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> Here at Nieman Lab, we’re long-time fans of the work being done at First Draft, which is working to protect communities around the world from harmful informat

> Here at Nieman Lab, we’re long-time fans of the work being done at First Draft, which is working to protect communities around the world from harmful information Imagine being such a weak-minded person that you believe in the existence of "harmful information". It's not even necessarily untrue or wrong, it's just "harmful". Harmful to whom? The people who own the media? Propagandists? This redefinition of the word "harm" is typical Newspeak bullshit. Here's some harmful information for you: you're going to lose this war, because you're trying to impose censorship on people, and we hate it. We hate your patronizing attitude, your view that people are dumb and can't handle contrasting opinions about the world. People will build systems to route around this, to escape from your walled garden of comfortable verified propaganda. It's a shame, but not a surprise, that COVID is being used as an excuse to shove all this control down people's throats. 9/11 was used as an excuse to shove the Patriot Act and other freedom-resticting laws into place that did not prevent any terrorism or make anything better (except for people with make-work TSA jobs). I get the feeling that Nieman Lab's members like many others were just waiting for some excuse to push even more draconian censorship mechanisms onto social media. 20 years from now, no doubt, some other big catastrophe will be used as an excuse to restrict things further. You think you're doing a good thing, but you're just an apparatchik, just an agent of propagandists and moneyed interests, and it's obvious.

Scalestein 6y ago
Out of genuine curiosity what are examples of the control being implemented under the veil of COVID? Sure lockdowns and such are being ordered but once the vaccination is completed those won't be continued. I don't see the same type of issues as the patriot act after 9/11 which had clear long term impact.
- tarboreus 6y ago
  Not OP, but I'm concerned about the fairly rigid and possibly overreaching take social media platforms are taking. At this point they should be some kind of public trust like Bell, and while for now they aren't subject to the first amendment, they are a major concern for those worried about freedom of speech as an ideal and a norm in a democratic society. With that said, I think Trump crossed a big, big line yesterday. I agree with actions taken on his accounts yesterday, but not the larger muzzling of (admittedly often misguided or even heinous) speech in the broader context.
- aaron695 6y ago
  We are normalising and optimising mass surveillance and mass control it's hard to see it not happening. Why would anyone give that power up? Humans are power optimising machines. I'd say you have to prove your point since it's not logical to me. One thing I think is interesting is sewerage testing. I'd like to know more. Can we find if a person is in a city through sewerage? They will be making the testing stations more granular as we speak. I also think it's exciting we might wipe out many diseases through sewerage testing. It just sucks we are become a single cell in a large organism called government.
  - core-questions 6y ago
    Your sewer chat is intriguing, but I don't know about about it to comment.
    - aaron695 6y ago
      https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/wastewater-surveillance.html https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/wast... It's like cameras inside garbage trucks. It starts off at one thing and progresses. Sewer testing started with drugs. Last I checked only China had used it for an actual bust. The rest were for monitoring. Covid testing is following the different strains, so not just the existence but which strain. No claim this is a great source, but it seems viable. Remember DNA is traceable from family as well - "it was mentioned that one of the techniques available to determine if bin Laden was in the compound was “analyzing local sewage for genetic markers.” " https://www.wwdmag.com/spies-sewer-0 https://www.wwdmag.com/spies-sewer-0
- core-questions 6y ago
  > Out of genuine curiosity what are examples of the control being implemented under the veil of COVID? If you post something that disagrees with the mainstream take on COVID you can be banned from social media or at least have some banner text added to your post. Little by little, your right to post things you want is being eroded; it starts with "hate speech" and proceeds through to "misinformation" which, of course, is anything the gatekeepers say it is. Of course it's going to look like it's being done reasonably to start with; they're not dummies. It's always done in some way such that it's hard to disagree with, until eventually everyone who is capable of disagreeing has been silenced. > Sure lockdowns and such are being ordered but once the vaccination is completed those won't be continued. God, I hope so. I really do still think there's a chance of returning to something that seems normalish. NZ seems to be managing. But the precedent is set: we have people pushing the narrative that "misinformation kills people" and therefore gatekeepers need to be in charge of what people can say.

Scalestein 6y ago

Out of genuine curiosity what are examples of the control being implemented under the veil of COVID? Sure lockdowns and such are being ordered but once the vaccination is completed those won't be continued. I don't see the same type of issues as the patriot act after 9/11 which had clear long term impact.

tarboreus 6y ago
Not OP, but I'm concerned about the fairly rigid and possibly overreaching take social media platforms are taking. At this point they should be some kind of public trust like Bell, and while for now they aren't subject to the first amendment, they are a major concern for those worried about freedom of speech as an ideal and a norm in a democratic society. With that said, I think Trump crossed a big, big line yesterday. I agree with actions taken on his accounts yesterday, but not the larger muzzling of (admittedly often misguided or even heinous) speech in the broader context.
aaron695 6y ago
We are normalising and optimising mass surveillance and mass control it's hard to see it not happening. Why would anyone give that power up? Humans are power optimising machines. I'd say you have to prove your point since it's not logical to me. One thing I think is interesting is sewerage testing. I'd like to know more. Can we find if a person is in a city through sewerage? They will be making the testing stations more granular as we speak. I also think it's exciting we might wipe out many diseases through sewerage testing. It just sucks we are become a single cell in a large organism called government.
- core-questions 6y ago
  Your sewer chat is intriguing, but I don't know about about it to comment.
  - aaron695 6y ago
    https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/wastewater-surveillance.html https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/wast... It's like cameras inside garbage trucks. It starts off at one thing and progresses. Sewer testing started with drugs. Last I checked only China had used it for an actual bust. The rest were for monitoring. Covid testing is following the different strains, so not just the existence but which strain. No claim this is a great source, but it seems viable. Remember DNA is traceable from family as well - "it was mentioned that one of the techniques available to determine if bin Laden was in the compound was “analyzing local sewage for genetic markers.” " https://www.wwdmag.com/spies-sewer-0 https://www.wwdmag.com/spies-sewer-0
core-questions 6y ago
> Out of genuine curiosity what are examples of the control being implemented under the veil of COVID? If you post something that disagrees with the mainstream take on COVID you can be banned from social media or at least have some banner text added to your post. Little by little, your right to post things you want is being eroded; it starts with "hate speech" and proceeds through to "misinformation" which, of course, is anything the gatekeepers say it is. Of course it's going to look like it's being done reasonably to start with; they're not dummies. It's always done in some way such that it's hard to disagree with, until eventually everyone who is capable of disagreeing has been silenced. > Sure lockdowns and such are being ordered but once the vaccination is completed those won't be continued. God, I hope so. I really do still think there's a chance of returning to something that seems normalish. NZ seems to be managing. But the precedent is set: we have people pushing the narrative that "misinformation kills people" and therefore gatekeepers need to be in charge of what people can say.