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‘Extremely aggressive’ internet censorship spreads in the world’s democracies

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Re: ‘Extremely aggressive’ internet censorship spreads in the world’s democracies

#561

Post by raxxorrax »

somesortofsystm wrote: post #537
taneq wrote: post #461

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trusting sources and verifying information is actually an incredibly hard game. Being too credulous leaves you open to misinformation, but on the other hand, being uncritically skeptical leads to the current "fake news" environment where (to those involved) no source is credible and we might as well all just believe whatever meets our preconceptions and dismiss the rest.

One should only trust named, identified sources. The age of anonymous sources in mainstream media needs to end, because an anonymous source is not a source. Yes, sources should be protected. But there should be mechanisms in place to protect sources who identify themselves that do not require the gullible public to just believe what they were told, because an authority said it was okay to believe something an anonymo…

But we also had the Russian election manipulation talk without any named source and evidence and it was widely believed.

Re: ‘Extremely aggressive’ internet censorship spreads in the world’s democracies

#562

Post by C19is20 »

zaptheimpaler wrote: post #453

The big problem in todays age is we can no longer assume the government is accountable to us, or even get straight answers from the right people there. Why can't I ask someone at the government directly exactly what their policy is on blocking websites, which sites are blocked, and what the legal basis for blocking is? And get a real, detailed, authoritative answer? And contest that answer if it does not meet legal s…

It's not a 'failure of democracy' - that's just how democracy works. You're just not in the majority....of people behind the scenes using voters to scam each other by pretending there's actual change. The only thing worse than a politician is someone who votes for them, and believes that's all there is to it. The real power is at the water kooler.

Re: ‘Extremely aggressive’ internet censorship spreads in the world’s democracies

#563

Post by raxxorrax »

paxys wrote: post #24

Fits well with the current wave of authoritarianism/nationalism that has taken root all over the world. A free and open internet represents everything that a government that wishes complete control over its people would be afraid of.

Weird is that in the US the liberals want to censor and the conservatives argue for free speech. They are at their throats so much that is probably doesn't really matter anymore.

Re: ‘Extremely aggressive’ internet censorship spreads in the world’s democracies

#564

Post by cannedslime »

taneq wrote: post #461
hliyan wrote: post #434

I'm coming to the realization that misinformation has to be combatted at the ear and not the mouth. I feel the world needs to go through a learning period where everyone realizes that whatever they read on the Internet is default false and they need to verify before they believe anything. In the least they need to verify credibility of sources, if not individual articles or tweets. I suppose what we're experiencing n…

Trusting sources and verifying information is actually an incredibly hard game. Being too credulous leaves you open to misinformation, but on the other hand, being uncritically skeptical leads to the current "fake news" environment where (to those involved) no source is credible and we might as well all just believe whatever meets our preconceptions and dismiss the rest.

I feel like if media didnt seem conglomerated and opinionated, none of this would ever have been an issue. The problem is that globally, media has become aligned in its objectives, languages etc. to the point where anyone with just a shred of critical thinking would at least be skeptical about the quality of truth from mass media.

This is partly because american NGOs have orchestrated a huge indoctrination effort among journalists on a global scale. I have worked for national media for a little under a decade and every place I worked, there was journalists participating in stuff from "open societies foundation".

The quality of journalism has reached such a low that when tourists are group raped for hours and then are finally decapitated by religious fanatics (Any other description would not be allowed in media anymore, but you know who) who film and put it on the internet. they use terms like "Found with injuries on their neck". And then our police and media do everything they can to stop the real horrific truth from surfacing. No wonder people stop believing a word and become overly skeptical.

Honestly I think its a sign of health that people become skeptical regarding mass media. It would be even healthier if the general populace started to dismantle the power structures that dictates our dystopian future.

Re: ‘Extremely aggressive’ internet censorship spreads in the world’s democracies

#566

Post by lukasm »

zaptheimpaler wrote: post #453

The big problem in todays age is we can no longer assume the government is accountable to us, or even get straight answers from the right people there. Why can't I ask someone at the government directly exactly what their policy is on blocking websites, which sites are blocked, and what the legal basis for blocking is? And get a real, detailed, authoritative answer? And contest that answer if it does not meet legal s…

Before getting outraged, can we first confirm the story? It seems European countries have blocked gambling ads. There is no source for other claims e.g. human rights website.

Re: ‘Extremely aggressive’ internet censorship spreads in the world’s democracies

#567

Post by refurb »

pibechorro wrote: post #560
igorkraw wrote: post #508

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a cynical take, a slightly less cynical take is that the rich and (privately) powerful have always tried to cement their power in form of organising a feudal-ish state and that the rest of us had to actively support democratising forces to counteracting them. What this means is having everything which lends itself to monopoly to democratic control, not private control, and to work together to make democratic c…

Ya,no. Top down authoritarian systems (including democratic ones) always corrupt. Power leads to cronyism and sociopaths rising to control. Always, just give it time. Its not "the rich" vs "the working people" narrative you subscribe to. If anything your attitude and worship of burocracy is what creates the power to be corrupted. Less is more.

This. Power encourages corruption. Most democratic systems are designed to diffuse power as a means to prevent negative consequences to self-serving behavior.

The less power the gov't has, the better. If the gov't has a very, very limited scope in controlling speech (libel, harassment, threats, etc), then the damage done when it's used for nefarious purposes is limited.

Re: ‘Extremely aggressive’ internet censorship spreads in the world’s democracies

#568

Post by anticodon »

raxxorrax wrote: post #559
anticodon wrote: post #498

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, my comment is against the against the grain (rusophobia is trendy in the contemporary world even among Russians). Also, it's a bit muddy. I said that government has nothing to do with censorship, but I contradict myself. Although censorship in the US is some kind of internal struggle between parties that is hard to understand for an outsider like me, but promotion of rusophobia in social networks and YouTube is…

The US wasn't in Ukraine to promote democracy. Maybe it was a reaction to Crimea, perhaps they wanted to hinder the pipeline between Germany and Russia, maybe they just wanted influence in another eastern European state, but I am certainly not surprised the conflict is escalating. We are regressing to cold war thinking and while I think Putin is a despot, I see the actions of the US very critically. Sad really, since…

US/Europe staged a coup in Ukraine before Crimea. Actually, it wasn't even the first coup staged by US in Ukraine.

Re: ‘Extremely aggressive’ internet censorship spreads in the world’s democracies

#569

Post by astura »

cryptica wrote: post #514
snazz wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Politics is generally off-topic here other than in a few specific posts that are explicitly allowed because they're so newsworthy, like the death of RBG and the media calling the election.

I think the fact that politics can't be discussed here is itself a form of censorship. Because people are not able to freely exchange ideas about politics, you end up with silos. The main reason why the subject of politics causes flame wars is because people are thinking about it emotionally because they have very little actual information to work with. The less sharing of information there is on the subject, the mor…

There's a million places to discuss politics online if you want to.

Re: ‘Extremely aggressive’ internet censorship spreads in the world’s democracies

#570

Post by eunos »

nprz wrote: post #54

Remember how the usefulness of the internet and social media was championed by media during the Arab Spring movement? Now it's suddenly a threat to our democracy. https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/11/16/21570072/obama-interne...

My cynical take is that had Cambridge Analytica targeted Putin/Lukashenko/Morales/Maduro instead of Brexit/Trump we would celebrated Cambridge Analytica as a hero of democracy and open society.
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