Some "internal Twitter documents" recently disclosed by an investigative journalist from the United States have exposed how multiple US government agencies are manipulating social media to further their agenda.
The US government has long been creating a web of rumors in order to manipulate public opinion, demonize other countries and continue US hegemony.
During the Cold War, the US launched "Operation Mockingbird", buying over at least 400 journalists and 25 large organizations around the world to propagate false information. The US continues to fabricate lies, from using laundry detergent as evidence to bomb Iraq for "weapons of mass destruction", to using video staged by "White Helmets" to similarly bomb Syria, and to float "presumption of guilt" on the origin of COVID-19. Former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo even admitted: "We lie, we cheat, we steal. This is the glory of America's continuous exploration and progress".
The US has frequently launched "public opinion wars", using false information as a tool against other countries. From plotting "color revolutions" across the world, to using "national security" as an excuse to suppress foreign companies, to fabricating lies such as "genocide" and "forced labor camps" in Xinjiang, the US has always passed off its attempts at subversion as "promoting democracy", and at trampling life as "protecting human rights".
The unprincipled use of disinformation in cyberspace has become the US' favorite weapon in this new Cold War. According to a report by Australia Institute's Center for Responsible Technology, 5,752 Twitter accounts, many of them remotely controlled by "bots" in the US, went viral for a short period in 2020 to re-tweet rumors on the origin of COVID-19. The US has established disinformation networks that launch targeted attacks on countries it dislikes in multiple languages.
Such fabrication of lies has harmed people's trust in the US. A recent Gallup/Knight Foundation survey found that 50 percent of US citizens believed that most national news organizations intentionally mislead the public. A survey conducted by US News and World Report and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and other institutions found that global trust in the US has dipped 50 percent since 2016.
Concocting and spreading lies cannot help the US win real influence. The US should stop deceiving the world and slandering other countries with lies.
