{"id":948615,"date":"2023-01-07T14:19:06","date_gmt":"2023-01-07T14:19:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/caitlinjohnstone.com\/?p=12419"},"modified":"2023-01-07T14:19:06","modified_gmt":"2023-01-07T14:19:06","slug":"elon-musks-twitter-is-still-us-state-affiliated-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2023\/01\/07\/elon-musks-twitter-is-still-us-state-affiliated-media\/","title":{"rendered":"Elon Musk\u2019s Twitter Is Still US State-Affiliated Media"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><a\nhref=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/going_rogue\/elon-musks-twitter-is-still-us-state-affiliated-media\">Listen to a reading of this article:<\/a><\/em><\/p><p><iframe\nwidth=\"1060\" height=\"400\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?visual=true&#038;url=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F1418763199&%23038;show_artwork=true&%23038;maxheight=1000&%23038;maxwidth=1060\"><\/iframe><\/p><p\nstyle=\"text-align: center;\">\u2756<\/p><p>A couple of months into Elon Musk&#8217;s control of Twitter, it&#8217;s fair to say that from an anti-censorship, pro-transparency perspective there have been a few positive results of the platform coming under new management. The <a\nhref=\"https:\/\/taibbi.substack.com\/p\/capsule-summaries-of-all-twitter\">revelations from the Twitter Files<\/a> about US government involvement in influencing a massive social media company&#8217;s policies and actions have been <a\nhref=\"https:\/\/jacobin.com\/2022\/12\/twitter-files-censorship-content-moderation-intelligence-agencies-surveillance\">indisputably newsworthy information<\/a> that&#8217;s absolutely in the public interest to have, and <a\nhref=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/KitKlarenberg\/status\/1600619264980959232\">some anti-establishment voices<\/a> have <a\nhref=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/citizenjournos_\/status\/1600604719151517707\">been saying<\/a> their accounts have been noticeably more visible since the changeover.<\/p><p>It&#8217;s also fair to say at this point that Musk has allowed far more negative practices to continue than he has ended. In an excellent new article titled &#8220;<a\nhref=\"https:\/\/fair.org\/home\/under-musk-twitter-continues-to-promote-us-propaganda-networks\/\">Under Musk, Twitter Continues to Promote US Propaganda Networks<\/a>,&#8221; Fair.org&#8217;s Bryce Greene breaks down the many different ways that Twitter is still manipulating the information its users see in ways that serve the interests of the US government.<\/p><p>Greene contrasts the wildly unbalanced way media coming from empire-targeted governments is suppressed and labeled &#8220;state-affiliated media&#8221;, while US-aligned accounts which would deserve such a designation are not given it, and are often amplified and aided.<\/p><p>&#8220;In short,\u00a0Twitter\u00a0is serving as an active participant in an ongoing information war,&#8221; Greene writes.<\/p><blockquote\nclass=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\"><p\nlang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Under Musk, Twitter Continues to Promote US Propaganda Networks <a\nhref=\"https:\/\/t.co\/nW5ETY9pF6\">https:\/\/t.co\/nW5ETY9pF6<\/a><\/p><p>&mdash; FAIR (@FAIRmediawatch) <a\nhref=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FAIRmediawatch\/status\/1611501371265810433?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 6, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote><p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p><p>I highly recommend reading the article in full, because it paints a very lucid picture of the Silicon Valley platform&#8217;s facilitation of US information interests and Musk&#8217;s role in it, but here are a few highlights:<\/p><ul><li>&#8220;FAIR could find no examples of accounts labeled &#8216;United States state-affiliated media,&#8217; even though there are many outlets that would obviously seem to fit that description,&#8221; while &#8220;PressTV\u00a0from Iran,\u00a0RT\u00a0and\u00a0Sputnik\u00a0from Russia, and\u00a0China Daily,\u00a0Global Times,\u00a0CGTN\u00a0and\u00a0China Xinhua News\u00a0from China are all labeled &#8216;state-affiliated media.'&#8221;<\/li><\/ul><p>&nbsp;<\/p><ul><li>&#8220;&#8230;none of the accounts for the\u00a0US Army,\u00a0National Security Agency\u00a0or\u00a0Central Intelligence Agency\u00a0are currently labeled as a state or government entity&#8221; by Twitter.<\/li><\/ul><p>&nbsp;<\/p><ul><li>Twitter is still displaying warning pop-ups when people attempt to like or share media from an unauthorized government.<\/li><\/ul><p>&nbsp;<\/p><ul><li>Twitter&#8217;s &#8220;Topics&#8221; feature has been artificially amplifying media funded by the US and other NATO powers to manage narratives about the war in Ukraine.<\/li><\/ul><p>&nbsp;<\/p><ul><li>US state media outlets Radio Free Europe\/Radio Liberty,\u00a0Radio Free Asia,\u00a0Voice of America,\u00a0Office of Cuba Broadcasting, and Middle East Broadcasting Network receive twice as much funding from the US government as RT receives from Moscow, yet are not labeled &#8220;state-affiliated media&#8221;.<\/li><\/ul><p>&nbsp;<\/p><ul><li>US-funded information ops like National Endowment for Democracy also receive no such label.<\/li><\/ul><p>&nbsp;<\/p><ul><li>Prior to the Musk takeover Twitter announced that it supports NATO and seeks to prevent Russia from &#8220;undermining faith in the NATO alliance and its stability.\u201d Neither that declaration nor the policies put in place alongside it have been repealed under the new ownership.<\/li><\/ul><p>&nbsp;<\/p><ul><li>Twitter&#8217;s top editorial position for the Middle East and Africa is still held by\u00a0Gordon MacMillan of the British military&#8217;s psychological warfare unit.<\/li><\/ul><blockquote\nclass=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\"><p\nlang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">[Thread]<\/p><p>Since Elon Musk is center of attention right now, it&#39;s important to know that he is not (as he portrays himself) some radical outsider, but a crucial part of the US surveillance and national security states.<\/p><p>My investigation here: <a\nhref=\"https:\/\/t.co\/LXuZsgmweJ\">https:\/\/t.co\/LXuZsgmweJ<\/a><\/p><p>&mdash; Alan MacLeod (@AlanRMacLeod) <a\nhref=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AlanRMacLeod\/status\/1594021921456549888?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 19, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote><p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p><p>For good measure Greene spends the latter part of his article discussing Musk&#8217;s <a\nhref=\"https:\/\/www.mintpressnews.com\/elon-musk-not-renegade-outsider-cia-pentagon-contractor\/280972\/\">extensive role in the US military-industrial complex<\/a>\u00a0through his military and intelligence contractor company SpaceX, which would of course present a massive conflict of interest when it comes to resisting the US government&#8217;s attempts to tilt the flow of information in its favor online. It is a bit funny how the public narrative about SpaceX is mostly about Mars and futurism and the exploration of space, when in reality its existence predominantly revolves around aiding the US war machine&#8217;s campaigns of terrestrial conquest.<\/p><p>So it&#8217;s not surprising that we find ourselves with a New Twitter that&#8217;s essentially the same as the old Twitter, just with more tolerance for right wingers and their culture war quagmires.<\/p><p>When Musk&#8217;s Twitter purchase was first announced, journalist Michael Tracey <a\nhref=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/mtracey\/status\/1518732610490535938\">tweeted<\/a> an interesting observation that I&#8217;ve been referring back to ever since the change in ownership.<\/p><p>&#8220;The biggest test for Elon Musk\u00a0will not be whether he rolls back the most obvious &#8216;woke&#8217; content policies &#8212; that should be a given &#8212; but whether he continues to let Twitter be used as a vehicle for the US national security state to &#8216;counter&#8217; official enemies like Russia and China,&#8221; Tracey said.<\/p><p>After two months of the same old same old in the facilitation of US information interests, I think it&#8217;s fair to say that when it comes to this question, the jury has returned with a verdict.<\/p><p>_________________<\/p><p><em>My work is\u00a0<a\nhref=\"https:\/\/caitlinjohnstone.com\/2021\/05\/24\/my-experiments-with-hacking-capitalism\/\" rel=\"\">entirely reader-supported<\/a>, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, following me on\u00a0<a\nhref=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CaitlinAJohnstone\/\" rel=\"\">Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0<a\nhref=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/caitoz\" rel=\"\">Twitter<\/a>,\u00a0<a\nhref=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/going_rogue\" rel=\"\">Soundcloud<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0<a\nhref=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/c\/CaitlinJohnstone\/videos\" rel=\"\">YouTube<\/a>, throwing some money into my tip jar on\u00a0<a\nhref=\"https:\/\/ko-fi.com\/caitlinjohnstone\" rel=\"\">Ko-fi<\/a>,\u00a0<a\nhref=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/user?u=4445783\" rel=\"\">Patreon<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0<a\nhref=\"https:\/\/paypal.me\/caitlinjohnstone\" rel=\"\">Paypal<\/a>, or buying an issue of my\u00a0<a\nhref=\"https:\/\/caitoz.gumroad.com\/\" rel=\"\">monthly zine<\/a>. If you want to read more you can\u00a0<a\nhref=\"https:\/\/caityjohnstone.medium.com\/books-by-caitlin-johnstone-a5a5e6f71772\" rel=\"\">buy my books<\/a>. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for at\u00a0<a\nhref=\"http:\/\/caitlinjohnstone.com\/\" rel=\"\">my website<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0<a\nhref=\"https:\/\/caitlinjohnstone.substack.com\/\" rel=\"\">on Substack<\/a>, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish.\u00a0Everyone, racist platforms excluded,\u00a0<a\nhref=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@caityjohnstone\/i-permanently-release-all-copyrights-to-all-my-writing-use-any-of-it-however-you-want-9ad929b92d42\" rel=\"\">has my permission<\/a>\u00a0to republish, use or translate any part of this work (or anything else I\u2019ve written) in any way they like free of charge.\u00a0For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I\u2019m trying to do with this platform,\u00a0<a\nhref=\"https:\/\/caitlinjohnstone.com\/about\/\">click here<\/a>. All works co-authored with my husband Tim Foley.<\/em><\/p><div\nclass=\"captioned-image-container\"> <figure><div\nclass=\"image2-inset\"><picture><source\nsrcset=\"https:\/\/substackcdn.com\/image\/fetch\/w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F651f63db-626b-44eb-bf86-44c612780524_514x239.png 424w, https:\/\/substackcdn.com\/image\/fetch\/w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F651f63db-626b-44eb-bf86-44c612780524_514x239.png 848w, https:\/\/substackcdn.com\/image\/fetch\/w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F651f63db-626b-44eb-bf86-44c612780524_514x239.png 1272w, https:\/\/substackcdn.com\/image\/fetch\/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F651f63db-626b-44eb-bf86-44c612780524_514x239.png 1456w\" type=\"image\/webp\" sizes=\"100vw\" \/><img\nclass=\"sizing-normal\" title=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/substackcdn.com\/image\/fetch\/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F651f63db-626b-44eb-bf86-44c612780524_514x239.png\" sizes=\"100vw\" srcset=\"https:\/\/substackcdn.com\/image\/fetch\/w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F651f63db-626b-44eb-bf86-44c612780524_514x239.png 424w, https:\/\/substackcdn.com\/image\/fetch\/w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F651f63db-626b-44eb-bf86-44c612780524_514x239.png 848w, https:\/\/substackcdn.com\/image\/fetch\/w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F651f63db-626b-44eb-bf86-44c612780524_514x239.png 1272w, https:\/\/substackcdn.com\/image\/fetch\/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F651f63db-626b-44eb-bf86-44c612780524_514x239.png 1456w\" alt=\"\" width=\"514\" height=\"239\" data-attrs=\"{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com\/public\/images\/651f63db-626b-44eb-bf86-44c612780524_514x239.png&quot;,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:239,&quot;width&quot;:514,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:null,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;type&quot;:null,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null}\" \/><\/picture><div><\/div><\/div> <\/figure><\/div><p>Bitcoin donations:1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2<\/p> \n<p class=\"syndicated-attribution\">This post was originally published on <a href=\"https:\/\/caitlinjohnstone.com\/2023\/01\/07\/elon-musks-twitter-is-still-us-state-affiliated-media\/\">Caitlin Johnstone<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Listen to a reading of this article: \u2756 A couple of months into Elon Musk\u2019s control of Twitter, it\u2019s fair to say that from an anti-censorship, pro-transparency perspective there have been a few positive results of the platform coming under new management. The revelations from [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":557,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1775,92,4116,49721,583,4568,739,6155],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948615"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/557"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=948615"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948615\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":948620,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948615\/revisions\/948620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=948615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=948615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=948615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}