A proposal in a Stanford University journal for “news source trustworthiness ratings” would, if it advances, be like a digital reboot of the CIA’s psychedelic mind-control experiments from the Cold War era, says a former State Department cyber official who now leads an online free speech watchdog group.
The psychological manipulation used in the experiments – known as Project MK-ULTRA and the subject of congressional hearings in 1977 – is reflected in the Journal of Online Trust and Safety study, conducted by researchers at U.S. and Italian universities, says Mike Benz, the former State Department official who now leads the watchdog group Foundation for Freedom Online.