Are you sitting comfortably? good.
As we all know, the NSA and GCHQ is watching our every move on the internet, as part of the new effort by the government to listen to the people so the politicians don't have to.
And we are all very grateful for this... aren't we?
*mixture of nodding and resentful mumbles*
It turns out that the UK government is also trying to change the conversation as well by convertly targeting young british Muslims particularly males, aged 15 to 39 who are considered most susceptable to the risk of extremism and terrorism. This is inorder to bring about “attitudinal and behavioural change” and is going at an “industrial pace and scale” by the british government outsourcing these tasks to the Research, Information and Communications Unit (Ricu) which then uses front organisations such as "Help for Syria" and "The Truth about ISIS". There activities include distributing leaflets, organising events at schools and universities including face-to-face conversation with thousands at university freshers fairs, producing dozens of websites, leaflets, videos, films, Facebook pages, Twitter feeds and online radio content, and to support community groups that are promoting moderation.
The best bit is, this is all "covert" so no-one knows they are part of a government program to achieve "attitudinal and behavioural change". Of course, this isn't propaganda because it's "strategic communications" as “the systematic and coordinated use of all means of communication to deliver UK national security objectives by influencing the attitudes and behaviours of individuals, groups and states”.
Do you think this is a highly innovative way to tackle extremism and respond to the threat of terrorism, or an infringement on civil rights with some dodgey precedents and maybe is a bit racist for targeting Muslims?
As we all know, the NSA and GCHQ is watching our every move on the internet, as part of the new effort by the government to listen to the people so the politicians don't have to.
And we are all very grateful for this... aren't we?
*mixture of nodding and resentful mumbles*
It turns out that the UK government is also trying to change the conversation as well by convertly targeting young british Muslims particularly males, aged 15 to 39 who are considered most susceptable to the risk of extremism and terrorism. This is inorder to bring about “attitudinal and behavioural change” and is going at an “industrial pace and scale” by the british government outsourcing these tasks to the Research, Information and Communications Unit (Ricu) which then uses front organisations such as "Help for Syria" and "The Truth about ISIS". There activities include distributing leaflets, organising events at schools and universities including face-to-face conversation with thousands at university freshers fairs, producing dozens of websites, leaflets, videos, films, Facebook pages, Twitter feeds and online radio content, and to support community groups that are promoting moderation.
The best bit is, this is all "covert" so no-one knows they are part of a government program to achieve "attitudinal and behavioural change". Of course, this isn't propaganda because it's "strategic communications" as “the systematic and coordinated use of all means of communication to deliver UK national security objectives by influencing the attitudes and behaviours of individuals, groups and states”.
Do you think this is a highly innovative way to tackle extremism and respond to the threat of terrorism, or an infringement on civil rights with some dodgey precedents and maybe is a bit racist for targeting Muslims?
