharya, M.D., Ph.D., investigative journalist Lee Fang exposed the secret coordination between government agencies, biotech firms, PR companies and social media giants to spread disinformation while censoring factual counternarratives.
“We’re in a crisis of trust” brought on by “newspapers and … social media companies and the government,” according to investigative journalist Lee Fang.
TRUTH LIVES on at https://sgtreport.tv/
Fang appeared last week with Stanford epidemiologist Jay Bhattacharya, M.D., Ph.D., on Bhattacharya’s “Illusion of Consensus” podcast. The two discussed the latest revelations of collusion and deception involving the healthcare industry, the technology sector and government agencies.
The hour-long discussion centered on documented cases of censorship campaigns targeting academics and journalists for speaking scientifically validated truths that threaten powerful special interests.
Pentagon manipulation campaigns got preferential treatment from Twitter
According to Fang’s investigation of the “Twitter Files,” while X, formerly known as Twitter, was claiming to crack down on state-sponsored disinformation in public statements, it was secretly assisting U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) propaganda efforts behind the scenes.
The social media giant gave “velvet glove treatment” to military deception campaigns operating foreign accounts in places like Iran, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Yemen, Fang said.
Fang recounted reading reports detailing how the Pentagon, in an influence op that “went on for years,” created fake news outlets producing “exactly what the Russians were accused of” in the 2016 U.S. election. As an example, he cited “salacious stories that Iran takes refugees and chops them up and sells their organs.”
Twitter gave the Pentagon “a special tool” to get around its “blue check mark” verification system to hide the fact that CENTCOM (U.S. Central Command, a division of the DOD) in Florida, was operating the accounts, Fang said, while “[Twitter was] meeting with … DOD officials to help them keep the secret.”
With the rise of ISIS and the fear that it would use social media as a recruitment tool in the U.S., the U.S. Department of State founded the Global Engagement Center. The center coordinated with Stanford University and other organizations to censor speech before the 2020 election, according to Fang.
The Pentagon, the FBI and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) set up similar offices and task forces, Fang said.
Fang and Bhattacharya discussed the Smith-Mundt Modernization Act of 2012, which opened the door to domestic propaganda operations by allowing the U.S. government’s broadcasting arm to deliver programming to American audiences.
Read More @ ChildrensHealthDefense.org
