Operation: COINTELPRO — The Original Social Media

By Carlos “Carlito” Rovira

When Whistleblower Edward Snowden chose to defect from his professional allegiance to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in 2013 U.S. rulers went into crisis mode. Snowden fled to Russia but not before causing panic by leaking classified information about National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance programs.

We now know how advancements in computer technology, especially the Internet and its many social media outlets, are being used to gather intelligence on U.S. citizens and serve as a tool to stifle the creation of a new people’s movement against oppression.

For those familiar with the consequences of Operation: CONTELPRO, during the 1950’s, 60’s & 70’s, should never become so naive to believe that these government projects ever ended. On the contrary, government surveillance continues to this day with greater ferocity and sophistication, especially now with political extremists in government itching to bring about an openly fascist dictatorship.

We have learned a lot about covert operations during the 1950s-70s and how it was used to diminish the strengths of the Black liberation, Puerto Rican independence, Chicano, Indigenous, labor, Socialist, and anti-war movements, especially at the height of mass opposition to the war in Vietnam. What we tend to overlook is that the government has also gained many lessons from those experiences which it intends to use against a potential rise of a new movement.

Operation COINTELPRO employed the most shocking tactics imaginable. It used subtle and emotionally convincing methods to carry out its deceit. Cunning techniques were accompanied by open repressive force aimed to have a devastating psychological impact on the movement opposed to the status quo.

COINTELPRO was created in the early 1950’s to spy and disrupt the Socialist and Civil Rights movements, at a time when the notorious Senator Joseph McCarthy launched his anti-Communist, racist and anti-labor political campaign. COINTELPRO utilized information obtained from wiretaps, intercepting postal mail and informants. Today much of that has become obsolete thanks to the invention of non-other than the Internet, specifically social media.

The upgraded methods of surveilling and manipulating conflict by the police state involves specialized units that monitor social media for intelligence gathering and developing plans of actions aimed to cause disruptions and havoc within targeted politically progressive circles.

The notorious J. Edgar Hoover would have been delighted if Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Tik Tok existed during his time as FBI Director. It is certain that Hoover’s use of today’s social media technology would have been for speeding up the persecution of the Black Panther Party – targeting its most outspoken members, like those who were murdered by police or imprisoned for life.

The New York Police Department (NYPD), the Chicago Police Department (CPD) in coordination with the FBI, used the same divide & conquer tactics against the Black Panther Party’s fraternal ally, the Young Lords.

One of the many things that the racist J. Edgar Hoover became known for was openly expressing his disdain for African American leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz, as well as the Puerto Rican independence movement, specifically Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos and the Nationalist Party.

What did COINTELPRO rely on?

Gossipers, individuals who engage in petty discourse are the greatest resource the government relies on for building cases to repress social movements or prevent one from rising up.

Professional covert operatives from the FBI, CIA, and police are trained to analyze and utilize gossip and personal conflicts as one of their primary techniques, especially to manipulate the sentiments of the emotionally weak, narrow-minded, and self-serving individuals. What this methodology depends on is the absence of critical thinking in a society that automatically accepts cancel culture.

Moreover, to achieve this part of spying and suppression government agencies maintain files containing psychological profiles of individuals in order to assess who they can best manipulate and steer for precise moments when they are used to incite or aggravate disputes.

These are usually targeted individuals known to be gossipers and unstable elements in the habit of engaging in whisper campaigns. In addition, they are also known for their indifference if the progressive movement achieves its political goals, or not. Such is a profound trait of hypocrisy while professing to be “progressives, leftists”, or “revolutionaries.”

The state uses these individuals to accomplish its desired outcome of destroying reputations to paralyze progressive entities by instigating divisions. The government’s ultimate strategy is to cause demoralization, diminish people’s energies and discredit the politics of a movement.

That is why we must always be vigilant and know the identities of rumor mongers, gossipers, and promoters of petti discourse within our midst. In the end, they serve as the greatest assets to the police state, as if they are paid operatives themselves.

A close examination of what Edward Snowden revealed should easily tell us that although COINTELPRO succeeded destroying a movement in the past the government’s program against progressives continues to exist. Whatever name covert operations have today the goal is still the same – to prevent a new revolutionary movement rising up.

We should never allow ourselves to be played and lured again into that trap. We would be guilty of complicity in hindering the struggle for human emancipation.

History tells us that we should never underestimate the police state. They will utilize all situations and any issue to steer our focus away from challenges before us. A severe economic crisis is looming, accompanied by an intensity of racism, repression and the possibility of war. The state will do anything to stifle our efforts to counter such possible scenarios.

For those who hold a contrary view should ask themselves: Why is white supremacy blatantly showing its ugly face at an increased pace with civil liberties eroding? Events today serve as warning signs to alert us of an approaching crisis in this country, which we must all confront.

Regardless our platforms, socialist, anarchist, nationalist, feminist, LGBTQ, and so on, we must not have complicity in what the rulers are attempting. The police state does not need our help to divide us further.

There is always a politically mature way of reaching resolution to any problem. We must always have the victory of the liberation struggle in mind.

Social media should be used as a tool for educating and organizing ourselves against the common enemy. If our oppressors use the Internet to keep us disoriented and preserve their power, we must strive to become better users of that technology to combat the system perpetuating oppression.

The police state is not invincible. Their strength relies on poisonous petti discourse. The state’s covert activities against progressives can be stifled and stopped. However, we must adapt a standard of using critical analysis of solidarity and respect, when issues or crisis arise among us. It is imperative to our growth that we not employ the reactionary use of cancel culture.

Let’s make a fundamental part of countering the fascist menace guarding against its hidden and not-so-hidden operations of divide and conquer within our midst!