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>> Elliott: It is the belief of many conspiracy theorists that the government employs certain
people to go on a sort of cyber-offense to manipulate public opinion and discredit anyone
who opposes them. Turns out, they totally do. That's one point for the conspiracy
theorists -- two if you count the moon landing, which yeah, sure, totally happened.
>> Joe: I'd like to take a moment to point out that Elliott does not, in fact, believe
the moon landing was faked. We've made such jokes before and people have become offended.
Those people were likely government spies, but still, WE KNOW WE LANDED ON THE MOON.
>> Elliott: We did? That's great!
>> Joe: The news that the government has been compromising the very integrity of the Internet
comes from everyone's favorite whistleblower, Edward Snowden. The documents are from the
GCHQ, which is like the NSA but with British accents, and they include the following: "The
Art of Deception: Training for Online Covert Operations." If that doesn't sound like
it's straight out of a movie to you, you're dead wrong it totally does.
>> Elliott: Here's what The Art of Deception, does: It includes the monitoring of YouTube.
>> Joe: (bleep)
>> Elliott: As well as Blogger. It also includes the specific targeting the hacker collective
known as Anonymous using the very same tactics Anonymous is accused of using. This Art of
Deception also includes a little info on how to set a honey trap, which I won't go into
exactly, but suffice it to say that honey is code...
>> Joe: FOR SEX.
>> Elliott: IT'S A SEX TRAP. They set sex traps for people. They're sex trap setters.
>> Joe: They also inject viruses into various places, but the primary overall bigtime goal
is to, as Glenn Greenwald said earlier this week, "to control, infiltrate, manipulate,
and warp online discourse, and in doing so, are compromising the integrity of the internet
itself."
(Elliott and Joe give two thumbs up)
>> Elliott and Joe sing: We are livin' in a movie, just like we wanted to when we came
to Hollywood, except it's real and we're all gonna die.
>> Joe: The two primary goals according to this new leak are to inject false material
onto the Internet in order to discredit its targets, and also use "social sciences"
to change the conversation entirely.
>> Elliott: If you're a target, you might have a honey trap set for you, or your social
networking profile picture changed, or you might see some blog post from a supposed victim
of the target—
>> Joe: NOPE JUST THE GOVERNMENT.
>> Elliott: And the target might email their friends and neighbors—
>> Joe: NOT REALLY THOUGH IT'S JUST THE GOVERNMENT.
>> Elliott: Greenwald, who penned the report, also says this fun little tidbit. These actions
are not just for counter-terrorists, but also quote "against people suspected (but not
charged or convicted) of ordinary crimes or, more broadly still, 'hacktivism', meaning
those who use online protest activity for political ends."
>> Joe: Suspected.
>> Elliott: That's Minority Report BS right there. Fortunately, none of it is truuue...
>> Joe: What? Oh, right! Yes, of course. This was just made up, as clearly shown by the
lack of good...
>> Elliott: Uh, good...
>> Joe: Graphic design... on the slides.
>> Elliott: Yes! The government would never be so bland. Guys, what do you think of this?
Tell us your "honest" "opinion" or, for your own safety, DON'T.
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