3 ms·
Before Corona, I would have really welcomed this announcement. But to be honest, when someone says that the project will be "based on European values," I think
by sazz 4y ago
Before Corona, I would have really welcomed this announcement. But to be honest, when someone says that the project will be "based on European values," I think it's stillborn.
Who is defining those "European values"? Is it the European Commission?
As a liberal person who still dreams of mature citizens who form their own opinions well-informed from a rich debate, I now see the "European values" quite critically.
In Germany - if you criticize the Corona measures you are called a Nazi, if you criticize the Ukraine war you are a Russian troll. Are those then the "European values"?
The European Commission has already established some projects to weight the information according to its will (SocialTruth, PROVENANCE, EUNOMIA, etc.).
When a government agency talks about truth, then all the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
When governments speak of disinformation, it is usually only in the sense that the information does not correspond to their interests. I had to learn that the so-called fact checkers don't check facts, they just sell a counter opinion as a "fact".
So for a European search engine, a filter is then placed upstream that filters out all disinformation?
In the past, that was called censorship. Today, it's more like citizen service.
- johnywalks 4y ago> If you criticize the Corona measure you are a Nazi, if you criticize the Ukraine war you are a Russian troll? These notions are propagated by the US to the rest of the world. While EU politicians seem to go along, europeans do not tolerate it much and that much is reflected in society. If the EU or more gov sponsored search engines pop up, i have no doubt they will want to control them in their own way - i'm okay with that. Right now our only option is US controlled entities that answer to US govs and rules. At least here we can point fingers and hold politicians accountable if they try to influence things the wrong way. We can't do that with US companies.
- sazz 4y ago> At least here we can point fingers and hold politicians accountable if they try to influence things the wrong way. We can't do that with US companies. Germany is currently governed by a chancellor who has in fact been convicted of lying, has selective memory lapses as a co-responsible party in one of the biggest banking scandals, and was also instrumental in the political decisions to push ahead with dependence on Russian gas. So sorry if I doubt that politicians can be made accountable for anything.