The UK government is all set to sledgehammer free speech in unison with the US deep state. News from The Guardian foretells of social media platforms being labeled “publishers” rather than information platforms, a move that will end the spread of free ideas to UK citizens. But the movement warns of international implications given recent events in the US aimed at Russia. The true message from Russia and beyond won out in recent media skirmishes, but as a byproduct we may soon witness the end of rights we took for granted for too long.
According to a story entitled “UK government considers classifying Google and Facebook as publishers,” Karen Bradley, the UK Culture Secretary, told MPs at a meeting of the digital, culture, media, and sport committee that the government is considering changing the legal status of Google, Facebook, and other Internet companies over “growing concerns about copyright infringement and the spread of extremist material online.” In my view, it’s no coincidence that this warning comes just days after Facebook, Google, Twitter, and Microsoft announced their cooperation with US legislators for hammering pro-Russia information and the narrative of the social web for good. While the heads of these platforms have not admitted collusion and their intent directly, the “coincidence” and sequencing of these news stories stinks of a key PR firm campaigning. While I cannot unveil the firm or firms involved, my expertise in dealing with the world’s biggest public relations companies should serve here.
From the PR perspective, releasing one anti-Russia story after another helps cement a narrative far better than an all-at-once approach to controlling the news cycle. The public is now getting maximum effect from what I believe is a singular and cohesive effort to lay the groundwork for global legislation to eradicate any dissent and particular dissent that is pro-Russia or pro-Putin. The way the news cycle works, a campaign is best leveled across two weeks, a month, or more, so that the desired audience is thoroughly indoctrinated with an idea or a product. In this case, the product is an Orwellian eradication of freedom of speech across the swath of the world’s most used social media platforms. This is a direct result of traditional media and the deep state having failed to defeat independents across these platforms. People unwilling to bow to the CNN, BBC and the controlled media message, more or less beat the globalist scheme online. So, the only choice and chance for the anti-Russia message to succeed is with the complete takeover of ALL channels. As further proof of a collective effort, listen to this Bloomberg interview the other day with Microsoft CEO Brad Smith on the same “legislation” issues. Smith’s rhetoric, syntax, and the flow of his narrative mirror almost precisely the other social CEOs, the US legislators, and especially the UK Government dialogue. All these technocrats feign concern over privacy protection and free speech/free press issues, but their real agenda is the main story.
Smith’s company is supposedly looking into reports the Russian government bought ads on BING, to try and sway the US election. As a media expert in this field for many years I can tell you this if anybody in Putin’s administration paid good money for a BING ad, then they should be fired for gross incompetence and waste. The Microsoft search engine has a market share of “barely visible” when compared to Facebook and Google. This is all subterfuge and manipulation. The same people who lie to the public on a daily basis, the same industries that never pay their fair share of taxes, the entities that were shown to be colluding with the NSA and other intelligence agencies are suddenly concerned about our welfare,
Make a note of the fact that Ofcom Chairman Patricia Hodgson is all for regulating social media and search, and public awareness of these realities becomes paramount. This is especially true when Hodgson’s statements edged toward regulation blackmail at in another Guardian piece:
“Google, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter are under growing pressure over the growth of fake news – including stories allegedly pushed by Russia before the 2016 US election – the spread of extremist content such as terrorist propaganda videos, and whether the sites should pay news providers for content.”
Finally, the news from European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker that the EU will propose a new tax on tech giants like Google and Facebook next year, and you have the complete picture of a cohesive move to stamp out independent companies and free voices. In the US you have officials trying to run Russia’s RT America out of the country in an unprecedented campaign. Editor in Chief Margarita Simonyan has been fighting an impossible battle to try and force US legislators to follow the letter of the law and precedent, but with limited success. Simonyan told reporters the current situation just the other day:
“Nowhere else have we experienced such active pressure and virtually expulsion from the country, like in the U.S. The US Justice Ministry sent us a letter requiring us to recognize ourselves as foreign agents. To date, we are obliged to execute ourselves and recognize ourselves as foreign agents before October 17. Our lawyers explained us that otherwise arrests of our employees and property will follow”.
Meanwhile, Russian officials are left with little choice except to reciprocate by curtailing activities of American in a tit-for-tat response leveled on more than 1,000 journalists and entities operating inside Russia.
The implications here are dire. The foundations of American democracy are thrown to the dogs. Foreign governments collude with America not only to stoke the fires of new conflicts with Russia and other neighbors but at the expense of destroying the ideals that made so many free nations great. American President Donald Trump calls out for “MAGA,” or making America great again, while the deep state underneath jackhammers freedoms. Facebook and the free web were supposed to be platforms of expression and free voices, and now corporations and governments nobody can trust vie for complete control. The dangers go largely unnoticed except on the very independent outlets targeted as “extremist.”
The world is at a deadly new threshold. Whether this Orwellian nightmare was by design or an inescapable destiny, the dreadful consequence will be the same. Not so long ago we were convinced the evils of imperialism would destroy us all after World War I. Next the Nazi menace threatened to undermine all freedoms, and mind control was the civic flavor of the day. Today we face a global threat more dangerous than any experimental Hitler idea. We face a world that is indescribable except in some dystopian existence. My advice to every reader is to become more vigilant in your dissent against this evil regime.
Phil Butler, is a policy investigator and analyst, a political scientist and expert on Eastern Europe, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.