5 ms·

Is he just saying that you can put down a government by faking a lot of news?

by chukye 10y ago

ablation 10y ago
It appears to be a large part of what he's saying, yes, but it looks like it certainly helps to have the hacking chops to be able to move millions of dollars between hacked bank accounts, compromise state-wide telcos at the root, and have the backing and advice of an international mercenary and special forces veteran.
mtgx 10y ago
It's why China is cracking down "Internet rumors", and also why in the U.S., Twitter, Facebook, and Google, are forming an alliance to crack down on "fake news" [1], starting with stuff like censoring Hillary Clinton's passing out video and related trending hashtags [2][3], or videos of North Dakota's pipeline protests [4]. We're going to need a decentralized and censorship-resistant Internet/social media sooner than people think. By the next U.S. election, I fear the these three main sites will have already been co-opted to work as government propaganda arms [5], as a smooth transition from old TV media propaganda to Internet propaganda, as more people cut their cords. The worst part is people won't even be able to easily see it. It's one thing to see a moderator on TV constantly hitting (or praising) a candidate and eventually realizing that maybe he or she isn't very fair or is biased, and may have ulterior motives for doing that. But it's quite another to be so vigilant as to notice when Google shows you mostly pro-Clinton search results for neutral election-related queries, or when Facebook and Twitter "don't" allow some topics to trend (although I think more people are starting to catch on to these tactics, but it's probably not happening fast enough to make a difference this election). [1] https://www.engadget.com/2016/09/14/facebook-twitter-first-draft-google/ https://www.engadget.com/2016/09/14/facebook-twitter-first-d... [2] http://observer.com/2016/09/facebook-and-youtube-show-frantic-alliegence-to-clinton/ http://observer.com/2016/09/facebook-and-youtube-show-franti... [3] http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2016/09/11/hillary-health-story-missing-twitter/ http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2016/09/11/hillary-health-stor... [4] http://www.theverge.com/2016/9/15/12926058/facebook-dakota-pipeline-video-censorship-protest http://www.theverge.com/2016/9/15/12926058/facebook-dakota-p... [5] https://theintercept.com/2016/09/07/google-program-to-deradicalize-jihadis-will-be-used-for-right-wing-american-extremists-next/ https://theintercept.com/2016/09/07/google-program-to-deradi...
- inanutshellus 10y ago
  It seems these days that misinformation is the name of the game. It's all-but-impossible to tell the difference between intentional misinformation from a biased source and crying foul by a victim of misinformation, however. ("He's a psychopath!" "She's near her deathbed!") Somewhat relatedly, I tried following both the main Clinton and Trump subreddits for a while and there was significant value in doing so. They were often talking about entirely different shenanigans going down... but... they were so vitriolic (and, frankly, childish) that I had to unsubscribe to them.
  - triplesec 10y ago
    Yet false equivalences like this abound. Clinton is not nearly dead. Trump _is_ a classic archtype of narcissist personality disorder. This is reasonably demonstrable. So, there are standards of evidence, science and expertise, which the peanut gallery in politics has been hacking away at for decades, paid for by rich short-sighted oligarchs, esp for example oil (look at the anti-climate-science lobby).
- Natanael_L 10y ago
  I remember seeing a file based social network built using Keybase.io's KBFS for sharing/publication. Can't find it again, though. Stuff like that + decentralized technologies would be great for social media, if we could get momentum behind it.
okwhatthe2 10y ago
Further reading: Propaganda by Jacques Ellul

Is he just saying that you can put down a government by faking a lot of news?

by chukye 10y ago

Is he just saying that you can put down a government by faking a lot of news?

It appears to be a large part of what he's saying, yes, but it looks like it certainly helps to have the hacking chops to be able to move millions of dollars between hacked bank accounts, compromise state-wide telcos at the root, and have the backing and advice of an international mercenary and special forces veteran.

mtgx 10y ago

It's why China is cracking down "Internet rumors", and also why in the U.S., Twitter, Facebook, and Google, are forming an alliance to crack down on "fake news" [1], starting with stuff like censoring Hillary Clinton's passing out video and related trending hashtags [2][3], or videos of North Dakota's pipeline protests [4]. We're going to need a decentralized and censorship-resistant Internet/social media sooner than people think. By the next U.S. election, I fear the these three main sites will have already been co-opted to work as government propaganda arms [5], as a smooth transition from old TV media propaganda to Internet propaganda, as more people cut their cords. The worst part is people won't even be able to easily see it. It's one thing to see a moderator on TV constantly hitting (or praising) a candidate and eventually realizing that maybe he or she isn't very fair or is biased, and may have ulterior motives for doing that. But it's quite another to be so vigilant as to notice when Google shows you mostly pro-Clinton search results for neutral election-related queries, or when Facebook and Twitter "don't" allow some topics to trend (although I think more people are starting to catch on to these tactics, but it's probably not happening fast enough to make a difference this election). [1] https://www.engadget.com/2016/09/14/facebook-twitter-first-draft-google/ https://www.engadget.com/2016/09/14/facebook-twitter-first-d... [2] http://observer.com/2016/09/facebook-and-youtube-show-frantic-alliegence-to-clinton/ http://observer.com/2016/09/facebook-and-youtube-show-franti... [3] http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2016/09/11/hillary-health-story-missing-twitter/ http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2016/09/11/hillary-health-stor... [4] http://www.theverge.com/2016/9/15/12926058/facebook-dakota-pipeline-video-censorship-protest http://www.theverge.com/2016/9/15/12926058/facebook-dakota-p... [5] https://theintercept.com/2016/09/07/google-program-to-deradicalize-jihadis-will-be-used-for-right-wing-american-extremists-next/ https://theintercept.com/2016/09/07/google-program-to-deradi...

inanutshellus 10y ago
It seems these days that misinformation is the name of the game. It's all-but-impossible to tell the difference between intentional misinformation from a biased source and crying foul by a victim of misinformation, however. ("He's a psychopath!" "She's near her deathbed!") Somewhat relatedly, I tried following both the main Clinton and Trump subreddits for a while and there was significant value in doing so. They were often talking about entirely different shenanigans going down... but... they were so vitriolic (and, frankly, childish) that I had to unsubscribe to them.
- triplesec 10y ago
  Yet false equivalences like this abound. Clinton is not nearly dead. Trump _is_ a classic archtype of narcissist personality disorder. This is reasonably demonstrable. So, there are standards of evidence, science and expertise, which the peanut gallery in politics has been hacking away at for decades, paid for by rich short-sighted oligarchs, esp for example oil (look at the anti-climate-science lobby).
Natanael_L 10y ago
I remember seeing a file based social network built using Keybase.io's KBFS for sharing/publication. Can't find it again, though. Stuff like that + decentralized technologies would be great for social media, if we could get momentum behind it.

okwhatthe2 10y ago

Further reading: Propaganda by Jacques Ellul