The Disinformation Industry

Tzeentch April 17, 2024 at 05:31 1525 views 10 comments
A good piece of journalism on the concept and practices surrounding "disinformation", carried out by actors we might not usually associate with disinformation:



In my view, this is probably the central societal problem of our times - actors trying to get a monopoly on information, and thus a monopoly on your thoughts.

A whole new vocabulary has been conjured to disguise what is in essence propaganda and censorship. It has also been extremely successful however, and therefore extremely dangerous to those who value objective, rational and independent thought.

That's why I figured I'd share it here.

Comments (10)

Vera Mont April 17, 2024 at 14:58 #897208
Reply to Tzeentch
Thanks; that looks interesting. I can't watch on this computer, but will look for it at lunchtime.
neomac April 18, 2024 at 12:06 #897419
Let's fact-check the fact-checkers of the fact-checkers:
https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/creature-of-the-right-james-ball/
https://hopenothate.org.uk/2024/02/22/revealed-the-shocking-tweets-of-gb-news-co-owner-sir-paul-marshall/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliance_for_Responsible_Citizenship
unenlightened April 20, 2024 at 20:00 #898020
Fortunately, its always the other side one has to fact check, one's own group being open and honest about everything.
Tzeentch April 21, 2024 at 06:53 #898094
Reply to unenlightened The question we need to be asking ourselves is, should institutions funded by wealthy billionaires with agendas be put in charge of deciding what is disinformation and what is not? Because currently, they are. And, as the video shows, they are using it actively to promote their own views and suppress others - propaganda and censorship, pure and simple.

This isn't about taking sides. This is about the degree to which the information landscape is being poisoned by all sides, including the ones at the top with the most power; and those seem to be the ones getting away with it, because many people still subconsciously treat those sources as authoritative.

If this 'Global Disinformation Index' business doesn't scream 1984, I don't know what does.
unenlightened April 21, 2024 at 12:00 #898126
Quoting Tzeentch
This isn't about taking sides.


Oh yes it is. We are on the side of truth, and they are the enemy.
ssu April 21, 2024 at 12:16 #898129
Quoting Tzeentch
A whole new vocabulary has been conjured to disguise what is in essence propaganda and censorship.

Indeed.

After a brief interlude, state actors and lobby groups have adapted perfectly to mold propaganda and censorship to the new media of the net and the new environment. The biggest advance is AI, even if just search engines have dramatically changed the game.

Typically police states simply have become overwhelmed by their own apparatus: in order to have total surveillance of the population, you simply needed far too many employees to listen to the conversations, to read all the letters. Then to process all the data has been the major problem. Now with computers and AI that's something totally possible.
Tzeentch April 21, 2024 at 13:12 #898140
Quoting unenlightened
Oh yes it is. We are on the side of truth, and they are the enemy.


Well, I would consider people who deliberately use propaganda and censorship to pursue their goals at the expense of others to be the enemy of reason and all things good - this much is true. It turns out there are a lot of such "enemies" out there.

Do you see things otherwise?
Lionino April 21, 2024 at 14:44 #898165
If I have a comment with lots of likes on some platform, sometimes I edit it to include purposefully incorrect information. Am I part of the industry? If so, should I have been receiving a salary all this time?
RogueAI April 21, 2024 at 19:28 #898207
Quoting Lionino
If I have a comment with lots of likes on some platform, sometimes I edit it to include purposefully incorrect information.


Why?
Lionino April 22, 2024 at 01:16 #898268
Reply to RogueAI I am a bad person :blush: :yum: