The solution is not regulate it. The solution is to stop pretending like social media have anything to do with reality.
That might make sense if social media didn't change reality.
Undercover reporter reveals life in a Polish troll farm
101–110 of 333 posts
Re: Undercover reporter reveals life in a Polish troll farm
#102It is not just foreign governments using paid trolls. Apparently Hilary Clinton used paid trolls against Bernie Sanders in 2016. https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-clinton-digital-troll... >Hillary Clinton's well-heeled backers have opened a new frontier in digital campaigning, one that seems to have been inspired by some of the Internet's worst instincts. Correct the Record, a super PAC coordinating with Clinton…
US campaigns doing it is, while still bad, is vastly different. One is an issue of sleazy election campaigns. The other is a matter of foreign interference with a country's fundamental sovereignty.
I disagree. It should be illegal, like fake paid product reviews, except instead of losing some money you lose your rightful political representation.
Re: Undercover reporter reveals life in a Polish troll farm
#103The solution is not regulate it. The solution is to stop pretending like social media have anything to do with reality.
And how do we make that happen? I, as an individual, already know social media does not reflect reality... however, I also know that it does AFFECT reality because other people believe it.
I can't simply decide for other people to not be influenced.
I always get frustrated at these kinds of suggestions; "you can solve problem X by just having people stop doing y!"... well, how do we get people to stop doing Y? You can't just wish it.
Re: Undercover reporter reveals life in a Polish troll farm
#104It is not just foreign governments using paid trolls. Apparently Hilary Clinton used paid trolls against Bernie Sanders in 2016. https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-clinton-digital-troll... >Hillary Clinton's well-heeled backers have opened a new frontier in digital campaigning, one that seems to have been inspired by some of the Internet's worst instincts. Correct the Record, a super PAC coordinating with Clinton…
This is a classic example of whataboutism. 1. Governments using trolls is different than campaigns hiring people to discuss politics. Campaigns get volunteers all the time to affect public discourse by going door to door, sending mailers, and doing all kinds of things. 2. Trolls specifically have an antisocial goal. The trolls employed by Russian military intelligence engaged in a psy-ops campaign against America to…
I don't agree. All this activity whether its legitimate volunteers OR trolls has not generated any real sustainable outcomes.
Both are just mindlessly trying to hit metrics(like/views/clicks/upvotes etc). And everyone is very satisfied hitting them.
But nobody has yet proved in any country, in any part of the world all this mindless metric hitting activity (amplified robotically by the news media) is actually producing a sustainable outcome.
Doesn't matter what problem domain you pick where are the outcomes that justify all this activity? One guy gets the likes today, another gets the likes tomorrow.
It's a trap. You see the same dynamics play out in Poland, Brexit, Modi's India, Duterte etc.
That only goes away once the Like/View/Click based ecosystem is dismantled.
Re: Undercover reporter reveals life in a Polish troll farm
#105How is it different from any other of thousands of the troll farms ?
It isn't.
But this one is more visible due to the article. Hell, I bet they get more requests from this.
Re: Undercover reporter reveals life in a Polish troll farm
#106Facebook has said it disabled 2.2bn fake accounts in the first three months of 2019
Uh, no they didnt that is 90% of the network.
Re: Undercover reporter reveals life in a Polish troll farm
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
We ban accounts that do that. It has never been acceptable on HN, not since the beginning, and not by a long shot. People have wildly varying ideas about what is "widely accepted in SV", largely imaginary I think, but in any case not in the section of the Venn diagram that HN overlaps with. (Btw, only about 10% of HN's community is in SV.) One case where we might not instantly ban someone is if they had a long histor…
>We ban accounts that do that. It has never been acceptable on HN, I think he meant that it was an acceptable methodology, not that the various platforms condoned it. I don't think any platform has ever condoned that sort of use, or at least none that I can recall.
That's a fair point, but I'd still like to get the word out that doing it on HN will get your accounts and sites banned.
A similar point here if anyone is curious: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21439027
Re: Undercover reporter reveals life in a Polish troll farm
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can't say it surprises me. But I think by now every government is using such farms. I find it difficult to believe otherwise based on recent FCC issues ( https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/jsvine/net-neutrality-f... ). Yes, sadly, I am invoking everyone is doin' it.
Based on these two examples, I wouldn’t say “everyone”. Every corrupt populist administration maybe?
I agree with the argument that two examples are not exactly a pattern, but I am not basing my opinion on just those.
It may be that I have become too cynical lately, but if some court cases taught us recently, it is that popular fora of all kinds are a battleground of sorts and everyone there is either an FBI agent, a shill or a dog.
For the record, the moment you used word populist makes me question whether you have an axe to grind yourself ( ie. UE establishment is not that happy about Poland and Hungary breaking ranks), but I digress..
This how bad it is. HN is pretty decent moderation-wise and I still keep my guard up.
Re: Undercover reporter reveals life in a Polish troll farm
#109It is not just foreign governments using paid trolls. Apparently Hilary Clinton used paid trolls against Bernie Sanders in 2016. https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-clinton-digital-troll... >Hillary Clinton's well-heeled backers have opened a new frontier in digital campaigning, one that seems to have been inspired by some of the Internet's worst instincts. Correct the Record, a super PAC coordinating with Clinton…
[deleted]
Re: Undercover reporter reveals life in a Polish troll farm
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, one of them is illegal. Also, the foreign variety advances the possibly incompatible goals of the foreign country while the domestic version tends to be between individuals with differing but legitimate visions of how the country should be run.
> Well, one of them is illegal. I would argue that both of them are illegal.
Yeah. And the original statement was ”vastly different”... Definitely disagreeing on that first point