Amid last night's storm of Bad Things you might have missed this Bad Thing:

Trump appointee Michael Pack has eliminated the US Agency for Global Media's editorial firewall, which protected networks like @VOANews, @RFERL, etc from political influence.

npr.org/2020/10/27/928…
The calling card of these networks -- I know, I've lived and worked in the places they serve -- is that they provide independent, fact-based news where little to none exists.
Putin has long critiqued VOA and RFERL as propaganda mouthpieces, and has claimed that their very existence neutralizes any Western critiques on Russia's state-run media and lack of free speech.

Well, Michael Pack is adding fuel to that whataboutism fire now.
But the thing that *really* upsets me is that Pack and the Trump administration's insistence on turning these outlets into propaganda *endangers USAGM journalists' lives.*
They have long been targets for their courageous reporting - Belarus @svaboda reporters have been arrested on mutliple occasions since protests broke out this summer, for example - but this decision puts them further at risk in environments already hostile to them.
This, on top of Pack's decisions to not renew visas for foreign staff working in the US bureau, is cruel, inhumane, and in contravention of American morals and values.
In HOW TO LOSE THE INFORMATION WAR I predicted that a second Trump admin might seek to eliminate outlets like RFERL. That they're rushing to do this before the end of Trump's term shows they are not invested in USAGM's mission or the values the US has, until now, represented.

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More from @wiczipedia

26 Oct
Look, if you're going to use scare quotes around my title and doubt my committment to nonpartisanship when discussing the threat of disinformation, that's an (unfair) editorial choice, but at least don't inaccurately define disinformation:
Disinformation = the use of false OR MISLEADING information with MALIGN INTENT

Misinformation = false or misleading information spread without malign intent

Hacked materials can absolutely be part of an online influence campaign.
PS The most successful disinformation often includes a kernel of truth. From HOW TO LOSE THE INFORMATION WAR:

(US and Int'l purchase links: wiczipedia.com)
Read 4 tweets
22 Oct
Last night was nuts so let's talk about this statement a bit more in depth in the light of day, with coffee in hand ☕️

DNI Ratcliffe says Iran spoofed Proud Boys emails and used publicly available voter records to intimidate voters in FL and AK.

(cont)

washingtonpost.com/technology/202…
Ratcliffe also says "Russia has access to voter information" (as it is public and easy to obtain), but after spending minutes describing the disturbing Iranian operation, doesn't really explain anything else we're seeing related to Russian influence campaigns.
This paints a confusing picture to the non-expert, IMO; it looks like "Iran did this horrible thing, Russia has some files."

Meanwhile, we know Russia has been interfering in political processes around the world for over a decade. Its US operations never stopped after 2016.
Read 8 tweets
30 Sep
Hi. Multiple-time election observer here. You don't just send your supporters into polling places to "go and watch." If a leader of a foreign country did that, international organizations would be extraordinarily concerned.
Election observation is not something anyone can simply *go and do.* It requires training. It requires restraint. The fact that the President is encouraging his supporters to "go and watch" is inviting voter intimidation and potentially violence.
One of the things we look for when we are visiting polling stations in foreign countries is large crowds that are clearly there to agitate for one party or another. This is an indication that something is very wrong, that one group is trying to keep another away from the polls.
Read 5 tweets
25 Sep
Reading @sobieraj's CREDIBLE THREAT; am just a few pages in and already so many striking passages.

"We don't really see people lashing out at people; we primarily see men lashing out at women, particularly woman from historically marginalized groups."

global.oup.com/academic/produ…
THIS Image
Reader, I laughed. Image
Read 4 tweets
24 Sep
To be a woman in public life in the internet era is to have men constantly appraising your physical experience while you are expected to sit quietly, enduring it; objecting is seen as unprofessional & unladylike.

Here are the parts of my body random jerks have judged this week:
My face
My chin
My feet
My breasts
My hair

Once after a TV appearance a man wrote to me to tell me I had a “strange darkness in the esophageal area of my throat”
That of course is in addition to the folks who want to take away my voting rights, who call me “AWFL” (angry white female liberal).

Yes, I am very angry- but expressing that would be a faux pas. Meanwhile, targeted harassment continues, my reports to @TwitterSupport go nowhere
Read 5 tweets
21 Sep
Really nice fan mail today!!!!!!! Image
Little do they all know they’ve consented to being part of my current research on gender and disinformation 💁🏻‍♀️

Here’s my undeterred face 😘 Image
Really just amazingly nice guys Image
Read 5 tweets

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