Social media censorship roundup

[Clodfobble]

But that's not what the story's author urged. He said,

Something tells us, if anyone wants to find out what really caused the coronavirus pandemic that has infected thousands of people in China and around the globe, they should probably pay Dr. Peng a visit.

"Anyone" is not "the appropriate officials." And if, as Undertoad seems to be implying, the appropriate officials might in fact be readers of Zero Hedge, and the author only meant to tell them specifically to investigate this claim, then surely those well-informed health officials are capable of finding this guy's public contact information. The author put it directly in the article because he wanted everyone to have it. And the only use that 99.99% of his readership could have for that information is harassment.

[Undertoad]

I guess I'm the 0.01% since I could glean useful information from that detail without being interested in harassment.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

I guess I'm the 0.01% since I could glean useful information from that detail without being interested in harassment.

Yeah, me too. But I'm too lazy for direct action and I can see there would be people like this guy with an axe to grind.

[sexobon]

IMHO, in this instance Clod nailed it. It's a propaganda piece designed to encourage others to extort information from an individual insider, by putting that person on the defensive, without that person's information being filtered by the Chinese government.

The article is heavy on argument for a containment breach and the wording "(accidentally or not)" suggests it's targeting people predisposed to conspiracy theories with a motivational message. The article is light on argument for a natural mutation of the zoonotic virus; also, light on appeals for help from the expert.

Good propaganda pieces do have useful information to be gleaned; but, only that which steers the target audience in a desired direction. Not everyone will be swayed by it, sometimes not even most, as a handful who are willing to act may be all that's needed.

[Undertoad]

China tells citizens to only share coronavirus news from state-run media, or face up to seven years in jail

[Luce]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

China tells citizens to only share coronavirus news from state-run media, or face up to seven years in jail

While their intentions in this specific case may be good, they just gave the rumormongers a ton of credibility.

[Undertoad]

Zuck started drawing a line in the sand!

Free expression — not 'censorship' — will best protect democracy, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg tells Utah audience

In his appearance Friday, Zuckerberg said Facebook had deployed artificial intelligence and other means to detect and quickly remove content promoting terrorism and child trafficking or inciting violence. But he said a more worrisome trend was at hand.

"Increasingly, we're getting called in to censor a lot of different kinds of content that makes me really uncomfortable," Zuckerberg said. "It kind of feels like the list of things that you’re not allowed to say socially keeps on growing."

"And I’m not really OK with that," he said.

"The people who are criticizing and saying that more stuff needs to be censored are never the people who are actually at risk of being censored themselves," Zuckerberg said. "They have their ways of getting stuff out."

"I feel like someone needs to stand up for giving everyone a voice," he said.

[xoxoxoBruce]

The man behind the curtain will be very happy when he can blame the A/I Robot Overlords.

[Flint]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

Zuck started drawing a line in the sand!

Free expression — not 'censorship' — will best protect democracy, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg tells Utah audience

Well, let's hope this one dude who started a website for rating which college chicks are hot is the best person to be deciding the fate of civilization and survival of human life on the planet. Cross your fingers! I'm sure it's probably best to let one random dude decide these things. . . . That makes sense, right?

[Undertoad]

Right, one of the questions we need to deal with as a society is, shall we allow the shit-stirrers and conspiracy theorists on our social medias?

I say, sure. Everything is a theory until proven; you have to consider all the thoughts, in order to parse out what is correct.

Which is also somewhat true about news agencies we don't prefer. I may not like my neighbor's mean dog; but if I hear him barking frantically at 2am, that may still be useful information I can use.

Alex Jones spent time talking about some dude named Jeffrey Epstein, and alleged that this rich guy had a pedophile island, and he'd fly powerful rich people to it. It was deep conspiracy theory... at the time...

[Luce]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

Right, one of the questions we need to deal with as a society is, shall we allow the shit-stirrers and conspiracy theorists on our social medias?

I say, sure. Everything is a theory until proven; you have to consider all the thoughts, in order to parse out what is correct.

Which is also somewhat true about news agencies we don't prefer. I may not like my neighbor's mean dog; but if I hear him barking frantically at 2am, that may still be useful information I can use.

Alex Jones spent time talking about some dude named Jeffrey Epstein, and alleged that this rich guy had a pedophile island, and he'd fly powerful rich people to it. It was deep conspiracy theory... at the time...

Well, not only that, but there is the practical side of it: "How the hell do you stop rumors?"

If the army can't do it, nobody can. In fact, the more you try to suppress rumors, the more they propagate.

[Flint]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

Alex Jones spent time talking about some dude named Jeffrey Epstein, and alleged that this rich guy had a pedophile island, and he'd fly powerful rich people to it. It was deep conspiracy theory... at the time...

Alex Jones also incited harassment of a Sandy Hook parent until they committed suicide.

But I guess you can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs.

[Luce]

Originally Posted by Flint

Alex Jones also incited harassment of a Sandy Hook parent until they committed suicide.

But I guess you can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs.

There is really nothing good to be said about the man.

He's a vulture of the worst sort.

[Flint]

Originally Posted by Luce

There is really nothing good to be said about the man.

I will say, he is entertaining.

Have you seen the video where he says, in all seriousness, "God told me to.. DESTROY. JOE. ROGAN."

Unfortunately we've hit this point in our society where being attention-grabbing makes you a source of truth. Maybe that's the way people have always been.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Flint

Unfortunately we've hit this point in our society where being attention-grabbing makes you a source of truth. Maybe that's the way people have always been.

That may be true but at least it was on a micro level where they would gather locals to run somebody out of town... unless they were black then lynch them.
But with social media and attention whore news, the mobs are a lot bigger like Charlottesville.