Posted on 12/09/2016 4:06:02 AM PST by EBH
Portman/Murphy Bill Promotes Coordinated Strategy to Defend America, Allies Against Propaganda and Disinformation from Russia, China & Others
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Rob Portman (R-OH) and Chris Murphy (D-CT) today announced that their Countering Disinformation and Propaganda Act – legislation designed to help American allies counter foreign government propaganda from Russia, China, and other nations – has passed the Senate as part of the FY 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) Conference Report. The bipartisan bill, which was introduced by Senators Portman and Murphy in March, will improve the ability of the United States to counter foreign propaganda and disinformation by establishing an interagency center housed at the State Department to coordinate and synchronize counter-propaganda efforts throughout the U.S. government. To support these efforts, the bill also creates a grant program for NGOs, think tanks, civil society and other experts outside government who are engaged in counter-propaganda related work. This will better leverage existing expertise and empower local communities to defend themselves from foreign manipulation.
“The passage of this bill in the Senate today takes us one critical step closer to effectively confronting the extensive, and destabilizing, foreign propaganda and disinformation operations being waged against us. While the propaganda and disinformation threat has grown, the U.S. government has been asleep at the wheel. Today we are finally signaling that enough is enough; the United States will no longer sit on the sidelines. We are going to confront this threat head-on,” said Senator Portman. “With the help of this bipartisan bill, the disinformation and propaganda used against our allies and our interests will fail.”
“Congress has taken a big step in fighting back against fake news and propaganda from countries like Russia. When the president signs this bill into law, the United States will finally have a dedicated set of tools and resources to confront our adversaries’ widespread efforts to spread false narratives that undermine democratic institutions and compromise America’s foreign policy goals,” said Murphy. “I’m proud of what Senator Portman and I accomplished here because it’s long past time for the U.S. to get off the sidelines and confront these growing threats.”
NOTE: The bipartisan Countering Disinformation and Propaganda Act is organized around two main priorities to help achieve the goal of combatting the constantly evolving threat of foreign disinformation. They are as follows:
The first priority is developing a whole-of-government strategy for countering foreign propaganda and disinformation. The bill would increase the authority, resources, and mandate of the Global Engagement Center to include state actors like Russia and China in addition to violent extremists. The Center will be led by the State Department, but with the active senior level participation of the Department of Defense, USAID, the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the Intelligence Community, and other relevant agencies. The Center will develop, integrate, and synchronize whole-of-government initiatives to expose and counter foreign disinformation operations and proactively advance fact-based narratives that support U.S. allies and interests.
Second, the legislation seeks to leverage expertise from outside government to create more adaptive and responsive U.S. strategy options. The legislation establishes a fund to help train local journalists and provide grants and contracts to NGOs, civil society organizations, think tanks, private sector companies, media organizations, and other experts outside the U.S. government with experience in identifying and analyzing the latest trends in foreign government disinformation techniques. This fund will complement and support the Center’s role by integrating capabilities and expertise available outside the U.S. government into the strategy-making process. It will also empower a decentralized network of private sector experts and integrate their expertise into the strategy-making process.
bflr
That's an old ploy....create a problem and then sell the sucker the solution....
"Oceania was at war with Eastasia. Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia."
Who are the damn republicans that supported this? McConnell needs his nuts handed to him.
; At no point in history has any government ever wanted its people to be defenseless for any good reason ~ nully's son
Nut-job Conspiracy Theory Ping!
To get onto The Nut-job Conspiracy Theory Ping List you must threaten to report me to the Mods if I don't add you to the list...
Something about this makes me very concerned.
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In the article, the bill says it “will improve the ability of the United States to counter foreign propaganda and disinformation by establishing an interagency center housed at the State Department to coordinate and synchronize counter-propaganda efforts throughout the U.S. government. To support these efforts, the bill also creates a grant program for NGOs, think tanks, civil society and other experts outside government who are engaged in counter-propaganda related work. This will better leverage existing expertise and empower local communities to defend themselves from foreign manipulation.”
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Creating this new bureaucracy and new grants to NGO’s isn’t the answer to fake news. The fake news is coming from our own gov’t most likely. Note the following:
The smith mundt act was repealed in 2012
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/smithmundt/index?tab=articles
Smith Mundt Act Revoked
https://www.congress.gov/bill/112th-congress/house-bill/5736
Shown Here:
Introduced in House (05/10/2012)
Smith-Mundt Modernization Act of 2012 - Amends the United States Information and Educational Exchange Act of 1948 to authorize the Secretary of State and the Broadcasting Board of Governors to provide for the preparation and dissemination of information intended for foreign audiences abroad about the United States, including about its people, its history, and the federal government’s policies, through press, publications, radio, motion pictures, the Internet, and other information media, including social media, and through information centers and instructors. (Under current law such authority is restricted to information disseminated abroad, with a limited domestic exception.)
more here
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith%E2%80%93Mundt_Act
Almost all of them! It passed 92-7
See #60
Very interesting. Uniparty unicorns, skittles for everyone. Let us program you.
This is clearly a Marxist power grab. USAID is run by a full blown Globalist Marxist Rajiv Shah.
They’re going to fight to stop 2016 election truths happen again. Globalist RINO Marxists and Democrat Party Marxists across the board are on board.
B Sanders voted Nay as well, dunno why he’s not listed above. Whatever...
“We get more propaganda from CNN and the mainstream media than from Russia and China combined”
The CNN propaganda is, as often as not, written by Russia or PDRChina.
What this law is meant to do in allow the imprisonment of anyone who tries to fight back against the destructionist and enemy loving propagandists.
This is how it starts. I seriously thought this was satire at first.
Matt Drudge was on Alex Jones earlier this year to give his listeners a message. The message was that he had gone to dinner with a Supreme Court Justice and the justice told him ALL this was coming.
The Nazi George Soros and his useful idiots at the US state department have their hands all over this garbage legislation.
Thank you! I hadn’t heard about this and it is relevant to the Senate bill passed and being discussed in this thread. A couple of highlighted parts from the repealed bill: https://www.congress.gov/bill/112th-congress/house-bill/5736
(There is one summary for H.R.5736. Bill summaries are authored by CRS.)
Introduced in House (05/10/2012)
Smith-Mundt Modernization Act of 2012 - Amends the United States Information and Educational Exchange Act of 1948
Amends the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 1986 and 1987 to prohibit funds for the Department of State or the Board from being used to influence public opinion or propagandizing in the United States. (Under current law such provision applies to the United States Information Agency [USIA].)
Applies such prohibition only to programs carried out pursuant to the United States Information and Educational Exchange Act of 1948, the United States International Broadcasting Act of 1994, the Radio Broadcasting to Cuba Act, and the Television Broadcasting to Cuba Act.
States that such provision shall:
(1) not prohibit the Department or the Board from providing information about its operations, policies, programs, or program material, or making such information available to members of the media, public, or Congress;
(2) not be construed to prohibit the Department from engaging in any medium of information on a presumption that a U.S. domestic audience may be exposed to program material; and
(3) apply only to the Department and the Board and to no other federal department or agency.
We should all be concerned about this.
From the article: “The bill would increase the authority, resources, and mandate of the Global Engagement Center to include state actors like Russia and China in addition to violent extremists.
Violent extremists are anyone (including American citizens) who is politically incorrect; putting out news the government would rather hide or bringing up observations of society the Left does not want discussed.
The State department is an agency with deeply seated Marxist globalist ideology and ambitions and they have put this new speech control agency in the State department.
Freaking evil buggers!!!
The uni-whore party is at it again. Bannon better slap Preibus and tell him to rein in the dogs.
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