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

News

23644 readers
3700 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.

(page 2) 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Lightrider@sh.itjust.works 11 points 6 months ago

Government funded covidiots... Jesus fucking Christ

[–] MikeOToxin@lemmy.world 10 points 6 months ago
[–] mhague@lemmy.world 7 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (3 children)

The Shinzo Abe situations are always weird to me. One or more people decided to do this, in the sense that the buck stops somewhere.

It's easy to find addresses, workplaces, family members, an itinerary.

It's like in order to make it to these positions you need to have a defective brain that allows you to hurt lots of other people while ignoring how easy it is for one of them to reach out and touch you. I'd need constant anxiety meds.

[–] CluelessLemmyng@lemmy.sdf.org 6 points 6 months ago

Article doesn't come up for me. However, I wouldn't be surprised if this was the brainchild of those farts in the Trump administration who thought the virus would kill off Democrat voters and were happy to see response slowed.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 7 points 6 months ago (4 children)

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~~ Americans, 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.~~

FTFT. Also horse de-wormer, hydroxychloriquine, and bleach. The Pentagon was just doing what other wrong-thinking military psyops orgs were doing. The MAGAts were, of course, the targets for those.

Unsurprisingly led by the demented orange rapist who embraced all the garbage and spread it widely, and bigly.

[–] girlfreddy@lemmy.ca 9 points 6 months ago (1 children)

You're mistaken. Literally the first paragraph of the article says ...

the U.S. military launched a secret campaign to counter what it perceived as China’s growing influence in the Philippines

[–] Doom@ttrpg.network 6 points 6 months ago (1 children)

He's making the point that everyone is doing this to each other.

[–] girlfreddy@lemmy.ca 7 points 6 months ago (1 children)

They said someone else ...

The MAGAts were, of course, the targets for those.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
[–] reagansrottencorpse@lemmy.ml 6 points 6 months ago

Nothing sinister my govt does can really surprise me anymore.

[–] InternetUser2012@midwest.social 6 points 6 months ago

No doubt, we had our former 34 time convicted felon president* do that to us.

[–] ZombiFrancis@sh.itjust.works 6 points 6 months ago

Undermine China, pave the way for BongBong, you know. Foreign policy stuff.

[–] interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml 5 points 6 months ago

Wow that doesn't look good.

Maybe it's a psyops to make conspirationists think taking your vax IS in fact the rebelious position ? Take that CIA !

[–] Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 3 points 6 months ago

Even a lame excuse is still just an excuse

load more comments
view more: ‹ prev next ›