[pdabbadabba]

>The US absolutely does censor group organization efforts in the US and political speech as well.

But this is precisely the claim for which you have provided no substantial support (though you have provided ample support for the uncontroversial assertion that the U.S. engages in strategic communications operations), other than 1) a single website that was temporarily blacklisted by private spam filtering organizations and ISPs, likely for some combination of factors including the absence of an SPF record, and which was promptly un-blacklisted upon request and 2) forums being used to support an enemy during wartime. What am I missing?

> China blocking Telegraph is like the US blocking . . .videos from warfighters in the Middle East.

No. It is not. It similar only in from a technical perspective. From the perspective of the government's motivations for blocking them, and the moral acceptability of those motivations, the two are entirely different. The U.S. blocked forums being used to publicize and support enemy activities in a war zone (by a terrorist group, by any definition, to boot), while China blocked communications tools being used by human rights lawyers to expose inequities in China's legal system. Whatever you may think about the legitimacy of the U.S.'s "war" against ISIS, it's not too hard to draw a line between these two situations.

The problem is not that, e.g., China censors communications. I think most would agree that this is sometimes necessary (though perhaps only very rarely). The issue, which you're glossing over, is when and why.

[themeekforgotpw]

Yes. Sure. The US arrested hundreds of journalists from covering Occupy, leading to a sharp drop in it's Freedom of Press score (I don't trust that metric, but other people seem to like it). They also put a media blackout zone around Ferguson. Facebook has blocked individuals, myself included, from posting Wikileaks documents, Snowden documents and Manning Documents, as well as organizing May Day protests. The US Government infiltrated and disrupted operations at the Associated Press following the Benghazi scandal. The US knowly falsely linked investigative reporters with ongoing criminal activity to hold them from investigations and to get access to sources (Rosen), held whistleblower Binney and his family at gunpoint, blackmailed Joe Nacchio, persecuted and proscecuted journalists for unfavorable coverage (Jassam, Poitras, Greenwald, Risen, Brown), partnered with US domestic media to skew coverage (Dilanian, Miller, Gordon), manipulated US media to support the Iraq war (Fallujah, Zarqawi), coordinated the removal of journalists reporting unfavorable coverage overseas (Mohyeldin), has published false international cables to manipulate the domestic press on purpose (http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2006/03/heroes-error?pag...), seeded fake journalists to ask softball questions at press releases (Gannon), have paid for positive coverage by US domestic media outlets (Williams, Gallagher, McManus), injected pro-war news stories into local news channels through the WCIA (leading the resign of Tomlinson), sent fake letters from the US Army to media outlets to get positive coverage, completely fabricated hero stories and trotted them about the media (Lynch), repealed restrictions on propaganda operations in the Smith-Mundt Act so that propaganda aimed ultimately at other audiences can now be legally consumed and need not be prevented from consumption by Americans, has used coerced testimony to justify policy goals (reporting them to media as fact - Bush torture programs in advance of Iraq), research on at least both vote manipulation and emotion manipulation to be weaponized against other countries were tested on Americans - one during the 2010 congressional elections), made it impossible in practical terms for third parties to get access to the presidential debates, astroturfed during elections, released press information at inconvenient times to discourage press coverage (e.g. NSA oversight report on Christmas Eve). Hell, politicians and policy makers often either have relatives in influential positions in the media or sit on a board of directors. When Hillary Clinton said that the Benghazi attacks were about a youtube video, did you believe her? Hell, Bush Jr. instanciated HSPD-5 that clarified the use of information support for civil affairs (domestic propaganda) during the use of states of emergency. Then again his administration also perpetrated international fraud to justify the invasion of Iraq by knowingly falsifying evidence: knowingly and falsely linking anthrax from US bioweapons labs, weapons of mass destruction and 9/11 to Saddam; coordinated with intelligence agencies under the cover the UN commission.

If you ask anyone from outside America whether its citizens exist in a media bubble they will tell you that it's true. It's like talking to a Russian and telling them that they have state sponsored propaganda. They are going to be skeptical - and it will seem like for good reasons.

> No. It is not. It similar only in from a technical perspective. From the perspective of the government's motivations for blocking them, and the moral acceptability of those motivations, the two are entirely different.

The motivations are pretty similar in this case, and the acceptability is the same.

I cited examples far beyond the ISIS/ISIL case. We're talking about those now. The 'tools by human rights lawyers' are state sponsored tools from Civil Society Organizations funded by the West. Like ZunZuneo and when the US criticized Cuba for blocking Cuban cell phone access.

[Nadya]

>If you ask anyone from outside America whether its citizens exist in a media bubble they will tell you that it's true. It's like talking to a Russian and telling them that they have state sponsored propaganda. They are going to be skeptical - and it will seem like for good reasons.

What's amazing is that Americans can look at Russia and North Korea and "see how the people are being misled by propaganda" but refuse to believe that propaganda is used in the U.S.A