Can the World’s Second Superpower Rise From the Ashes of Twenty Years of War

While our government’s war propaganda has convinced many Americans that we are powerless to stop its catastrophic wars, it has failed to convince most Americans that we are wrong to want to.

Medea Benjamin
Nicolas J.S. Davies
By Medea Benjamin
And Nicolas J.S. Davies
Anti Iran war Protest Feature photo

February 15 marks the day, 17 years ago, when global demonstrations against the pending Iraq invasion were so massive that the New York Times called world public opinion “the second superpower.” But the U.S. ignored it and invaded Iraq anyway. So what has become of the momentous hopes of that day? The U.S. military has not won a war since 1945,

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Study Finds Bots and MAGA Supporters Pushing #IraniansDetestSoleimani Hashtag

A social media disinformation expert studied 60,000 tweets from nearly 10,000 accounts using the hashtag #IraniansDetestSoleimani and found that the most common phrases in those users’ biographies were “Make America Great Again” and “Trump.”

Alan Macleod
By Alan Macleod
Soleimani Protest social media

The hashtag #IraniansDetestSoleimani has been trending on Twitter this week, as users voiced their opposition to the recently assassinated Iranian military leader Qasem Soleimani. The hashtag remained one of the most popular amongst users in the U.S. and Western Europe. But similar viral sentiment was not expressed across the Middle East, least of

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Did Bill Barr Call His Shot? Unanswered Questions about FBI’s Foreknowledge of the El Paso Shooting

William Barr’s warning that a “major incident” could occur “at any time” and “galvanize public opinion” around the unpopular encryption back-door policy he has been seeking seems to have come true in the weeks since the attorney general made those statements.

Whitney Webb
By Whitney Webb
William Barr El Paso shooting feature photo

As a series of recent mass shootings have brought renewed demands for the U.S. government to do something to address the spike in “lone wolf” violence, the Trump administration’s decision to blame internet privacy, controversial websites like 8chan, and social media for the shootings has raised eyebrows from across the political spectrum,

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The Great and Growing Gap Between Public Policy and Public Will

Time and again, when it comes to the most vital political issues of the day, a clear pattern emerges: Americans want one thing and their elected representatives deliver just the opposite.

Jon Jeter
By Jon Jeter
A minister belonging to a group demanding Congress reject the Trump administration's budget proposals and health care bill, is arrested during a demonstration in the Russell Senate Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, July 18, 2017. (AP/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

WASHINGTON (Analysis) -- Polls released in the aftermath of the February 14 massacre at a South Florida high school showed a peculiar divergence in public opinion. While Americans support stronger gun control measures by a margin of nearly two to one, nearly 60 percent of respondents also doubt that their lawmakers will enact stricter

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Google Maybe Partnering With Brazil’s Government to Influence Public Opinion

Members of Brazil’s President Michel Temer’s administration met with Google representatives to discuss the viability of directing users’ queries to official content produced by the government.

Netizen Report
By Netizen Report
A demonstrator carries a statue in the likeness of Brazil's president Michel Temer during a protest against Brazil's president Michel Temer at Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, May 28, 2017. People gathered on Copacabana beach ahead of a concert by Brazilian musical performers calling for new presidential elections while pressure mounts on the country's leader to resign amid corruption allegations. (AP/Leo Correa)

A January 12 article on the website of O Globo, one of Brazil’s most widely read daily newspapers, alleges that Brazil's government is seeking to work with Google to customize search results for Brazilian users, based on their location and possibly other characteristics. According to the O Globo article, which did not name its sources, the

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70 Years of Disinformation: CIA Funded Opinion Magazines in Europe

Cold War disinformation operations run by the CIA took the form of clandestinely placing stories in the media that were clearly untrue but designed to shift public perceptions.

Philip M. Giraldi
By Philip M. Giraldi
The Paris Review

When an intelligence agency arranges to disseminated fake news it is called “disinformation” and it is a subset of what is referred to as covert action, basically secret operations run in a foreign country to influence opinion or to disrupt the functioning of a government or group that is considered to be hostile. During the Cold War,

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