The British spy agency GCHQ has developed tools to seed the internet with false information.
According to security writer Glenn Greenwald the British spooks have the ability to manipulate the results of online polls, artificially inflate pageview counts on web sites, “amplify” sanctioned messages on YouTube, and censor video content judged to be “extremist.”
GCHQ’s capabilities were found amongst documents provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. The British even use a trick to connect two unsuspecting phone users together in a call.
The software tools were built by backroom boffins working for GCHQ’s Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group (JTRIG). It appears to be a clear indication that the British are using propaganda and internet deception. We have seen already the use of “fake victim blog posts,” “false flag operations,” “honey traps” and psychological manipulation to target online activists, monitor visitors to WikiLeaks, and spy on YouTube and Facebook users.
However the GCHQ document called “JTRIG Tools and Techniques” https://firstlook.org/theintercept/document/2014/07/14/jtrig-tools-techniques/ shows just what sort of skulduggery the British are up to online.
According to Greenwald, the document us designed to notify other GCHQ units of JTRIG’s “weaponised capability” when it comes to the dark internet arts, and “serves as a sort of hacker’s buffet for wreaking online havoc”.
