Assange believes too late for any pervasive privacy

Sat Dec 12 09:28:22 PST 2015

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On 12/11/2015 10:08 PM, juan wrote:

>> This may be useful for targeting and calibration of
>> propaganda, and advance deployment of physical assets to
>> counter populist political actions.  But so far, Big Brother
>> seems to suck at that kind of work...
> 
> I don't think there's been a real 'on the field' test yet.

I don't think network surveillance had much to do with it, but in
terms of political warfare 'on the field', I believe I have seen
examples recently.  Example:

When the grand jury verdict clearing the cop who shot Michael
Brown was announced, there was a very large but orderly
demonstration in downtown Ferguson.  We know this because people
who were present posted photos and videos as it happened.
According to realtime reports posted from the scene, crowd was
ordered to disperse then immediately tear gassed.  That wasn't the
"hot story" covered by the press corps, however.

Mass media news outlets reported rioting:  USA Today used the
headline "Ferguson Burning."  But that didn't happen.  The only
"civil disturbance" was the CW attack on the crowd downtown.

The material events referenced by the propaganda narrative were
consistent with one or two mobile teams armed with molotovs and
M-80 firecrackers leading the TV cameras on a merry chase away
from the crowd downtown by simulating gunfire and setting fires:
The isolated fires were not associated with disorderly crowds or
looting. There were numerous reports of gunfire but no injuries or
reports of people seen carrying guns or shooting.  The biggest
fires were at an auto parts store, and a used car dealership where
a row of cars were burned (the owner presumably got the full
insured value of some stock that wasn't moving).  One police car
apparently burned for over an hour, as if prepared in advance to
do so in case it took longer than expected for TV news crews to
arrive.

In this instance, it is very possible that network surveillance
enabled our Security Services to determine in advance that there
would be a large crowd that night, at a well organized
self-policing event unlikely to produce violence or property
damage useful to the State's propaganda mission.  Anyone could
have predicted the crowd, but its orderly behavior was not a
likely guess unless the organizers and associated social
networking traffic were under surveillance.