Biden creates "Disinformation Governance Board"

Iranians not Ukranians

 

Targeted disinformation campaigns by malign actors is not a made up issue. How we should guard ourselves against it is an open question, and certainly we should be vigilant regarding government overreach in the name of combatting disinformation. But let's not overlook the fact that it is a serious problem:

Disinformation & the Threat to Democracy | Library of Congress (loc.gov)

 

If you dismiss Applebaum for being wrong/dismissive, then the same rationale can be given to Applebaum for dismissing Trump and his cronies accusations against Hunter Biden. I understand there's an accountability gap. Applebaum is "an expert" after all. Trump...well he's "just joking."

I'm just tired of anyone who Floods the Zone with ****. It plays off of known human limitations, and it's effective.

I'd rather cut of the cancerous source than having to deal with their childish Wolf Crying, Bridge Trolling antics, in the hopes that one day, their poorly researched fears and hunches have the off chance of being proven right.

Hey Bubba, them sheepie pills gave me mud butt with spaghetti, still got Wuhan tho.

Well **** MASKS cuz it dint work!!!

 

Have Russians been engaged in disinformation warfare? Yes. Would knowing the details of that make one extra suspicious about this weird-ass story when it came out, given the involvement of sketchy Rudy Guliani? Yep, I think so.

Does that mean she dismissed this story solely only those grounds? No. As she explained at the time and after the fact. The relevance of Hunter Biden's business dealings did not rise to a level that captured her interest, except the way in which it was manipulated by the right-wing press in an attempt to turn the tide of the election in favor of Donald Trump.

None of this should in any way impinge her credibility on this topic. She is well qualified to lecture you on it.

 

October 2020:

The Smears Against Biden Don’t Need to Make Any Sense – Anne Applebaum

Her take then seems consistent with what she said more recently about the whole thing:

...
Judging by what has been published, the very worst thing that Tyrmand’s email cache could reveal (if it is authentic) is that some unattractive people sought to use Hunter Biden’s surname and connections to get business deals or score a visit to the White House for their clients. But we already know about Hunter Biden’s’s involvement with unattractive people, and his struggles with addiction; we also know that, under normal circumstances, dozens of people visit the White House every day. On the grand scale of misdeeds committed by politicians and their relatives, this kind of thing barely registers. Compare that with, say, the Trump family’s well-documented hotel deal with an Azerbaijani business family linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. Or the Trump family’s blatant use of its status to funnel money to its own companies. Or the Trumps’ illegal abuse of their charitable foundation. Or the president’s secret Chinese business bank account. The Trump family is a living, breathing, walking conflict of interest—so much so that much of Donald Trump’s foreign policy is most easily explained through the lens of his personal greed and his hotel investments, not as the emanation of any kind of American national interest.

But this, of course, is not the point. In releasing the 26,000 emails, Tyrmand and his collaborator, the Breitbart News contributor Peter Schweizer, are not bringing forth any evidence of actual lawbreaking, or an actual security threat, by either Hunter or Joe Biden. They are instead creating a miasma, an atmosphere, a foggy world in which misdeeds might have taken place, and in which corruption might have happened. They are also providing the raw material from which more elaborate stories can be constructed. The otherwise incomprehensible reference in last night’s debate to “the mayor of Moscow’s wife,” from whom Joe Biden somehow got rich, was an excellent example of how this works. A name surfaces in a large collection of data; it is detached from its context; it is then used to make an insinuation or accusation that cannot be proved; it is then forgotten, unless it gains some traction, in which case it is repeated again.​

So I don't get where you're coming from when you accuse her of revisionism and then use that to dismiss anything she has to say about the dangers of disinformation to functioning democracy.

 

So they’re shutting down Facebook?

 

It would almost be sentimental and cute if the imaginary past really ever existed.

 

Dont talk crap about Biden or his family and everything will be fine.

 

It is potentially troubling. At the same time it could be wise and prudent.

As has been mentioned, there are foreign adversaries employing the strategy of putting out false information. They have been at least somewhat successful in getting people to believe it.

Combating the problem by our own government should be done. I wish the new agency's powers were very expressly laid out. The name may be unfortunate but not really that important. Right now, the name seems like only thing people have to complain about. But we'll see.

 

I don't get it..

 

Well, the CIA might have a small amount of overlap. I believe they are supposed to mostly deal in the foreign field.

The amount of misinformation being spread has increased exponentially. If they created the department as division of the CIA, I'm not sure that would be any more reassuring and present even more problems and concerns from me.

 

Agreed, I'm not a fan of that department. FEMA is super important.

Yes, I agree that parts of what it seems like this creation would could fall under FBI, CIA, intelligence units in our military, the state department, etc.

I know that after 9/11 they said lack of information sharing between different US Intel agencies was part of the problem. So a centralized unit to deal with it makes sense. But even still, it would require communication and cooperation with other agencies.

No matter what, the Disinformation unit should have its duties, powers, and path for transparency clearly spelled out because of potential authoritarian incursion of privacy and rights of United States, press, etc.