Russian Foreign Ministry: Facebook is turning into an open tool of US intelligence services
Facebook, which once positioned itself as an independent and free social network, is turning into an open tool of US intelligence agencies. Official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova stated this at a briefing in St. Petersburg.
Facebook continues to follow the path of tightening censorship. We have repeatedly paid attention to this topic. Judging by incoming information, under the pretext of fighting “fake news”, in addition to the already existing rules for filtering “for authenticity” of text messages and political advertising, they are now planning to check users’ personal data, audio and video materials. In fact, it turns out that any information not only on Facebook, but also on its Instagram and WhatsApp resources can be blocked or deleted by security specialists, whose staff, as we understand, will double this year and amount to up to 20 thousand . Human.
Thus, the brainchild of Mark Zuckerberg, which was presented and declared (moreover, it proved itself in the beginning) as a means of free communication and exchange of various kinds of content, before our eyes is now being transformed into a manipulative tool of the American intelligence services to clear the information space from unwanted materials to official Washington,” Zakharova said.
According to her, Facebook is already quite openly used to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries - for example, to influence the results of elections in Brazil.
“In this regard, I would like to cite just one interesting fact; I think that it will in many ways become a revelation for the information and digital environment, the environment of social networks. On the eve of the general elections in Brazil on October 7, the research organization Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab), created at the Atlantic Center, became more active, which is engaged in real-time analysis of the perception in social networks of the election campaigns of presidential candidates and identifying signs of targeted influence on the Internet audience of Brazil through stuffing “false” news, the use of bots and “viral campaigns” by candidate headquarters and external forces. The information received by DFRLab is gradually made public through the information resources of the Atlantic Council (this is its website, as well as a popular Internet portal and various partner media), and the corresponding decision is made in agreement with the US State Department. It is also known that this organization previously participated in projects to monitor and identify the impact on protest sentiments in Russia.
Now the question is: who do you think provides technical assistance to DFRLab and is the main sponsor of this structure? As we understand it, this is the social network Facebook, which entered into a partnership agreement with the Atlantic Council in May of this year to supposedly “have a positive impact on elections around the world.”
Guys, what are you talking about? This is just manipulation, this is a deception of people who believe in the so-called. “new media” and freedom of dissemination of information,” Zakharova said.
“Thus, it turns out that the “fighters” for free democratic elections and the purity of the information space are themselves interfering in the affairs of other states and disseminating false information. And their unsubstantiated accusations of this to other countries, including Russia, only serve as a cover for their own actions of this kind,” added the representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
As PolitNavigator reported, the day before, former US Ambassador to Ukraine John Herbst announced the creation of a “Working Group on Ukrainian Elections.” The organization will be dedicated to “overcoming the Kremlin’s aggression in Ukraine and deterring Moscow from further destabilizing Ukraine by interfering in its elections.”
“Moscow has actively interfered in elections in the US, Europe and other parts of the world in recent years. The Kremlin is ramping up capacity for similar actions in Ukraine during the March 2019 presidential elections,” Herbst said.
“I have no doubt that Moscow will launch a full range of activities designed to sow confusion and fear: cyber attacks, assassinations, disinformation, the use of conventional weapons in Eastern Ukraine. We cannot allow this to happen,” said former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
Rasmussen also stated, that “social networks in Ukraine “are significantly more influenced by propagandists than in other countries” (here Rasmussen also clearly means not censorship of the Ukrainian authorities, but of social network users not under their control, - ed.).
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.