The Government Is Using Covert Operatives to Manipulate and Destroy People on the Internet

March 4, 2014
By Sara Noble

h/t Herbert Richmond

Western governments, including ours, are going onto websites and into blogs to manipulate people, spread false reports and defame those who disagree. It’s meant to “nudge” us into thinking appropriately.

In July of 2011, the Sentinel posted information gathered about Cass Sunstein and his “nudge theory”. It’s reprinted below. Sunstein claimed that the government should infiltrate social media and websites to correct “errors” being spread on the Internet.

It’s a slippery slope and many said at the time that the real goal was to “pose, infiltrate, and discredit” those who would oppose the government. They were quickly dismissed as conspiracy theorists.

Glenn Beck, who uncovered the tactic, said on his radio show this week that it is true – there are government operatives on our websites posing as ordinary citizens.

The UK’s surveillance network, the equivalent of the NSA, has been exposed for doing exactly that. The NSA and the GCHQ work closely together.

Glenn Greenwald, a liberal UK journalist who published the NSA documents pilfered by Edward Snowden, reported on his new website, First Look, that he worked with NBC News on a series of articles about “dirty trick tactics” used by GCHQ on the Internet.

GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters) injects false material on the Net to destroy reputations of opponents; they lure people into compromising sex traps; they use social sciences and other techniques to manipulate online discourse and activism to bring about desired outcomes; they post defamatory material and attribute it to others; they set up fake victim websites, and so on.

Greenwald‘s report references Sunstein’s controversial paper from 2008 that proposed the government go online and utilize “covert agents and ‘pseudo-independent’ advocates to ‘cognitively infiltrate’ online groups and websites, as well as other activist groups.”

Sunstein further suggested that “covert agents go into ‘chat rooms, online social networks, or even real-space groups’ which spread what the views as false and damaging ‘conspiracy theories’ about the government.’”

Sunstein claimed he wanted to ‘nudge’ people in the right direction.

Sunstein is a former regulatory czar who now serves on Obama’s NSA review panel that will suggest “cosmetic reforms” to the NSA’s powers.

Greenwald explains “these GCHQ documents are the first to prove that a major western government is using some of the most controversial techniques to disseminate deception online and harm the reputations of targets.”

Check out the four classified GCHQ documents which were used as a basis for Greenwald’s report or go to his website for the details.

I support the NSA and know many of the people in the NSA are good people trying to protect us, but, right now, there is reason to believe the NSA is out of control. Anyone on the Internet who voices opposition to the government, better be alert to possible manipulation. It’s not a conspiracy theory, it’s a conspiracy.

This should be a nonpartisan issue.

There is something profoundly creepy about Western governments “nudging” the populace.

Read more:

http://www.independentsentinel.com/gover...n-the-internet/