China’s Advancing Efforts to Influence the U.S. Election Raise Alarms
China has adopted some of the same misinformation tactics that Russia used ahead of the 2016 election, researchers and government officials say.

Covert Chinese accounts are masquerading online as American supporters of former President Donald J. Trump, promoting conspiracy theories, stoking domestic divisions and attacking President Biden ahead of the election in November, according to researchers and government officials.

[OCS: These are not “honest brokers” and support the current regime and progressive communist democrats.]

The accounts signal a potential tactical shift in how Beijing aims to influence American politics, with more of a willingness to target specific candidates and parties, including Mr. Biden.

[OCS: Why would the target Joe Biden, an unregistered foreign agent who supports China?]

In an echo of Russia’s influence campaign before the 2016 election, China appears to be trying to harness partisan divisions to undermine the Biden administration’s policies, despite recent efforts by the two countries to lower the temperature in their relations.

[OCS: Russia, Russia, Russia 2.0 – it worked before, so the progressive communist democrats are simply switching the script to China, China, China.]

In February, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence reported that China was expanding its influence campaigns to “sow doubts about U.S. leadership, undermine democracy and extend Beijing’s influence.” The report expressed concern that Beijing could use increasingly sophisticated methods to try to influence the American election “to sideline critics of China.”

<Source>

Shifting Election Narratives and Tech Collusion: Federal Government Continues Outreach to Tech Companies
After a temporary alleged pause, government agencies are back colluding with tech platforms.

The “new unofficial rules” around US elections were set years ago: if one side wins, the integrity of the vote cannot be questioned at all; if they don’t, then it must be questioned.

And for Democrats the preferred way to do the latter is to bring up “foreign meddling.” This is now also done “preemptively,” ahead of a ballot.

And, this is proving to be useful in justifying many things, some of which should be considered blatantly illegal, such as the government colluding with private tech companies to censor speech online.

This type of brazen behavior could mean that the ruling apparatus is very sure of itself and its ability to get away with pretty much anything – or, that it is not confident at all it can get Biden reelected, and is making risky and perhaps desperate moves.

Like this: “The US intelligence community is ramping up work with technology companies ahead of the November elections as cybersecurity professionals search for new ways to combat foreign threats to the American electoral system that appeared unthinkable four years ago.”

But, if you frame it as spy agencies engaging in “partnership with tech companies,” and if you explain the need for it as a way to “secure elections” against the ever-meddling foreign bogeyman – the current White House clearly hopes its highly controversial activities can be sold as something positive. <Source>

YouTube Says It Has a “Responsibility” To Manipulate Algorithms Leading Up to the 2024 Election
YouTube has a plan to remove and suppress some content, and boost what it decides are "authoritative" sources.

R1 - "Remove content that violates our policy as quickly as possible."
R2 - "Raise up authoritative voices when people are looking for breaking news and information."
R3 - "Reward trusted, eligible creators and artists."
R4 - "Reduce the spread of content that brushes right up against our policy line."

But when all that's said, there's the overarching issue of YouTube's "responsibility." To do what, you might wonder - give its users/creators the best tools and opportunities - or act as proxy campaigner for a certain political and ideological option, in the US, but also, elsewhere in the world?
YouTube's self-professed "4 R's of responsibility" may or may not provide some insight into what the answer to that serious question might be. <Source>