Pentagon is Testing Orwellian Software to Stop Memes and Viral Content From Spreading on Internet
Shane Trejo
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It was bad enough when Big Tech put the clamps down on memes and independent information, but now the Pentagon is getting in on the war against digital speech under the guise of preventing fake news.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which serves as the technology arm of the Department of Defense (DOD), is leading a project against “large-scale, automated disinformation attacks.” They are creating a network of algorithms that will scan information and suppress what they deem is “fake news.”
They will be debuting this state-of-the-art software to detect misinformation that is hidden within 500,000 pieces of media to demonstrate its efficacy. After a four year test run, the software will likely be expanded to the detection of “malicious content” – a nebulous term that could be used to encompass pretty much anything.
DARPA claims that it has a network of “semantic inconsistency detectors” that can be used to snuff out fake news before it goes viral through algorithmic checks. If one small semantic detail is deemed to be incorrect by the digital truth commission in a piece of media such as a meme or news article, it could be snuffed out and sent down the memory hole forever.
In real terms, DARPA is just producing technobabble to enable Big Brother and censor the free internet on a scale that was previously unfathomable.
With the incredible and unprecedented rate of technological progress that is at hand, DARPA’s mad science vision to crush dissent may be tenable in the very near future, according to the experts.
“A decade ago, today’s state-of-the-art would have registered as sci-fi — that’s how fast the improvements have come,” said Andrew Grotto at the Center for International Security at Stanford University. “There is no reason to think the pace of innovation will slow any time soon.”
Investigative journalist Helen Buyniski explains how this program may ultimately mean the death of journalism throughout the world, considering the Pentagon’s dismal track record toward whistle-blowers.
“To hear them tell it, the Pentagon just wants to even the playing field between the ‘good guys’ – the fake-hunters pursuing the cause of truth in media – and the ‘bad guys’ sowing discord one slowed-down Nancy Pelosi speech at a time,” Buyniski writes.
“But the Pentagon’s targets aren’t limited to deepfakes, the bogeyman-of-the-month being used to justify this unprecedented military intrusion into the social media and news realm, or fake news at all. If the program is successful after four years of trials, it will be expanded to target all “malicious intent” – a possibility that should send chills down the spine of any journalist who’s ever disagreed with the establishment narrative,” she adds.
While conservatives may have expected the federal government under President Donald Trump to come to their aid in protecting free speech, they are in fact doing the exact opposite, as our core freedoms are under attack in ways that not even George Orwell could have imagined.
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