Blog 10: Awareness, Mediashare, Theories, and Polices

 

       While listening to the different presentations I learned about the concept of False flags. These are defined as hostile attack that is designed to look like it was perpetrated by someone other than the person or group. One example of this can be seen by the Muken Incident of 1931. During this incident the Japanese blew up their own railroad to use as an excuse to target the Chinese. Furthermore by blaming the Chinese for the destruction of their railroad they used it as an incentive to invade Manchuria. Another example of this can seen by the Gleiwitz incident. This took place in 1939 in which the Nazis organized a plan to invade Poland. Since Hitler wanted to justify the invasion on Poland, German media outlets claimed that Germans living in Poland were being tortured. This sparked small interest however attention eventually began to elevate during a series of false flag operations that revolved around border incidents. Gleiwitz was a German town located on the border beside Poland that acted as one of the core locations for German propaganda. During this incident Germans dressed in Polish uniforms hijacked their own transmitter station killing some of their fellow Germans in the process. The last incident of false flags I will address is the Shelling of Mainila Incident. This also took place in 1939 in which Russia wanted to break its non aggression act it had with Finland. In order to accomplish this Soviet state security agency organized a plan in which they fired shells into the village of Mainila and blamed it on Finland.  

        Another term I learned about was deep fakes which are defined as video of a real person that has been altered to look like someone else. Deep fakes are usually used for malicious reasons such as blackmail, intimidation, incitement and defamation. One example of deep fakes being used to destroy someones reputation can be seen the WhatsApp kidnapping incident. During this multiple rumors were passed around claiming that the two men Nilotpal Das and Abijeet Nath were responsible for a child abduction. These rumors were supported by a deep fake of the abduction which lead to a mob targeting and killing them. Even though most of the uses of deep fakes are negative one positive example of them being used can be seen by Paul Walker's appearance. Paul Walker was an actor who was suppose to star in the movie Fast and Furious 7 however due to his death from a car accident he was unable to fulfill the role. A deep fake was used to allow his brother to take his place thus finishing the movie. Along with this I also learned about vertical integration which is when a company owns two or more stages of production. Starbucks is notorious for this due to the effective management of their supply chain. Moreover their management is so effective to the point where they play a role in every step of the production process. In order to meet certain quality standards, Starbucks works with the growers monitoring and training them. This training can be seen by the roasting facilities and how not only all Starbucks is packaged the same but how it all is made to taste the same.