5 ms·

General election interference, manipulating public perception by constantly suggesting pro-CCP propaganda, aggravating the general public to turn on each other,

by 6DM 6y ago

General election interference, manipulating public perception by constantly suggesting pro-CCP propaganda, aggravating the general public to turn on each other, tracking vocal anti-CCP individuals and potentially targeting them while traveling abroad. That's a few off the top of my head.

wonnage 6y ago
How is Google/Twitter/Facebook any different? Lemme guess your answer: well, they're on our side because it's an American company, and we can control them! It's been 10+ years of these companies and no meaningful oversight has been exerted, at least not on behalf of users. Not after: 1. Self-admitted election interference https://www.vox.com/2017/4/28/15476142/facebook-report-trump-clinton-russia-us-presidential-election https://www.vox.com/2017/4/28/15476142/facebook-report-trump... 2. Tracking and targeting individuals' political speech in the US https://www.theverge.com/2019/8/31/20837448/social-media-dhs-cbp-surveillance-us-border-ismail-ajjawi-harvard https://www.theverge.com/2019/8/31/20837448/social-media-dhs... 3. Tracking and targeting individuals' political speech in autocratic nations: https://www.npr.org/2019/11/07/777352750/how-saudi-arabia-used-twitter-to-spy-on-dissidents https://www.npr.org/2019/11/07/777352750/how-saudi-arabia-us... 4. Paid to suggest pro-CCP propaganda! https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/08/technology/china-facebook.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/08/technology/china-facebook...
- 6DM 6y ago
  I don’t think we can control them, I do think we could ideally introduce sensible legislation and hopefully the bad actors would at least be incentivized to benefit their own country to some extent. Also, sorry if I somehow insulted your home country, was only trying to make the point of why Americans would want a Chinese company ran out of town.
- asdff 6y ago
  I don't think google/twitter/facebook are any different than tiktock. Honestly, I'd love to see something done with these companies too, since it's clear that making microphones available to anyone, whether they are a human or a script, just leads to noise that overwhelms any expert level signal on world events or domain knowledge. I'm not sure what can be done at this point, though, it's like pandora's box has been opened. Now that the playbook is there, the internet is legitimately polluted for good. There will always be some other social network to trivially exert manipulation on, since humans are just wired to give into this tribalism as a species at the end of the day.
  - valuearb 6y ago
    Oh Lawdy, people are saying things on social platforms I disagree with!
matwood 6y ago
> General election interference, manipulating public perception by constantly suggesting pro-CCP propaganda, aggravating the general public to turn on each other You mean what's happening everyday on Facebook and Twitter often being instigated by Chinese and Russian actors?
- 6DM 6y ago
  Pretty much and I hope they pay for it. It would be nice if those companies be actually held accountable where it makes sense. They might as well be operating from China! :)
Bhilai 6y ago
US interferes in elections in many countries[1] [1]https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/07/the-us-has-a-long-history-of-election-meddling/565538/ https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/07/the-us-has...
- 6DM 6y ago
  and it shouldn’t be a thing.
- filoleg 6y ago
  >US interferes in elections in many countries Sure, and I totally understand if those other countries decide to take steps to prevent that interference from happening. It is perfectly reasonable for them to want to do so, just like it is for the US.

by 6DM 6y ago

wonnage 6y ago

How is Google/Twitter/Facebook any different? Lemme guess your answer: well, they're on our side because it's an American company, and we can control them! It's been 10+ years of these companies and no meaningful oversight has been exerted, at least not on behalf of users. Not after: 1. Self-admitted election interference https://www.vox.com/2017/4/28/15476142/facebook-report-trump-clinton-russia-us-presidential-election https://www.vox.com/2017/4/28/15476142/facebook-report-trump... 2. Tracking and targeting individuals' political speech in the US https://www.theverge.com/2019/8/31/20837448/social-media-dhs-cbp-surveillance-us-border-ismail-ajjawi-harvard https://www.theverge.com/2019/8/31/20837448/social-media-dhs... 3. Tracking and targeting individuals' political speech in autocratic nations: https://www.npr.org/2019/11/07/777352750/how-saudi-arabia-used-twitter-to-spy-on-dissidents https://www.npr.org/2019/11/07/777352750/how-saudi-arabia-us... 4. Paid to suggest pro-CCP propaganda! https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/08/technology/china-facebook.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/08/technology/china-facebook...

6DM 6y ago
I don’t think we can control them, I do think we could ideally introduce sensible legislation and hopefully the bad actors would at least be incentivized to benefit their own country to some extent. Also, sorry if I somehow insulted your home country, was only trying to make the point of why Americans would want a Chinese company ran out of town.
asdff 6y ago
I don't think google/twitter/facebook are any different than tiktock. Honestly, I'd love to see something done with these companies too, since it's clear that making microphones available to anyone, whether they are a human or a script, just leads to noise that overwhelms any expert level signal on world events or domain knowledge. I'm not sure what can be done at this point, though, it's like pandora's box has been opened. Now that the playbook is there, the internet is legitimately polluted for good. There will always be some other social network to trivially exert manipulation on, since humans are just wired to give into this tribalism as a species at the end of the day.
- valuearb 6y ago
  Oh Lawdy, people are saying things on social platforms I disagree with!

matwood 6y ago

> General election interference, manipulating public perception by constantly suggesting pro-CCP propaganda, aggravating the general public to turn on each other You mean what's happening everyday on Facebook and Twitter often being instigated by Chinese and Russian actors?

6DM 6y ago
Pretty much and I hope they pay for it. It would be nice if those companies be actually held accountable where it makes sense. They might as well be operating from China! :)

Bhilai 6y ago

US interferes in elections in many countries[1] [1]https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/07/the-us-has-a-long-history-of-election-meddling/565538/ https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/07/the-us-has...

6DM 6y ago
and it shouldn’t be a thing.
filoleg 6y ago
>US interferes in elections in many countries Sure, and I totally understand if those other countries decide to take steps to prevent that interference from happening. It is perfectly reasonable for them to want to do so, just like it is for the US.