Instagram and Threads To Restrict All Political Speech By Default

A blanket of suppression.

Christina Maas Feb 12, 2024

(FB and Meta illegal interfering in US elections again because Donald Trump is running for President)

With a move that could be seen as limiting the spread of diverse political views, Meta, the parent company of popular social media platforms, hasrevealed a strategy that aims to diminish the circulation of political content on its apps.

Primarily, Meta’s recently-developed app Threads and Instagram, its more established platform,=will reduce the recommendation of political posts.

Meta had previously imposed a similar policy on Facebook, aiming to decrease the prominence of political material in various features including the main feed, as well as recommended groups and pages.

This decision to refrain from actively promoting political content will soon be integrated into Instagram and Reels as well, especially with the 2024 US elections on the US elections on the horizon.

Newly introduced updates concerning the functioning of Instagram’s algorithms, as disclosed through the Instagram blog and Meta Transparency Center, will affect several key areas on the platform – Instagram Reels, Instagram Explore, and the In-Feed Recommendations.

Meta’s impending amendments will majorly affect how Instagram suggests content, but curiously, they will not tamper with posts by accounts that users are already following. This implies that posts by non-recommendable accounts – including those of political nature such as election news or social issues – will continue to be visible to their followers through various channels like Feed and Stories.

However, these will not be proactively recommended to users who do not follow the accounts, suppressing the growth of political accounts on the platform.

https://reclaimthenet.org/instagram-and-threads-to-restrict-all-political-speech-by-default

>>20405282 NATO and the CIA Are Waging a Secret War in Russia (Strategic Culture) (PN)

Considering “agents” of NATO states, one must first investigate the media of these NATO states. Bellingcat has many so-called journalists operating around Russia, for example in Kyrgyzstan. The whole team can be labeled as agents of NATO. The journalists residing in Russia and working for the so-called mainstream Western media and (see article below), in particular, for the Dutch state broadcaster NOS, the English BBC, and the German ZDF, can be considered to be NATO agents.

Remember in Putin and Tucker interview, at close to very end, Tucker bizarrely asked Putin if he would release Gherkowitz, the WSJ, as an act of Decency sothat Tucker and his team could take him home.

Below is the article announcing his arrest. Aside from how strange and somewhat aggressive Tucker was when he asked that question, Putin responded: “only “Special Services” (FSB, CIA, SOS and their ambassadors), could do this”

My question is why would Tucker even think they could get him out of Russia safely?Unless Tucker was an asset. So the Notable above confirms that many journalists are spying in Russia. Note also, WSJ are war hawks, constantly condemning Russia (& Trump)and defending Ukraine. So Gershkovick had actually lived and worked in Russia for two anti Kremlin media

30 Mar, 2023 07:47

Wall Street Journal reporter arrested on suspicion of espionage – FSB

Evan Gershkovich was detained in Russia for allegedly trying to obtain state secrets, the security service said

A correspondent working for the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) in Russia has been arrested in the city of Ekaterinburg in the Urals, the FSB security service announced on Thursday.

Evan Gershkovich, whopreviously worked for the Moscow Times and AFP in the Russian capital, has been accused oftrying to collect intelligence about a defense industry factory, in violation of Russia’s laws on state secrets, the statement said. If charged with espionage, the journalist could face between 10 and 20 years in prison.

The FSB alleges thatGershkovich, a US citizen who has accreditation from the Foreign Ministry to work in Russia, “acted in the interest of the US government” when he sought to obtain classified information. He was arrested “during an attempt to receive” the intelligence, the statement added.

The WSJ is “deeply concerned for the safety of Mr Gershkovich,” the outlet said in a statement.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has commented on the detention, stating thatwhatever Gershkovich was doing, “it had nothing to do with journalism.” Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova noted that the status of a correspondent and journalistic credentials have previously been used as cover by others, and that other Western nationals have been caught in similar situations in the past.

Before joining the WSJ, Gershkovich was areporter for Agence France-Presse and the Moscow Times, and a news assistant at the New York Times, according to his bio.

Russian authorities allege that Gershkovich, “acting on instructions of the American side, collected information amounting to a state secret about the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex,” the news agency Interfax said.

https://www.rt.com/russia/573844-journalist-espionage-wsj-arrest/

>>20405959

Evan Gershkovich

Evan Gershkovich (born October 26, 1991)[1] is an American journalist and reporter atThe Wall Street Journal covering Russia. He was detained by Russia's Federal Security Service on charges of espionage in March 2023, marking the first time a journalist working for an American outlet had been arrested on charges of spying in Russia since the Cold War. The White House and media advocacy groups have condemned the arrest.

Evan Gershkovich

Born October 26, 1991(age 32)

Princeton, New Jersey, U.S.

Education Bowdoin College(BA)

Occupations Journalistreporter

Employer The Wall Street Journal

Experts have speculated that the motivation behind the order for Gershkovich's arrest was an anticipated prisoner exchange for one or more high-profile Russians imprisoned in other countries. Gershkovich, who remained in Russia following the invasion of Ukraine, was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine after his arrest in 2023.[2]

Early life and education

Gershkovich's parents, Ella and Mikhail Gershkovich, Jewish immigrants who settled in the U.S. after leaving the Soviet Union[3] separately left the Soviet Union during a period of mass emigration, ending up in the United States in 1979 and eventually New York City, where they met.[4][5] The couple moved to Princeton, New Jersey,where Gershkovich and his sister grew up speaking Russian at home.[6][7][8][9][10]

Gershkovich graduated from Princeton High School, where he captained the soccerteam, in 2010.[11] At Bowdoin College, he majored in philosophy and English,[12][13]wrote for The Bowdoin Orient and The Bowdoin Review, and DJ'd for WBOR, the campus radio station. He graduated in 2014.[14]

Career

Gershkovich worked forThe New York Times from 2016 to 2017, The Moscow Times from 2017 to 2020, and Agence France-Presse from 2020 to 2022before moving to The Wall Street Journal in January 2022.[9][13][15] He had lived in Russia for six years prior to his arrest,at the time of which he was based at the Journal's bureau in Moscow and covering the war in Ukraine.[9] He was working in Yekaterinburgwhen arrested, covering the Russian mercenary military organization Wagner.[13][16]

Arrest

On March 29, 2023, the counterintelligence department of the Federal Security Service(FSB) detained Gershkovich in Yekaterinburg while he was on a reporting trip for having information on a "Russian defence enterprise". According to U.S. officials, Gershkovich's driver dropped him off at a steakhouse at 4 p.m.[17] and two hours later, his phone was turned off. The Wall Street Journal hired a lawyer to find him at the FSB's headquarters but couldn't locate him.[18] The Kremlin confirmed his arrest hours later. Dmitri Peskov, Russian president Vladimir Putin's press secretary, said that he was "caught red-handed" but could not provide further details.[19] (not “could not”, they “would not”) He was transferred to Moscow where he was formally arrested by a district court until May 29. He was then taken to Lefortovo Prison, a holding facility used by the Soviet Union to detain Soviet dissidents.[20] He was formally charged on April 7.[21] United States ambassador to Russia Lynne M. Tracy met with Gershkovich on April 17 and wrote that he is "in good health and remains strong".[22]

Gershkovich was detained by Russia's Federal Security Service under charges of espionage,[23][24][25] marking the first time a journalist working for an American news outlet has been arrested in Russia on charges of spying since the Cold War.[9]According to NPR, a court, operating in closed session, ordered Gershkovich held until the end of May while investigations were ongoing.[26] According to Kommersant, he was scheduled to be transferred to Lefortovo prison while awaiting trial.[26] A conviction for espionage could carry a sentence of 20 years.[7][9][27]

Gershkovich appealed his arrest on April 3.[28] A judge denied his appeal and rejected an offer from The Wall Street Journalpublisher Dow Jones to post a bond of 50,000,000₽ (US$600,000). Gershkovich's lawyers said he was reading Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace (1869) and watching cooking shows on monastery cuisine.[29] In a handwritten letter from April 5 obtained by The Wall Street Journal, Gershkovich said he was "not losing hope".[30] He appeared in Moscow City Court on April 18 to appeal his pre-trial detention.[31] A Moscow court extended his detention to August 30 on May 23, where Gershkovich's parents met him.[32]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evan_Gershkovich

>>20405986

I have a very different analysis than that. Did you see Putin’s look and reaction when Tucker asked?

And remember when Putin chided Tucker about being rejected by the CIA. What Putin said at the end, “I get it” was strange

When he was trying to give Tucker the archive documents he said: I’ll give you these,for your good memoryseemed odd to me too. How would he know Tucker had a good memory?

A lot of strange interactions in that interview

>>20405986

So answer me this: if the Admin, FBI and CIA hacked his phone and prevented Tucker going before. Did Tucker work with the agencies this time to interview Putin? Or was the prior event all for show?

Suspicions arise on the event.

FILE PHOTO: Russian President Vladimir Putin lays flowers at the grave of Pyotr Stolypin in Kiev, 2013.

13 Feb, 2024 10:39

Top Russian MP fumes over ‘sacrilegious’ Ukrainian idea

An official in Kiev wants to dig up the tomb of Imperial Russian PM Pyotr Stolypin and use his remains as a bargaining chip

A Ukrainian proposal toremove the remains of Tsarist-era Russian Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin from its burial placein the heart of Kiev and exchange it with Moscow for prisoners of war is sacrilegious, Russian State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin has said.

In an emotional post on social media on Tuesday, the senior Russian lawmaker condemned the idea, which was floated in a TV interview last week by the recently appointed director of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, a state-owned monastery that isconsidered one of the holiest Orthodox Christian sites in Ukraine.

Last year Maksym Ostapenko became the chief custodian of the Lavra, which was split into a secular museum and a religious section, after the government in Kiev pressured the traditional Ukrainian Orthodox Church to vacate the premises.

As Stolypin’s tomb inside in the Lavra, Ostapenko has authority over it. Speaking to the TV channel TSN,he described the grave as an “imperial Russian marker” and expressed his intention to remove it.

“One of the ideas is to include him in the exchange pool, regardless of how it would look” the official suggested. “We have dead heroes. We have living heroes who were captured. We have Ukrainian dignitaries buried on the territory of Russia.”

Volodin responded that Russia could not accept such a proposal. Stolypin, he noted, survived multiple assassination attempts and was fully aware that his life could end violently, so he explicitly asked to be buried wherever he would be killed.

In 1911, when the prime minister was accompanying Tsar Nicolas II during a visit in Kiev, the 11th attempt on his life proved successful. A radical anarchist managed to get close to Stolypin by becoming a security informant, and shot him. The prime minister succumbed to his injuries days later and was buried at the Lavra, in accordance with his wishes.

In the 1960s, his tombstone was removed by Soviet authorities, allegedly on the personal orders of Communist leader Nikita Khrushchev. It was moved back and restored, close to the original form, in the final years of the USSR.

Stolypin is an unpopular figure for Ukrainian nationalists, who maintain a strong influence in the country. Just days before his 1911 assassination, he delivered an impassioned speech on the graves of two 17th century cossack figures, who opposed Ivan Mazepa, the then-leader of the Zaporozye Host.

Mazepa betrayed his oath of loyalty to Russian Tsar Peter I and sided with the Kremlin’s opponents, an act for which he was condemned in Moscow and is considered a national hero in modern Kiev.Stolypin, a devoted Russian patriot, hailed the loyalty of Mazepa’s rivals to the Romanovs.

(Ukrainians are mentally ill!)

https://www.rt.com/russia/592353-stolypin-remains-prisoner-exchange/

12 Feb, 2024 14:57

Kremlin comments on Starlink claims

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has denied Ukrainian allegations that he supplied satellite internet terminals to Moscow

The Russian military never officially ordered SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet terminals and they are not certified for use in Russia, the Kremlin has said. Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov made the comment shortly after Ukrainian intelligence claimed that Russian forces were using the technology amid the ongoing armed conflict between Moscow and Kiev.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk donated some 20,000 Starlink terminals to Ukraine shortly after Russia launched its offensive against the country in February 2022. Ukrainian troops are using them to operate drones along the front line. However, the billionaire said last year that he had refused Ukraine’s request to activate the Starlink service in Crimea.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Peskov noted that Starlink had never been certified in Russia, meaning that it “cannot be and is not being delivered hereofficially.” He added that, for this reason, the technology cannot be used in any official capacity in Russia.

The Kremlin’s representative concluded by saying that there was no point in Moscow getting involved in a “discussion between the Kiev regime and entrepreneur Musk.”

In a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday, Musk lamented that “a number of false news reports claim that SpaceX is selling Starlink terminals to Russia.”

“To the best of our knowledge, no Starlinks have been sold directly or indirectly to Russia,”the SpaceX CEO added.

In a separate statement on Thursday,SpaceX insisted that it “does not do business of any kind with the Russian government or its military,” and has “never sold or marketed Starlink in Russia, nor has it shipped equipment to locations in Russia.”

Meanwhile, on Sunday, Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence (GUR) claimed to have intercepted a conversation between Russian military personnel, where one service member could be heard saying in Russian “Starlink is working, we have internet [access].” (Did they ever think Ukraine is stupid and left their network open to hacking?)

GUR spokesman Andrey Yusov alleged that Russian troops are “systematically” using Starlink terminals.

In September, Musk said his company had refused to enable Starlink coverage over Crimea. “Now, the reason it was turned off was actually because… the United States has sanctions against Russia… and that includes Crimea,” he explained at the time. In the absence of any direct orders from the US leadership, SpaceX opted not to run afoul of the regulations despite Kiev’s request to do so, the entrepreneur noted.

Earlier, CNN reported that Musk’s decision had thwarted a Ukrainian drone attack against the Russian Black Sea Fleet.

https://www.rt.com/russia/592318-kremlin-comments-starlink-military-ukraine/

(This is true, have you ever seen the US UN ambassador? KEK)

2 Feb, 2024 09:16

Western diplomacy ‘primitive’ – Moscow

Russians have had to dumb down their speeches at the UN so other countries can understand them, deputy representative Dmitry Polyansky has said

Russian diplomats perceive their Western counterparts' approach to international affairs to be “quite primitive,” Moscow’s deputy permanent representative to the UN, Dmitry Polyansky, has said. Moscow's representatives are not certain what caused this,but have simplified their messaging in response, he added.

Polyansky made remarks about the quality of the Western diplomatic corps in an interview with RIA Novosti published on Monday, based on his personal experience at the UN. He expressed concern about Anglophone speakers at the forumselectively ignoring the contextof particular situations for their own benefit.

”They pick an arbitrary point in time and claim nothing happened before it.They try to blame a nation for its actions regardless of prior events or the general context,” he explained.

The diplomat cited the Ukraine conflict as an example. The US and its allies have been describing Moscow’s military action against Kiev as “unprovoked” and supposedly motivated by “imperial ambitions,” and have pressured other nations to frame it in the same way. As they learn more about the conflict, however, those parties realize how much the general context and Western actions since Ukraine gained its independence matter, he added.

”This trick does not always work, but it is a trend. I don’t know if it’s some deeper trend or just something typical for some people coming from [Western] schools of diplomacy,” Polyansky said. “Having a dialogue with them is challenging because they show certain superficiality, tunnel vision, and unwillingness to seek the core causes of conflicts. No solutions can be found without [such analysis].”

The office of the Russian envoy to the UN has been simplifying its addresses due to uncertainty over how their words are understood, he said. Russian diplomats used to quote foreign and Russian classics in speeches, but are no longer using this rhetorical device as much, Polyansky said.

”Times dictate things. Our partners may now be less well-read individuals, so occasionally we want to speak in plainer terms to make sure our signal comes through,” he explained.

https://www.rt.com/russia/592298-polyansky-western-diplomacy-primitive/

>>20406185

Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield

Linda Thomas-Greenfield

Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield was nominated by President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. to be the Representative of the United States of America to the United Nations as well as the Representative of the United States of America in the Security Council of the United Nations on January 20, 2021. She was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on February 23, 2021, and sworn in on February 24, 2021 by the Vice President of the United States of America.

Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, a career diplomat, returned to public service after retiring from a 35-year career with the U.S. Foreign Service in 2017. From 2013 to 2017 she served as the Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, where she led the bureau focused on the development and management of U.S. policy toward sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to this appointment, she served as Director General of the Foreign Service and Director of Human Resources (2012-2013), leading a team in charge of the State Department’s 70,000-strong workforce.

Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield’s distinguished Foreign Service career includes an ambassadorship to Liberia (2008-2012), and postings in Switzerland (at the United States Mission to the United Nations, Geneva), Pakistan, Kenya, The Gambia, Nigeria, and Jamaica. In Washington, she served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of African Affairs (2006-2008), and as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (2004-2006).

After retiring from the U.S. State Department in 2017, Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield led the Africa Practice at Albright Stonebridge Group, a strategic commercial diplomacy firm chaired by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. She was also the inaugural Distinguished Resident Fellow in African Studies at the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University from fall 2017 to spring 2019.

Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield was the 2017 recipient of University of Minnesota Hubert Humphrey Public Leadership Award, the 2015 recipient of the Bishop John T. Walker Distinguished Humanitarian Service Award and the 2000 recipient of the Warren Christopher Award for Outstanding Achievement in Global Affairs. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Louisiana State University and a master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin, where she also did work towards a doctorate. She received an honorary Doctor of Law degree from the University of Wisconsin in May 2018 and an honorary Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Liberia in May 2012

https://usun.usmission.gov/our-leaders/our-ambassador/

Funny Russian ambassador saidprimitivecoming from primate I guess

(This is seriously disgusting)

12 FEB, 06:04

Kiev deems dead fighters missing to avoid removing bodies from battlefield — Ukrainian POW

According to Andrey Lazarkevich, in the current situation Ukrainian servicemen prefer to surrender as prisoners of war

MOSCOW, February 12. /TASS/. The Ukrainian armed forces have taken up the practice of declaring fighters actually killed in action (KIA) to allegedly be missing in action (MIA)as a pretext to avoid removing their bodies from the battlefield and returning them to their families for burial, captured Ukrainian serviceman Andrey Lazarkevich said.

"Some of the guys told me about [fighters] <…who are classified as "two hundred" (military code for KIA - TASS), that they could remove [their bodies] from the battlefield, but that instead they (Ukrainian commanders - TASS) simply report that they are MIA.That's really messed up, especially if there is a possibility of picking up that person’s body and sending it home [to his family]. Somebody back home is worried about him. There is not much left of the brigades. [In] the 7th brigade, there are [maybe] 10 or 15 people left, and the same is true in the 8th brigade. They sent them all in one bunch here, to these positions," the Russian Defense Ministry quoted Lazarkevich as saying in a video interview.

According to him, in the current situation Ukrainian servicemen prefer to surrender as prisoners of war. "Most young people come to fight. I asked them and they said: 'Well, why should I go to fight in the war when I have a family, a job?' They didn't come here spontaneously of their own volition; they were brought here. Any way you slice it, they will win nothing from this war.It is better to surrender than to lie and rot, knowing that no one will ever come for you," the Ukrainian citizen emphasized.

https://tass.com/world/1745079

13 FEB, 01:04

FSB finds secret files of Ukrainian intel services, cache of weapons in Mariupol

A grenade launcher, a machine gun and a rifle have been confiscated from the cache, while the secret files have been sent for analysis

DONETSK, February 13. /TASS /. Secret files of Ukraine’s special services and a cache of weapons have been discovered in Mariupol, the Russian Federal Security Service’s department in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) told TASS.

"The department of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) in the DPR detected a mined cache of guns as well as secret files of the Ukrainian Security Service," an FSB official said.

A grenade launcher, a machine gun and a rifle have been confiscated from the cache,while the secret files have been sent for analysis.An investigation is underway.

https://tass.com/society/1745435

>>20406566

Put sauce and I’ll notable. Basic reminder “plan to replace all Americans. Foreigners on work visas don’t have to obey our laws”