JL
The self-appointed moderators at the unpopular Disinformation Project need to take a deep breath and chill.
Just how people with such extreme views and a filthy disdain for freedom could be charged with censoring New Zealanders is beyond bizarre.
Maybe they are destined to be this Government’s fall guys for removing vital information under the guise of mis- and disinformation.
Think of Ardern blaming supermarkets and world economies over her own domestic failings. Remember the unseen medical advice they claimed to be acting upon, with the pseudo-scientists front and centre like Bloomfield.
A great pat on the back is due to BFD contributor Wibble who listened to a covertly recorded audio of a “talk” in Queenstown and who reported on what was said by the Disinformation Project’s Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa
These people believe what they have to say is worthy of a roadshow.
Ka-ching!
And what the secretly recorded audio revealed is that there is no more obvious sacrificial lamb or patsy for this Labour Government than Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa.
He seems unhinged, has no logic and is fuelled by hate.
Even mainstream media had to take a step back from his inflammatory language when, without any actual scientific data, he claimed that misinformation was “killing people like the tectonic plates killed those in Christchurch”.
He called local body candidates a cancer and also declared that Ardern was being “raped” every day online.
Even in their little taxpayer-funded enclave at the Disinformation Project his disproportionate rants must be seen as a liability.
The more you look, the more you realise what little grasp this man has on reality or the depth of his own contradictions.
His explosive fearmongering comes from a place so far removed from New Zealand life that his assertions should be heard and then shelved.
Yes, I purposely did not say his views should be canned. He, like all of us, is allowed his opinions. Where he transgresses is his arbitrary dismissal of ours.
You would think the disinformation team charged with curbing extremism would recognise one sitting amongst them?
But then you look at his boss.
Kate Hannah studied the Holocaust and now sees the influence of white supremacists around every corner (as you would expect a full-blown conspiracy theorist to see them).
Hannah tried to shut down recordings of the event. She had fled when questioned by Chantelle Baker at a previous closed meeting.
Apart from being poorly written gibberish from someone with a Master’s in American Literature, the whole premise of Hannah’s 2019 RNZ article is based solely on assumptions and political leanings.
She shows a pathological determination to find an arch evil influencer amongst backyard hobbyists. It’s truly sad.
But I digress.
Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa is a Sri Lankan national. A nation peppered with invasions and political upheaval.
Its people recently stormed parliament and overthrew their Prime Minister. It also gave us such persecuted souls as Ahamed Aathil Mohamed Samsudeen.
Samsudeen, a known supporter of Islamic State who sought refugee status here, stabbed seven Kiwis in a supermarket.
I’m not saying Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa is going to kill for his views but his rants are more inflammatory and aggressive than what New Zealanders are accustomed to.
Traditionally we sit down with a cuppa and listen.
According to Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa, in 2006, he founded Groundsviews, “Sri Lanka’s most progressive media website”.
It was created to “flag content, events, processes and people violently marginalised from governance, and ignored by mainstream media”.
And he is now employed in New Zealand to flag content, processes and people marginalised by this Government, and ignored by mainstream media.
Yes, Dr Sanjana was a web activist who’s now shutting down web activists.
And his coming from a nation torn by unrest seems to lead him to believe that everything he reads that he disagrees with will lead to violent uprisings.
Without even really trying, here are some of the bizarre actions and claims from this self-ordained censor of information.
In Queenstown, he showed utter disdain for “cis-white men” yet moved to a country overwhelmingly populated by people of European descent.
He is quite happy to suckle on the teat of those hard earning Kiwis through his taxpayer-funded education and censoring role.
He told the Queenstown crowd that racism in New Zealand is identical to racism back home in Sri Lanka.
(Last time I looked we weren’t killing those from different racial or religious groups and people weren’t begging for refuge to escape persecution in New Zealand).
He finds the way white New Zealand men treat white women abhorrent but, according to his own website, 13-year-old Muslim girls are still legally married off in Sri Lanka.
According to Wibble’s report, Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa blames societal angst on Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
Yet the Disinformation Project uses Crowdtangle, a Facebook-owned data tool that allows researchers, fact-checkers and journalists to follow, analyse and report on social media trends.
A tool that would unduly influence what these misguided censors think they know.
According to him, our Prime minister is being “raped” every day online, yet in Groundswell he wrote illiterate diatribes with maddening titles like “F..k You Mr President”.
Despite championing it for his causes, he tells us freedom of speech is a real problem for democracy. We need to stop speech from going viral on social media.
But his publication fought vehemently for the freedom to speak up through such writers as Gehan Gunatilleke.
In his hyperbolic language, he says that local body disinformation candidates are “a cancer waiting to metastasise”.
New Zealand, he says, should be very worried about the lack of nominations for local elections because it opens the door for people with extreme beliefs.
Ironically New Zealanders I know did not run because they knew they would become targets of extremists like Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa.