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When that country is fomenting unrest in the west through various means utilizing the internet, why should the west allow themselves to remain at the mercy of t
by hackinthebochs 4y ago
When that country is fomenting unrest in the west through various means utilizing the internet, why should the west allow themselves to remain at the mercy of these operations? Liberal principles should not be a suicide pact.
- pphysch 4y agoThe idea that this or that Big Bad state is fomenting significant unrest in the West is a false narrative manufactured to scapegoat from domestic mismanagement and distract from the fact that Washington hosts a massive global industry dedicated to destabilizing states, especially those Big Bad ones, via organizations like GEC, NED, USAGM, USAID, etc.
- filoleg 4y agoI don't think it is some big "Washington and the buddies" conspiracy theory, but something much simpler. Fearmongering and doomer attitudes drive clicks for news publishers. Clicks drive money. Money drives their growth and influence. Which, in turn, drives more clicks. And guess who is thrashing around in their desperate attempts to stop bleeding influence and money in the internet age? Traditional news media. Not that difficult to see some clear examples of that either, like the recent bills in some countries trying to extort FB and Google to pay money for every news article shared on their platforms (for google it was in the form of the preview snippets, for fb it was in the form of users sharing links iirc).
- pphysch 4y agoThere is a component of click-baiting, but there are also clear mechanisms by which Washington promotes these misleading narratives.
- hackinthebochs 4y agoPutin's disinformation tactics are well known and documented. There is certainly a question of how much of a causal factor they are as opposed to the pre-existing fissures in society. But it's not reasonable to act like this is all a false narrative manufactured by whomever.
- pphysch 4y agoThis just isn't true. There is a well known and documented narrative that Trump is a Russian asset and Putin is puppeteering US politics and so on and so forth, but it doesn't match the evidence when you actually dig into it and abandon preconceived conclusions. Russia doesn't have anything remotely like the global propaganda apparatus based in Washington. They do a lot of propaganda, sure, but they are small fries in comparison. They are investing in changing that, however.
- hackinthebochs 4y agoPutin's disinformation tactics in the west go far beyond anything specifically related to Trump. Putin's facebook ad buy and relationship to Cambridge Analytica is well known. So is Putin's playbook for fomenting unrest in Eastern Europe. It's some serious myopia to think Putin's relevance is entirely related to Trump.
- pphysch 4y agoPlease show me an example of an ad that Putin used on Facebook (or anywhere).
- hackinthebochs 4y agohttps://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/06/technology/facebook-russian-political-ads.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/06/technology/facebook-russi...
- pphysch 4y agoI asked for an example of a Russian ad, not a paywall.
- zaroth 4y agoI think you missed the part of the story where it turns out the "Russian election interference on social media" was cooked up by the Hillary campaign and liberal NGOs like the "Alliance for Securing Democracy" which made the infamous Hamilton 68 dashboard. To be fair, most outlets never quite took the time to go back and admit they were spewing political oppo-fiction for years.
- ClumsyPilot 4y ago> fomenting unrest in the west through various means utilizing the internet Various actors in the west have been manipulating narratives for decades. There are literally companies that provide astroturfing services to fossil fuel intetests and others. But suddently people discover Russia is getting in on the action too, now its cause for panic?
- hackinthebochs 4y ago>But suddently people discover Russia is getting in on the action too, now its cause for panic? Yes, an adversary working against American and democratic interests is a cause for concern over and above the typical American and western profit-seekers.
- ClumsyPilot 4y agoLet me rephrase: we created the system where anyone and their dog can subvert the democratic process. Oil companies are doing it. Hackers are doing it. Random bloke down the pub and his dog too. And someone had an expectation that adversaries will not take advantage of it?