>>8165435

>>8165403 (LB)

>https://www.wired.com/story/qanon-deploys-information-warfare-influence-2020-election/

The chan boards from which Qanon emerged have a long history of “raiding” behavior, in which users launch coordinated attacks on other online communities and platforms. In that context, it's not surprising that Qanon is active on social media ahead of the 2020 elections. What’s surprising is the level of organization that the Endchan and 8kun Qanon sub-communities are demonstrating.

Last fall, Qanon conspiracists targeted the Louisiana and Kentucky gubernatorial elections by flooding key hashtags such as #vote and #VoteonNov5 with tweets and memes supporting the Republican candidates and smearing their opponents. Users following those hashtags could have been exposed to a torrent of pro-Republican, anti-Democrat content. Qanon adherents also sought to hijack pro-Democrat hashtags such as #VoteBlue and #JohnBelEdwards (the Democratic candidate in Louisiana) and troll Democrat accounts by replying to their tweets with comments and memes attacking the candidate.

On November 16, the day of Louisiana’s runoff election, an Endchan user called on fellow posters to “raid” a Twitter thread by the Democratic Governors' Association in support of John Bel Edwards. Another user, calling out to “anons,” (how users on the chan boards often refer to one another) posted memes criticizing Bel Edwards, claiming he "gives illegals your medical" and "allowed highest murder rate." (FBI statistics show Louisiana’s murder rate rose in 2017 and fell in 2018 while Bel Edwards was governor). The meme was then posted on the Democratic Governors' Association's thread.

Memes are an important Qanon tactic, in part because, as images, they often evade efforts to moderate content. "Memes go around his censorship algorithms," a poster on the Qanon board on Endchan wrote in October. Qanon supporters stockpile hundreds of memes that followers can tap.

The members of the so-called Squad, four progressive Democratic congressmembers who are people of color, are particular targets. They are the subject of hundreds of memes stored on image-sharing accounts linked to the Qanon research boards. These memes often contain implicitly or overtly racist and sexist attacks, including monikers like “jihad squad” and “suicide squad.”

There are also racial elements to Qanon’s efforts to shift the ground on an important issue for 2020: voter identification.

Voter identification measures are controversial, because of concerns that they can unfairly discriminate against minority voters. The #voterid hashtag has been consistently targeted by Qanon over a period of months, including stockpiling hundreds of memes relating to voter ID and voter fraud in shared accounts on image file-sharing sites.

Qanon followers employ multiple strategies to support voter ID laws, from accusing opponents of voter ID laws of racism, to leaning into Trump's own oft-repeated conspiracy theory that voter fraud favored the Democrats in 2016, to the confusing suggestion that a lack of voter ID laws helped Russian interference in the 2016 election. This willingness to shift narratives, testing out different means to the same end, echoes the way in which Russia’s Internet Research Agency actively played on both sides of social media debates in 2016 in an effort to sow division.

In July 2019, Qanon's efforts on the #voterid hashtag got the biggest boost imaginable: Trump tagged the Qanon account @Voteridplease in a tweet calling for voter identification measures. His tweet was shared more than 140,000 times.

Julian Feeld, co-host of the Qanon Anonymous podcast, says Qanon is “a colorful expression of a broader and more worrying global trend towards ‘information warfare’ in the service of those seeking to consolidate capital and power.” He says the group is “a harbinger of what’s next for the American political discourse."

By promoting conspiracies and fomenting division, Zuckerman, of the MIT Media Lab, says Qanon and similar movements threaten Americans’ sense of shared truth. “The danger of Qanon is not that they try to blow up a building,” he says. “It's that they and others are blowing up our shared reality."

>>8165414

tyb

>>8165527

‘Infected’: Data shows how China criminalized Muslim faith

Beijing (AP) — For decades, the Uighur imam was a bedrock of his farming community in China’s far west. On Fridays, he preached Islam as a religion of peace. On Sundays, he treated the sick with free herbal medicine. In the winter, he bought coal for the poor.

But as a Chinese government mass detention campaign engulfed Memtimin Emer’s native Xinjiang region three years ago, the elderly imam was swept up and locked away, along with all three of his sons living in China.

Now, a newly revealed database exposes in extraordinary detail the main reasons for the detentions of Emer, his three sons, and hundreds of others in Karakax County: their religion and their family ties.

The database obtained by The Associated Press profiles the internment of 311 individuals with relatives abroad and lists information on more than 2,000 of their relatives, neighbors and friends. Each entry includes the detainee’s name, address, national identity number, detention date and location, along with a detailed dossier on their family, religious and neighborhood background, the reason for detention, and a decision on whether or not to release them. Issued within the past year, the documents do not indicate which government department compiled them or for whom.

Taken as a whole, the information offers the fullest and most personal view yet into how Chinese officials decided who to put into and let out of detention camps, as part of a massive crackdown that has locked away more than a million ethnic minorities, most of them Muslims.

The database emphasizes that the Chinese government focused on religion as a reason for detention — not just political extremism, as authorities claim, but ordinary activities such as praying, attending a mosque, or even growing a long beard. It also shows the role of family: People with detained relatives are far more likely to end up in a camp themselves, uprooting and criminalizing entire families like Emer’s in the process.

https://apnews.com/890b79866c9eb1451ddf67b121272ee2

Based Woods

https://twitter.com/RealJamesWoods/status/1229477465489166338

Mexican president blames murder of young girl on past governments

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Monday appeared to blame the murder of a seven-year-old girl on the neoliberal economic model, angering critics who say the government has failed to stem a wave of gender violence.

In response, the president said he was sure authorities would catch the perpetrators of the crime, but said punishment alone was not the solution.

The bigger challenge, he said, was to purify Mexican society, which he said had “fallen into decline, a progressive degradation that has to do with the neoliberal model.”

“Unemployment, economic growth, the number of homicides are measured, but the degree of social decomposition produced by neoliberal policies is not measured. There is a deep crisis of loss of values.”

Family members and parents gathered in protest on Monday outside Aldrighett’s home and her school, where she was seen leaving accompanied by an adult woman last week. #JuticiaParaFatima, or Justice for Fatima, was tweeted 127,000 times and her name was a top global trend.

The girl’s grandfather Guillermo Anton Godinez, standing outside the family’s modest home, tears streaming down his face, said that “perhaps” Lopez Obrador is right that the economic model is partly to blame. “But now he is in charge, he is president … He should show us he is different from past administrations.”

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mexico-violence-gender/mexican-president-blames-murder-of-young-girl-on-past-governments-idUSKBN20B1V0?il=0

>>8165852

Virginia lawmakers reject assault weapon ban

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s push to ban the sale of assault weapons failed on Monday after some of his fellow Democrats balked at the proposal.

Senators voted to shelve the bill for the year and ask the state crime commission to study the issue, an outcome that drew cheers from a committee room packed with gun advocates.

Four moderate Democrats joined Republicans in Monday’s committee vote, rejecting legislation that would have prohibited the sale of certain semiautomatic firearms, including popular AR-15 style rifles, and banned the possession of magazines that hold more than 12 rounds.

The bill was a top priority for Northam, who has campaigned heavily for a broad package of gun-control measures. The governor’s spokeswoman, Alena Yarmosky, said he’s disappointed with the result but determined to continue to press for the measure.

“We will be back next year,” she said.

David Majure, a gun-rights supporter who attended the committee hearing, said he’s glad about Monday’s results but not convinced the bill is dead for the year.

“I’m happy about it, but I don’t trust them,” he said.

Virginia is the current epicenter of the country’s heated debate over guns, as a new Democratic majority seeks to enact strict new limits.

Democrats ran heavily on gun control during last year’s legislative elections when they flipped control of the General Assembly for the first time in more than two decades.

But gun owners, especially in rural communities, have pushed back hard. Last month, tens of thousands of guns-rights activists from around the country flooded the Capitol and surrounding area in protest, some donning tactical gear and carrying military-style rifles. And more than 100 counties, cities and towns have declared themselves Second Amendment sanctuaries, vowing to oppose any new “unconstitutional restrictions” on guns.

The proposed assault weapon ban has received the most opposition. Gun owners have accused the governor and others of wanting to confiscate commonly owned guns and accessories from law-abiding gun owners. Northam and his allies have said repeatedly they do not want to confiscate guns, but argued that banning new sales of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines would help prevent mass murders.

“This bill will save lives,” said Democratic Del. Mark Levine, who sponsored the legislation.

Earlier proposals to ban possession of AR-15-style rifles or to require owners to register them with state police have been scrapped. The governor had hoped a watered-down version would win over enough Democratic moderates for passage.

But moderate Democrats in the state Senate have said for weeks they are uncomfortable passing legislation that would affect so many current gun owners.

An estimated 8 million AR-style guns have been sold since they were introduced to the public in the 1960s. The weapons are known as easy to use, easy to clean and easy to modify with a variety of scopes, stocks and rails.

Lawmakers voted to table the bill Monday with little debate, while noting that there was confusion over what types of guns would constitute an assault weapon.

“There are obviously a lot of questions about definitions in this bill. Definitions do matter,” said Democratic Sen. Creigh Deeds.

The Senate has now rejected three of the governor’s eight gun-control measures. Moderate Democrats have already voted with Republicans to kill a bill that would make it a felony to “recklessly leave a loaded, unsecured firearm” in a way that endangers a minor, and a bill that would require gun owners to report the loss or theft of a gun to police.

Lawmakers in both the House and Senate have already advanced several other gun-control measures and should finalize passage in the coming days. Those bills include limiting handgun purchases to once a month; universal background checks on gun purchases; allowing localities to ban guns in public buildings, parks and other areas; and a red flag bill that would allow authorities to temporarily take guns away from anyone deemed to be dangerous to themselves or others.

https://apnews.com/ddace00eed08c20b93f8f2ae36e8481d

Andy McCarthy calls out Washington's 'silliest controversy'

Former assistant U.S. attorney Andy McCarthy dismisses uproar over Roger Stone sentencing guidelines

>>8165824

>>8165869

>>8165952

https://archive.ph/QKpI8

Royal Family website blunder sending visitors to Chinese porn instead of charity

The Royal Family's official website is sending visitors to a Chinese pornography page instead of a charity, thanks to a major blunder.

The link also manages to override child-lock filters, meaning anyone can access the X-rated content, which includes click-throughs to "rape incest porn".

Royal.uk contains news and information about The Firm and features a picture of the Queen and her husband Prince Phillip on its homepage.

It also highlights charities the royals have links with, including Dolen Cymru.

But when users try to access that organisation's site they are being confronted with hardcore porn instead.

The Sun has informed the palace and charity - which helps communities in Wales and Lesotho and of which Prince Harry is a patron - about the error.

The incorrect link appears to be an old domain which has since changed hands.

The African country is close to the Duke of Sussex's heart after he visited during his gap year in 2004, and he has hailed the charity's work as "quite invaluable".

The Wales-Lesotho charity began in 1985 and has developed educational links, wider young people's links, health, churches, women's organisations, and more, according to the royal site.

In 2018, royal.uk finally updated its biography for Meghan Markle months after she had married Harry that May to make specific mention to her previous acting career.

>>8166125