Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Israeli firm BlackCore suspected of meddling in New York and Scotland votes

reuters.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

501–510 of 641 posts

Re: Israeli firm BlackCore suspected of meddling in New York and Scotland votes

#501

Post by sbayg »

thisislife2 wrote: post #496
WickyNilliams wrote: post #455

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's an extremely well known nazi symbol. Probably second behind the swastika itself. There's even that famous "are we the baddies" meme, which uses that symbol as a central pillar of the gag.

Not an American here, but I too never knew the skull and bones symbol is somehow associated with the Nazis. So I would disagree that it is "extremely well known".

Neither did a lot of nazis, that’s the reason the Mitchell and Webb bit is so funny. Nazi’s are always the least self aware, by definition.

Re: Israeli firm BlackCore suspected of meddling in New York and Scotland votes

#502

Post by katbyte »

utdoctor wrote: post #493
nixon_why69 wrote: post #489

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My point is that it's not very obvious what it is unless you are super studied in Nazi symbology. I thought I was clear but there it is in case I wasn't. If this were a swastika, the SS lightning bolts or even the Iron Cross, yeah, that looks pretty Nazi. Instead it's a skull and crossbones just like every other one used all over the place, including the very cool jolly roger, except this one happens to be Nazi. I di…

“My point is that it's not very obvious what it is unless you are super studied in Nazi symbology” Or if you ever played a WWII themed video game (Wolfenstein, Call of Duty), or if you’ve ever watched a WWII show like Band of Brothers or watched a major WWII movie like Schindlers List or Saving Private Ryan. I could go on, it’s prominent in nearly any WWII media. Honestly, I don’t know if people toting the line sayin…

You do realize there are many people, especially younger folk, who will never have played or seen the media listed? And if they did not even noticed the symbol?

I’m older and have and I didn’t even know there was a special Nazi skull symbol while I do know about many of their other symbols.

Re: Israeli firm BlackCore suspected of meddling in New York and Scotland votes

#503

Post by throw37843 »

joxdosba wrote: post #477
throw37843 wrote: post #351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Which is a reasonable position, given that the Jews within this specific locale are mostly homicidal maniacs. Given the context, Palestinians wanting to kill every last Israeli Jew is a totally defensible position. It’s a natural reaction to a band of murderous European invaders coming to occupy their homes.

Right. So you are pro-genocide yourself, but only of certain groups of people.

Re: Israeli firm BlackCore suspected of meddling in New York and Scotland votes

#504

Post by sosomoxie »

gwerbin wrote: post #465
sosomoxie wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which facts? Are you genetically 100% from Palestine? If not, then the fact is you're not Palestinian. Having trace genetics (possibly, possibly not) from people who once lived in a region does not give you or anyone else permission to go ethnically cleanse that region of the actual inhabitants and steal their land.

This is literally what I'm arguing against. 1) the genetic lineage predates the modern concept of a region called Palestine, and this argument is ridiculous because if I marry a Palestinian woman and have a kid, you're saying my kid isn't Palestinian enough to have any kind of birthright in Palestine. 2) the general idea is that people of that lineage -- having been repeatedly oppressed and kicked out of literally ev…

European in-fighting does not give you permission to commit genocide in Palestine. Literally nothing that has happened in Europe has any bearing in the Middle East.

Re: Israeli firm BlackCore suspected of meddling in New York and Scotland votes

#505

Post by woodruffw »

gatlin wrote: post #474
woodruffw wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no such thing as a "semite." It's an archaic racial category that 19th century German race science used since "anti-semite" sounds more scientific than "Jew hater." Consequently, that's why it's applied to Jews rather than a larger pseudoscientific racial group. (More broadly, "they're semites too" is the "Elon Musk is African American" of I/P discourse. You can recognize extraordinary human tragedy without…

Speakers of Semitic languages are Semitic. This isn't controversial, unclear, or irrelevant.

I don’t know why you would assert this like it’s any of those things. You can look it up if you don’t believe me; you would be considered extremely weird for talking about “Semites” as a coherent racial or ethnic category around anthropologists.

(By comparison: nobody who isn’t a racist talks about Japhetites or Hamites, but these are the coextensive groups implied by the existence of Semites.)

Re: Israeli firm BlackCore suspected of meddling in New York and Scotland votes

#507

Post by rendall »

* Avisa Partners / iStrat, a French lobbying, intelligence, cybersecurity, and online-influence firm, has been accused in French investigations of information manipulation through ghostwritten articles, fake or undisclosed profiles, blogs, and Wikipedia interventions on behalf of powerful clients. Mediapart reported that Avisa was suspected of modifying Wikipedia pages for clients including French business elites and foreign powers. Wikimedia France also summarized the affair, saying Avisa or its subcontractors were suspected of numerous undeclared paid contributions to Wikipedia. Avisa has denied wrongdoing. [1] [2] [3]

* iStrat, Avisa's predecessor, was separately linked in French reporting to fake online personas used to publish commentary about business disputes. The Avisa Partners Wikipedia summary, based on French media reports, says JDN traced fake analyst profiles and critical commentary to iStrat-era activity, while iStrat and its owners denied the claims. [4]

* There was also a France-linked, though not company-linked, covert influence operation in Africa. In December 2020, Facebook/Meta removed networks for coordinated inauthentic behavior targeting African audiences; one network was linked to individuals associated with the French military. Meta said the operation used fake accounts, pages posing as news or military entities, and off-platform domains. Graphika and Stanford described it as French and Russian influence operations going head-to-head in Africa. [5] [6]

* The Washington Post reported the same Facebook takedown as people affiliated with the French military using fake Facebook accounts to meddle in African politics, while noting that Facebook said it did not have evidence that the French military institution itself directed the activity. [7]

[1] Operation Fake Info: firm used by French business elites suspected of infiltrating Wikipedia https://www.mediapart.fr/en/journal/france/230722/operation-...

[2] L'affaire Avisa Partners sur Wikipédia, expliquée https://www.wikimedia.fr/affaire-avisa-partners-sur-wikipedi...

[3] France: Avisa Partners withdraws its defamation actions against a number of media outlets https://europeanjournalists.org/blog/2023/06/29/france-avisa...

[4] Avisa Partners https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avisa_Partners

[5] Removing Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior from France and Russia https://about.fb.com/news/2020/12/removing-coordinated-inaut...

[6] More-Troll Kombat: French and Russian influence operations go head to head targeting audiences in Africa https://graphika.com/reports/more-troll-kombat

[7] People affiliated with French military used Facebook to meddle in Africa https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/12/15/people-...

Re: Israeli firm BlackCore suspected of meddling in New York and Scotland votes

#508

Post by alchemism »

Arodex wrote: post #451
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #434

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> what is Platner for? Not being MAGA. I have some respect for Susan Collins. But this nonsense where a tattoo and infidelity should be disqualifying on one side while the President, popularly elected this time, sleeps with porn stars and endorses anti-Semites and KKK adjacents, is unsustainable. If we need a dude with a Nazi tattoo to win Maine, I guess I prefer to be pissed off and winning.

I have the fear that Platner will just be another Fetterman, and you will have brought this unto ourselves...

Fear not: “As you can all probably tell, I got a lot of criticisms about the way this government functions. But in order for us to make it functional, we’re gonna have to do stuff,” Platner said. “And you can’t just go down there and be John Fetterman and ... just sort of be an a*hole.”

Source: https://nebraska.tv/news/nation-world/graham-platner-calls-p...

Re: Israeli firm BlackCore suspected of meddling in New York and Scotland votes

#509

Post by Arodex »

alchemism wrote: post #508
Arodex wrote: post #451

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have the fear that Platner will just be another Fetterman, and you will have brought this unto ourselves...

Fear not: “As you can all probably tell, I got a lot of criticisms about the way this government functions. But in order for us to make it functional, we’re gonna have to do stuff,” Platner said. “And you can’t just go down there and be John Fetterman and ... just sort of be an a*hole.” Source: https://nebraska.tv/news/nation-world/graham-platner-calls-p...

Talk is cheap. Platner has already shown he wouldn't uphold the vow he made to his wife. I start with the assumption he will break his word.

Re: Israeli firm BlackCore suspected of meddling in New York and Scotland votes

#510

Post by JumpCrisscross »

nailer wrote: post #483
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #436

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Do you think the entire British press is just making this up to mess with you? What do you count as the British press? The UK has a notorious yellow-journalism tabloid culture.

Anyone that’s been reporting the protests and attacks from all sides of politics. Do you think it’s all elaborate fakes to trick you?

> you think it’s all elaborate fakes to trick you?

The fact content and provocativeness of the reporting has varied wildly from source to source, and in particular, between the British tabloid press, on one hand, and British institutional press (and international press), on the other hand.

Post reply on HN