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DuckDuckGo “down-rank sites associated with Russian disinformation”

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Re: DuckDuckGo “down-rank sites associated with Russian disinformation”

#231

Post by diputsmonro »

fuckcensorship wrote: post #63
tpoacher wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want one which doesn't decide this for me, no-matter how "good for me" it may be, and relies exclusively on my search query to decide what is most relevant. If you really want to flag disinformation, I'd be fine with some sort percentage reliability value or something along those lines, right next to the result. Preferably something that I can also order results by. Totally happy with a 'caveat emptor' clause regar…

> Besides, what's so bad about access to "disinformation"? This is an excellent point that doesn’t get as much discussion as it deserves. Censorship of misinformation seems to be rooted in the idea that the masses cannot/should not have the freedom to think and discuss information freely. Also, there is a great deal of valuable insight which can be gained by analyzing a country’s propaganda.

Propaganda can be useful to analyze, yes. But only if you know that it's propaganda. Most people casually searching DDG are probably not aware of that. If you know enough to know that some news source is spreading propaganda and you want to study it, then you know enough to be able to access it directly. Propaganda wants to be found, and you can always just go to RT yourself.

Propaganda should be treated as a hazardous material. Yes, it can be studied, and there is value in studying it, but there are safety protocols that should be followed to protect yourself and others. Uranium is very useful and scientifically valuable, but it shouldn't be on the shelves at your local Walmart where people can stumble upon it, unaware of the dangers.

Propaganda is an infohazard and should be treated as such; an information retrieval service should not surface it readily for a casual search.

Re: DuckDuckGo “down-rank sites associated with Russian disinformation”

#232

Post by vorpalhex »

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #183
mrjangles wrote: post #20

Seriously what the f*ck makes Gabriel Weinberg think that myself, or anyone else, gives a damn about his personal opinion on what I should and should not be reading. The arrogance of these people is astounding. Also, absolutely zero of the standard base of Duck Duck Go users are the kind of people who don't understand what a Russian state controlled news site is, and why one would have to be careful reading it. Those…

> The arrogance of these people is astounding. The arrogance to think that DDG should change their business to revolve around you personally is astounding.

I'm curious what you think the value of this comment is.

You aren't trying to convince the person you responded to.

The rest of us in the "I really liked DDG but am upset by this decision" bucket aren't the targets of this either.

Even other users who are less opinionated on this move inherently want DDG to care about them as users!

Do you think there is some squad of super pro-corporation folks your point is selling to? "Ah yes, well, if it helps DDG make a buck, it doesn't matter how I the user feel..."

Re: DuckDuckGo “down-rank sites associated with Russian disinformation”

#233

Post by julesnp »

astine wrote: post #205
avgcorrection wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I am interested in Flat Earth Theory and search for that then I expect to get results that Flat Earth believers are interested in. It’s that simple.

If you're actually interested in flat earth theory you'll search for "Flat Earth." If you search for "Charting a Flight", You're probably not looking for flat earth content.

To me that has to do with search results being tuned for relevancy, not due the the perceived quality of the information.

Re: DuckDuckGo “down-rank sites associated with Russian disinformation”

#234

Post by boplicity »

hammock wrote: post #94

There's really nowhere reliable on the web you can get non-Western sanctioned news about the Russia-Ukraine conflict. If you are interested in alternative viewpoints, don't bother with any of the search engines. All the sources I've seen are on, e.g. Telegram.

South China Morning Post, Al Jazeera. I'm sure there are others.

Re: DuckDuckGo “down-rank sites associated with Russian disinformation”

#236

Post by therein »

hackyhacky wrote: post #71
fuckcensorship wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Besides, what's so bad about access to "disinformation"? This is an excellent point that doesn’t get as much discussion as it deserves. Censorship of misinformation seems to be rooted in the idea that the masses cannot/should not have the freedom to think and discuss information freely. Also, there is a great deal of valuable insight which can be gained by analyzing a country’s propaganda.

There is great value in analyzing propaganda if you know it's propaganda. The danger comes in the fact that the majority of people can't distinguish actual reporting from disinformation. That's why it gets down-ranked.

No post body was provided.

Re: DuckDuckGo “down-rank sites associated with Russian disinformation”

#238

Post by eli »

willcipriano wrote: post #224
eli wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you search "Ukraine news RT" on DDG you get Ukraine news from RT. It's still there if you look for it. It just isn't near the top of a "Ukraine news" query (I assume you'd find it there eventually if you scroll enough)

All you have to do is scroll past the US misinformation, on past EU misinformation and you'll find it right there. Easy.

Sorry but it just isn't the same. Russia made it illegal -- punishable by 15 years in prison -- to accurately describe their invasion of Ukraine.

Re: DuckDuckGo “down-rank sites associated with Russian disinformation”

#239

Post by mrguyorama »

avgcorrection wrote: post #118

The war is two weeks old and some people seem to want to inject the news from Ukraine straight into their veins. That also makes it easier for disinformation and propaganda to spread. Both sides have an incentive to spread propaganda (although moreso for Russia since this is not a righteous war on their part by any stretch of the imagination). The Wikipedia page for the Ghost of Kyiv currently says that some sources…

The label "disinformation", like "terrorism" often depends on your individual context. "War propaganda" is a pretty accurate descriptor for that silly story. War propaganda isn't always meant strictly to misinform. Consider the "Eating carrots is good for your eyesight" trope produced by UK propaganda during WWII. One of it's goals was to cover up the success of radar in night conditions, but it also had the goal of encouraging citizens to grow more carrots in their victory gardens. Hilariously, retrospectively it can't even be called disinformation anymore because carrots DO contain a compound that is necessary for your eyes to operate in a healthy manner

Re: DuckDuckGo “down-rank sites associated with Russian disinformation”

#240

Post by astine »

julesnp wrote: post #233
astine wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're actually interested in flat earth theory you'll search for "Flat Earth." If you search for "Charting a Flight", You're probably not looking for flat earth content.

To me that has to do with search results being tuned for relevancy, not due the the perceived quality of the information.

Maybe, but you could also argue that bad information is irrelevant. If I search for "cancer treatment", it's not necessarily helpful for "black salve" to pop-up on my search results.
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