{"id":46493,"date":"2014-08-25T12:00:46","date_gmt":"2014-08-25T11:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=46493"},"modified":"2015-05-05T21:30:41","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T20:30:41","slug":"common-dreams-website-traps-hasbara-troll-spewing-anti-semitism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2014\/08\/common-dreams-website-traps-hasbara-troll-spewing-anti-semitism\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Common Dreams\u2019 Website Traps Hasbara Troll Spewing Anti-Semitism"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Anti-Semitic<\/a>

Anti-Semitic icon chosen by Jewish Harvard Grad \u201cJason Beck\u201d posting as a Jew-hater under the alias of \u201cDeShawn Williams\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n

A Jewish student posting virulently anti-Semitic comments at various internet forums, allegedly\u00a0\u201cto gauge how pervasive anti-Semitism\u201d is online, has been busted by the progressive website Common Dreams (CD).<\/p>\n

Investigative journalist Lance Tapley leaves few stones unturned in his report \u201cThe Double Identity of an \u2018Anti-Semitic\u2019 Commenter<\/a>\u201d\u00a0except<\/em> the identity of the culprit.\u00a0\u201cLet\u2019s call the student Jason Beck\u201d, Tapley says, protecting the perpetrator.<\/p>\n

Beck, a Harvard graduate now a grad student at a midwestern university, created literally dozens of online personas to support his true objective: poisoning online discourse critical of Israel. So if evidence of anti-Semitism wasn\u2019t there, he\u2019d create it himself.<\/p>\n

His posting on Common Dreams illustrates the susceptibility of website comment threads to massive manipulation.<\/p>\n

And what was the goal of this pollution? Common Dreams says the hate speech undermined fundraising efforts, and was intended to do so.<\/p>\n

The website\u2019s executive director, Craig Brown, was personally appalled at the anti-Semitic comments\u2013and had a financial motivation to block these commenters. One generous funder had told him, he said, referring to the stream of anti-Semitism, \u201cI gave you five thousand dollars last year, but I\u2019m not doing it again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had hundreds of donors say similar things,\u201d Brown added. \u201cPeople are right to be offended by the anti-Semitism, and it has a serious impact on our reputation and our fundraising.\u201d But when Common Dreams tried to block [Beck handles] DeShawn, HamBaconEggs, et al, they kept coming back.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how Beck jumpstarted the comment thread at the base of Max Blumenthal\u2019s\u00a0The Desert of Israeli Democracy<\/a>\u00a0on CD:<\/p>\n

Just imagine how many millions of people would have been saved from the scourge of Judeo-imperialist wars and Jewish financial predations had Hitler actually finished the job.<\/p>\n

After years and years of spewing classic vile Jew-hatred all over the internet fate caught up with him because he was using the university\u2019s computers.<\/p>\n

Interviewed by Common Dreams, the man, in his thirties, conceded he has a\u00a0\u201cpsychological obsession\u201d\u00a0with trolling. A \u201ctic\u201d. \u00a0So he came up with multiple personas, including a \u201cJewishProgressive\u201d who trails his other personas expressing his disgust at the viciousness he\u2019s just penned, and then launches into a diatribe on the pervasiveness of anti-Semitism online. These lectures dominated, poisoned and diverted online discussions.<\/p>\n

So why grant him another anonymous handle? Common Dreams says it feared that disclosing his\u00a0identity could put his life in danger; contributors to hate sites he frequented might seek revenge, having discovered he was himself Jewish.<\/p>\n

Described by the professor in charge of his academic unit as\u00a0\u201cthe sweetest guy you can imagine,\u201d the man claims he became \u201cfrustrated\u201d by what he perceived as \u201cthe blurring of criticism [of] Israel and anti-Semitism\u201d.<\/p>\n

Beck adamantly claims he was a \u201clone-wolf\u201d\u00a0acting alone all these years but curiously, when Common Dreams confronted Beck after tracking him down at the university, Beck stated he had been \u201cill-advised\u201d. \u00a0Yes but ill-advised by whom?<\/p>\n

Should any of this surprise us? Heck no! Millions have been invested in shutting down discussion of Israel online, and what better way to do it than *close down progressive websites that host discussion of Israel.<\/p>\n

When Common Dreams examined hundreds of posts in this ugly charade, the aim appeared clear-cut: to cast a deep shadow on, and drive support from, one of the largest and oldest progressive-news websites.<\/p>\n

\"Some<\/a>

Some of Michael K Ultra\u2019s other DISQUS profile avatars: (L to R) the dissenter, Tillotson, Adenoid Fynkel, Avaritia, Johnny Warbucks, Father Touch M McFeelems, el Bandido (Graphic: Common Dreams)<\/p><\/div>\n

The next time you see radical profiles online, think who benefits. Because it\u2019s sure not progressives. Ask yourself, is \u201cJason Beck\u201d unique in his duplicity? It\u2019s unlikely.<\/p>\n

(Initially his article mistakenly claimed the troll \u201cJason Beck\u201d a Harvard graduate, was currently a student at Harvard. He is not, nor is the professor\u00a0in charge of Beck\u2019s academic unit quoted in the article a Harvard professor. Apologies to Common Dreams, Lance Tapley, and our readers~A.R.)<\/em><\/p>\n

__________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

Annie Robbins is Editor at Large for Mondoweiss, a mother, a human rights activist and a ceramic artist. She lives in the SF bay area. <\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 mondoweiss.net<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Join the<\/em><\/strong> BDS-BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT, SANCTIONS <\/em><\/strong>campaign<\/em><\/strong><\/span> to protest the Israeli barbaric siege of Gaza, illegal occupation of the Palestine nation\u2019s territory, the apartheid wall, its inhuman and degrading treatment of the Palestinian people, and the more than 7,000 Palestinian men, women, elderly and children arbitrarily locked up in Israeli prisons.<\/p>\n

DON’T BUY<\/strong> PRODUCTS WHOSE<\/strong> BARCODE<\/strong> STARTS WITH<\/strong> 729<\/strong>, which indicates that it is produced in Israel. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0DO YOUR PART! MAKE A DIFFERENCE!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

7 2 9: BOYCOTT FOR JUSTICE!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Jewish student posting virulently anti-Semitic comments at various internet forums, allegedly \u201cto gauge how pervasive anti-Semitism\u201d is online, has been busted by the progressive website Common Dreams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-focus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46493\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}