this post was submitted on 14 Jun 2024
660 points (97.6% liked)

News

23663 readers
4385 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. military launched a secret campaign to counter what it perceived as China’s growing influence in the Philippines, a nation hit especially hard by the deadly virus.

The clandestine operation has not been previously reported. It aimed to sow doubt about the safety and efficacy of vaccines and other life-saving aid that was being supplied by China, a Reuters investigation found. Through phony internet accounts meant to impersonate Filipinos, the military’s propaganda efforts morphed into an anti-vax campaign. Social media posts decried the quality of face masks, test kits and the first vaccine that would become available in the Philippines – China’s Sinovac inoculation.

Reuters identified at least 300 accounts on X, formerly Twitter, that matched descriptions shared by former U.S. military officials familiar with the Philippines operation. Almost all were created in the summer of 2020 and centered on the slogan #Chinaangvirus – Tagalog for China is the virus.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] -3 points 6 months ago (3 children)

Well sorry to break it to you, there's no international law making disinformation campaigns illegal. It was a bad order to be sure, but not an illegal order.

Soldiers are responsible when following an illegal order. When it's a bad order, then it's the person giving the order that's responsible.

It's just how military works. They have to follow the law, but not your personal morality. I mean what's the morality around killing a person because they're wearing a different uniform? Do you think that's fine while a disinformation campaigns are crossing the line?

[–] TokenBoomer 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

You just legitimized Russian, Iranian and Chinese disinformation campaigns against America. Good job, I guess.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 months ago (1 children)

It is what it is. War is a much more horrible thing than a disinformation campaign. So let's just make war illegal, problem solved!

Unfortunately it doesn't work that way.

Whether Russian, Iranian and Chinese disinformation campaigns against America are legitimate or not isn't all that relevant. They're happening and will continue to happen regardless of how legitimate anyone considers them to be.

Eventually there may be treaties countries will agree to stop doing disinformation campaigns. But Russia, China, and Iran aren't going to sign on to these agreements if they're the only ones with the capability to conduct disinformation campaigns. Why would they give up their capabilities to disrupt their adversaries if their adversaries didn't have the capability to disrupt their countries with disinformation? Gotta have Mutually Assured Disinformation before you can get everyone to agree to stop these activities.

Just how global politics works.

[–] TokenBoomer 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 months ago

We're already at the bottom, son.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Cool technicality. It's a crime by any sane definition of harm.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

The law isn't based on your feelings.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

It is in part based on my feels.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 months ago

Thinking the world conforms to your feelings is basically the definition of delusion.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Whats funny is the poster here was very likely part of said disinformation campaign. This is an attempt to distract from the moral wrong excuted here with the cover of legality. No laws existed that made the Holocaust illegal yet the post laws and trails are valid and necessary. The acts here should be seen as a form of biological warfare, a crime against humanity with all the reprehensible disgust and reasonable punishment due to those who did not stand up and walk away.

Following orders is not just how it works and the criminality of following illegal orders has been established many times.

This is a crime, regardless of the laws today, regardless of my feelings, it is never acceptable to attempt to infect others with a deadly biological agent directly or indirectly.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 6 months ago

Is it a crime to kill a person simply because they're wearing a different uniform from you?

That's what the military does, right? They kill people for wearing a different uniform. What's the morality around that? Is it more or less moral to lie to someone than it is to kill them?

We can debate the morality of the existence of militaries all we want. But people in power in places like Russia aren't having that debate. They will use their capabilities to expand their power in absence of a force to oppose them. We need military capabilities and that we means we need to have people willing to kill people for wearing a different uniform. God forbid they might lie to people sometimes, right? Killing people we're fine with, but disinformation crosses the line!