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Facebook is paying people overseas promoting Alberta separatism

cbc.ca

101–110 of 182 posts

Re: Facebook is paying people overseas promoting Alberta separatism

#101
post #41

I clicked on the link wondering if the twist might be that it was from state-backed troll farm, but not the country we normally associate with state-backed troll farms... However, from the article: "This may not always be classic foreign interference in the state-backed sense. Sometimes it's much more banal. It's in some ways more depressing, ... People sitting thousands of miles away working out that Canadian outrag…

IME most people calling themselves a “free speech absolutist” absolutely believe those who agree with them should be free to speak, and anyone that might affect them negatively or just disagree should be stopped from oppressing or endangering them. The term usually means as little as the “democratic” in DPRK.

A true free speech absolutist would not be concerned with paid speech being blocked, in fact they should really be against paid speech, at least in the sense being discussed here. The point of free speech is to be able to say what you want and saying something else because you are paid to, because you can't afford to turn down the payment to say what someone else wants instead, is anti-free-speech.

Re: Facebook is paying people overseas promoting Alberta separatism

#102
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Who of credit has claimed otherwise By my rough estimation a third to a half of these people: https://news.ycombinator.com/leaders

Those people are people with high HN karma, a lot of it for posting or submitting technical discussions. Is that enough to give that much weight to their opinion on political topics?

>Those people are people with high HN karma, a lot of it for posting or submitting technical discussions.

Click on a few of those names and see what kind of topics they wade into. I wish you were right.

You're not gonna get high karma by having high quality technical discussion. First off no human can likely know enough depth on enough topics to contribute to very many of them. Second off, such commentary only gets praise from the narrow band of people who are capable of assessing it.

Like all "scored" social-ish media this stuff is a numbers game. The way you "win" as these people have is by gaming the scoring system. Post stuff that appeals to the demographics of the site and with a low common denominator so anyone can "approve" of it. And if you click on through you'll find that's what they do.

>Is that enough to give that much weight to their opinion on political topics?

I assure you that a great many of them take great offense when you suggest that they are not experts in whatever they are speaking at a given minute. My personal favorites are the one that appeals to authority by cherry picking links (thereby moving the discussion from one of attacking his opinion to one of attacking his sources, a tried and true troll/propagandist/etc tactic) when you disagree with him and the one tries to portray being involved in politics as though it confers legitimacy.

That said, some of the power users around here are in fact reasonable and seemingly free of obvious ill will.

Re: Facebook is paying people overseas promoting Alberta separatism

#103
post #56
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cash incentivised speech is arguably not free.

That would make most (if not all) of today's mainstream media speech (and not only) as "not free". To add, in essence I agree with you, that's why I regard Jean-Jacques Rousseau as one of the really few free thinkers out there, i.e. because he was aware that as soon as he was accepting to be paid for what he was writing then his speech would become "imprisoned".

> That would make most (if not all) of today's mainstream media speech (and not only) as "not free".

Yep. I was going to say I wouldn't go as far as all, but I can't think of a mainstream counter example…

Re: Facebook is paying people overseas promoting Alberta separatism

#104

I've said for a while that I think this sort of thing is a much better explanation for trends we see than moustache-twirling foreign dictators "spreading dissent" for the heck of it. Yes, they exist and yes, they have troll factories, but they usually promote narratives with some immediate benefit to themselves. When they do promote irrelevant stuff, I think it's just to build social media clout for their actual mess…

Its been discussed for long time already how russian methods work : The ex-KGB defector you're thinking of is Yuri Bezmenov (also known by his alias Tomas Schuman). The strategy he described is called "Ideological Subversion" (also referred to as "Active Measures" or "Psychological Warfare") Their time scale is measured in decades. 1. Demoralization Undermining the moral and cultural foundations of a society — making…

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Re: Facebook is paying people overseas promoting Alberta separatism

#105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its been discussed for long time already how russian methods work : The ex-KGB defector you're thinking of is Yuri Bezmenov (also known by his alias Tomas Schuman). The strategy he described is called "Ideological Subversion" (also referred to as "Active Measures" or "Psychological Warfare") Their time scale is measured in decades. 1. Demoralization Undermining the moral and cultural foundations of a society — making…

>1. Demoralization Undermining the moral and cultural foundations of a society — making people lose faith in their own country, values, and institutions ~15–30 years (one generation) took Putin less than 10 years to do that to Russia. the collapse is postponed while the regime's eunuchs and dogs are fed, of course, but God wills it, that might not be the case for much longer.

These measures are directed outside of russia.

Re: Facebook is paying people overseas promoting Alberta separatism

#106

I've said for a while that I think this sort of thing is a much better explanation for trends we see than moustache-twirling foreign dictators "spreading dissent" for the heck of it. Yes, they exist and yes, they have troll factories, but they usually promote narratives with some immediate benefit to themselves. When they do promote irrelevant stuff, I think it's just to build social media clout for their actual mess…

A divided and weakened EU is the biggest priority of Putin’s Russia after reconstituting the USSR.

Brexit and other forms of dissension spread in Europe by Russian agents (from bombings in Berlin to poisoning dissidents in London) are definitely deliberate and war by other means, not some sort of sideshow. Separatist movements have and will be used to weaken enemies and figures like Farage and Orban are still doing Russia’s work.

I would not be at all surprised to find that dissent/separatism in countries opposed to Russia is funded by Putin. Dissent and chaos are an important part of the Russian playbook, not an afterthought.

Re: Facebook is paying people overseas promoting Alberta separatism

#107
post #14

Facebook is also paying far right israelis, whose content incites violence against Palestinians. > a new report titled “Monetizing Occupation: Meta’s Financial Enablement of Settlement Activity and Violent Rhetoric Against Palestinians.” The report reveals how Meta allows Israeli far-right pages, settler-affiliated accounts, and extremist media outlets to generate revenue through its platforms, despite publishing vio…

Meta is absolutely just bunch of griefers. The only thing they add to society is division, enragement and rage bait content. Fuck meta and their garbage products.

But we most keep them that they are indeed visionaries of enshitification.

Re: Facebook is paying people overseas promoting Alberta separatism

#108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean I'm not sure it's a meme - this guy literally got rich doing it, to a point where he's selling "self guide" courses on how to do this: https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2025-11-16/kin...

Similarly: https://nypost.com/2026/04/21/us-news/top-maga-influencer-em... Some highlights: > The move made him a mint — and Sam was soon raking in thousands of dollars a month. > “I was spending maybe 30 to 50 minutes of my day, and I was making good money for a medical student,” he recalled. > He said he also attempted to make a liberal counterpart for Hart on Instagram, but “Democrats know that it’s AI slop, so th…

There's also the fact that the media and a large cadre of activists in the targeted countries already provide the 'democrat' standpoint which makes an AI simulacrum less noticeable as well as less appealing. I'd say that is a far more likely explanation than 'democrats know it is AI slop' which sounds a lot like wishful thinking by 'democrats'.

Re: Facebook is paying people overseas promoting Alberta separatism

#110

I've said for a while that I think this sort of thing is a much better explanation for trends we see than moustache-twirling foreign dictators "spreading dissent" for the heck of it. Yes, they exist and yes, they have troll factories, but they usually promote narratives with some immediate benefit to themselves. When they do promote irrelevant stuff, I think it's just to build social media clout for their actual mess…

Why not both?
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