>The internet is essentially a big propaganda machine and you can't till what is what unless you are keen and aware. Indeed. Governments including those in th

>The internet is essentially a big propaganda machine and you can't till what is what unless you are keen and aware. Indeed. Governments including those in the Five Eyes, Russia, China, Israel and more have been shown to have massive operations - JTRIG for one - that seek to disrupt and manipulate online discourse, create and spread false information, etc. PR firms run rampant across social media sites, forums, etc. and disrupt and manipulate online discourse and the flow of information. Everything from the largest companies in the world to small local restaurants engage in manipulating how their company and its actions are perceived. News entities, small and large, serve their corporate interests and promote whatever they want promoted, or rally against whatever they want rallied against. And then people, with their inherent biases, buying into propaganda, toeing the party line, etc. do their own part in the same, whether it's in spreading purposely created disinformation that they believe to be true, trying to silence those that disagree with them and more. One of the most toxic things I've seen is the rise in very rapidly dismissing a statement that one disagrees with as being that of "trolling" or "shilling" in order to shut down the discussion. With regards to Reddit, the fact that moderator accounts, accounts with large numbers of upvotes, etc. can be readily bought online says more than needs to be said about the bizarre behaviour on display on that site every day. Wikipedia has been utterly bastardized. And so it goes on. It's a shame to see a tool that was created for sharing information being so heavily corrupted. Widespread propaganda from all sides, mass surveillance, the active actions of intelligence agencies such as the recent CIA attempt to inspire an uprising in Cuba, etc. It has become very hard to know what to trust online now. It's sad, but not unexpected, and one can only wonder what the future holds for it.