UKRAINE Puppet State 'Ministry of Truth': Calling On Warrior-Trolls

Facebook frontline: Kiev calls up 'online army' amid information war Published time: February 25, 2015 04:40 A day after Ukraine announced it is joining the information war by creating an 'online army,' the Information Policy Ministry entered into its first controversy. It has reportedly called on bloggers to create accounts to spread information useful to Kiev. The ministry has begun accepting applications from people wanting to join the online army. Once users are registered, they reportedly receive instructions on how to proceed. One of the users published the first set of instructions he allegedly received from the “internet army headquarters.” The task outline is to create as many fake accounts on social media as possible without raising suspicion. The instructions explain that it is preferable to set up a new email account that uses a Western server. It also advises to set up new Twitter, Facebook, and VKontakte accounts (the Russian equivalent of Facebook). The instructions also detail that users must use real names, be careful not to add too many friends (in order to seem legitimate), and select their geographic location to be in eastern Ukraine or Crimea. In order for the account to seem more authentic, users are encouraged to write a few personal posts and comment on non-political issues. However, another instruction was distributed to bloggers on the same day. It gave the same blueprint for creating a fake account in Crimea or Donbass, but claimed that is the way “information agents of Kremlin work.” The fact that two versions of the text were being passed around received some negative comments on the Facebook page where in the information was published. Vesti, a Ukrainian media source, reported that blogger Aleksander Baraboshko – who is an aide to Ukrainian Information Policy Minister Yury Stets – said the version regarding “information agents of the Kremlin” is the correct one, while the other version may have been sent out to some users due to a computer glitch.  [Wow, in attacking Russians, they're constantly showing themselves up as obviously manipulative and rather vulgar.] Ukraine’s Information Policy Ministry was created in late 2014 to pursue information security in the country. Journalists dubbed the new institution the ‘Ministry of Truth’ after the propaganda ministry in George Orwell's novel '1984.' In early December, the ministry announced the creation of an information warfare department. “You don’t need trolls and bots to deliver truthful information to those communicating on the internet. It is obvious for social network veterans,” Tass news agency quoted Ukraine’s information policy minister, Yury Stets, as saying back in January. “To do so we need to unite people influential in social media and they will tell the truth to everyone who reads them.” [Ukraine's top trolls & bots are MFA:  Lithuania, Latvia, Sweden, as well as NATO & US Embassy UKR (Pyatt)]. These tactics follow Stets’ official announcement on Sunday, which revealed plans to create a national TV channel called ‘Ukrainian Tomorrow,’ which would broadcast to an international audience. [How about 'Ukraine Pillaged'?] Ukraine is taking the information war very seriously. On Saturday, Kiev said it is stripping more than 100 Russian media outlets of their accreditation. The list includes TASS, Rossiya Segodnya, and all Russian TV channels except Dozhd, according to government spokesperson Yelena Gitlyanskaya. The outlets will reportedly be without accreditation until the end of the Ukraine conflict. Russia has criticized Kiev’s decision. “The openly discriminatory decision by Ukraine's parliament to strip Russian mass media of accreditation at the bodies of state power is an extension of the policy to clear the country's media space of alternative points of view,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in a statement on Saturday.  [Lavrov's really cool.  Seems really savvy & laid back.] The decision comes as a “backdrop to the latest resolutions (the Minsk peace agreement) by the Normandy Quartet's leaders” and “calls into question Kiev's interest in a peace settlement,” Lavrov added. Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told TASS on Saturday that Moscow will not respond to Kiev’s actions by limiting the work of Ukrainian media. “Russia is a country where media activity is regulated by law, and where Russian and foreign journalists have equal rights to obtain information,” he said.  [The Russian govt is actually a real govt that knows how to conduct itself with dignity, unlike the clowns on a string in Ukraine.] SOURCE: http://on.rt.com/vjbnul COMMENT Saw an article about this elsewhere yesterday, but I dismissed the call for social media trolls as the effort of some desperate 'lone wolf' of the Ukraine troll world, as the site I checked out was registered on a hidden identity basis. Ukraine 'Ministry of Truth' can put lipstick on a pig all it likes, there's no hiding the truth from people: s  Source:  thicktoast.com Read about United Arab Emirates & US weapons to Ukraine: "Nothing says you want peace like shopping for weapons from the same country arming ISIS." http://www.thicktoast.com/uae-arms-kiev/

TWITTER - Who knew?

Haven't got the hang of this twitter stuff yet.

For some reason, my tweet froze and I couldn't shake it.

Tried exiting and calling up a new page.  But no go.

Rebooted the computer.

Still no go.

Who knew twitter could disappear?

Then I started with the clearing of browser history and clearing of Google history.

Still no joy.

Searching 'how-to' info, I stumble on this:

Twitter account suspension stuff (here) and I'm thinking NOOOOOO, I've been suspended or something.

WTF?  What did I do?

Well, for starters, who knew that you can't respond to tweets out there?

Hey, if there's a 'reply' button, it's fair to assume one can reply to tweets that are floating about in cyberspace.

Nope. 

Mental note:  do not reply to tweets unless hooked up.  LOL.

Anyway, that wasn't the problem.  But it's good to know. 

Up and running now, so I've no idea what happened.

Really creepy tho.

Maybe twitter were out to lunch?

Don't know.

Turkish PM - Social media hit

Emma Watson joins protest against Turkish politician's claim women should not laugh out loud Actress Emma Watson tweets a photo of herself laughing, in protest against comments made by Turkey's vice prime minister that women should not laugh out loud By Raziye Akkoc 1:03PM BST 01 Aug 2014 When Turkey's deputy prime minister gave a speech about what he saw as Turkey’s poor moral state, he was wanting to deliver a message to his people. Bulent Arinc, speaking at a ceremony to mark Eid - celebrating the end of Ramadan- urged Turkish women to abide by a rigorous code - and know what is "haram," or forbidden. "A woman will know what is haram and not haram," he said. "She will not laugh out loud in public. She will not be inviting in her attitudes and will protect her chasteness." His comments were widely ridiculed, with Instagram, Facebook and Twitter ablaze with pictures of women laughing and the hashtag, #direnkahkaha (ignore him - laugh) was born. On Friday Emma Watson joined in, tweeting a photo of herself laughing in public. Rest of article at source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/turkey/11005428/Emma-Watson-joins-protest-against-Turkish-politicians-claim-women-should-not-laugh-out-loud.html

Clash of cultures Turkish Vice PM story still kicking around, but nobody notices the food security for the poor being blocked by the US, in favour of profits.

Any chance that this celebrity could draw attention to that?

Er, maybe not.  She's with the UN mob who are just an extension of the US.

PUTIN OBSESSED PRESS

PUTIN OBSESSED PRESS

TWITTER - UNITED FOR UKRAINE

TWITTER

LOL

Daily Mail stoop as low as press can go

'Mascara from Amsterdam, or if to be precise from the field':  Outrage as female 'separatist' posts Instagram selfie wearing 'looted mascara - and boasting about it' The caption read: 'Mascara from Amsterdam, or if to be precise from the field. Well, you understand.'  When she is asked by her own followers if she was joking - and how she got the mascara - she answered: 'An acquaintance of mine, a looter, gave it to me.'  The woman - her age is not known - describes herself as a 'separatist' who 'feels sick and hates everything Ukrainian'.  Bloggers in both Russia and Ukraine have questioned whether the posting was a provocation amid a huge propaganda war from both sides, but a number of well-known web writers believe it to be genuine and have expressed horror. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2705628/Mascara-Amsterdam-precise-field-Outrage-female-separatist-posts-Instagram-selfie-wearing-looted-mascara-boasting-it.html#ixzz38UIvlBQU

News is no longer the news; it's allegations and refusals to substantiate.

It's repeating allegations, minus substantiated facts.

It's lies by omission and plenty of omissions.

And now news is some alleged ghoulish nobody moron on social media -- verified by 'a number of well-known web writers'? 

Is that so, Daily Mail?

*Eyeroll* 

What chick would apply second-hand mascara?  

Let alone mascara from a grave site. 

Whoever cooked this up cooked up that batch of Nuland cookies.

Good luck blogging anything interesting from Russia - and mind your language!

The Moscow Times Jul. 23 2014 19:50 Last edited 19:51 The law, which comes into effect on Aug. 1, obliges bloggers with a daily audience upward of 3,000 unique visitors to register with the state and disclose their identities. Popular bloggers will also have to follow the state laws governing mass media — i.e. avoid false information and expletives, and post no porn or extremist materials — though they get none of the media's rights. Disobedient bloggers could face blacklisting by the Federal Mass Media Inspection Service. [...] The law's numerous critics have claimed it could be used for political persecution.

In March, Ksenzov's agency blacklisted access to the highly popular LiveJournal blog of anti-corruption crusader and opposition leader Alexei Navalny, accusing him of promoting mass riots. Russia has radically tightened Internet regulations since the outbreak of grassroots anti-Kremlin protests in 2011 to 2013, which were coordinated online, including by Navalny. Ksenzov also spoke in May of a possible ban in Russia on Twitter and Facebook, though that earned him a rebuke from Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. Source - The Moscow Times - July 2014 - here. Owner: Sanoma Oyj - Finland

Well, that's a bit crap for Russian bloggers.  But it's old news from a couple of months ago.

On the bright side, looks like LiveJournal's head has found a way to bypass impediments to blogging:

LiveJournal head Dmitry Pilipenko announced that all LiveJournal subscription counts would stop at 2,500, with only bloggers and moderators able to see the real number. Page view-based rankings will also stop. "The above changes are based on plans to take measures to optimize the service," Pilipenko insisted. "All coincidences are accidental." Source - The Verge - May 2014 - here.

However, there's a few other  communications blocks:

Russia passed a sweeping internet-filtering bill in 2012, and the Kremlin has increasingly used its power to pressure critical media outlets.  In December of last year, Putin dissolved the venerable RIA Novosti news service, putting its remains under the control of a supporter.  A month later, Pavel Durov, founder of "Russian Facebook" VKontakte, sold his stake to an ally of Putin.  Popular opposition blogger Alexei Navalny saw his blog blocked by ISPs in March; the news site of chess champion Garry Kasparov, among others, was also caught up in the crackdown.  Along with the "blogger law," Putin also signed a bill barring profanity in films, theater, and other media, though its full scope is unclear. Source - The Verge - May 2014  - here.

Why the war on profanity, for fuck's sake?  That's just plain weird.

Probably after the churchy votes?

Australian politicians & law enforcement - Make headway towards controlling social media

Financial Review Twitter move to Australia "imminent": Julie Bishop PUBLISHED: 11 Jan 2013 11:35:00 | UPDATED: 15 Jan 2013 08:45:28 Negar Salek, James Hutchinson and AAP Social networking giant Twitter is being tipped to open its first Australian corporate office “imminently” as part of plans to help combat cyber bullying and deepen ties with the federal and state governments. Federal politicians have for months been lobbying the company to launch a full-time presence in Australia and make it easier for police officers to engage with the company. Speaking after a visit to Twitter’s US headquarters on Friday, deputy opposition leader Julie Bishop said she understood the move was “imminent”.  [Now Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party government - here.] “That’s what they told us today - they’d be opening an office in Sydney,” she said. “Facebook has a presence in Australia and it’s clear Twitter is about to establish one.” Ms Bishop said it was “essential” for social networking companies to deepen ties with Australian governments and authorities. Earlier, Ms Bishop tweeted that she was at Twitter headquarters in in San Francisco as part of the Australian American Leadership Dialogue.”There are 400 million tweets/day with most tweets posted in Jakarta!”. [AALD - NGO-charity] Twitter did not immediately confirm the move. Cooperation Twitter has seven international offices with the latest being in Paris. A new Australian corporate presence is likely to have a strong commercial motive, with Australians keenly embracing Twitter over the past six years and currently sending about 1.4 million tweets per day. But it is also likely to ease cooperation on issues such as cyber bullying and online abuse as well as enhancing relationships with all levels of government. It comes after a series of high-profile cases of cyber bullying, including rugby league star Robbie Farah being abused by a troll on Twitter. [SMH - September 10, 2012 - here.] Communications Minister Stephen Conroy branded the company “arrogant” in September after he unsuccessfully tried to contact the company to discuss the Farah case and ways to combat cyber bullying. “They just believe they don’t have to take any notice of the Australian public, any notice of the Australian laws, and they think they can behave this arrogantly,” he told Nine Network last year. Facebook, too, has come under pressure to extend its relationship with Australian authorities. Victoria police chief Ken Lay this week met with a Facebook executive to discuss his concerns about hate pages, and Facebook’s threat to high profile prosecutions. A spokesman for Senator Conroy told AAP on Friday that he would welcome a permanent Twitter presence in Australia. [Conroy - Labor Party - here.] But Prime Minister Julia Gillard said an Australian office may not speed up negotiations over taking down offensive material. [Former PM] “It hasn’t been so much a question of location of the organisation, as opposed to the will to address the issue,” she told reporters in Sydney on Friday. “We will be urging the bodies that have some control over content to have policies, not to stop people from having a genuine conversation or anything like that, but some of the extremes that have caused real harm to try and deal with that conduct.” Twitter has had no full-time offices in Australia since launching in 2006 despite launching an official Twitter handle, @TwitterAU, last October. Senior Twitter executives visited Australia in late 2012 as part of a scoping study. SOURCE - Financial Review - here.

Replace keyboards with handcuffs: Police Minister NSW Police Minister Michael Gallacher said at a press conference in Sydney this morning that Twitter trolls should have their keyboards replaced with handcuffs. "Honestly, these clowns who hide behind their keyboards in their mothers' basements thinking that they can send offensive messages ... we've got to empower police with the ability to replace their keyboards with handcuffs, grab them by the ears from mummy's basement and take them down to the local police station and make them understand the offensive matters that they continue to raise on the internet [bear] a terrible price." Mr Gallacher said NSW Police did have some powers to take action against online abusers, but there needed to be some support from the federal government in making the legislation tougher. Source - SMH - September 10, 2012 - here.

--------------------------------------
COMMENT

So if I have this straight, there are some people in the community who are offended by tweets (or content of facebook pages) and the Australian politicians and law enforcement were (and presumably still are) lobbying to find means to curtail freedom of expression on these internet mediums.

Of course, it's all in the name of defending from cyber 'bullying'.

Politicians on both sides of the fence are, of course, happy to do what they can to bring about controls.

Julie Bishop's remark is disturbing:

Ms Bishop said it was “essential” for social networking companies to deepen ties with Australian governments and authorities.

On the contrary, I believe it's essential for social networking companies -- and the internet -- to be independent of interference from the government and all its branches.

As for 'hate' sites, one man's hate site is another man's truth.  Who is to determine what is, or is not, acceptable content?  Once that door is ajar, it's wide open to government censorship of content.  So good luck preserving freedom of expression and freedom of information.

Now the nanny state wants to step in and guard against online social media users being 'offended' by remarks, and this is all in aid of defending the thin skinned from cyber bullying and 'hate'?

No way.

Ultimately, this is about politicians and government seeking control of a communication medium and control of freedom of expression and freedom of information.

Twitter didn't take long to come around to the politicians' lobbying. 

Nine months later Twitter Australia headquarters was born:

Twitter opens local headquarters     The Australian     September 02, 2013 12:00AM TWITTER has appointed a country manager for Australia and will officially open its local headquarters in Sydney this week, as the US social media giant pushes to build its advertising business in more markets ahead of a rumoured public offering. Recently, Twitter started offering its so-called "promoted products" in Australia, with businesses paying to have promoted tweets pushed into users' timelines, promoted accounts included in "who to follow" recommendations and "promoted trends" appearing on the popular topics list. Twitter won't divulge how many Australian advertisers it has signed, although it said National Australia Bank and Qantas were among the brands that have used the platform for marketing. ... However, the platform has at times proved problematic for brands. Qantas saw one promotional campaign became a PR fail when users hijacked its hashtag "#QantasLuxury" to make fun at the airline's expense. "You always have episodes of bad behaviour, especially on open platforms," Mr Rao said. "(One benefit) from having people on the ground ... is our teams can actively work with organisations in Australia to understand best practices so we can manage accounts on the platform in the best way possible." ...extracts only...full @... SOURCE - The Australian - here.

The Australian's article is all about the business/advertising side of things, save for revealing that the #QantasLuxury hashtag wound up being the butt of Twitter jokes. 

Was Qantas offended?  Was this a form of online bullying?  Was it a form of cyber hate?  And did the NSW police minister ensure all those responsible were held accountable?  Did all those Twitter basement-dwellers bear a terrible price?  And has the police minister replaced their keyboards with handcuffs? 

GAZA - Media Coverage Criticisms

Wikipedia - Gaza

Israel offensive launched - 8 July 2014

'Operation Protective Edge'

"Media coverage

Portrayals of the conflict have varied in different media outlets. In the English-speaking world, U.S. news sources were often more sympathetic to Israel, though commentators on both sides have stated that U.S. coverage of the conflict has failed to adequately provide context and background for the public to understand the issues involved. Commentators on both sides have also claimed that the media is biased either for or against Israel.  British sources were more often critical of Israel.  As the conflict progressed and Palestinian deaths increased, media became somewhat more critical of Israel.

ABC News received criticism when Diane Sawyer misidentified photos of rubble in Gaza as being in Israel. The progressive media criticism organization FAIR said that the mistake reflected a worldview in American media and a "false balance" between the two sides of the conflict, when in fact many more Palestinians have suffered than Israelis.  Sawyer later apologized on-air for the error.

Investigative reporter Judith Miller criticized US media, and her former employer The New York Times in particular, for being unsympathetic to Israel and downplaying the context of the kidnapping and murder of Israeli teenagers.

Criticism of the BBC's coverage

In The Guardian, Owen Jones called the BBC's headline "Israel under renewed Hamas attack", "perverse as Mike Tyson punching a toddler, followed by a headline claiming that the child spat at him", and that "the macabre truth is that Israeli life is deemed by the Western media to be worth more than a Palestinian life".

In London, Newcastle, Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow, hundreds protested outside the BBC's offices accusing the corporation of "pro-Israeli bias" in its coverage of the ongoing conflict. It claimed that news coverage was "entirely devoid of context or background". An open letter to BBC director signed by 45,000 people including Noam Chomsky, John Pilger, Ken Loach, Brian Eno and Jeremy Hardy said it would "like to remind the BBC that Gaza is under Israeli occupation and siege [and] that Israel is bombing a refugee population". The BBC has defended its coverage.

Building on research by the Glasgow University Media Group that examined the media coverage of recent Israeli attacks on Lebanon and Gaza, Greg Philo, research director of the university’s media unit, described how senior BBC journalists have spoken to him about being unable to get the Palestinian viewpoint across.

Social media

In the eight days leading up to Operation Protective Edge, the hashtag #GazaUnderAttack was used over 375,000 times. Often the hashtag was used on tweets using photos that claimed to show how the people are suffering due to Israeli attacks. A BBC study showed that in some cases these photos were from previous Israeli attacks, or from wars in Syria and Iraq.

A false report circulated on social media and via SMS that a rocket from Gaza had hit a petrochemical plant in Haifa. These reports cited Haaretz as their source, but turned out to be false. Haaretz denies having issued such warnings.

A photograph published by Danish journalist Allan Sørensen on Twitter caused uproar online, gathering more than 8,500 retweets. It allegedly shows Israelis in Sderot gathered on top of a hill to celebrate and cheer as they watched Israeli airstrikes on Gaza. People reportedly brought chairs, sofas, popcorn, and hookahs with them.  The scene was described as "something resembling a party".  Similarly, according to The Jerusalem Post, Palestinians in Hebron cheered as Gazan rockets were fired at Tel Aviv."

SOURCE - Wikipedia - here.

------------------------------------------------
COMMENT

Hmmm... the BBC is at it again.  

So check out what they've got to say -- and then look elsewhere to see what's going on.

Western media is HUGELY biased -- and it's not just limited to the situation in Gaza.

Follow up on Greg Philo (University of Glasgow Media Group):
 --------------------------------------------------------

BBC forced to ask: ‘Do we favour Israel?’

July 17, 2014

 ...extract below...

Mishal Husain (MH): ‘Are the protesters right? Have we been biased at the BBC in favour of Israel?’

Greg Philo: ‘I think actually the protesters are doing the BBC a favour. I think they will help the journalists to give a better perspective.

‘I’ve had many senior journalists at the BBC saying they simply can’t get the Palestinian viewpoint across, that the perspective they can’t say is the Palestinian view that Israel is a brutal apartheid state.’

MH: ‘As you watch news coverage on the BBC and other broadcasters, what’s the full picture you get of the coverage of this conflict?’

GP: ‘Well, the Palestinian perspective is just not there. The Israelis are on twice as much. But the Palestinian view and the historical analysis of the events is that they were displaced from their land, they are living under military rule.

‘People don’t even understand that it’s a military occupation that Palestinians are subject to. They don’t know about the economic blockade, they don’t know about the consequences of that on Palestinian life.”

MH: ‘We have, and we do have, many reports from Gaza…reporting on the casualties, reporting from the morgues.’

GP: ‘ The issue is the roots of the conflict. The problem with the coverage is that it doesn’t refer to the history of it. That the Palestinians are a displaced people, that they were forced to flee, that they lost their homes and lands, that the occupation and the way it is conducted is illegal, that they lose their water, that they had their lives, in effect, stolen from them.

‘Even if the BBC can’t give the Palestinian view, it should at least respect international law. The BBC should be reporting the international judgements on things like the Wall.’

…’Unless there’s a proper discussion of the root causes of this, unless the politicians are made to confront the history of this and confront seriously the conditions under which are they are reduced, unless they understand and are made to confront the history of it – the displacement of a people – until the politicians face that, how can we have a proper debate?’

...continued @ source...

SOURCE - Palestine Solidarity Campaign - here.

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If you're interested in supporting Palestine Solidarity Campaign - the support link is - here.

Merkel subject of Ukraine social media Nazi parody

Daily Mail Article 

Ukraine slates Merkel for ‘cosying up’ to Putin at World Cup as bitter virals compare her to Hitler’s right hand man von Ribbentrop

 Published: 17:55 AEST, 16 July 2014 | Updated: 04:21 AEST, 17 July 2014

German Chanellor Angela Merkel is the subject of a ruthless parody in the Ukrainian social media comparing her with Joachim von Ribbentrop for her supposed over-close relations to Moscow and specifically Vladimir Putin.

Pictures are mocking her recent meeting with the Kremlin leader at the World Cup Final in Rio de Janeiro, accusing her of being the block to potent EU sanctions against Moscow because of German gas needs.

'Danke, Frau Ribbentrop', reads one sarcastic message that has gone viral on the Ukrainian web.

... extract only

SOURCE - Daily Mail  - here.

---------------------------------------------------

COMMENT

Fancy depicting Merkel as the a Nazi, when it's thanks to the neo-nazi groups in the Ukraine that the elected government was toppled -- and they've got seats in government, as I understand.

DM just seems to enjoy stirring up the anti-German sentiment.

** Actually, it's two for the price of  one:  Germany & Russia. LOL

GAZA & BEYOND - media propaganda wars

Israel-Gaza conflict: Social media becomes the latest battleground in Middle East aggression – but beware of propaganda and misinformation 

 Monday 14 July 2014

The Twitter hashtag #gazaunderattack, which emerged as Israel launched Operation Protective Edge against the Palestinian territory earlier this month, was founded on the presumption that news media are failing to report the story.

Graphic violent images of civilians under fire were posted in large numbers, suggesting that news organisations were turning a blind eye to the attacks. “The media are not reporting anything,” was the hashtag’s catch line.

But social media, especially in its treatment the Middle East, has become a minefield of propaganda and misinformation.

Analysis by Abdirahim Saeed of BBC Arabic found that some of the pictures of violence circulated on the #gazaunderattack thread were recycled images from as long ago as 2007. Some were not even from Gaza at all but showed events from the ongoing conflict in Syria. Many of the pictures have since been widely distributed as the subjects of thousands of retweets.
...
Social media has become one of the weapons of war. The Israeli Defence Force, which has been on Twitter since 2009, now has 286,000 followers. During violence in 2012, the Hamas military wing set up its own @AlqassamBrigade account to trade threats with the IDF. Twitter shut the account down earlier this year but the nature of social media means that the propaganda war is open to everybody and sources of information are increasingly difficult to determine.

In the student union of a private university in the Israeli coastal city of Herzliya, a “Hasbara war room” has been set up as a contribution to the military effort. Hasbara literally means “explanation” but has also come to signify propaganda. Up to 400 students sit at banks of computers getting Israel’s message out online. “The goal is to deliver a very clear message to people abroad – Israel has the right to defend itself,” Lidor Bar David told Israeli news website, Ynet.

“Although they haven’t been called up to the army yet, they’ve decided to enlist in a civilian mission that is no less important,” reported Ynet.

The students – speaking in 30 languages – target online forums while aiming to appear as ordinary social media users. They lobby Facebook to take down pages which incite violence against Israel and circulate drawings of Hamas rockets made by traumatised Israeli children living close to Gaza.

 .....

 EXTRACT ONLY - SOURCE - The Independent - here.

 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
COMMENT

So Rasmussen/NATO pointed the finger at Russia's supposed 'propaganda' on social media, the other day.

NATO officials are concerned about what they see as a sort of ambiguous or shadow warfare by Russia, including propaganda campaigns and the use of separatist proxies within several countries.
Groups within Russia have been posting photos on social media that purport to shows major humanitarian problems in eastern Ukraine, the NATO military officer said, but in fact the photos come from other places and times.

"Their statements to their own citizens appear to be building a justification for interference, and that is a bit worrying to us," the officer said. - SOURCE - WALL STREET JOURNAL - here.

The way I see it, it's the west that's stealthily building justifications for interference in eastern Europe -- and this is just another example.

And now it's the turn of Palestinian supporters on social media.  LOL.

But the BBC itself puts out anti-Russian propaganda pieces sponsored by a dubious 'survey' group, that's actually an offshoot of a oil trust fund NGO (which was given US government blessings for a status change to 'charity' -- so it can collect FUNDS and LOBBY the US politicians.).

What's perverse is that if the anti-Russian propaganda was directed at any other group, it would (probably) be considered 'hate speech' or inciting violence or some other *card* that's regularly pulled in the west to shut down discourse.

Quite frankly, I wouldn't take as gospel what's written in mainstream western media.

But getting back to Gaza, are they denying that Gaza's under attack?  Of course not.

** But they are strengthening the notion that social media is 'unreliable', and quietly seeking to undermine social media reports and information -- so that you can be more reliant on what they want to tell you through mainstream news.  LOL.

Why would Israel need 400 students to send a message.  Israel is set.  Its strategic importance is such that the west (and major financial backer, US) will never interfere - it has carte blache in the region.

Bombs away.

[excuse typos...rushed.]