News companies have known for centuries that Fear Uncertainty and Doubt are profitable. They've shrouded the FUD behind claims of professionalism and legitimacy

News companies have known for centuries that Fear Uncertainty and Doubt are profitable. They've shrouded the FUD behind claims of professionalism and legitimacy. The internet has made it instantly and continuously accessible, and just as dangerously, largely fabricated. Even news about things that actually happened can have its comments astroturfed by bad faith arguments or straight up lies. Censorship doesn't solve the FUD; that will never go away while there's a profit motive (IE, increase clicks). Censorship can't distinguish between truth and lies, that's a problem journalism used to solve when it was profitable. Censorship does solve brainwashing. Is the tradeoff worth it? Hard to say. All I know is all platforms legally need to censor illegal content, so it becomes a hammer looking for a nail.