Protecting the public ... by spying on us?

Just another way for anti-vax and health freedom activists to be scrutinized, controlled

Do as I say ...

(NaturalNews) It's been said that the government – specifically the FBI – is working alongside the National Science Foundation to study the ways in which online information is spread and social media memes go viral. While that all sounds rather interesting, it looks as though there may be more to it than merely assessing the neat little ways some posts spread like wildfire while others remain stagnant.Apparently, the effort – which has about $1 million behind it to date – is part of a system dubbed "Truthy," that has its sights set on "modeling the diffusion of information online and empirically discriminating among models of mechanisms driving the spread of memes." In a way that sounds ratherOrwellian, it's stated that "the analysis will involve studying meme diffusion in large-scale social media by collecting and analyzing massive streams of public micro-blogging data."Sure sounds like a fancy way of saying that we're being spied on, as our every move is tracked , all in an effort to "result in a better understanding of information flow," and help "assist in elucidating the complex mechanisms that underlie a variety of human dynamics and organizations."What? But more importantly, why?According to the stated project goals, we're supposed to be on board with their idea that this monitoring and collection of data will "benefit both the research community and the public significantly."How so, you ask?They explain that their "data will be made available via APIs and include information on meme propagation networks, statistical data, and relevant user and content features. The open-source platform we develop will be made publicly available and will be extensible to ever more research areas as a greater preponderance of human activities are replicated online. Additionally, we will create a web service open to the public for monitoring trends, bursts, and suspicious memes."And that benefits the public how?Also, what exactly constitutes "suspicious" memes – ones that the FBI and the National Science Foundation deem suspicious (in other words, ones that go against their agenda), or ones that are truly putting people's physical and mental health at risk?Unfortunately, we see trouble brewing when it comes to Truthy and health freedom activists such as those who are against vaccines. For example,information explains that they'll "explore social science questions via social media data analytics."Now here's where it gets interesting. It's also explained that, "Examples of research to date include analyses of geographic and temporal patterns in movements like Occupy Wall Street, societal unrest in Turkey, polarization and cross-ideological communication in online political discourse, partisan asymmetries in online political engagement, the use of social media data to predict election outcomes and forecast key market indicators, and the geographic diffusion of trending topics."The focus on societal issues, political discourse and election outcome predictions as it relates to online behavior sounds very much like they're dipping their toes in attempts to manage, control and perhaps change the outcome of such issues. Which means that they're going to have a field day when it comes to say, online activities involving GMO food labeling efforts vaccine injuries , and Monsanto's cancer-causing herbicide, Roundup (to name just a few), all of which are topics Natural News readers are interested in.Sadly, though, when the powers-that-be come together, the masses often nod their heads in "whatever-they-say" agreement. What the mainstream media regurgitates , and organizations like the FBI say, often gets mistaken as truth, when in reality, there's much more to it than what people are being told.Consider that this effort is apparently aligned with the same group – the FBI – that recently made headlines for their desire to access citizens' phone information. That matter displayed utter disregard for privacy , which is of course what all of this boils down to.We have our rights to choose and our rights to privacy, which includes not vaccinating ourselves or our children, not using Roundup, and wanting GMO food labeled. Scrutiny over our online habits, under the guise of benefiting citizens, is yet another attempt to squash such rights, and get everyone to see things the so-called Truthy way.