90 Miles From Tyranny

Saturday, January 28, 2023

Feds adapting AI used to silence ISIS to combat American dissent on vaccines, elections

The federal government, working hand-in-hand with universities, private companies and Big Tech, is funneling millions of dollars in taxpayer money to fund an AI censorship program to be used on American citizens.

The government's campaign to fight "misinformation" has expanded to adapt military-grade artificial intelligence once used to silence the Islamic State (ISIS) to quickly identify and censor American dissent on issues like vaccine safety and election integrity, according to grant documents and cyber experts.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded several million dollars in grants recently to universities and private firms to develop tools eerily similar to those developed in 2011 by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in its Social Media in Strategic Communication (SMISC) program.

DARPA said those tools were used "to help identify misinformation or deception campaigns and counter them with truthful information," beginning with the Arab Spring uprisings in the the Middle East that spawned ISIS over a decade ago.

The initial idea was to track dissidents who were interested in toppling U.S.-friendly regimes or to follow any potentially radical threats by examining political posts on Big Tech platforms.

DARPA set four specific goals for the program:

"Detect, classify, measure and track the (a) formation, development and spread of ideas and concepts (memes), and (b) purposeful or deceptive messaging and misinformation.
Recognize persuasion campaign structures and influence operations across social media sites and communities.
Identify participants and intent, and measure effects of persuasion campaigns.
Counter messaging of detected adversary influence operations."

Mike Benz, executive director of the Foundation for Freedom Online has compiled a report detailing how this technology is being developed to manipulate the speech of Americans via the National Science Foundation (NSF) and other organizations.

"One of the most disturbing aspects of the Convergence Accelerator Track F domestic censorship projects is how similar they are to military-grade social media network censorship and monitoring tools developed by the Pentagon for the counterinsurgency and counterterrorism contexts abroad," reads the report.

"DARPA's been funding an AI network using the science of social media mapping dating back to...

The 90 Miles Mystery Video: Nyctophilia Edition #1277

Before You Click On The "Read More" Link,

Please Only Do So If You Are Over 21 Years Old.

If You are Easily Upset, Triggered Or Offended, This Is Not The Place For You.

Please Leave Silently Into The Night......

The 90 Miles Mystery Box: Episode #1977

You have come across a mystery box. But what is inside?

It could be literally anything from the serene to the horrific,

from the beautiful to the repugnant,

from the mysterious to the familiar.

If you decide to open it, you could be disappointed,

you could be inspired, you could be appalled.

This is not for the faint of heart or the easily offended.

You have been warned.

Girls With Guns

Visage à trois #739

Three Videos For Your Viewing Pleasure:

Three Additional Bonus Videos:

Quick Hits Of Wisdom, Knowledge And Snark #920

John Durham Turned On Trump, Opened Criminal Investigation Into Donald Over Suspected Financial Crimes

The New York Times published a bombshell about special counsel John Durham as his four-year-long investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia probe comes to an end.

Durham is preparing his final report but the Times spoke “with more than a dozen current and former officials” to get a sneak peek. And Trump will be furious.

Because while Durham and Bill Barr turned over every rock to find a link between Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Russian hoax, even going to Europe to investigate claims allegedly made by foreign intelligence agencies, Durham got a tip about suspected financial crimes by Trump and opened a criminal investigation into the former President with Bill Barr’s blessing.

According to the Times:

“On one of Mr. Barr and Mr. Durham’s trips to Europe, according to people familiar with the matter, Italian officials — while denying any role in setting off the Russia investigation — unexpectedly offered a potentially explosive tip linking Mr. Trump to certain suspected financial crimes.

“Mr. Barr and Mr. Durham decided that the tip was too serious and credible to ignore.

“But rather than assign it to another prosecutor, Mr. Barr had Mr. Durham investigate the matter himself — giving him criminal prosecution powers for the first time — even though the possible wrongdoing by Mr. Trump did not fall squarely within...

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday lauded House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s decision to kick Rep. Adam Schiff off the House Intelligence Committee, accusing the California Democrat of leaking classified information when he was on the panel.

“Adam Schiff lied to the American people, and during my time as CIA director and secretary of State, I know that he leaked classified information that had been provided to him,” Pompeo alleged during an interview with Fox News.

Pompeo, who served on the Intelligence Committee with Schiff when he represented Kansas in Congress, said that McCarthy (R-Calif.) was “exactly right” to boot the California Democrat, and he argued that Schiff’s tenure as chairman on the panel “almost ruined that committee.”

Pompeo added that as secretary of state, he was troubled by Schiff’s behavior and didn’t feel comfortable providing the intel committee information.

“When we provided information to him and to his staff, it ended up in places it shouldn’t have been with alarming regularity,” Pompeo explained. “In the end, I decided, I held back information from them as a result.”

“I watched the House Intelligence Committee under the leadership of Adam Schiff. I watched him denigrate and lower its ability to actually perform its function. When he was out talking about the Russia hoax, going on to say that the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation, knowing that...