4 ms·

Yet as a European I wonder - what with the neofascist takeover attempts powered by post truth and fake news (aka "harmful information") that were successful in

Yet as a European I wonder - what with the neofascist takeover attempts powered by post truth and fake news (aka "harmful information") that were successful in Russia, and will probably some day be successful in the US...maybe China is on to something good here?

dantondwa 5y ago
What if the state itself propagates those "harmful information"? It is a mistake to think that fake news are created spontaneously and that an intervention from above can fix the problem, given that it is plausible to think that they are, in fact, propagated by our media, politicians and state agents. Also, I'd like to highlight that: 1) Putin has risen to power well before the existence of Internet fake news. Complex factors justify his political existence: economic depression of the country in the 90s; religion; the support of Russian oligarchs; fear of political instability. To say that they were successful in Russia is an oversimplification. 2) They did, however, play a big role in the 2016 US elections :-)
- suction 5y ago
  "What if the state itself propagates those "harmful information" That would be preferable to an enemy doing it, as with the Russia / Trump affair, because your own state has less interest in ending itself than its enemies. Probably close to zero interest.
izacus 5y ago
Um... did you just miss the whole 4 years of Trump administration in US? Or are you just completely oblivious about how all of these structures are already well entrenched in the west? It's horrifying to see these posts - west has many of those criticized evil structures from China and somehow the conversation still ends up in xenophobia instead of approaches how we can purge these things from our societies. This also goes for the root comment - notice how they complain about Huawei not publishing their code into western owned corporate repository beholden to western unaccountable laws like DMCA. Also notice how it ignores that iOS, completely censored by a Californian corporation, exists. They just care that these violations of freedoms are happening under a different flag, not that they exist.
jacobwilliamroy 5y ago
It already is successful in the U.S. We just had a coup attempt back in January because an angry mob was convinced that our presidential election was rigged. I don't really know what to do about the misinformation other than systematically destroy the internet: just start smashing routers and cutting cables and don't stop until everything goes back to normal.
- redis_mlc 5y ago
  > We just had a coup attempt back in January No, Trump was already President. Repeating false leftist talking points doesn't make them true.

dantondwa 5y ago

What if the state itself propagates those "harmful information"? It is a mistake to think that fake news are created spontaneously and that an intervention from above can fix the problem, given that it is plausible to think that they are, in fact, propagated by our media, politicians and state agents. Also, I'd like to highlight that: 1) Putin has risen to power well before the existence of Internet fake news. Complex factors justify his political existence: economic depression of the country in the 90s; religion; the support of Russian oligarchs; fear of political instability. To say that they were successful in Russia is an oversimplification. 2) They did, however, play a big role in the 2016 US elections :-)

suction 5y ago
"What if the state itself propagates those "harmful information" That would be preferable to an enemy doing it, as with the Russia / Trump affair, because your own state has less interest in ending itself than its enemies. Probably close to zero interest.

izacus 5y ago

Um... did you just miss the whole 4 years of Trump administration in US? Or are you just completely oblivious about how all of these structures are already well entrenched in the west? It's horrifying to see these posts - west has many of those criticized evil structures from China and somehow the conversation still ends up in xenophobia instead of approaches how we can purge these things from our societies. This also goes for the root comment - notice how they complain about Huawei not publishing their code into western owned corporate repository beholden to western unaccountable laws like DMCA. Also notice how it ignores that iOS, completely censored by a Californian corporation, exists. They just care that these violations of freedoms are happening under a different flag, not that they exist.

jacobwilliamroy 5y ago

It already is successful in the U.S. We just had a coup attempt back in January because an angry mob was convinced that our presidential election was rigged. I don't really know what to do about the misinformation other than systematically destroy the internet: just start smashing routers and cutting cables and don't stop until everything goes back to normal.

redis_mlc 5y ago
> We just had a coup attempt back in January No, Trump was already President. Repeating false leftist talking points doesn't make them true.