Israel reportedly used fake social accounts to garner support from US lawmakers • Hacker News Board

Re: Israel reportedly used fake social accounts to garner support from US lawmakers

#731

Post by Aerbil313 » Thu, Jun 06, 2024, 8:37 PM UTC

dmix wrote: post #486

Metacelsus wrote: post #13

This was related to OpenAI announcing that they had shut down several covert influence campaigns using ChatGPT-generated social media posts. https://openai.com/index/disrupting-deceptive-uses-of-AI-by-...

> As of May 2024, these campaigns do not appear to have meaningfully increased their audience engagement or reach as a result of our services. Just like I've predicted many times on HN. Text generation is low on the list of things needed to successfully engage in automated spam. Social media is built on reputation, not who can write generic believable text the quickest. And funny enough the ex-OpenAI people (mostly H…

> Social media is built on reputation, not who can write generic believable text the quickest.

This is not the whole picture at all. I’d even say mostly incorrect. You can definitely influence public opinion with a social media consisting entirely of bots, provided the public aren’t aware of it.

Re: Israel reportedly used fake social accounts to garner support from US lawmakers

#732

Post by dang » Thu, Jun 06, 2024, 8:39 PM UTC

immibis wrote: post #676

dang wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your account has continued to use HN primarily for political battle after we asked you recently to stop: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40519369 (May 2024) If you keep this up we're going to have to ban you, for reasons explained on many past occasions: https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme... . Edit for anyone concerned: yes, this principle applies regardless of which side of any politic…

What? This is a reply to a political comment on a political post and you punish it for being about politics?

Moderation replies have to go somewhere! Did you miss my several explanations about how I wasn't responding to the specific comment, but to an overall pattern? Here they are:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40589862

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40589978

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40590128

I don't see how I could have been much clearer, so if you read those posts and still have a question that isn't addressed, I'd be curious to know what it is.

Re: Israel reportedly used fake social accounts to garner support from US lawmakers

#733

Post by dang » Thu, Jun 06, 2024, 8:46 PM UTC

throw_a_grenade wrote: post #635

dang wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We merged that one hither.

May I ask why did you move comments here and changed URL to that other entry, instead of just moving comments from this thread to the other? ISTM you already had a submission with correct URL, so naively it sounds simpler to do one operation than two... (I know nothing about moderation tools)

I'd already forgotten! but I think I've reconstructed it. I changed the URL of the current post (see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40587079) because the haaretz.com article seemed better than the forbes.com one. Normally we would do it the other way, as you mentioned - we'd move the comments to the submission with the better article. But in this case I didn't want to reward that submitter because their pattern of submissions was clearly breaking HN's guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40587097. So I did it the other way.

Re: Israel reportedly used fake social accounts to garner support from US lawmakers

#734

Post by EasyMark » Thu, Jun 06, 2024, 8:58 PM UTC

muaytimbo wrote: post #592

So Israel does the exact thing all the politicians try to scare us into believing Russia does every election in the US. I guess the difference is AIPAC.

So does all other countries, especially Russia and China; only our closest allies aren’t this blatant.

Re: Israel reportedly used fake social accounts to garner support from US lawmakers

#735

Post by EasyMark » Thu, Jun 06, 2024, 9:02 PM UTC

heroprotagonist wrote: post #626

chipdart wrote: post #605

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean "try to scare us into believing Russia does"? Do you have any doubt that Russia has been interfering in US politics for well over a decade?

This seems like a remnant opinion resultant from old propaganda campaigns promoted by politicians Russia was supporting with its interference in US politics. These campaigns were multifaceted and included calling proven basic facts into question, going so far as to suggest Russia wasn't interfering at all. Convincing people to disbelieve this basic fact precluded them from any possible consideration of whether Russia…

Get on X.com for more than 20 minutes and tell me it isn’t swimming in Chinese/Russian state actors trying to inflict damage to US societal structure, politics, and way of life. Just go to any political news article for a bit and go down the rabbit hole of all the “patriot” accounts on there that are blatantly not American with bad English and a laser focus on propaganda against the USA and promoting far right (or left) garbage. Facebook has improved quite a bit over the past few years but it was much worse in the 2020 cycle, so much worse.

Re: Israel reportedly used fake social accounts to garner support from US lawmakers

#736

Post by bakuninsbart » Thu, Jun 06, 2024, 9:17 PM UTC

raxxorraxor wrote: post #700

ToucanLoucan wrote: post #698

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Israel exists because Jews were prosecuted. Israel exists because the West wanted a seat of military power in the Middle East. Just like America exists because various European powers wanted to exploit the Americas, until American leadership wanted to stop cutting them a slice. Just like Peurto Rico is directly under America's authority yet remains entirely unrepresented in it's government. Colonies all, of various…

Israel isn't involved in a genocide and it was their homeland once. If they are colonizer so is everyone else involved here at least. It doesn't carry any meaning. Your tensions with Israel might indeed be understandable, meaning the prevalence of such animosity isn't really something new. In that regard I indeed believe that Israel needs to exist. I also disagree that this was a plot by the west. Of course some pret…

That's a laughable argument, comparable to Italian fascists claiming Romania as the legacy of the Roman empire. Israel is built majority on refugees, and secondly on colonizers who hold a tenuous connection to the land. But you don't get to claim 2000 year old grievances, especially if your supposed ancestors share as much genetic material with the current inhabitants. Political zionism always had fascist components, but it really turned for the worst in the last 40 years, and I truly do not understand how an educated individual cannot see the parallels to the rise of fascism 100 years ago or apartheid South Africa 40 years ago. The post-holocaust refugees at least at large had the decency to recognize the injustice they put on the palestinians, but their children turned to a maximalist, fascist, and deeply dishonest ideology instead.

Re: Israel reportedly used fake social accounts to garner support from US lawmakers

#737

Post by TheGuyWhoCodes » Thu, Jun 06, 2024, 10:41 PM UTC

wk_end wrote: post #608

mardifoufs wrote: post #579

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have defacto Israeli citizenship because of the law of return, no? Not saying I agree with who you're replying to, but if a few dozen congressmen had the same status in Russia, wouldn't you see them as being connected to said country?

I mean, they’re “connected” insofar as they have the potential legal right to move there and acquire citizenship. The question is - is that kind of connection meaningful here? Speaking personally - I am ethnically Jewish, although I’ve never practiced, and of Polish descent. Technically, if I were to go through the necessary processes, I could acquire citizenship of Israel or Poland. Despite that: I’ve never been to…

Israel is meant to be a "safe" space for jews, and the Law of Return will allow you and your decedents to move to Israel when the anti-jewish takes power and you will not feel/be safe in your current location. Maybe you won't think it's so trivial then...

Re: Israel reportedly used fake social accounts to garner support from US lawmakers

#738

Post by ESTheComposer » Thu, Jun 06, 2024, 10:49 PM UTC

raxxorraxor wrote: post #700

ToucanLoucan wrote: post #698

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Israel exists because Jews were prosecuted. Israel exists because the West wanted a seat of military power in the Middle East. Just like America exists because various European powers wanted to exploit the Americas, until American leadership wanted to stop cutting them a slice. Just like Peurto Rico is directly under America's authority yet remains entirely unrepresented in it's government. Colonies all, of various…

Israel isn't involved in a genocide and it was their homeland once. If they are colonizer so is everyone else involved here at least. It doesn't carry any meaning. Your tensions with Israel might indeed be understandable, meaning the prevalence of such animosity isn't really something new. In that regard I indeed believe that Israel needs to exist. I also disagree that this was a plot by the west. Of course some pret…

[dead]

Re: Israel reportedly used fake social accounts to garner support from US lawmakers

#739

Post by shiroiushi » Fri, Jun 07, 2024, 12:16 AM UTC

immibis wrote: post #675

shiroiushi wrote: post #599

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only people who can tell you the actual purpose of an action taken are the people who actually took that action. Everyone else can only speculate. How curfews can slow the spread of a virus, I have no idea. If you want to slow a virus's spread, you do it by isolating people and preventing them from mingling. A curfew doesn't do that; it just forces them to mingle during a shorter number of hours in a day, which i…

When you propose that a conspiracy happened, you propose that the purpose of something was different from the stated purpose. So what purpose were you proposing?

>When you propose that a conspiracy happened, you propose that the purpose of something was different from the stated purpose.

Yes, but this doesn't mean that you know the actual purpose.

>So what purpose were you proposing?

I'm not proposing anything; I didn't propose a conspiracy happened, the OP did. I'm just explaining that the conspiracy theorist doesn't have to allege a specific purpose.

As for the curfews, my theory is that it was just plain anti-science stupidity, plus wanting to look like they're doing something, like many political decisions. If you disagree, please explain how someone riding a bicycle outdoors in a rural area with no other humans around somehow spreads a virus. Only countries with truly stupid leadership even had restrictions like these (i.e., UK, they're the only one I know of actually).

Re: Israel reportedly used fake social accounts to garner support from US lawmakers

#740

Post by Aerbil313 » Fri, Jun 07, 2024, 1:24 AM UTC

notaustinpowers wrote: post #119

shmatt wrote: post #105

Out: blame AIPAC for congress funding israel In: blame FB comments for congress funding Israel Is it really that hard to imagine congress supporting the democratic country with one of the biggest pride parades in the world vs the country that hasn’t had elections in 18 years and is split between 2 leaders who disagree on pretty much everything?

> biggest pride parades in the world Do you mean NYC Pride or Sao Paolo Gay Pride Parade?

Does anybody have any numbers? The one with the biggest numbers should get the biggest bonus from US because they are the most democratic.