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This is a topic that came up in the wonderful Maria Ressa's Nobel Peace Prize speech. She argued that an international coalition of governments needs to combat

This is a topic that came up in the wonderful Maria Ressa's Nobel Peace Prize speech. She argued that an international coalition of governments needs to combat disinformation on social media by saying what information is the "truth", a word that came up often in her speech. I don't think this will work at all. Ignoring the implications of government interference in private corporations, do we trust governments to be arbiters of truth? I certainly don't, and I'm sure John Locke would have agreed. In the case of the US, the government itself was the source of much skepticism concerning COVID, and masks!

ahartmetz 5y ago
> do we trust governments to be arbiters of truth? You already do, might as well accept it. The government funds science, makes some decisions about education, and makes laws based on what it thinks is true. Some of it is always wrong, but it's not as wrong as idiots on Facebook. And the goverment is something that is (somewhat) controlled by the people, more so than Facebook.
908B64B197 5y ago
> I don't think this will work at all. Ignoring the implications of government interference in private corporations, do we trust governments to be arbiters of truth? Excluding the obvious bad faith actors (pretty much all on some sanction list) some countries will dance around the truth and bend over backward to avoid offending some countries [0] [1] [2] [3] [0] https://www.foxnews.com/media/who-china-taiwan-interview https://www.foxnews.com/media/who-china-taiwan-interview [1] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/30/senior-who-adviser-appears-to-dodge-question-on-taiwans-covid-19-response https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/30/senior-who-adv... [2] https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8172031/WHO-official-allegedly-refuses-address-Taiwan-appears-hang-journalist.html https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8172031/WHO-officia... [3] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-52088167 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-52088167
quantumwannabe 5y ago
Maria Ressa herself doesn't trust (some) governments to be arbiters of truth. She was found guilty of spreading disinformation by the Philippine government. She claims that she was telling the truth, and the government is corrupt and lying and attacking the free press, but authoritative sources in the Philippines have stated that she is mistaken. The Philippine government was clearly combating disinformation from online foreign-backed conspiracy theorists.

ahartmetz 5y ago

> do we trust governments to be arbiters of truth? You already do, might as well accept it. The government funds science, makes some decisions about education, and makes laws based on what it thinks is true. Some of it is always wrong, but it's not as wrong as idiots on Facebook. And the goverment is something that is (somewhat) controlled by the people, more so than Facebook.

908B64B197 5y ago

> I don't think this will work at all. Ignoring the implications of government interference in private corporations, do we trust governments to be arbiters of truth? Excluding the obvious bad faith actors (pretty much all on some sanction list) some countries will dance around the truth and bend over backward to avoid offending some countries [0] [1] [2] [3] [0] https://www.foxnews.com/media/who-china-taiwan-interview https://www.foxnews.com/media/who-china-taiwan-interview [1] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/30/senior-who-adviser-appears-to-dodge-question-on-taiwans-covid-19-response https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/30/senior-who-adv... [2] https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8172031/WHO-official-allegedly-refuses-address-Taiwan-appears-hang-journalist.html https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8172031/WHO-officia... [3] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-52088167 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-52088167

quantumwannabe 5y ago

Maria Ressa herself doesn't trust (some) governments to be arbiters of truth. She was found guilty of spreading disinformation by the Philippine government. She claims that she was telling the truth, and the government is corrupt and lying and attacking the free press, but authoritative sources in the Philippines have stated that she is mistaken. The Philippine government was clearly combating disinformation from online foreign-backed conspiracy theorists.