Democrats and Republicans have sharply different attitudes about whether disinformation is desirable.
this post was submitted on 05 Nov 2023
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It benefits Republicans, so the side it benefits would obviously desire that benefit.
I don't have any trust whatsoever for any company, or the government, to be the decider of what counts as "mis/disinformation".
Sometimes there are easy layups, like "the Holocaust did not happen" and "Vaccines have 5G chips inside them" which are obviously just wrong and I think most of us would agree not to have...
But what about "The Holocaust was overblown and the jews should stop whining about it"? I and probably 99% of people would say that's a stupid opinion, but is that "misinformation"? Should a company be allowed to ban you for saying it?
How about things like the 13/52 statistic? Should that be removed? What about "42% of all transgenders commit suicide"? That's used to attack that group a lot, should that be banned as well?
And, to be honest with you, the Democratic Party is absolutely obsessed with using clinical terms like those mentioned to stifle all discussion and act like they are the only voice on the issue you're allowed to believe. Republicans freak out about this for good reason.
It's always the Democratic side that gets conservative opinions that they think are bad (whether lies or otherwise), boot them off the platform, and then decide to trample all over their new platforms and get them killed off too. It's never just "pRiVaTe CoMpAnY tHeY cAn dO WhAt ThEy WaNt MaKe YoUr oWn WeBsiTE", it's "you are not allowed to have a place to speak this idea that I think is bad for society anywhere on the internet". I really, really do not want to embolden that sect more than they already are.
Well it's likely because both sides have seen instances where something that is absolutely true be silenced with a "disinformation" or "false news" justification. In recent memory, it has been more "left supporting" news stories that have been silenced than "right supporting" ones that have been falsely silenced. But in recent memory:
- Joe Biden's son's laptop. Later confirmed to not be Russian and to be accurate.
- Various emails from the Clinton Campaign being leaked. Claimed to be faked but largely proven accurate at the time of the leak (via DKIM) and with future legal action.
- Several stories about Biden's declining health. Some of these during the primary pissed of the Bernie wing of the party for being silenced, some during the general pissed off Trump supporters. Biden is 80 years old. Everyone 80 years old has declining health but discussion of it was generally verboten.
- "Lab Leak Hypothesis" Still not proven true or false but believable enough that several government agencies believe it to be credible.
- Origins of the "Russia Collision" story being a person affiliated with Clinton/DNC.
And there's a long list of obviously biased "fact checkers" making obvious mistakes. Like claiming Romney was lieing when he accurately predicted the outcome of Obamacare a claim that they would call the lie of the year on behalf Obama for repeating in 2013. I pick on polifact for being left leaning but there's similar right wing "fact checkers" doing similarly biased fact checks.
The only reason he accurately predicted the outcome of Obamacare is because as soon as Republican states no longer had a democratic leadership to contend with they gutted the programs and made them a hollow form of their former selves. Predicting that isn't exactly rocket science if you're the one causing it.
As for all your other stuff I don't think we need to go farther than bringing up Clinton's emails to see that your arguments are reaching.
The only reason he accurately predicted the outcome of Obamacare is because as soon as Republican states no longer had a democratic leadership to contend with they gutted the programs and made them a hollow form of their former selves. Predicting that isn’t exactly rocket science if you’re the one causing it.
That's not actually true. Once the plans were no longer eligible to add new members in; they became plans that could no longer add news subscribers into; meaning that the Insurance companies would have an ever decreasing group of people to pool their money with; making the plans ever more risky. Most of those plans stopped being offered long before Republican governors choose to not expand Medicare coverage.
As for all your other stuff I don’t think we need to go farther than bringing up Clinton’s emails to see that your arguments are reaching.
https://wikileaks.org/clinton-emails/
These emails are valid emails. They're not fakes. During the election; media outlets treated them as if they were fakes.
They weren't able to add more because a Republican Congress cut down approved funding to do so.
The emails exist and were on a personal email server that was not approved which was a security breach. The same as it was a security breach when Trump did it on his personal phone.
It's not okay but it's not as big of a deal as you're making it, moreover it's been well reported that she renounced it apologized and since corrected it, so it's more to the point that it doesn't support your original argument.
They weren't able to add more because a Republican Congress cut down approved funding to do so.
The "like your plan you can keep it" depended on private insurance continuing to offer plans that would not be tax advantaged. No additional funding was needed to see that that wasn't going to be viable.
It's not okay but it's not as big of a deal as you're making it, moreover it's been well reported that she renounced it apologized and since corrected it, so it's more to the point that it doesn't support your original argument.
At the beginning of the scandal, the content of those emails were treated as faked and the first response from the media was to self censor stories about them.
That's actually part of what made it a bigger story, is that when it later came out that they were real instead of people finding out about it months and months ago they found out in bits and pieces over time. In that instance the censorship actually likely hurt the Clinton's more than it helped; but the outrage is still felt mostly on the right as they saw it as another in a long line of censorship decisions that targeted the right.
I can honestly tell you that no one thought they were they were skeptical of the source, once they were authentic not one outlet called them fake.
And report after report shows the opposite of what you claim. Right wing News is favored on almost all online platforms and much of network news
They were never able to be called unauthenticated. They were published with DKIM signatures from the beginning.
you're confusing skepticism with oppression people taking a moment to believe something from Julian assange isn't censorship, He's not exactly the most trustworthy of sources no matter how much proof he brings up but once it was clear and it was pretty quick I think pretty much everyone bought on
Has WikiLeaks every published a false leak? Why would he not be trustworthy?
Just make a nonprofit third party that is as not biased as possible that you can search through with article links that can break down misinformation. Kind of like reverse image search but for articles that pulls up the article score.
third party that is as not biased as possible
First of all, humans inherently have bias. It's literally inevitable. What's more important is what your biases are, how aware of them you are and how they affect your reasoning and openness to new information that might conflict.
Besides, not all biases are created equal and not all biases are completely unreasonable.
Some people are biased against minority groups while others are biased against authority figures. Some are biased in favor of billionaires, others against them. Some will not vote for a candidate that receives corporate PAC money, others will not cosponsor a bill unless the PACs are on board
What a third party needs is to be steeped in bias against corruption and demagoguery and in favor of transparency.