Feds creating database to track hate speech on Twitter

Truth is Treason in an Empire of Lies

The federal government is spending nearly $1 million to create an online database that will track “misinformation” and hate speech on Twitter. Those behind the grant say: “This service could mitigate the diffusion of false and misleading ideas, detect hate speech and subversive propaganda, and assist in the preservation of open debate.” 

George Orwell was right all along. #doublespeak

This caged bird will be told what to sing.

The National Science Foundation is financing the creation of a web service that will monitor “suspicious memes” and what it considers “false and misleading ideas,” with a major focus on political activity online.

The “Truthy” database, created by researchers at Indiana University, is designed to “detect political smears, astroturfing, misinformation, and other social pollution.”

One G-man’s “social pollution” is another free man’s First Amendment right. The very term sounds like something out of a 1920s Italian fascist tract. And why is the federal government even deciding which ideas are “false and misleading,” let alone tracking them?

According to the project’s grant, the service “could mitigate the diffusion of false and misleading ideas, detect hate speech and subversive propaganda, and assist in the preservation of open debate.”

In 2004, dissent was “the highest form of patriotism.” A decade later, it’s called “subversive propaganda” and categorized as the lowest form of treason. Truthy would add a button to Twitter so that people could report their neighbors and family members for Thoughtcrime against the State.

Filippo Menczer (who sounds like an author of that 1920s Italian fascist tract) is Truthy’s lead investigator and closely affiliated with “non-partisan” groups like President Obama’s Organizing for Action, Moveon.org and Greenpeace. The software’s very name comes from ardent conservative hater Stephen Colbert.

It’s hard to denounce the more paranoid allegations of Obama’s opponents when his administration routinely goes beyond their wildest imaginings.  We are definitely living in George Orwell's 1984.

These guys know their Orwell. Only a government inspired by the Ministry of Truth would quash “subversive propaganda” in the name of “open debate.”

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US recovery slows, fueling stagnation fears

A home is for sale in Glendale, California, in May
© AFP/File Robyn Beck

AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Revelations that key sectors of the US economy were pummeled last month have rekindled fears that the world's largest economy faces protracted high unemployment and lackluster growth.

Exactly two years after the recession officially ended, weakness in the jobs, housing and manufacturing sectors left economists scrambling to downgrade their growth predictions on Wednesday.

"This week is the most important week for assessing the strength of the May economy, and growth is looking much softer than we were forecasting," said John Ryding and Conrad DeQuadros of RDQ Economics.

Gates warns against shrinking US military

© AFP/File Adek Berry

AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Sunday called for maintaining a powerful US military and warned against slashing its budget as a response to the country's fiscal troubles.

In one of his last scheduled speeches before he steps down at the end of June, Gates told students at the University of Notre Dame that the country could not afford to shirk its global responsibilities or to scale back its armed forces.

"As we make the tough choices needed to put this country's finances in order and to secure our future prosperity -- including the sacrifices that will be required of all Americans -- there will undoubtedly be calls to shrink America's role in the world -- for us to sharply reduce our international commitments and the size and capabilities of our military," Gates said.

Obama stands by vision for Mideast peace

An Israeli protester
© AFP David Buimovitch

AFP
 
WASHINGTON (AFP) - US President Barack Obama stood his ground to defend his vision of an Israel-Palestinian peace deal following an unprecedented public lambasting from Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu.

Obama took his message to some 10,000 of Israel's staunchest supporters, warning Washington's pro-Israel lobby that the results of a continued stalemate in the Middle East peace process could be dire for the Jewish state.

And after twice dismissing Obama's views as "based on illusions," it was Prime Minister Netanyahu who appeared to be backing away from further confrontation, now saying he shared Obama's vision for peace.

Arab revolts show repression no longer works: Obama

© AFP Jim Watson

AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US President Barack Obama said Thursday that the uprisings sweeping the Arab world show that a policy of repression will no longer work as people seek to win their freedom and human rights.

He also warned in a speech at the State Department that Al-Qaeda's agenda of "extremism" was now seen as a "dead-end" in Arab nations.

"The events of the past six months show us that strategies of repression and strategies of aversion will not work anymore," Obama said, as he denounced the "relentless tyranny of governments that deny their citizens dignity."

Bin Laden kill does not change Gitmo plans: US

The US detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba
© AFP/POOL/File Brennan Linsley

AFP

PARIS (AFP) - The success of the operation to kill Osama bin Laden has not changed US President Barack Obama's plan to eventually close the Guantanamo Bay prison camp, Attorney General Eric Holder said Monday.

Some opposition figures in the United States have argued that last week's commando strike was only possible thanks to clues gleaned by interrogating suspected Al Qaeda members at the US detention centre on Cuba.

But, speaking to reporters in Paris, Holder said: "It is still the intention of the president, it is still my intention, to close the facility at Guantanamo, and we will continue our efforts in that regard.