this post was submitted on 06 Apr 2024

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Anonymous users are dominating right-wing discussions online. They also spread false information (apnews.com)

submitted 4 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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The reposts and expressions of shock from public figures followed quickly after a user on the social platform X who uses a pseudonym claimed that a government website had revealed “skyrocketing” rates of voters registering without a photo ID in three states this year — two of them crucial to the presidential contest.

“Extremely concerning,” X owner Elon Musk replied twice to the post this past week.

“Are migrants registering to vote using SSN?” Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, an ally of former President Donald Trump, asked on Instagram, using the acronym for Social Security number.

Trump himself posted to his own social platform within hours to ask, “Who are all those voters registering without a Photo ID in Texas, Pennsylvania, and Arizona??? What is going on???”

…

Yet by the time they tried to correct the record, the false claim had spread widely. In three days, the pseudonymous user’s claim amassed more than 63 million views on X, according to the platform’s metrics. A thorough explanation from Richer attracted a fraction of that, reaching 2.4 million users.

The incident sheds light on how social media accounts that shield the identities of the people or groups behind them through clever slogans and cartoon avatars have come to dominate right-wing political discussion online even as they spread false information.

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[–] [email protected] 101 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Asimov: *nails it*

There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.

The bad guys since high school and in countless tales and yet still in governments and corner suites and at pulpits: *weaponizes it*

You know who you are: *treats it all like team sports* *thinks is player* *is ball*

[–] [email protected] 31 points 4 months ago

I think this is a great comment and I extend the same thinking to the bullshit/ magical thinking people engage in around science/ medicine denial-ism, new age mysticism, and conspiratorial thinking/ I'd rather believe a good story modes of thinking.

100% its a part of our political system, but as Asimov states, its in our cultural life as well, and I have no patience for it. I call it out when I see it and if that makes me the ass hole, so be it. Its a burden I'll bear to have conversations grounded in reality or not at all.

[–] [email protected] 48 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (34 children)

Some of these are clearly wedge-driving divisive trolls posing as leftists. Especially those touting voting 3rd party or not voting.

[–] Socsa 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

This is absolutely rampant on .ml and it drives me nuts that their predilections for stupid campism causes them to not just allow, but actively protect right wing trolls.

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[–] [email protected] 43 points 4 months ago (3 children)

The right is so desperate to be upset that they will believe anything except reality.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago

Unfortunately it's not only the right. A lot of people from all walks of life are jumping on misleading articles because they aling with their views and don't bother fact checking them. You see it plenty on Lemmy.

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[–] [email protected] 40 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (8 children)

This is a perfect example of truthful mainstream propaganda.

I have no doubt all of the facts in this piece are correct, but they're also aligned in such a way to suggest to the reader that the real root of the problem is that commoners are allowed to have anonymous social media accounts not tied to a real name or some government ID program.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 4 months ago

It also doesn't distinguish between anonymous and pseudonemous, which is important.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 4 months ago (1 children)

This.

The real way to deal with this issue is immedate fact checking of information.

The article, however, suggests that the way to deal with the issue is forcing people to use their real identities on line, which will only serve to silence speech. How many of these right wing psychopaths will happily threaten to murder you if you argue they’re wrong?

The answer to bad speech is more speech, not suppression.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

Fact checking the firehose of falsehoods? That's never going to work.

We should teach how to be critical of information.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (6 children)

I keep running into people who say moderation is impossible at scale.

It does not make surface level sense to me. But it’s true. Ban evasion is too easy. With no repercussions behavior is not socially enforced.

If you think through it, and do want moderation and bans to work, it always comes back to having to have an authoritative index of all users. And that gets dystopian almost instantly. It always needs some organization or government to tell the platform that a user is who they say they are.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

What about networks of trust instead of a single index?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

That sounds interesting. I’d be curious to learn if:

It’s been proven to scale to millions of users.
If there are usually strong repercussions for lying.

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 4 months ago

This. This right here, people, is why the community rules exist and why I'm happy to see them consistently enforced.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 4 months ago (1 children)

~~Anonymous~~ Foreign

FTFY

[–] [email protected] 16 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Chinese, North Korean, and Russian shills.

Specified for you.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 months ago (8 children)

Oh, cool, a well researched article on right-wing disinformation campaigns. Can't wait to watch the Lemmy liberals accuse leftists of being a part of this without any evidence.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 months ago (11 children)

Can't wait for the liberals in power to try and expand the surveillance state using this as a pretext.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 4 months ago

Yeah, I did notice this article had a weirdly anti-anonymity undertone, as though corporate algorithms designed push conflict and sensationalism weren't the driving force of disinformation.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago

I'm really happy with all the fucking porn bans and want more, yes please daddy, go through everything I"m doing and punish me for everytime I didn't kiss the America Flag

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago

Um, aktuly, social credit score is from China, sweetie. Liberals are for liberty, it's right there in the name

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Has anyone considered that these "anonymous" or "foreign" operators are just sophisticated bots?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago

Many of them probably are, but they are bots designed to spread that information...

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)

And they're doing it because they think it is funny

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

I truly am curious on why you think someone is spreading this amount of misinformation as a joke. Usually I see explanations such as:

Russia and China are perpetrators of most of the misinformation
Conservatives spreading misinformation (that they do believe) in order to make their conclusions more plausible (see Charlie Kirk)

I know trolls exist but could they really be this influential? I would hope not.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

It's been a staple rhetorical strategy for fascists to both be entirely serious and "totally joking" with the same exact statements. It allows them to consistently push the boundaries of acceptable prejudice while always having a fall-back. "You took that seriously!?!?".

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago

“Users”

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

2001 called and asked for its headline back.

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