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Reddit blocks posting any .ru links

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Re: Reddit blocks posting any .ru links

#121

Post by dilap »

Scandiravian wrote: post #112
dilap wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is the article inaccurate? Are there falsehoods?

The facts they choose to print are probably true - which again is part of the alt-right playbook. Cherry pick the facts that helps you muddy the waters enough to instill doubt and create false equivalence in the mind of the reader between there being Nazis in Ukraine and indiscriminate murder of civilians plus turning more than a million people into refugees in less than two weeks. So I'd ask you - do you think that…

I think seeking to know the truth as best we can is the best path to peace.

Re: Reddit blocks posting any .ru links

#122

Post by ehsankia »

Hoasi wrote: post #76
ehsankia wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being blocked from sharing Russian-owned content is absolutely nothing like being cut off from the internet or information. At best it's limiting the spread of Russian-owned content. I'm not sure why HN comments are so quick to make these extreme fear-mongering comparisons. Just yesterday I saw a top comment comparing Youtube removing a video to Chinese censorship...

Information wants to be free. If free speech is paramount to democracy, we shouldn't discriminate. Most people understand there is an information war at play. Most people know that information is either propaganda or carries an agenda. If you cut one opponent's voice, then it's not balanced. Why shouldn't we defend the right for Russian media to promote their narrative? Besides, legitimate, unrelated stories from one…

Again, I see sites like reddit and Youtube as megaphones. Not being on them doesn't stop your freedom to speech. Information was is also asymmetric, it takes a fraction the effort and time to spread lies and propaganda, than it takes to fact check and correct it. So especially when the people spreading lies have a lot to gain (many are making a ton of money spreading lies that get clicks), I absolutely don't believe such voice should be given a "platform". They are perfectly free to spread their own speech by themselves, but they are not entitled to free amplification and spread from Youtube or Twitter.

Re: Reddit blocks posting any .ru links

#123

Post by quantum_solanum »

Scandiravian wrote: post #117
quantum_solanum wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure. Do you agree that there are fascist elements in Ukraine's government that should dealt with (by the Ukrainians, to be clear)? If you don't, which aspects of my examples do you contest?

I have no opinion on how Ukraine deals with an internal situation - that's for the people of Ukraine to decide. I definitely don't like fascists or Nazis, which is why I find it peculiar that you're spending time contributing to a discussion by posting supporting "evidence" for an article written by a guy with a fascist agenda. Right now I'm more worried about the fascists that try to justify Putin's war crimes. Ukra…

> by posting supporting "evidence" for an article written by a guy with a fascist agenda.

I compare sources with opposing biases because I believe it helps to parse out what's true and what's not. Bellingcat is absolutely in opposition to the Gray Zone line, I suggest contrasting their reporting on Syria for proof of this. That both of these sources are agreeing on these claims suggests there is some truth there. If you think that ignoring it is simply the most convenient thing for now, that's at least a more honest opinion than blanket denial and willful ignorance of independently verifiable facts. The latter is far more helpful to fascism than whatever you think you're accusing me of.

Re: Reddit blocks posting any .ru links

#124

Post by akfanta »

imwillofficial wrote: post #30

The only fake stories and propaganda I’ve seen so far are from the Ukrainians: - Ghost of Kiev using ARMA Footage. No evidence this person exists. - Miss Ukraine fighting in Kiev. It was an airsoft gun. She says she isn’t fighting. - Snake Island soldiers killed after heroic standoff. They all surrendered. - Nuclear Reactor shelled, radiation rising. A training building was involved in a relatively small firefight. R…

You don’t see any Russian propaganda probably because they were all filtered out by western media. Same probably goes the other way in Russia. Propaganda machine is definitely going to be running non-stop during war times. That’s why it’s important to reserve some critical thinking skills reading all these news. Unfortunately, people eat the propaganda like breakfast on this side, I’d imagine it’s probably the same situation on the other side. All these echo chambers just add fuel to the feud. I’d hate if this is what kicks off the next world war, with both sides feeling justified and righteous, dumping nukes on the other side because “they all deserve it”.

Re: Reddit blocks posting any .ru links

#126

Post by faeriechangling »

Two days ago I was trying to convince somebody who was very anti-war and sceptical of the mainstream media narrative on Ukraine, that Russian propaganda targets people like him, and that it's moderately effective. I posted these two YouTube videos [1] [2] of a journalist described as an "Independent Canadian Journalist" which got close to a million views between them, and proved that they were not independent and affiliated with RT by linking to RT [3]. RT.com has also been banned by Reddit [4].

Banning .ru sites doesn't actually undermine Russian military interest. It just undermines people like myself who want to link to Russian sources to expose Russian military propaganda. It drives sceptics towards unreasonable echo-chambers where they're more prone to and less aware of foreign influence. It causes Russians to host their propaganda on .com's where people will be less sceptical of it which is just correcting your enemy while they're making a mistake. If you were going to censor them, a targeted blacklist would at least have the benefit of letting through anti-war .ru's, it's not as though everybody in Russia supports this war. A .ru ban fails at the very goal it's trying to accomplish.

Banning 5 million .ru domains [5] is also just so destructive. The vast majority of websites blocked with have nothing to do with politics or news or the war. Fuck the people who run and use those websites, I guess?

The Russian perspective is also valuable to listen to, even if their government is horrible. If a Ukrainian war criminal in Ukraine rapes and murders a bunch of people, by censoring Russians who are uniquely capable and motivated to expose such war crimes. We're going to help war criminals get away with and continue perpetrating their crimes. War criminals regardless of country benefit from wartime censorship. Hearing the Russian perspective and engaging with Russians also helps to end war diplomatically and peacefully. It's the best situation if we hear the Russian perspective, but we're AWARE it's the Russian perspective, so as not to be misled by bias and to be sceptical of potential slanders.

A .ru ban totally fails at its intended goal, it hurts a lot of bystanders, and it undermines the goal we should be aiming towards.

[1] https://youtu.be/g1VNQGsiP8M [2] https://youtu.be/Z9F-cHc5Qog [3] https://www.rt.com/op-ed/370618-syria-sources-bartlett-rt/am... [4] https://variety.com/2022/digital/news/reddit-bans-links-to-r... [5] https://statdom.ru/tld/ru/report/domainscount/#8:date=202202...

Re: Reddit blocks posting any .ru links

#127

Post by johnny22 »

imwillofficial wrote: post #30

The only fake stories and propaganda I’ve seen so far are from the Ukrainians: - Ghost of Kiev using ARMA Footage. No evidence this person exists. - Miss Ukraine fighting in Kiev. It was an airsoft gun. She says she isn’t fighting. - Snake Island soldiers killed after heroic standoff. They all surrendered. - Nuclear Reactor shelled, radiation rising. A training building was involved in a relatively small firefight. R…

>> - Nuclear Reactor shelled, radiation rising.

This may have been said, but even the most mainstream american news sources like NBC said it was totally fine within hours of the initial concerns.

Re: Reddit blocks posting any .ru links

#128

Post by johnny22 »

quantum_solanum wrote: post #109
Scandiravian wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm confused about what your argument is here. It sounds to me that your position is that this article is proof that Ukraine's government are Nazis (it's not), therefore Putin is justified both in invading Ukraine and the war crimes he's most likely responsible for during said invasion. Is that correct?

> Is that correct? Nope! I think Putin only cares about having a buffer zone from NATO, much like Afghanistan is (or was intended to be) for the US against China. I'm simply providing examples to your question upthread: > Are they holding political office or have strong influence on the politics of Ukraine? All 3 examples hold political office and 2 are upper-level administrative positions.

what about their "buffer zone" with finland?

Re: Reddit blocks posting any .ru links

#130

Post by fourtrees »

odessacubbage wrote: post #82
xdennis wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a ridiculous false equivalence. * Russians are bombing civilians, infrastructure, power plants, &c * We using sanctions and cutting of Russian influence. These are in no way the same, and you can't say we're "spreading feud" when they're giving 15year prison sentences for saying the word "war".

>bombing civilians https://archive.ph/UkIMn >infrastructure, power plants https://archive.ph/YIxcH >they're giving 15year prison sentences for saying the word "war" https://balkaninsight.com/2022/03/01/czechia-mulls-penalisin... sounds like reddit better start censoring .com/.gov/.us/.cz links

Yes, but that's the good propaganda, violence, erasure, and censorship though. Promoting it protects liberal westerners from the complicated tasks of basic research, historical knowledge, critical thinking, and the potentially complex and appalling realization that states and their actions --even democratic ones, from the Melian massacre to extraordinary rendition-- exist on a spectrum of good and evil. Our good propaganda, ect. saves citizens a ton of intellectual effort which is clearly better spent somewhere else. Let freedom ring undulled by the complicated.

Honestly, this whole thing reminds me a bit of the Lusitania and the way England manipulated US opinion (not saying war wasn't justified). The US and UK governments denied the ship carried munitions for close to 100 years. It was a German attack on a peaceful vessel, period. The wreck was found in the 80s, and divers were told to be careful surveying the wreck given its cargo. Later, the cargo was of course revealed to be high explosives and tons of rounds of ammunition, making it fair game for U-boats and causing the deaths of thousands (?) of travelers as a result... best of all, the German government had published warnings of the risk of traveling into a war zone in American papers.

In short, take all news with a grain of salt. The good guys are usually the ones publishing.

Addendum: I do support the Ukraine whole-heartedly; I hope this results in a free Ukraine and a new Russia.

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