Heading to Budapest today to cover #CPACHungary where American conservatives will come to learn how to be better conservatives by listening to authoritarian Hungarian leader Victor Orban, who will give the keynote speech
At least the weather in Budapest is better
#CPACHungary is taking place in a newly built shopping centre/conference centre know locally as "The Whale"
Huh, so it seems like #CPAC is adopting Viktor Orban's crackdown on the press. When I called into the event location today, the Hungarian organizers said I wouldn't be allowed to enter the conference....
Good morning from CPAC day 1 here in Budapest.
Some protests outside #CPACHungary this morning. Most attendees walking over them or laughing at them
The protester, who did not want to be interviewed on camera, said it was just a small protest against the "fascists" attending the conference #CPACHungary
And just like that the protest is scrubbed away
Now it's a game of cat and mouse
#CPACHungary is about to begin here in Budapest, but rather than being inside the building, I'm relegated to watching it online as the organizers have not allowed me (or any western media?) into the event. Why is that @CPAC@mschlapp@Schneider_DC?
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has just arrived and shook a lot of hands ...
Now the hosts are talking about the history of CPAC (which began in 1974 with a keynote from Ronald Reagan) and how this is the first CPAC event in Europe.
One of the hosts was introduced as "the nightmare of the left wing media"...whatever that means
First order of business is some prayers #CPACHungary and then the schedule says we'll be hearing from Fox News host Tucker Carlson who has recorded a video message for the conference.
If you are wondering "Why the Hell CPAC is taking place in Hungary" then you can read this while waiting for Tucker
Now it's national anthem time. The Hungarian guy singing the US anthem seems to be outsung by some woman in the crowd who is singing very loudly
Now we're listening to a very video montage telling us that Hungary is at the forefront of the Resistance of the Right. The video features every from Trump and Orban to Tucker and...Jordan Peterson?
First up to speak is the head of the Center for Fundamental Rights which organized CPAC with the @acuconservative. Miklos Szantho just compared bringing CPAC to Hungary to getting a man on the moon #CPACHungary
The host said that there are over 200 foreign attendees in Budapest for the event.
Monitoring those going into the event this morning, it seemed to me that the vast majority of people attending were Hungarian. Some Americans, some other Europeans, but mostly locals.
Now speaking is @mschlapp who says Americans are in Hungary to listen and learn.
He says everyone asks why CPAC in is Hungary. "Because it's the right place to be to start this conversation about what's going on in Europe."
Schlapp ends his speech, which included a lot of praise of Orban, by saying: "This is a time for fighters. And America, don't worry, don't despair. America is on the way back. America has woken up from a stupor."
It's TUCKER TIME
Well, that was underwhelming. The message was less than a minute long and all the Fox News host said was he will be back in Hungary soon.
The woman I met this morning who said Carlson's comments were one of the main reasons she was attending will be pretty disappointed.
Now the main attraction, Viktor Orban, who opens his speech by welcoming former Czech leader Vaclav Klaus #CPACHungary
Speaking about "grey suit commie comrades" who once ruled Hungary, Orban references the TV series Chernobyl, but mistakenly calls it a Netflix series. (It was produced by HBO)
Now Orban just quoted a line from Sting's song Englishman in New York....this is getting weird.
Orban: "Hungary is the laboratory where we have come up with the antidote for progressive dominance.”
The Hungarian leader now laying out his 12-point "recipe" for this antidote. Effectively telling Americans what they need to do to replicate Hungarian authoritarianism in the US
Now he's speaking about the Ukraine war. "Russia is the aggressor. Ukraine is the victim" but he adds that Hungary will not pay the price of way. #CPACHungary
Orban's fourth point for his antidote to wokeness: "Have the Media" #CPACHungary
Orban says that he sets aside one day a week just to read.....hmmn, I'm not sure his good friend Donald Trump does the same thing. #CPACHungary
Back in 2014, the harassment campaigns were aimed at games developers and commentators who sought to broaden women’s place in gaming.
Those tactics eventually “became embedded into the MAGA movement” and “seeped into the fabric of US democracy,” says @AttorneyNora
2/6
At the, time, the person who saw the terrible potential of Gamergate was Steve Bannon
“What he tried to do with Gamergate was really standardize those tactics so that many more people understood how to do gender trolling or race trolling as a political tactic.” @BostonJoan said
3/6
In Telegram channels, neo-Nazis and white supremacists have been discussing ways to spread their message to new audiences, and even recruit new members.
And one platform is targeted above any other: #TikTok
Neo-Nazi are sharing tips on how to spread their content on TikTok, using coded language, symbols and altered images and videos to circumvent TikTok's content moderation policies.
The content is overtly racist, including pro-Hitler videos and Holocaust denial posts
2/6
@ISDglobal researcher @NateTheDoctor found a single neo-Nazi account on TikTok and from here built out a network of several hundred accounts, just by manually reviewing accounts and videos.
The network is global and interconnected, sharing and boosting each others videos.
3/6
In the space 24 hours, a false story about Volodymr Zelensky's wife buying a $5M Bugatti Tourbillon spread at warp speed across the internet from from an unknown AI-powered French website to the top search result of Google
US domestic extremists, including neo-Nazis, have been using AI for years, but new research shows that in 2024, their adoption of the technology has accelerated dramatically—and experts are deeply concerned.
Extremists, initially skeptical about "the evils" of generative AI tools like ChatGPT, have changed their minds.
“In the last few years we’ve gone from seeing occasional AI content to AI being a significant portion of hateful propaganda content online" @MEMRIReports
2/6
A new trend this years is the adoption of gen AI video tools like OpenAI's Sora, with researchers seeing a marked increased in AI video featuring hate content in recent months — including a video of actress Emma Watson reading Mein Kampf aloud while wearing a Nazi uniform
3/6
As Trump and the GOP continue to push voter fraud conspiracies ahead of the US elections, experts are seeing a resurgence in far-right paramilitary activism.
Now, a January 6th prisoner is trying to launch a 50-state armed militia from his jail cell.
Jake Lang, caught on video swinging a bat at police during the Capitol riot, has been in jail for 3yrs.
“It's important to recognize that Lang is, first and foremost, a grifter who knows that his ‘political prisoner’ schtick is his only shot at relevance,” @Jon_Lewis27 says
2/7
From his jail cell in Brooklyn, Lang told me he's been working on his new militia, called the North American Patriot and Liberty Militia (or NAPALM for short), for a year.
For the last month I've been attending online webinars from election denial groups who are ramping up their efforts to try and disrupt the 2024 presidential election.
True the Vote and founder Catherine Engelbrecht have been trying to disenfranchise voters for more than a decade, but as the November elections rolls around they are now looking to recruit thousands of local activists to challenge voter rolls and disrupt election locations
2/7
In a series of webinars, Engelbrecht has been giving supporters a how-to guide to local organization as well as an introduction to the group's new IV3 tool, which automates voter registration challenges.