4 ms·

Researchers Say Cloudflare Is a Misinformation Haven

12 points by sizzle 4y ago

ohiovr 4y ago
In the old days we used to call those things rumors or rumor mongering. If you try to put your thumb down on it trying to exterminate it will just spread to other areas. If rumors are followed by investigation that include all transparency, they are dispelled. Edit I might as well expand on my gripes: 1. Rumors that are dispelled by agencies that have conflicted interest breed more of the same. 2. Rumors that cannot be dispelled without revealing a secret usually don't get dispelled. 3. Free speech is about people saying things you don't want to hear. I think some of us can disagree with that. 4. I have more faith in personal accounts than some big brother AI. 5. Unfortunately unless you know the person in the flesh, in the future it might be impossible to tell the difference.
cheeselip420 4y ago
Why stop there? Why not blame the power companies that power the servers? Or the companies maintaining the fiber infrastructure connecting these bad sites to the rest of the world?
raxxorraxor 4y ago
It was clear that more people will now demand content not be served by Cloudflare. I think it started with the daily stormer? Cloudflare now has a lot harder case to defend their neutrality, which is most valuable for such a service or a healthy net. Not a fan of the daily stormer obviously, but I would have preferred to keep an eye on it myself. They were at the lowest point when they tried to groom my little pony fans and were completely unsuccessful here. This is a game where others are much better at. We could have left it at that. These activist or researchers might mean well, but they have lost perspective and are driven by fear and moral panics. If they would address state propaganda it would be another story, but the study as it is isn't particularly useful to shine light on problems. There being less and less counterweights that can be trusted for example. If large platforms censor content on behest of executive agencies it is far more relevant than some crackhead putting their opinion on the net. North Korea obviously has another definition of misinformation. A bit of reflection on the problem should lay bare the pitfalls of censoring content. Funnily the problem of misinformation started to grow exponentially since we started to do censor. Of course that would begin with content nearly everyone has a problem with. Like the daily stormer. It will go on for political candidates, medical and financial information... This will escalate endlessly if providers like Cloudflare cannot defend against the complainers. study: https://ojs.aaai.org/index.php/ICWSM/article/view/19292/19064 https://ojs.aaai.org/index.php/ICWSM/article/view/19292/1906... James Ball: "A decision to keep serving a customer is a decision to help them get their content out." I think Mr. Ball actually shares some views of people writing for the Daily Stormer. Guilt comes with far association. Maybe a more objective critique is appropriate, but that would require effort from both parts.

12 points by sizzle 4y ago

In the old days we used to call those things rumors or rumor mongering. If you try to put your thumb down on it trying to exterminate it will just spread to other areas. If rumors are followed by investigation that include all transparency, they are dispelled. Edit I might as well expand on my gripes: 1. Rumors that are dispelled by agencies that have conflicted interest breed more of the same. 2. Rumors that cannot be dispelled without revealing a secret usually don't get dispelled. 3. Free speech is about people saying things you don't want to hear. I think some of us can disagree with that. 4. I have more faith in personal accounts than some big brother AI. 5. Unfortunately unless you know the person in the flesh, in the future it might be impossible to tell the difference.

cheeselip420 4y ago

Why stop there? Why not blame the power companies that power the servers? Or the companies maintaining the fiber infrastructure connecting these bad sites to the rest of the world?

raxxorraxor 4y ago

It was clear that more people will now demand content not be served by Cloudflare. I think it started with the daily stormer? Cloudflare now has a lot harder case to defend their neutrality, which is most valuable for such a service or a healthy net. Not a fan of the daily stormer obviously, but I would have preferred to keep an eye on it myself. They were at the lowest point when they tried to groom my little pony fans and were completely unsuccessful here. This is a game where others are much better at. We could have left it at that. These activist or researchers might mean well, but they have lost perspective and are driven by fear and moral panics. If they would address state propaganda it would be another story, but the study as it is isn't particularly useful to shine light on problems. There being less and less counterweights that can be trusted for example. If large platforms censor content on behest of executive agencies it is far more relevant than some crackhead putting their opinion on the net. North Korea obviously has another definition of misinformation. A bit of reflection on the problem should lay bare the pitfalls of censoring content. Funnily the problem of misinformation started to grow exponentially since we started to do censor. Of course that would begin with content nearly everyone has a problem with. Like the daily stormer. It will go on for political candidates, medical and financial information... This will escalate endlessly if providers like Cloudflare cannot defend against the complainers. study: https://ojs.aaai.org/index.php/ICWSM/article/view/19292/19064 https://ojs.aaai.org/index.php/ICWSM/article/view/19292/1906... James Ball: "A decision to keep serving a customer is a decision to help them get their content out." I think Mr. Ball actually shares some views of people writing for the Daily Stormer. Guilt comes with far association. Maybe a more objective critique is appropriate, but that would require effort from both parts.