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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div id=divtagdefaultwrapper><div><div id=divRplyFwdMsg><div><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#333333'>You know... I've heard little from VFP about Chelsea Manning's campaign for U.S. Senate. I've heard plenty about </span></b><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><div><div><div id="x_AOLMsgPart_2_1f4b2980-4035-4420-a6ae-5a1baafc9a3f"><div><div id="x_aolmail_divtagdefaultwrapper"><div><div><div id="x_aolmail_x_divtagdefaultwrapper"><div><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'>Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez.</span></b><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black'>It's just like when Cindy She</span><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'>e</span><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black'>han an</span><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'>n</span><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black'>ounced her run against Nancy Pelo</span><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'>si</span><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black'>. One minute she was the darling of VFP and the next... <b><i>persona non gratis</i></b>. To this day, Cindy has been a tireless activist but VFP has ignored her. </span><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><h2 style='mso-margin-top-alt:5.05pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-line-height-alt:14.4pt'><span style='font-size:31.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#333333;font-weight:normal'><o:p> </o:p></span></h2><h2 style='mso-margin-top-alt:5.05pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-line-height-alt:14.4pt'><span style='font-size:31.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#333333;font-weight:normal'><a href="http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/08/02/cens-a02.html" target="_blank" id=LPlnk391939>http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/08/02/cens-a02.html</a> <o:p></o:p></span></h2><div style='margin-bottom:15.0pt;overflow:auto' id="LPBorder_GT_15332086736730.4955603151927892"><table class=MsoNormalTable border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 width="90%" style='width:90.0%;background:white;border-top:dotted #C8C8C8 1.0pt;border-left:none;border-bottom:dotted #C8C8C8 1.0pt;border-right:none'><tr><td width=250 valign=top style='width:187.5pt;border:none;padding:15.0pt 15.0pt 15.0pt .75pt'><div style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt;display:table' id="LPImageContainer_15332086736680.7155972255640772"><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:15.0pt;background:white'><a href="http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/08/02/cens-a02.html" target="_blank"><span style='border:solid windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in;text-decoration:none'><img border=0 width=250 height=117 id="LPThumbnailImageID_15332086736690.10904535455030606" src="cid:image001.jpg@01D42A4B.9A75EB40" alt="Image removed by sender."></span></a><o:p></o:p></p></div></td><td valign=top style='border:none;padding:0in 0in 0in 0in;display:table-cell' id="TextCell_15332086736700.7279083412197942"><div id="LPTitle_15332086736700.8974009135993528"><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:15.0pt;mso-line-height-alt:15.75pt'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI Light","sans-serif";color:#0078D7'><a href="http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/08/02/cens-a02.html" target="_blank"><span style='text-decoration:none'>Facebook censors anti-fascist rally in Washington</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div style='margin-top:7.5pt;margin-bottom:12.0pt' id="LPMetadata_15332086736720.6226351907208842"><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:15.0pt;line-height:10.5pt'><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Segoe UI","sans-serif";color:#666666'>www.wsws.org<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div id="LPDescription_15332086736720.8622215633686365"><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:15.0pt;line-height:15.0pt'><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Segoe UI","sans-serif";color:#666666'>The campaign to censor the internet, initially presented as a response to alleged Russian “meddling,” is increasingly targeting left-wing political viewpoints.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></td></tr></table></div><h2 style='mso-margin-top-alt:5.05pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-line-height-alt:14.4pt'><span style='font-size:31.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#333333;font-weight:normal'><o:p> </o:p></span></h2><div style='margin-bottom:15.0pt;overflow:auto' id="x_aolmail_LPBorder_GT_15332078621970.862277434055114"><table class=MsoNormalTable border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 width="90%" style='width:90.0%;background:white;border-top:dotted #C8C8C8 1.0pt;border-left:none;border-bottom:dotted #C8C8C8 1.0pt;border-right:none'><tr><td width=250 valign=top style='width:187.5pt;border:none;padding:15.0pt 15.0pt 15.0pt .75pt'><div style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt;display:table' id="x_aolmail_LPImageContainer_15332078621930.7950891217250731"><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:15.0pt;background:white'><a href="http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/08/02/cens-a02.html" target="_blank"><span style='border:solid windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in;text-decoration:none'><img border=0 width=250 height=117 id="x_aolmail_LPThumbnailImageID_15332078621940.5244992405831117" src="cid:image001.jpg@01D42A4B.9A75EB40" alt="Image removed by sender."></span></a><o:p></o:p></p></div></td><td valign=top style='border:none;padding:0in 0in 0in 0in;display:table-cell' id="x_aolmail_x_TextCell_15332078621940.33307176356410784"><div id="x_aolmail_LPTitle_15332078621940.7577301788778343"><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:15.0pt;mso-line-height-alt:15.75pt'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI Light","sans-serif";color:#0078D7'><a href="http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/08/02/cens-a02.html" target="_blank"><span style='text-decoration:none'>Facebook censors anti-fascist rally in Washington</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div style='margin-top:7.5pt;margin-bottom:12.0pt' id="x_aolmail_LPMetadata_15332078621950.683224709239671"><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:15.0pt;line-height:10.5pt'><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Segoe UI","sans-serif";color:#666666'><a href="http://www.wsws.org" target="_blank">www.wsws.org</a><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div id="x_aolmail_LPDescription_15332078621960.15432026523944664"><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:15.0pt;line-height:15.0pt'><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Segoe UI","sans-serif";color:#666666'>The campaign to censor the internet, initially presented as a response to alleged Russian “meddling,” is increasingly targeting left-wing political viewpoints.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></td></tr></table></div><h2 style='mso-margin-top-alt:5.05pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:31.0pt;margin-left:0in;mso-line-height-alt:14.4pt'><span style='font-size:31.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#333333;font-weight:normal'><o:p> </o:p></span></h2><h2 style='mso-margin-top-alt:5.05pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-line-height-alt:14.4pt'><span style='font-size:31.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#333333;font-weight:normal'>Facebook censors anti-fascist rally in Washington<o:p></o:p></span></h2><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style='margin-bottom:15.0pt;overflow:auto' id="x_aolmail_LPBorder_GT_15332077823770.08090954478483936"><table class=MsoNormalTable border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 width="90%" style='width:90.0%;background:white;border-top:dotted #C8C8C8 1.0pt;border-left:none;border-bottom:dotted #C8C8C8 1.0pt;border-right:none'><tr><td width=250 valign=top style='width:187.5pt;border:none;padding:15.0pt 15.0pt 15.0pt .75pt'><div style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt;display:table' id="x_aolmail_LPImageContainer_15332077823700.03270382181447795"><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:15.0pt;background:white'><a href="http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/08/02/cens-a02.html" target="_blank"><span style='border:solid windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in;text-decoration:none'><img border=0 width=250 height=117 id="x_aolmail_LPThumbnailImageID_15332077823710.8047969551872796" src="cid:image001.jpg@01D42A4B.9A75EB40" alt="Image removed by sender."></span></a><o:p></o:p></p></div></td><td valign=top style='border:none;padding:0in 0in 0in 0in;display:table-cell' id="x_aolmail_x_TextCell_15332077823730.8273953155720548"><div id="x_aolmail_LPTitle_15332077823730.3085851678737619"><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:15.0pt;mso-line-height-alt:15.75pt'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI Light","sans-serif";color:#0078D7'><a href="http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/08/02/cens-a02.html" target="_blank"><span style='text-decoration:none'>Facebook censors anti-fascist rally in Washington</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div style='margin-top:7.5pt;margin-bottom:12.0pt' id="x_aolmail_LPMetadata_15332077823750.9639407601763617"><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:15.0pt;line-height:10.5pt'><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Segoe UI","sans-serif";color:#666666'><a href="http://www.wsws.org" target="_blank">www.wsws.org</a><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div id="x_aolmail_LPDescription_15332077823760.48009679892020585"><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:15.0pt;line-height:15.0pt'><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Segoe UI","sans-serif";color:#666666'>The campaign to censor the internet, initially presented as a response to alleged Russian “meddling,” is increasingly targeting left-wing political viewpoints.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></td></tr></table></div><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><h5 style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:15.6pt'><i><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#666666;font-weight:normal'>By Andre Damon <br>2 August 2018<o:p></o:p></span></i></h5><div style='margin-top:7.5pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-line-height-alt:16.3pt'><span style='font-size:17.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>The social media giant Facebook carried out a major escalation in the campaign to censor the Internet Monday, deleting the official event page for an anti-fascist rally scheduled for August 12 in Washington, D.C. on the grounds that it was engaged in “coordinated inauthentic behavior.”<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div style='margin-top:7.5pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-line-height-alt:16.3pt'><span style='font-size:17.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>The event, entitled “No Unite the Right 2 – DC,” was scheduled as a counter-protest to a fascist demonstration called for August 12 by the organizers of last year’s Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, during which a right-wing extremist murdered counter-protestor Heather Heyer.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div style='margin-top:7.5pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-line-height-alt:16.3pt'><b><span style='font-size:17.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>The rally’s organizers include </span></b><b><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Chelsea Manning</span></b><span style='font-size:17.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>, the whistleblower imprisoned and tortured for six years by the Obama administration for revealing American war crimes. Manning told the <em><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>New York Times </span></em>the demonstration was “real and organic,” declaring “Folks from D.C. and Charlottesville have been talking about this since at least February.”<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div style='margin-top:11.25pt;margin-bottom:7.5pt;float:none'><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333;border:solid windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in'><img border=0 width=480 height=480 id="_x0000_i1028" src="cid:image002.jpg@01D42A4B.9A75EB40" alt="Image removed by sender."></span><b><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>The No Unite the Right 2 – DC rally removed by Facebook</span></b><span style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div style='margin-top:7.5pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-line-height-alt:16.3pt'><span style='font-size:17.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>While Facebook shuts down left-wing pages, groups and events with growing regularity, this latest action is particularly significant both because of its prominence—a major demonstration likely to draw large numbers of participants—and because Facebook has publicly boasted about it.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div style='margin-top:7.5pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-line-height-alt:16.3pt'><span style='font-size:17.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>The closure of the event page was a centerpiece of a blog post published Tuesday by Facebook outlining its efforts to crack down on groups aiming to “sow division using social media” ahead of the 2018 election. In addition to shutting down the rally’s event page, Facebook announced that it had shut down 32 other pages, including those opposing police violence and defending immigrant rights.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div style='margin-top:7.5pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-line-height-alt:16.3pt'><span style='font-size:17.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>The announcement was framed as a follow-up to the company’s announcement in September 2017 that “Russia-linked” Facebook pages bought some $100,000 in ads related to “divisive social issues.” In addition to serving as a pretext for major new censorship measures by Facebook, the 2017 announcement was connected to allegations by the Democratic Party that US President Trump “colluded” with the Russian government to win the 2016 election.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div style='margin-top:7.5pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-line-height-alt:16.3pt'><span style='font-size:17.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>However, with the Democrats’ anti-Russia campaign increasingly bogged down by the bitter factional battle in Washington, it appears that those sections of the state apparatus leading the drive to censor the Internet are hoping to decouple their efforts from allegations about Russian “meddling.”<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div style='margin-top:7.5pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-line-height-alt:16.3pt'><span style='font-size:17.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Facebook and its outgoing Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos explicitly declined to attribute the claims to the Russian government. “Today we’re shutting down 32 Pages and accounts engaged in coordinated inauthentic behavior without saying that a specific group or country is responsible,” Stamos wrote in a post accompanying its announcement.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div style='margin-top:7.5pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-line-height-alt:16.3pt'><span style='font-size:17.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>While the alleged “Russian” ads described by Facebook in 2017 included statements in support of both sides of the political spectrum, the latest batch of pages shut down were all left-wing, including those opposing police violence, attacks on immigrant rights, and the Trump administration’s right-wing policies.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div style='margin-top:7.5pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-line-height-alt:16.3pt'><span style='font-size:17.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>On Monday, the day before Facebook announced that it had shut down the page, the company turned its latest blacklist over to the Atlantic Council, a prominent military think-tank. Its analysis makes clear that Facebook is deliberately targeting left-wing groups.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div style='margin-top:11.25pt;margin-right:7.5pt;margin-bottom:7.5pt;float:left'><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333;border:solid windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in'><img border=0 width=200 height=200 id="_x0000_i1029" src="cid:image003.jpg@01D42A4B.9A75EB40" alt="Image removed by sender."></span><b><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>An event published by one of the groups taken down by facebook</span></b><span style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div style='margin-top:7.5pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-line-height-alt:16.3pt'><span style='font-size:17.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>The Atlantic Council’s report said the pages shut down by Facebook targeted “the left of the political spectrum,” and that the pages were an attempt to “infiltrate left-wing American communities.” These pages “sought to promote divisions and set Americans against one another.”<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div style='margin-top:7.5pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-line-height-alt:16.3pt'><span style='font-size:17.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Events created by “inauthentic” groups “did have a very real, organic, and engaged online community; however, the intent of the inauthentic activity appeared to be designed to catalyze the most incendiary impulses of political sentiment.“<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div style='margin-top:7.5pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-line-height-alt:16.3pt'><span style='font-size:17.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>These groups promoted “activism against fascism.” One of the groups, according to the Atlantic Council, “created an event in protest of the Trump administration’s policy of separating the children of undocumented migrants from their families.”<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div style='margin-top:7.5pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-line-height-alt:16.3pt'><span style='font-size:17.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Another promoted event included “protests against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), U.S. President Donald Trump’s tax plan, protests against Trump’s Muslim ban, and a ‘March against rapist cops.’”<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div style='margin-top:7.5pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-line-height-alt:16.3pt'><span style='font-size:17.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>At times, the Atlantic Council report adopts wholesale conceptions advanced by the fascist right, such as that left-wing protesters are the instigators of violence in clashes with fascists. In justifying the censorship of the Washington anti-fascist protest, the think-tank claimed its organizers “suggested a desire to provoke further confrontations and violence.”<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div style='margin-top:7.5pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-line-height-alt:16.3pt'><span style='font-size:17.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>In another instance, the report characterized Internet content “focusing on the plight of Native Americans and modern immigrants” as promoting “anti-white” viewpoints.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div style='margin-top:7.5pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-line-height-alt:16.3pt'><span style='font-size:17.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers praised Facebook’s action. Democratic Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, declared that the disclosure “is further evidence that the Kremlin continues to exploit platforms like Facebook to sow division and spread disinformation.” Warner, who has led the campaign for censorship, ignored the fact that Facebook provided no evidence that Russia had anything to do with the pages.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div style='margin-top:7.5pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-line-height-alt:16.3pt'><span style='font-size:17.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Facebook’s latest action must be taken as an urgent warning. Two years after the start of the campaign to censor the Internet in the guise of fighting “fake news” spread by “Russian trolls,” the social media giants, working with the US intelligence agencies, are increasingly making clear that their real target is left-wing political sentiment among growing sections of workers and young people. In so doing, they are following the path blazed by Google, which last year announced plans to censor “alternative” news, leading to a drop in search traffic to left-wing sites of up to 80 percent.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div style='margin-top:7.5pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-line-height-alt:16.3pt'><span style='font-size:17.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>With opposition growing among 260,000 UPS workers to a sellout contract being demanded by both their union and employer, a growing international strike movement among airline workers, and simmering anger among teachers and other sections of the working class in the US, the ruling class is concerned above all that workers will use the Internet not only to organize and coordinate their struggles, but to rally around a socialist perspective.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>