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Russia to restrict Facebook access for 'censoring' its media

reuters.com

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Re: Russia to restrict Facebook access for 'censoring' its media

#21

Post by TameAntelope »

agumonkey wrote: post #9
chrononaut wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft and Apple perhaps, but I suspect it's advantageous for Facebook, Twitter, and Google to remain otherwise the state propaganda apparatus would only get stronger.

It's not working great it seems. A few russian kids came on reddit expressing no hatred against ukraine, but being powerless due to the oligarchic structure of Russian politics. It might be a fake account I don't know. But with the recent risky protests.. actually I don't know what to say. It seems that propaganda is somehow deeper on non Russian groups. Lots of people in other countries are rooting for russia based…

Maybe I'm paranoid, but I assume 100% of Russian content on Reddit is manufactured. Their government has just invested so much into psyops that it successfully undermined legitimate engagement (for me).

Re: Russia to restrict Facebook access for 'censoring' its media

#22

Post by nest0r »

pyronik19 wrote: post #15

No fan of Russia, but to pretend that facebook is some neutral platform that isn't trying to push their own political agenda is naive.

For like 10 years in every thread about social media someone brings up their “own political agenda” but never specifies what they mean. If the main objective is maximizing profits there can’t be a strong political agenda because with every shift in governance the way to maximize profit will also shift. This whole political debate about social networks is just stupid they are cooperations first and if there is profit to be made they will take it no matter if it’s left or right.

Re: Russia to restrict Facebook access for 'censoring' its media

#23

Post by abdullin »

mlkmt wrote: post #17

anyone knows how Russia limited the access?

(lived in Russia until 2021, not authorative source of info)

All ISP providers are required to have black boxes installed on-site. These boxes can do traffic shaping (e.g. Twitter is degraded) and basic filtering based on IP addresses. I think, deep packet inspection is also feasible.

Config updates are pushed centrally to these boxes.

Self-managed VPNs still work.

Re: Russia to restrict Facebook access for 'censoring' its media

#24

Post by deutschewelle »

pyronik19 wrote: post #15

No fan of Russia, but to pretend that facebook is some neutral platform that isn't trying to push their own political agenda is naive.

Not sure why this comment is being downvoted, there is credible evidences that support this view, if not obvious from the US elctions

Re: Russia to restrict Facebook access for 'censoring' its media

#25

Post by the_af »

TameAntelope wrote: post #21
agumonkey wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not working great it seems. A few russian kids came on reddit expressing no hatred against ukraine, but being powerless due to the oligarchic structure of Russian politics. It might be a fake account I don't know. But with the recent risky protests.. actually I don't know what to say. It seems that propaganda is somehow deeper on non Russian groups. Lots of people in other countries are rooting for russia based…

Maybe I'm paranoid, but I assume 100% of Russian content on Reddit is manufactured. Their government has just invested so much into psyops that it successfully undermined legitimate engagement (for me).

I don't follow that line of reasoning. If a few Russian kids express "no hatred against Ukraine" and claim to actually feel powerless at the oligarchic structure of their country (Russia), in which way do you feel this could be manufactured psyops? What purpose could this serve as propaganda, "Russians kids don't like Putin or the ruling system"?

Wouldn't propaganda look more like "our country means Ukraine no harm, but in this case we are right because [reasons]"?

Re: Russia to restrict Facebook access for 'censoring' its media

#26

Post by lostmsu »

deutschewelle wrote: post #24
pyronik19 wrote: post #15

No fan of Russia, but to pretend that facebook is some neutral platform that isn't trying to push their own political agenda is naive.

Not sure why this comment is being downvoted, there is credible evidences that support this view, if not obvious from the US elctions

Because it is irrelevant to the issue at hand.

Re: Russia to restrict Facebook access for 'censoring' its media

#27

Post by TameAntelope »

the_af wrote: post #25
TameAntelope wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe I'm paranoid, but I assume 100% of Russian content on Reddit is manufactured. Their government has just invested so much into psyops that it successfully undermined legitimate engagement (for me).

I don't follow that line of reasoning. If a few Russian kids express "no hatred against Ukraine" and claim to actually feel powerless at the oligarchic structure of their country (Russia), in which way do you feel this could be manufactured psyops? What purpose could this serve as propaganda, "Russians kids don't like Putin or the ruling system"? Wouldn't propaganda look more like "our country means Ukraine no harm,…

It's being used right now to soften the perception of Russia ("See look, the Russian people don't approve of this!" as a way of implicitly arguing against sanctions) right now, that seems valuable.

Also "chaos" has value. It's a big thing in how PsyOps works (from my limited understanding); when you sew chaos, you can get away with more.

Re: Russia to restrict Facebook access for 'censoring' its media

#28

Post by odiroot »

chrononaut wrote: post #4
asplake wrote: post #3

Honestly, I just wish Facebook, Twitter, Google, and even Microsoft and Apple just withdrew. The Russian government has only contempt for them anyway

Microsoft and Apple perhaps, but I suspect it's advantageous for Facebook, Twitter, and Google to remain otherwise the state propaganda apparatus would only get stronger.

There's always Telegram. People share channels with friends and family.

Re: Russia to restrict Facebook access for 'censoring' its media

#29

Post by the_af »

TameAntelope wrote: post #27
the_af wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't follow that line of reasoning. If a few Russian kids express "no hatred against Ukraine" and claim to actually feel powerless at the oligarchic structure of their country (Russia), in which way do you feel this could be manufactured psyops? What purpose could this serve as propaganda, "Russians kids don't like Putin or the ruling system"? Wouldn't propaganda look more like "our country means Ukraine no harm,…

It's being used right now to soften the perception of Russia ("See look, the Russian people don't approve of this!" as a way of implicitly arguing against sanctions) right now, that seems valuable. Also "chaos" has value. It's a big thing in how PsyOps works (from my limited understanding); when you sew chaos, you can get away with more.

> "see look, the Russian people don't approve of this! Don't punish them with sanctions!"

But there have already been demonstrations against this war in Russia, with detainees and video footage showing this. And if you don't trust the footage, I'm sure someone knows someone in Russia who can attest to this.

So we know at least some people in Russia don't support the invasion.

More importantly, in my opinion: that kind of thinking is a trap. When your hypothesis is unfalsifiable, "all Russians online are lying, no matter what they say, and even when they agree with me" how is discourse possible at all? You cannot tell honest speech from propaganda because, by definition, all speech is propaganda?

Re: Russia to restrict Facebook access for 'censoring' its media

#30

Post by erichocean »

Ambolia wrote: post #5

The internet just feels so small currently. The technology seems to be all here to make it distributed and open it up, but the convenience of centralization and the lack of network-effects of the distributed solutions seem to be the bottle-neck that stop them from gaining traction.

If someone invented an algorithm to enable network effects on decentralized networks, they'd secure a place in computing history.
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