Protests become fertile ground for online disinformation • Hacker News Board

Re: Protests become fertile ground for online disinformation

#11

Post by jachee » Tue, Jun 02, 2020, 1:05 AM UTC

I'm seeing false accusations of Antifa starting violence all over the place. It's the right-wing's boogieman-du-jours, and likely false-flag representation at best.

Edit: Downvoters– tell me why you're downvoting this?

Why would Antifa purposefully take actions that would deliberately cause an armed police response to otherwise-peaceful protests?

Edit 2 since I can no longer post responses: Clearly the misinformation campaign continues alive and well here on HN. Dare to defend those with less privilege and get downvoted to hell.

Re: Protests become fertile ground for online disinformation

#12

Post by vsareto » Tue, Jun 02, 2020, 1:07 AM UTC

EVdotIO wrote: post #9

It seems like there is some serious disinformation/psych ops working overtime across the internet right now; the tone is weirdly hostile. I would hope people would question the motivation of obviously divisive rhetoric, but it's clear that is a resounding no. As they say, people always buy with their emotions. I'm afraid the days of an open internet are quickly closing.

There's nothing weird about the hostility, it's to stoke racial conflict.

Re: Protests become fertile ground for online disinformation

#13

Post by labster » Tue, Jun 02, 2020, 1:07 AM UTC

heymartinadams wrote: post #7

The single two greatest dangers to a happy life are (1) believing in falsehoods, and (2) spreading them.

Bokonon would disagree with you, and tell you to live by the foma[0] that make you happy and healthy and brave and strong. Don’t discount the right kinds of lies.

[0]: harmless lies

Re: Protests become fertile ground for online disinformation

#14

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jun 02, 2020, 1:09 AM UTC

jachee wrote: post #11

I'm seeing false accusations of Antifa starting violence all over the place. It's the right-wing's boogieman-du-jours, and likely false-flag representation at best. Edit: Downvoters– tell me why you're downvoting this? Why would Antifa purposefully take actions that would deliberately cause an armed police response to otherwise-peaceful protests? Edit 2 since I can no longer post responses: Clearly the misinformation…

[deleted]

Re: Protests become fertile ground for online disinformation

#15

Post by slimsag » Tue, Jun 02, 2020, 1:11 AM UTC

EDIT: removed my comment because it turns out I was very wrong apparently.. sorry

Re: Protests become fertile ground for online disinformation

#16

Post by p1necone » Tue, Jun 02, 2020, 1:13 AM UTC

jachee wrote: post #11

I'm seeing false accusations of Antifa starting violence all over the place. It's the right-wing's boogieman-du-jours, and likely false-flag representation at best. Edit: Downvoters– tell me why you're downvoting this? Why would Antifa purposefully take actions that would deliberately cause an armed police response to otherwise-peaceful protests? Edit 2 since I can no longer post responses: Clearly the misinformation…

The right uses 'Antifa' as a catch all term for anyone on the left doing anything they don't like. It's a meaningless label, but not enough people get that.

Re: Protests become fertile ground for online disinformation

#17

Post by ilaksh » Tue, Jun 02, 2020, 1:13 AM UTC

The problem is that people seem to want Facebook and/or the government to decide what is real information or not.

It seems like there are two major hurdles. First people need to be informed about history and reality to really see why having Facebook and the government decide what is true or not is a bad idea.

The second big hurdle is, we actually do need to do _something_ to reduce the amount of wanton spread of disinformation and propaganda by many groups online. It's not as easy as many people think it is, because unfortunately all governments and large companies do it quite a bit, and having those types of institutions simply dictate reality is just as bad as for example, having Amazon have complete control of the product listings on its site when they also market competing products. It's the fox guarding the hen house.

Re: Protests become fertile ground for online disinformation

#18

Post by pingpongproduct » Tue, Jun 02, 2020, 1:15 AM UTC

jachee wrote: post #6

xupybd wrote: post #2

This could be very dangerous. If miss information leads to people distrusting the US government based on lies. But worse this could be a bad case of the boy crying wolf. Of the government does ever start taking these crazy authoritarian measures who will trust the information reporting it?

Isn't having a loose association of slightly-organized people who vehemently oppose fascism be declared as a "terrorist organization" already starting down the authoritarian path?

They don't oppose fascism. Antifa is literally fascism and differs only in its mandate of which speech is allowed and which is not. Indeed the mechanism which you see in all totalitarian movement, from Nazis to ISIS. It's completely at odds with democracy and free speech.

Re: Protests become fertile ground for online disinformation

#19

Post by tareqak » Tue, Jun 02, 2020, 1:15 AM UTC

tiles wrote: post #8

trhway wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>If miss information leads to people distrusting the US government based on lies. if only there were government sources that people could trust. Say a twitter of the POTUS ... Though may be the POTUS hiding in the bunker from his countrymen just doesn't have the real information, only his own fears, hate and discomfort of wet pants. Can you imagine an alternative Universe where, instead of hiding from, POTUS comes ou…

You mean a Press Secretary? What we used to use before Twitter?

The President of the United States still has a Press Secretary who still presents press releases to journalists and takes their questions. They probably also manage the official Twitter account for the White House.

Edit/Update: one thing we do have to remember is that the President is tweeting with his own personal Twitter account.

Re: Protests become fertile ground for online disinformation

#20

Post by mysticpipuo » Tue, Jun 02, 2020, 1:15 AM UTC

EVdotIO wrote: post #9

It seems like there is some serious disinformation/psych ops working overtime across the internet right now; the tone is weirdly hostile. I would hope people would question the motivation of obviously divisive rhetoric, but it's clear that is a resounding no. As they say, people always buy with their emotions. I'm afraid the days of an open internet are quickly closing.

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