As reported in this morning’s Daily News Roundup, Glenn Greenwald’s latest piece for The Intercept takes a look at how western intelligence agencies “are attempting to control, infiltrate, manipulate, and warp online discourse, and in doing so, are compromising the integrity of the internet itself.” The report covers two tactics of UK spy agency GCHQ’s secret unit: “(1) to inject all sorts of false material onto the internet in order to destroy the reputation of its targets; and (2) to use social sciences and other techniques to manipulate online discourse and activism to generate outcomes it considers desirable.”
The following is a sample of the wide spectrum of reactions to the Greenwald piece from journalists and other commentators on Twitter.
GCHQ's guide to discrediting people & companies is probably the nastiest thing yet to emerge from Snowden's leaks: https://t.co/sZAeuZdGFo
— Andy Greenberg (@agreenberg at the other places) (@a_greenberg) February 25, 2014
https://twitter.com/NCWeaver/status/438129516901175296
https://twitter.com/Green_Footballs/status/438122709357035520
.@ggreenwald's latest is, hands down, one of the most important revelations to emerge from the Snowden leaks: https://t.co/QaxWxakpHk
— Sebastian Jones (@sebastianojones) February 25, 2014
https://twitter.com/tomwatson/status/438108172671520768
https://twitter.com/bungdan/status/438103891323154432
This @ggreenwald story is amazing in that it shows the govt teaching how to do textbook online stalking/harassment. https://t.co/qIw9vnakwO
— Garance Franke-Ruta (@thegarance) February 25, 2014
What a surprise to see Greenwald's latest piece on GCHQ describes espionage techniques without revealing any abuses: https://t.co/6KwMrr37Dg
— Jeremy Duns (@JeremyDuns) February 25, 2014
So when Edward Snowden said the UK's spy agency was worse than the NSA, this is probably what he was talking about. https://t.co/F4nHYkIZ22
— Trevor Timm (@trevortimm) February 24, 2014