US, European elites use IT technologies for propaganda, provocations: Russia

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said political elites in the United States and Europe are using information technologies for provocations and propaganda, as an ex-CIA officer said independent media came to an end after the entry of monopolistic corporate-funded media.

"Political elites in the US and Europe are using informational communication technologies for agitation, provocations, propaganda, and sometimes indoctrination rather than for a noble purpose to deliver unbiased information to the general public," Zakharova said in a video address to the participants of the World Online Conference on Multipolarity.

She said the Western elites are using these technologies "with no regard for norms and traditions of different countries and communities".

Zakharova criticized the monopolistic behavior of the West and said that it’s not possible to have the one and only center for information control.

'Truth in trampled'

Zakharova’s statement comes as retired CIA intelligence officer and state department official, Larry Johnson, claimed that the independent media does not exist in the US anymore as the truth is discouraged after the arrival of big corporations, who control and limit what to show to people.

"Media corporations over the course of the last 30 years have become increasingly concentrated in a small number of organizations. So, the independent media that used to exist is virtually nonexistent now, except for what appears on the Internet and podcasts,” the retired CIA intelligence officer told Sputnik.

“Those corporations play a heavy role in limiting the kind of information that gets out to people. That coupled with reporters who are desperate to keep their jobs, and normally they'll just play along with whatever the company policies are,” Johnson added.

He also accused The Washington Post, The New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times, all previously separate newspapers, of being “consolidated under centralized corporate control”, which have become a hub of political outlets.

On April 24, Fox News channel, out of nowhere, announced that its news anchor, Tucker Carlson would be parting ways with the news outlet, while, Carlson talked of a conspiracy in a video, about the media owners trying to stifle any form of debate in the industry.

MG