Censorship Industrial Complex
Biometric and Digital ID in Crisis Zones: Is the Red Cross Paving the Way for a Privacy Nightmare?
From Reclaim The Net
The Red Cross (ICRC) is the latest long-established and operating international organization of considerable repute, that has found itself enlisted to, essentially, help the biometrics data-reliant ID happen.
Specifically, the Switzerland-based ICRC seems to have gotten involved in a scheme developed to such an end by Germany’s CISPA Helmholtz Center for Information Security, and also Switzerland-based Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL).
The scheme is called the Janus system.
While formally and generally working in any region affected by natural or human-created disasters – helping refugees, casualties, the issue of missing or displaced persons – the ICRC is mandated first and foremost by the 1949 Geneva Convention.
But the times have in the meantime clearly changed quite considerably – and now there’s the initiative to “hoover up” ICRC’s many decades of experience, and repute, into a “new reality.”
Such as creating new tools “aimed at verifying the identities of humanitarian aid recipients.”
And once again, the focus is on developing nations. This time – not entirely unlike the stated rationale behind recent UK’s recent mass surveillance effort under the guise of fighting tax money fraud – the focus is supposedly to make sure that those caught up in humanitarian crises areas do not submit “multiple registrations.”
It’s either to make sure humanitarian aid gets to as many people as possible – or, a handy opportunity to present this problem as one without a solution, other than drastic things like biometric data getting introduced into the mix.
There has now been a disturbingly high number of instances of Western-based and/or majority-funded organizations, formal (like the UN), or informal but powerful ones, “testing abroad” the tech that they know would face serious and strong opposition at home.
And that’s in countries and societies where the dangers to privacy and security are either not well-advocated or are simply voided by the everyday bare necessity to survive.
Biometric data harvesting, retention, usage, and (ab)use fall in this category, and as much as civil rights organizations in developed countries are to be praised for the work they do or attempt to do at home, it should be said that the “backdoor experiments” taking place in poorer countries not getting enough spotlight is something these groups definitely need to work on.
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Despite Congress’s efforts to dismantle the GEC, its core operations appear intact under a new name and nearly identical mission.
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The way things stand right now, the shutting down of the US State Department’s disgraced Global Engagement Center (GEC) doesn’t appear to equate to the GEC actually being dismantled.
Rather, the unit, notorious for its role in flagging social media posts during the outgoing administration, seems to have simply undergone a rebranding. Now, the State Department has the Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (R/FIMI) Hub. Matt Taibbi of the Twitter Files describes what happened here as an “absurd prank” that defies Congress, which moved to force the end of the GEC. One reason for this conclusion is the result of checking the former and the newly founded unit’s mission statements for any differences. And there are virtually none. The GEC Mission was officially, “To direct, lead, synchronize, integrate, and coordinate US Federal Government efforts to recognize, understand, expose, and counter foreign state and non-state propaganda and disinformation efforts aimed at undermining or influencing the policies, security, or stability of the United States, its allies, and partner nations.” And here’s what R/FIMI Hub is supposed to do: “To direct, lead, synchronize, integrate, and coordinate efforts of the Federal Government to recognize, understand, expose, and counter foreign state and non-state propaganda and disinformation efforts aimed at undermining or influencing the policies, security, or stability of the United States, its allies, and partner nations.” The difference between the two texts is R/FIMI Hub going for, “(…) efforts of the Federal Government” – rather than GEC’s “US Federal Government efforts.” Not only that – and the fact that this alleged focus on foreign threats turned into a smokescreen for going after online speech at home – R/FIMI Hub is also reportedly set to keep about 50 GEC staff, and continue to be funded, as before, with just under $30 million via grants and contracts. Shuttering the GEC was a cause championed by Congress Republicans through a number of investigations, essentially suspecting that its role was to facilitate, through obfuscation, what is otherwise illegal government involvement in censorship. They are now, even though coming to power at all levels, presented with a case that illustrates the functioning of what many of them like to call “the deep state” – a permanent power structure underlying elected ones, where a brazen “rebrand” of this kind can happen right in front of everyone. Former GEC staff are reportedly planning to carry on their work, dispersed across the State Department, thus creating the illusion of the unit being disbanded, but with R/FIMI Hub seemingly envisaged as just that – a hub for their continued activities. The activities included the GEC teaming up with third parties like the Global Disinformation Index that would “score” content for advertisers, to the detriment of conservative media. |
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From LifeSiteNews
By Dan Frieth
Biden’s statements came on the same day Mark Zuckerberg appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience, revealing that the Biden administration had actively pressured Meta to censor content related to COVID-19
President Joe Biden harshly criticized Meta’s decision to eliminate its professional fact-checking program in favor of user-driven community notes, labeling the move as “really shameful.” His comments, delivered during a press conference following a speech on economic progress, reveal a concerning push for increased control over online discourse.
Biden’s statements came on the same day Mark Zuckerberg appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience, revealing that the Biden administration had actively pressured Meta to censor content related to COVID-19. Zuckerberg disclosed that officials repeatedly contacted Meta, demanding the removal of memes and truthful posts critical of COVID-19 vaccines. He recounted how the White House would “call up our team and scream at them and curse” over content they deemed unacceptable.
Zuckerberg pointed to a specific incident where the administration pushed for the deletion of a meme featuring Leonardo DiCaprio pointing at a TV with a caption suggesting future legal actions over the COVID-19 vaccine. Zuckerberg resisted, stating, “No we’re not we’re not going to take down humor,” emphasizing that his team would not remove content that was humorous and not factually false. Despite Meta’s history of censoring similar content, Zuckerberg insisted, “Basically, it just got to this point where we were like no, we’re not going to take down things that are true. That’s ridiculous.”
Zuckerberg also said that the Biden administration pressured for the censorship of truthful information.
“Basically, it just got to this point where we were like no, we’re not going to take down things that are true,” Zuckerberg said. “That’s ridiculous.”
Zuckerberg’s decision to dismantle the platform’s fact-checking system announced just before President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, has drawn polarized reactions. While Democrats decry the change, Republicans, including Trump, have long accused Meta of silencing conservative voices. Zuckerberg openly admitted that scaling back content moderation might allow more harmful content to circulate, but he also recognized the need to move away from biased oversight.
Biden criticized the autonomy of private tech leaders, stating, “The idea that, you know, a billionaire can buy something and say, ‘By the way, from this point on, we’re not going to fact-check anything.’ And you know, when you have millions of people reading, going online, reading this stuff … I think it’s really shameful.”
Reprinted with permission from Reclaim The Net.
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