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from the I-have-nothing-to-hide-...-right? dept.
Blackmoore writes:
Glen Greenwald at The Intercept has published another expose on how western intelligence agencies are attempting to control and manipulate online discourse.
The newest article from Greenwald is based around a document from JTRIG (Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group), a previously secret unit of Britan's GCHQ. Entitled "The Art of Deception: Training for Online Covert Operations", the document outlines tactics used to achieve JTRIG's purposes of (1) to inject all sorts of false material onto the internet in order to destroy the reputation of its targets; and (2) to use social sciences and other techniques to manipulate online discourse and activism to generate outcomes it considers desirable.
From the article: "The broader point is... these surveillance agencies have vested themselves with the power to deliberately ruin people's reputations and disrupt their online political activity even though they've been charged with no crimes, and even though their actions have no conceivable connection to terrorism or even national security threats."
(Score: 5, Insightful) by prospectacle on Thursday February 27 2014, @02:19AM
For democracy to work you need to know, to some extent, what the government is doing, so you can decide whether to vote for them again next time.
Whatever is kept secret, is something you can't use to inform your vote.
I believe some operations needs to be confidential, but what limits are in place to prevent too much being kept from the voting public?
If these limits aren't sufficient then whoever is in charge of deciding what is kept secret and what isn't, can abuse their power, and we can't do anything about it, because we won't know, because it will be secret.
So what kind of law, department, or statutory body could be set up to make sure the secret-keepers are held to account?
A shorter limit before records become public? Some kind of internal affairs for the secret services?
What would you put in place if it were up to you?
If a plan isn't flexible it isn't realistic