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I agree with this and I feel that page ranking algorithms and their variants (depending on whether you want to boost novelty, controversy, contrarian articles,
by soueuls 5y ago
I agree with this and I feel that page ranking algorithms and their variants (depending on whether you want to boost novelty, controversy, contrarian articles, whatever) is already doing a good job at filtering out full propaganda.
And Russian propaganda is probably already taken care of because the rare moments I decide to search for information about the conflict, the only little propaganda I stumble upon is coming from Ukraine (over exaggerated body count, Snake Island, etc). Nothing new under the sun, fog of war is obviously expected and natural.
But this kind of censorship is clearly impeding my capacity to grow my worldview. And I don't trust the West more than the Russians (Irak's weapons of mass destruction anyone?)
I own a fairly big media in France and we have been covering the conflict, we made two videos on war communication tactiques and it's pretty bad from both side. Ukraine is using propaganda to drag Europe into this mess, Russian is using propaganda as usual.
It also reminds me the Covid, 1 year ago, any search about the "Wuhan leak theory" was deemed to be a "conspiracy theory", you had a hard time finding interesting resources about people digging into the idea with a scientific mindset and a desire to really figure out where that might come from. People who believed it was possible, were laugh at.
And now, it's considered plausible, nobody has a definitive answer to it, but it's a real possibility. For this reason, I don't believe in censorship from people who keeps calling the shots but who are as clueless as the rest the population.
Last but not least, like any individual I do have biases of course. But I am very wary of people who also have biases but who might have hidden motives and skin in the game.
Using the "liberal idea" of page ranking which is in my opinion a very abstract way of dealing with information (similar to the invisible hand almost) appears to me as a superior and more trustable way.
That's why, I am also leaving DDG.
- bArray 5y ago> I own a fairly big media in France and we have been covering the conflict [..] Very interesting to hear things from this perspective. I assume it is non-mainstream? (I would ask for a link, but I cannot read French.) > It also reminds me the Covid [..] This has for sure made me more weary. Off-topic conspiracies today quickly become plausible theories tomorrow. I don't expect sources to be unbiased, but I do expect to be able to consider multiple perspectives. > Last but not least, like any individual I do have biases of course. But I am very wary of people who also have biases but who might have hidden motives and skin in the game. Who fact-checks the fact-checkers? A large unaccountable 'authority' deciding what information you may or may not consume is _exactly_ what we are trying to avoid. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. > That's why, I am also leaving DDG. Don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed DuckDuckGo for years. If there is some reversal or this change is somewhat moderate, I will consider staying with them. For now I am just considering alternatives.