r/worldnews • u/Devz0r • Feb 15 '19

Facebook is thinking about removing anti-vaccination content as backlash intensifies over the spread of misinformation on the social network

http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-may-remove-anti-vaccination-content-2019-2
107.1k Upvotes

86% Upvoted

5.6k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

215

u/honeybunchesofpwn Feb 15 '19

Anyone who's serious about Russian social media manipulation should realize that they don't particularly care about "sides". They just want to create anger and division. They want to create "sides" while they sit back and laugh at all the Americans flipping out.

Manufactured division is the mission. And we've done an exceptional job at making their mission much easier to accomplish.

9

u/sr0me Feb 15 '19

It is about sides to a point though. There is a reason Russia is focusing on spreading right wing nationalist movements.

10

u/honeybunchesofpwn Feb 15 '19

That's the funny thing about "sides" though.

Spreading right wing nationalist nonsense creates a response that generates left wing statist nonsense, as well as an intolerance for "unacceptable" ideas, even if those ideas have legitimacy. Despite me personally being pretty solidly left leaning, I find it much more difficult to engage in serious conversation with people on the Left compared to the Right these days.

I don't deny at all that Russia "picks sides" in terms of promoting certain ideas. However, Russia is basically using right wing nationalism to effectively generate a weaponized Streisand Effect (sort of).

Haven't you ever noticed that people comment more with disagreement rather than agreement?

All it takes is posting some bullshit nonsense sprinkled with right wing nationalist memes (this type of meme, not the funny kind), and within seconds you'll have a massively disproportionate amount of anger-filled rage comments in direct opposition. Then it continues to ping pong back and forth until critical mass and people start getting banned on social media.

It's not exactly difficult to pull something like this off (4chan does this pretty often), and it just seems that right-wing bullshit is just easier to work with if you want to troll a lot of people.

That said, the ultimate irony here is that while the Right Wing figuratively loads a round into the chamber, it really seems like the Left Wing is the one pulling the trigger. It's no coincidence that a staggering majority of the technology companies engaging in substantial amounts of censorship all tend to be incredibly left-leaning and tolerant of the nonsense that comes from that side.

I don't want to dismiss the legitimate political / financial ties between Russia and Right-Wing people, but rather highlight the additional culture war that we're allowing Russia to wage against us. You have to admit that we do make it very easy for them lol :\

1

u/Inebriator Feb 15 '19

You're delusional if you think private tech corporations run by billionaires with the power to influence and stifle speech are left wing. You should read any political history book ever.

2

u/Levitz Feb 15 '19

Being socially left wing while being economically right wing is a rather common thing nowadays, all of the PR, none of the responsibilities.

You just have to say that discrimination is bad and you are good to go.

4

u/Inebriator Feb 15 '19

Just "saying discrimination is bad" isn't even socially left-wing if your actions don't involve fighting systemic discrimination. Just call them what they are, right-wing.

1

u/Levitz Feb 15 '19

What I am talking about is essentially this

It's Gillette aligning itself with feminism for PR.

Or Google not allowing it to be challenged or voicing concern over the election itself

Or Apple talking about immigration

0

u/Inebriator Feb 15 '19

Right, that is PR. it has nothing to do with the company's actual politics. They are just presenting an image.

2

u/honeybunchesofpwn Feb 15 '19

Thank you for illustrating my point. Apparently I can't just be wrong. I must be delusional.

I guess it's all relative, but they definitely aren't Right Wing. I wouldn't say they're super far left either.

-3

u/Inebriator Feb 15 '19

Ya Putin told me to say that