"Sunstein co-wrote a truly pernicious paper proposing that the U.S. government employ teams of covert agents and pseudo-’independent’ advocates to ‘cognitively infiltrate’ online groups and websites — as well as other activist groups — which advocate views that Sunstein deems ‘false conspiracy theories’ about the government. This would be designed to increase citizens’ faith in government officials and undermine the credibility of conspiracists . . . Sunstein advocates that the government’s stealth infiltration should be accomplished by sending covert agents into ‘chat rooms, online social networks, or even real-space groups.’ He also proposes that the government make secret payments to so-called ‘independent’ credible voices to bolster the government’s messaging (on the ground that those who don’t believe government sources will be more inclined to listen to those who appear independent while secretly acting on behalf of the government)."
Posted on: Sun, 25 Aug 2013 23:10:29 +0000
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