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Why China Silenced a Clickbait Queen in Its Battle for Information Control

nytimes.com

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Re: Why China Silenced a Clickbait Queen in Its Battle for Information Control

#11

Post by dang »

nutcracker46 wrote: post #2

Note that there was no redress or due process before the accounts were deleted. All of you who love the efficiency of authoritarian government, enjoy your world without Western liberties or justice. Media queens today, you tomorrow.

Please don't take HN threads into ideological flamewars. They're all predictable, therefore boring, therefore off topic here.

Edit: we've had to warn you about this before already. Continuing to do it will eventually get your account banned, so please don't!

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Why China Silenced a Clickbait Queen in Its Battle for Information Control

#12

Post by naniwaduni »

woodandsteel wrote: post #9

I feel sorry for the Chinese people. Xi Jinping wants to suppress all discourse doesn't praise him and the government's policies. That might have worked in ancient China, but it simply doesn't work in the modern industrial era. Society is too complicated and so you need free discourse to find out what is going on and discuss policy alternatives. Xi's policies may work for a while, but in the long term they are going…

Ancient China does have a pretty interesting interpretation of its occasional revolutions...

Re: Why China Silenced a Clickbait Queen in Its Battle for Information Control

#14

Post by tg180 »

zachguo wrote: post #13

Is there any discussion on HN about how to handle these kinds of for-profit fake news factories? Edit: I found one here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16774129

Please don't do this: criticism and false information are different things.

> But the government did not relent. People’s Daily, the flagship newspaper of the Communist Party, accused Ms. Ma of manipulating public opinion. Her social accounts were deleted on Feb. 21.

The overlapping of the concepts of misinformation and false news are already quite worrying without censorship being confused with "policing the internet".

Re: Why China Silenced a Clickbait Queen in Its Battle for Information Control

#15

Post by chillacy »

tg180 wrote: post #14
zachguo wrote: post #13

Is there any discussion on HN about how to handle these kinds of for-profit fake news factories? Edit: I found one here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16774129

Please don't do this: criticism and false information are different things. > But the government did not relent. People’s Daily, the flagship newspaper of the Communist Party, accused Ms. Ma of manipulating public opinion. Her social accounts were deleted on Feb. 21. The overlapping of the concepts of misinformation and false news are already quite worrying without censorship being confused with "policing the interne…

Can you elaborate? This seems like a fake news operation: you make up a story and people share it because it resonates with some truism they believe in.

> The article was widely circulated online and prompted debate about China’s wealth gap, surging medical costs and the value of education — common complaints of China’s middle class. Soon, however, internet users pointed to factual errors and said the piece had been invented.

I remember awhile ago someone got criticized for doing the same thing, getting people riled up over some fake immigrant violence or something.

Re: Why China Silenced a Clickbait Queen in Its Battle for Information Control

#16

Post by zachguo »

tg180 wrote: post #14
zachguo wrote: post #13

Is there any discussion on HN about how to handle these kinds of for-profit fake news factories? Edit: I found one here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16774129

Please don't do this: criticism and false information are different things. > But the government did not relent. People’s Daily, the flagship newspaper of the Communist Party, accused Ms. Ma of manipulating public opinion. Her social accounts were deleted on Feb. 21. The overlapping of the concepts of misinformation and false news are already quite worrying without censorship being confused with "policing the interne…

The government is definitely suppressive and has zero tolerance on 'rumors'. https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/09/06/chinas-lessons-for-figh...

But this particular shop definitely falls into the category of fake news factory. Sensational stories with clickbait titles are invented to drive up viewership.

Re: Why China Silenced a Clickbait Queen in Its Battle for Information Control

#17

Post by tgragnato »

zachguo wrote: post #16
tg180 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please don't do this: criticism and false information are different things. > But the government did not relent. People’s Daily, the flagship newspaper of the Communist Party, accused Ms. Ma of manipulating public opinion. Her social accounts were deleted on Feb. 21. The overlapping of the concepts of misinformation and false news are already quite worrying without censorship being confused with "policing the interne…

The government is definitely suppressive and has zero tolerance on 'rumors'. https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/09/06/chinas-lessons-for-figh... But this particular shop definitely falls into the category of fake news factory. Sensational stories with clickbait titles are invented to drive up viewership.

Some actors in new media spread false informations, and this is a real issue. But in China, people turn to blogs as a result of the censorship. ...More filtering cannot be an answer.

You don't combat false news by electing an arbiter of the truth (whoever it might be), because that's the start of a journey in a rabbit hole with no end.

Some possible solutions are forcing an organisation to publish corrections and clarifications, forcing people to critical thinking by engaging them in a civil discussion (one of the reasons I like HN).

Total banning and complete erasure shouldn't be options worth considering.

Re: Why China Silenced a Clickbait Queen in Its Battle for Information Control

#18

Post by tgragnato »

chillacy wrote: post #15
tg180 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please don't do this: criticism and false information are different things. > But the government did not relent. People’s Daily, the flagship newspaper of the Communist Party, accused Ms. Ma of manipulating public opinion. Her social accounts were deleted on Feb. 21. The overlapping of the concepts of misinformation and false news are already quite worrying without censorship being confused with "policing the interne…

Can you elaborate? This seems like a fake news operation: you make up a story and people share it because it resonates with some truism they believe in. > The article was widely circulated online and prompted debate about China’s wealth gap, surging medical costs and the value of education — common complaints of China’s middle class. Soon, however, internet users pointed to factual errors and said the piece had been…

see answer to the OP

Re: Why China Silenced a Clickbait Queen in Its Battle for Information Control

#19

Post by woodandsteel »

naniwaduni wrote: post #12
woodandsteel wrote: post #9

I feel sorry for the Chinese people. Xi Jinping wants to suppress all discourse doesn't praise him and the government's policies. That might have worked in ancient China, but it simply doesn't work in the modern industrial era. Society is too complicated and so you need free discourse to find out what is going on and discuss policy alternatives. Xi's policies may work for a while, but in the long term they are going…

Ancient China does have a pretty interesting interpretation of its occasional revolutions...

Quite true. Confucianism was a remarkably successful political philosophy, and it even included a positive place for revolutions. The problem with Confucianism today is that it was designed for an earlier technological era.
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