Fake social media, should it be illegal?

[Phier]

Now I'm hoping that most people here, at least who followed the US election are aware that the DNC had "correct the record" which was a group who would log onto sites like reddit to basically spread pro-Hilary Clinton propaganda. This group was apparently working directly with Clinton which is against the law in elections.

https://theintercept.com/2016/10/18/...-coordination/

Apparently though this has been going on longer, and may be rather sophisticated, HBGary is a security firm which worked with the Obama administration and private companies.

https://wikileaks.org/hbgary-emails/emailid/39681

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Basically this would allow multiple users with multiple IPs to become credible people to spread whatever information/disinformation they wanted on various social media sites.

This to me seems like an abuse of public discourse, though I'm not sure how to control it and not infringe on free speech.

Basically should paid actors be forced to disclose their affiliation, much like Amazon now makes people who get free product to list it on reviews?

Note the email address at the top of this email..

https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportun...=core&_cview=1

.gov...

Edit: I should add this could have been used for investigating ISIS or some expected use, but while I don't think many would disapprove of its use for anti-terrorism, its not a far leap to use it in other areas.

[Prodromos]

It seems more pathetic than criminal. It should be protected as free speech. Concern trolls and infiltrators have been around since forever. The cure is to ignore and laugh at them. They are generally easy to discover; Chinese and Russian propagandists are easier than others, I think.

[Copperknickers II]

In fairness, the entire body of propaganda and deception used by the Democrats failed miserably in their mission to get Hillary elected, so perhaps they'll die off of their own accord now their backers have realised they were a total waste of money.

[Derpy Hooves]

Free speech
/thread

[Phier]

Free speech
/thread

Not even close to /thread.

In the US you are required to state the group who paid for a political add.

[Ventos Mustel]

And here I had hope that this thread would actually be about doing something about supposed 'satire' websites that really just use that to cover up the fact that they are just printing blatantly false articles in order to get ad revenue.

If we take the article linked in the OP at its word, then nothing CTR did was actually in violation due to a loophole. Close the loophole, move on. I file that sort of activity in the same category as paid reviews on yelp or amazon. A nuisance, but nothing major in the grand scheme of things.

[Phier]

And here I had hope that this thread would actually be about doing something about supposed 'satire' websites that really just use that to cover up the fact that they are just printing blatantly false articles in order to get ad revenue.

If we take the article linked in the OP at its word, then nothing CTR did was actually in violation due to a loophole. Close the loophole, move on. I file that sort of activity in the same category as paid reviews on yelp or amazon. A nuisance, but nothing major in the grand scheme of things.

http://lawnewz.com/high-profile/fec-...ock-super-pac/

No, it wasn't due to a loophole that it was legal. See we have these emails that were leaked

If you don't like the thread you can make your own on "fake news", I'd start with CNN myself.

But this isn't really about super PAC law, its about the idea of fake posters spreading paid propaganda and pretending to be "normal" citizens. Something I was once accused of here at TWC.

[Bantu Chieftain]

There are many other groups paid to manipulate and troll discussions on forums.When they cannot manipulate discussions they start trolling with multiple accounts, insult and denigrate.Some forums are made specially for such propaganda.
Some governments even have their own special trained crew for this.

Reddit is a propaganda mudhole and should be boycotted immediately by users.

[justicar5]

Having to disclose that you are being paid makes sense, but some kind of fact checking is necessary, the amount of toxic crap floating around social media is huge, don't know what to do about it.

[Phier]

Having to disclose that you are being paid makes sense, but some kind of fact checking is necessary, the amount of toxic crap floating around social media is huge, don't know what to do about it.

People are responsible for their own fact checking. Everyone gets fooled now and then, but if you pay attention you get the hang of it. The problem with fact checking is who is checking the fact checkers? For example when Trump said Hilary "acid washed" her email server, he was using a very old saying for destroying something, especially documents. NBC's fact checker said that statement was false because she used "Bleachit" software ...

Thats a very silly example but I've seen some rather subtle ones too where you need to fact check the fact checker, and then you do run up against true free speech arguments.

[justicar5]

People are responsible for their own fact checking. Everyone gets fooled now and then, but if you pay attention you get the hang of it. The problem with fact checking is who is checking the fact checkers? For example when Trump said Hilary "acid washed" her email server, he was using a very old saying for destroying something, especially documents. NBC's fact checker said that statement was false because she used "Bleachit" software ...

Thats a very silly example but I've seen some rather subtle ones too where you need to fact check the fact checker, and then you do run up against true free speech arguments.

It's more like the blatant end, the real crazy take all the guns, allow in a billion immigrants or put everyone in camps stuff, (yes I am looking at you OccupyDemocrats as well as Breitbart) some is obvious satire, and admits as such, some is just utter toxic BS designed to be the big lie propaganda, and the way social media puts you in a bubble doesn't help.

[Phier]

It's more like the blatant end, the real crazy take all the guns, allow in a billion immigrants or put everyone in camps stuff, (yes I am looking at you OccupyDemocrats as well as Breitbart) some is obvious satire, and admits as such, some is just utter toxic BS designed to be the big lie propaganda, and the way social media puts you in a bubble doesn't help.

Take all your guns is a bad example since I do see that as their ultimate end game

But it would be false to say that Hilary say she wants to take all your guns, she didn't. But lets say I'm working for Trump and say that as a social media plant, vrs I'm just posting it on TWC. The first I think needs to be acknowledged as "paid for" while the second is just someone who is wrong. You can find any number of really out right nutty videos on youtube claiming really crazy things but the people making them honestly believe the crazy in most cases I think. Sometimes you just gotta accept the crazy if you want to make sure some government doesn't call YOU crazy down the road.

[Humble Warrior]

It`s all about commonsense, wisdom and a sense of moral justice.

It was this that pushed me away from the mainstream news to now watching the alternative news media. Of course, as with the mainstream I use commonsense and check up these things a lot more than I ever used to.

For example, it was very easy to check the mainstream media during the US election fight and compare American and British mainstream News to what places like infowars were saying, and every single time infowars proved more accurate and true than the mainstream. It was galling how obvious the bias against Trump was. Even the British media are riven by the propaganda.

Now infowars can go over the top at times (this is where you use your judgement and check other news sites), but generally, they`ve been spot on. I can see now why the State wants to paint these guys as `conspiracy theorists` because most of the time they`re right and the State doesn`t want you to know the truth right down to telling you, you mustn`t read Wikileaks and let them do it for you! seriously? That`s like in the medieval days when only Priests were allowed to read the Bible cos the peasants were too stupid(in reality they wanted to keep control).

However, the mainstream media, including the vacuous BBC, have lost whatever credibility I once had for them. Britain needs a Trump as well. But maybe America (with Brexit) will be enough to kick the UK in the right direction.

[justicar5]

Take all your guns is a bad example since I do see that as their ultimate end game

But it would be false to say that Hilary say she wants to take all your guns, she didn't. But lets say I'm working for Trump and say that as a social media plant, vrs I'm just posting it on TWC. The first I think needs to be acknowledged as "paid for" while the second is just someone who is wrong. You can find any number of really out right nutty videos on youtube claiming really crazy things but the people making them honestly believe the crazy in most cases I think. Sometimes you just gotta accept the crazy if you want to make sure some government doesn't call YOU crazy down the road.

Which is why I stated the type of organisation I meant, not individuals with tin-foil caps, but fake 'news organisations', are to me the issue, my crazy uncle isn't a problem beyond at family dinners, Metapedia or Breitbart, or, yes OccupyDemocrats can be, they present themselves well enough that people may believe them to be news organisations, with seemingly legitimate reporting, when they are simply not.

[ABH2]

they present themselves well enough that people may believe them to be news organisations, with seemingly legitimate reporting, when they are simply not.

And Hillary's propaganda troll army presents itself as seemingly legitimate human expressing their opinion, but they are simply not.

What's comical is that democracy is a good enough reason to allow progressives to do whatever the hell they want, but then progressives want to turn around and make an argument predicated on how stupid most voters are. If someone isn't smart enough to distinguish between 'fake' news and real news (let's be clear, there's a whole lot of fake news in the mainstream media), then they aren't smart to get a vote on how I live my life or who holds office, either.

I'll take concern over fake news seriously when the same outlets complaining about it stop repeating the lies about an uptick in 'hate crimes' following Trumps election.

[Col. Tartleton]

I mean this website has obviously been targeted by Iranian propagandists in the past and will continue to be a platform for them in the future. I'm not worried about it. They're not exactly sophisticated.

Several members of this site admitted to working for Clinton's campaign and obviously were doing misinformation work, even if it was unintentional human bias. That's all fine and good.

Someone may feel I'm a Trump propagandist despite not having voted for the man.

I'm not denying they're shady as hell, but I don't think we need to stop them.

Fight fire with fire is the only solution. Burn it all down.

We'll tell bigger lies, and more of them. It'll even out.

[Muizer]

@Phier,

Should fake social media be illegal. In other words, should people be required to be truthful in their social media profiles. Who is going to police that?

[Phier]

@Phier,

Should fake social media be illegal. In other words, should people be required to be truthful in their social media profiles. Who is going to police that?

I'm not in favor of it being illegal, I am in favor of paid social media needs to be disclosed. In the US you are required to say who paid for a political add, I think the same applies here.