Among the core self-identified purposes of JTRIG [Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group, a new-age internet-centered sort of COINTELPRO] are two tactics: (1) to inject all sorts of false material onto the internet in order to destroy the reputation of its targets; and (2) to use social sciences and other techniques to manipulate online discourse and activism to generate outcomes it considers desirable. To see how extremist these programs are, just consider the tactics they boast of using to achieve those ends: “false flag operations” (posting material to the internet and falsely attributing it to someone else), fake victim blog posts (pretending to be a victim of the individual whose reputation they want to destroy), and posting “negative information” on various forums.
How Covert Agents Infiltrate the Internet to Manipulate, Deceive, Destroy Reputations by Glenn Greenwald | The Intercept
For those unaware, COINTELPROs were a series of illegal practices and entities formed precisely for the purpose of domestic political repression. Their primary targets were mainly socialists and communists, black nationalists, Civil Rights groups, the American Indian Movement, the Weathermen, and much more of the left. Understanding and being informed of this history helps us to know the evolution of an entity like JTRIG for the purposes of online political neutralization was both predictable and inevitable. Read obtained JTRIG documents here.
