Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Fake news ‘as a service’ booming among cybercrooks

theregister.co.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 131 posts

Re: Fake news ‘as a service’ booming among cybercrooks

#51

Post by olivermarks »

jotm wrote: post #43
blueadept111 wrote: post #34

The concept of "fake" news is a slippery slope. Anyone that's in the business of gathering and presenting news has a number of vested interests. Sensationalism. Fabrication. Fear mongering. Persuasion. Ingratiation. Language itself is mostly a tool for some shade of lying and/or intimidation, with the occasional fringe use of conveying factual information or for enabling cooperation between peers.

Really not sure what kind of people are downvoting these kinds of comments. Anyone care to enlighten?

I'm puzzled by the down votes too

Re: Fake news ‘as a service’ booming among cybercrooks

#52

Post by whyaduck »

NeedMoreTea wrote: post #47
whyaduck wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My thought experiment for considering the moral limits of capitalism: If producing Soylent Green were legal and profitable, would there be actors willing to produce and sell it? If you answer no, see: Philip Morris, Lockheed, Beretta, etc.

You're being downvoted for some reason, but the point on morality and capitalism is sound. For examples you might have been better choosing cases where the production rather than use by customers is problematic. Radium paint and dials, asbestos, prior to 20th century regulations food and medicine fraud and adulteration so endemic that finding just the correct product was almost impossible. Which is what led those reg…

Allowing businesses to divorce themselves from responsibility for the effects of what they produce, regardless of consumer choice, is too easy. I have no idea what the equivalent of "Saturday morning cartoons" is today, but 20 years ago, that slot was filled with commercials for sugary foods, targeted at children. Now we have payday loans, "buy here pay here" and a host of other services that capitalize on unsophisticated consumers in precarious economic conditions.

Capitalism is what it is - an utterly amoral engine of profit. Without regulation and legal frameworks it will create slaves, destroy the environment, kill and maim people - there's almost no limit.

What the OP's anecdote illustrates is that there's also a deep cultural issue at play.

Re: Fake news ‘as a service’ booming among cybercrooks

#53

Post by TranceMan »

rapnie wrote: post #21
gonational wrote: post #17

Fake news as a service; CNN and NBC have been doing that for decades... well ahead of the curve.

Telling only part of the story, showing bias, spinning things. Surely. But fake news? Examples please..

CNN Fake Iraq War Newscast Footage

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=isMtxbPdvzg

Re: Fake news ‘as a service’ booming among cybercrooks

#54

Post by gtirloni »

The fake news phenomenon is something that worries me at a local level: friends and family. I'm constantly bombarded by forwarded messages from them that don't pass a simple cursory review and are 99% fake if you dig further.

I've tried to combat this by researching what's forwarded to me and pointing that out (including how I discovered it was false) but people either don't reply back or get hostile, assuming I'm one of the "others" (because these messages are usually trying to instill people to hate something). I have _never_ received a thank you from anyone for this and nobody ever apologized back, and I try to be extra polite when pointing these errors.

I've left various chat groups and feel my energy is depleted to continue on this fight. It amazes me that people default to a "believe in everything that comes from WhatsApp/FB/Instagram" mentality versus distrusting the Internet completely (which would be more sensible if coupled with a minimum amount of research on what's shared with you).

Re: Fake news ‘as a service’ booming among cybercrooks

#55

Post by paulddraper »

whyaduck wrote: post #35
jsonne wrote: post #6

I gave a talk at Denver startup week last year about the underlying profit incentives tied to fake news and how industry reforms in the way media companies do business could not only benefit the advertisers but also stop Fake news. At the end of the talk I had 3 people ask how they could make fake news to promote their startups. That this has turned into a booming industry surprises me 0%, though it is depressing.

My thought experiment for considering the moral limits of capitalism: If producing Soylent Green were legal and profitable, would there be actors willing to produce and sell it? If you answer no, see: Philip Morris, Lockheed, Beretta, etc.

I suspect you are being downvoted for comparing secretive cannibalism to security/defense.

But yes, supply will provide every legal thing in demand. Indeed, that is how the invisible hand is "supposed" to work.

Re: Fake news ‘as a service’ booming among cybercrooks

#57

Post by [deleted] »

misterman0 wrote: post #45
blueadept111 wrote: post #34

The concept of "fake" news is a slippery slope. Anyone that's in the business of gathering and presenting news has a number of vested interests. Sensationalism. Fabrication. Fear mongering. Persuasion. Ingratiation. Language itself is mostly a tool for some shade of lying and/or intimidation, with the occasional fringe use of conveying factual information or for enabling cooperation between peers.

> Language itself is mostly a tool for some shade of lying and/or intimidation No, not at all. Language can be used to that effect, sure, but there exists a little something called true/false. Train yourself on seing nuances, if you have trouble separating false things from regular partisanship.

[deleted]

Re: Fake news ‘as a service’ booming among cybercrooks

#58

Post by daxorid »

jotm wrote: post #43
blueadept111 wrote: post #34

The concept of "fake" news is a slippery slope. Anyone that's in the business of gathering and presenting news has a number of vested interests. Sensationalism. Fabrication. Fear mongering. Persuasion. Ingratiation. Language itself is mostly a tool for some shade of lying and/or intimidation, with the occasional fringe use of conveying factual information or for enabling cooperation between peers.

Really not sure what kind of people are downvoting these kinds of comments. Anyone care to enlighten?

Usually the kind of people who esteem journalists as philosopher-kings, and the organizations who employ them as paragons of perfect, unassailable virtue.

The Fourth Estate is not to be criticized.

Re: Fake news ‘as a service’ booming among cybercrooks

#59

Post by whyaduck »

paulddraper wrote: post #55
whyaduck wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My thought experiment for considering the moral limits of capitalism: If producing Soylent Green were legal and profitable, would there be actors willing to produce and sell it? If you answer no, see: Philip Morris, Lockheed, Beretta, etc.

I suspect you are being downvoted for comparing secretive cannibalism to security/defense. But yes, supply will provide every legal thing in demand. Indeed, that is how the invisible hand is "supposed" to work.

Lockheed's involved in the maintenance (and previously, manufacture) of thermonuclear weapons. I'm pretty comfortable with my comparison.

Re: Fake news ‘as a service’ booming among cybercrooks

#60

Post by aurailious »

blueadept111 wrote: post #34

The concept of "fake" news is a slippery slope. Anyone that's in the business of gathering and presenting news has a number of vested interests. Sensationalism. Fabrication. Fear mongering. Persuasion. Ingratiation. Language itself is mostly a tool for some shade of lying and/or intimidation, with the occasional fringe use of conveying factual information or for enabling cooperation between peers.

We are not talking about exaggeration, we are talking about people who make actual fake news. Fake and as in completely artificial, no basis in reality, and imaginary. Its creating news that doesn't exist.

> Sun Won't Rise Tomorrow, Click Now To Find Out Who's At Fault

^ This is what is effectively going on. Its objectively false and fake news. But the problem is that people are believing this shit.

Post reply on HN