by Vivek Saxena at AmericanWire
The latest edition of the “Twitter Files” shows how an “alliance of academics, journalists, intelligence operatives, military personnel, government bureaucrats, NGO workers and more” are working together to silence dissent.
The latest edition was released Tuesday by Andrew Lowenthal, who reportedly spent 18 years as the executive director of Engage Media, a non-governmental organization “devoted to protecting digital rights and freedoms.”
“In recent years, I watched with concern and then despair as a dramatic change swept through my field. Organizations & peers began de-emphasizing freedom of expression, instead promoting surveillance & censorship to combat ‘disinformation.’ … I knew things were bad. When I started work on the #TwitterFiles, I learned: they’re far worse,” Lowenthal writes.
“The Files show an uncanny alliance of academics, journalists, intelligence operatives, military personnel, government bureaucrats, NGO workers and more. … I had always understood ‘civil society’ to mean ‘not the military.’ The former exists to check the latter. So I was shocked to see the depth of collaboration. For instance, ‘civil society’ groups coordinating with Pentagon officials in an ‘election tabletop’ exercise. Why?” he continues.
“In a functioning democracy there’s dynamic tension between government, civil society organizations, news media, and industry, all advancing their own interests, in theory keeping one another honest. In the #TwitterFiles we find them all working together, cartel-style,” he adds, concluding his opener.
View the beginning of the “Files” below:..
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