USAID’s Disinformation Primer: Global Censorship in the Name of Democracy

Shocking revelations from a leaked USAID report expose how the agency collaborates with tech giants and media outlets to stifle free speech, silence dissent, and manipulate public opinion under the guise of fighting fake news.

Alan Macleod
By Alan Macleod
USAID Feature photo

A report from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) outlines how the government agency has been encouraging governments, tech platforms, establishment media outlets and advertisers to work together to censor huge swaths of the Internet. The 97-page “disinformation primer,” obtained by conservative firm America First Legal

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Independent Media Outlets Unite to Fight Back Against Corporate Censorship

During the summit, those who had potential solutions to fighting the censors presented their ideas to the group who then had a round table discussion to decide how best to move forward and carry out these solutions.

Matt Agorist
By Matt Agorist

Over the weekend, members and owners of multiple independent media outlets gathered in Houston, Texas to discuss the heavy hand of corporate and government censorship and how to stop it. The meeting was a success with the common theme of peaceful voices refusing to be silenced. For those who remember, on October 11, 2018, Facebook and Twitter —

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Watch | Combating Facebook & Google Censorship

Mnar Muhawesh discusses social media giants’ efforts to wipe independent journalism off the map and what can be done to combat this deliberate form of censorship.

Mnar Adley
By Mnar Adley
Poland | Facebook | Protest

 MintPress founder & editor in chief, Mnar Muhawesh, recently produced a live stream on Facebook to discuss social media giants' efforts to wipe independent journalism off the map and what we're doing to combat this deliberate form of censorship. Top Photo | A protest against events, groups and profiles blocked by Facebook in front of

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Facebook Purges US-Based Independent Media For Political Disinformation

The concerted efforts to censor independent media on social media began in earnest following Facebook’s announcement this past May that Facebook would be teaming up with the notoriously hawkish, government- and corporate-funded think tank, the Atlantic Council.

Whitney Webb
By Whitney Webb
Facebook's Secret Censorship Rules Protect White Men From Hate Speech But Not Black Children

MENLO PARK, CALIFORNIA – Facebook announced on Thursday that it was removing more than 800 pages from its platform, accusing the pages of “inauthentic behavior” even though the pages produced “legitimate” content. According to Facebook, the “inauthentic behavior” involved using “sensational political content – regardless of its political slant – to

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Hold the Front Page: The Reporters are Missing

So much of mainstream journalism has descended to the level of a cult-like formula of bias, hearsay and omission. Subjectivism is all; slogans and outrage are proof enough. What matters is “perception.”

John Pilger
By John Pilger
mainstream media propaganda

The death of Robert Parry earlier this year felt like a farewell to the age of the reporter. Parry was “a trailblazer for independent journalism”, wrote Seymour Hersh, with whom he shared much in common. Hersh revealed the My Lai massacre in Vietnam and the secret bombing of Cambodia, Parry exposed Iran-Contra, a drugs and gun-running conspiracy

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Google and Corporate News Giants Forge New Alliance to Defeat Independent Journalism

The “new media” monopolists of Silicon Valley and the once-dominant traditional print media have clearly agreed that the “fake news” frenzy is a convenient pretext to step up their censorship of the internet through new algorithms, allowing them to boost their profit margins and silence opposition through a new framework of “algorithmic censorship.”

Elliott Gabriel
By Elliott Gabriel
Google's campus-network room at their data center in Council Bluffs, Iowa. (Photo: Connie Zhou/AP)

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA – Search engine and advertising monolith Google continued to press its offensive against alternative media this week with an announcement unveiling a new $300 million project called the Google News Initiative. The initiative encompasses a range of new projects announced by the tech giant, which has long been accused of

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