3 ms·

Reddit downgrades technology community after censorship

8 points by schrofer 13y ago

danford 13y ago
In this day and age communities like this need safeguards to protect the participants from being manipulated. This is no longer a conspiracy theory, this is real. If you don't believe the US government has a hand in manipulating public opinion, then you have to at least believe China and Russia are doing it. While there is not much proof, I think there are probably large corporations attempting to manipulate public opinion through the use of social media. So r/technology banned the word 'tesla'? Believe it or not the community is probably one of the most influential tech related communities on the internet. How hard would it be to buy a moderators account without anyone knowing? Would paying a hundred grand (or a few hundred) to control one of the most influential tech forums on the internet be worth it? (would it even cost more than a couple thousand dollars?) Could Microsoft or Ford or Daisy make money by manipulating public opinion? You bet they could. Do corporations and government face real threats from large communities getting wind of alternative concepts and ideas through the internet? You bet they do. There is real incentive to control large public internet forums, and when you sit down and think about how you might manipulate a site like reddit the answers are almost obvious. You wouldn't even need a moderator account if you had a small team of people with the right technology and incentive. Are the people running r/technology just normal people sitting at home managing one of the biggest forums on the internet while working eight hour days at the salt mine or have they found a way to turn moderating a subreddit with millions of subscribers into a paid gig? So the question is, how do we protect our selves from this type of thing, or at least keep the manipulation out in the open so we can see exactly what's happening?
cryoshon 13y ago
This is the face of the New Internet, whose seeds were sewn in 2010 and have recently started to sprout. The New Internet is a public opinion platform dedicated to dictating/shaping the technotariat's perceptions using distraction, shilling, disinformation, censorship, and divide-and-conquer via social media. As the public at large becomes more integrated with social media and less with traditional media, propaganda will ramp up on the Internet accordingly. Internet based propaganda is particularly dangerous because it can create the appearance of social consensus, which silences people who might dissent. Reddit's full infiltration by corporate and government (and not just the US government, mind you) groups has been in the spotlight lately, and I wouldn't be surprised if the more informed users start to migrate to greener pastures without propaganda flux. It's no secret that the NSA files specifically detail propaganda operations against social media targets, and for now, the best bet for escaping them is smaller, more focused communities.

8 points by schrofer 13y ago

In this day and age communities like this need safeguards to protect the participants from being manipulated. This is no longer a conspiracy theory, this is real. If you don't believe the US government has a hand in manipulating public opinion, then you have to at least believe China and Russia are doing it. While there is not much proof, I think there are probably large corporations attempting to manipulate public opinion through the use of social media. So r/technology banned the word 'tesla'? Believe it or not the community is probably one of the most influential tech related communities on the internet. How hard would it be to buy a moderators account without anyone knowing? Would paying a hundred grand (or a few hundred) to control one of the most influential tech forums on the internet be worth it? (would it even cost more than a couple thousand dollars?) Could Microsoft or Ford or Daisy make money by manipulating public opinion? You bet they could. Do corporations and government face real threats from large communities getting wind of alternative concepts and ideas through the internet? You bet they do. There is real incentive to control large public internet forums, and when you sit down and think about how you might manipulate a site like reddit the answers are almost obvious. You wouldn't even need a moderator account if you had a small team of people with the right technology and incentive. Are the people running r/technology just normal people sitting at home managing one of the biggest forums on the internet while working eight hour days at the salt mine or have they found a way to turn moderating a subreddit with millions of subscribers into a paid gig? So the question is, how do we protect our selves from this type of thing, or at least keep the manipulation out in the open so we can see exactly what's happening?

cryoshon 13y ago

This is the face of the New Internet, whose seeds were sewn in 2010 and have recently started to sprout. The New Internet is a public opinion platform dedicated to dictating/shaping the technotariat's perceptions using distraction, shilling, disinformation, censorship, and divide-and-conquer via social media. As the public at large becomes more integrated with social media and less with traditional media, propaganda will ramp up on the Internet accordingly. Internet based propaganda is particularly dangerous because it can create the appearance of social consensus, which silences people who might dissent. Reddit's full infiltration by corporate and government (and not just the US government, mind you) groups has been in the spotlight lately, and I wouldn't be surprised if the more informed users start to migrate to greener pastures without propaganda flux. It's no secret that the NSA files specifically detail propaganda operations against social media targets, and for now, the best bet for escaping them is smaller, more focused communities.