Back in 2015, an interesting two-part article was published on medium.com. It purported to show how the Central Intelligence Agency was the early impetus behind Google, and how the latter then spearheaded the National Security Agency's drive to collect any and all data available on everything and everybody. The two parts are:
I hasten to add that the articles are clearly written from a particular political perspective, one with which, in the main, I don't agree. Nevertheless, they raise questions and make allegations that are disturbing, if true.
The articles aren't new, but in the light of the current media war against President Trump, I think they deserve renewed attention.
From the first article:
Google styles itself as a friendly, funky, user-friendly tech firm that rose to prominence through a combination of skill, luck, and genuine innovation. This is true. But it is a mere fragment of the story. In reality, Google is a smokescreen behind which lurks the US military-industrial complex.
The inside story of Google’s rise, revealed here for the first time, opens a can of worms that goes far beyond Google, unexpectedly shining a light on the existence of a parasitical network driving the evolution of the US national security apparatus, and profiting obscenely from its operation.
And from the second article:
Mass surveillance is about control. It’s promulgators may well claim, and even believe, that it is about control for the greater good, a control that is needed to keep a cap on disorder, to be fully vigilant to the next threat. But in a context of rampant political corruption, widening economic inequalities, and escalating resource stress due to climate change and energy volatility, mass surveillance can become a tool of power to merely perpetuate itself, at the public’s expense.
A major function of mass surveillance that is often overlooked is that of knowing the adversary to such an extent that they can be manipulated into defeat. The problem is that the adversary is not just terrorists. It’s you and me. To this day, the role of information warfare as propaganda has been in full swing, though systematically ignored by much of the media.
. . .
It is this sort of closed-door networking that has rendered the American vote pointless. Far from protecting the public interest or helping to combat terrorism, the comprehensive monitoring of electronic communications has been systematically abused to empower vested interests in the energy, defense, and IT industries.
Obviously, the article is not specific to the results of the 2016 Presidential election. Nevertheless, if one reads it in the light of recent events . . . it makes one think. It's even more thought-provoking when one hears about news media partisanship, and social media's determination to censor freedom of speech, and manipulate discussion so that it trends in favor of 'politically correct' topics.
Your thoughts?
Peter
4 comments:
Fu*#er's made Faceplant too - Zucherburg my a$$.
They missed a few companies and names...
Actually it was NSA that worked with Google in the late 90's, and helped them make it. It is fairly well-known in the Valley that the NSA used to have offices in the basement of the Google building during the late 90's.
NSA may very well have provided support to Google. They have the same interest in being able to read, index, and search all web content. They likely provided support to other startups at the time.
I don't think there's a big conspiracy though. It wasn't clear that Google would become the most popular search engine as opposed to Yahoo or some other startup.
Scanning the article, it looks like a lot of iffy evidence and extrapolation. Reminds me of Glenn Beck showing how George Soros single handedly funds and controls every "progressive" organization in the country or liberals showing how the Koch brothers run all the conservative organizations.
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