this post was submitted on 10 Oct 2023
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The Israel-Hamas War Is Drowning X in Disinformation::People who have turned to X for breaking news about the Israel-Hamas conflict are being hit with old videos, fake photos, and video game footage at a level researchers have never seen.

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 11 months ago (6 children)

When lemmy becomes popular, how will we make the solid information stand out and not drown in disinformation ourselves?

Can we pull off an elite move and use the war to make lemmy popular right now by being the place on the internet that has the best collection of relevant and trustworthy X accounts?

[–] [email protected] 44 points 11 months ago

For starters the decentralized nature of lemmy means no one person or group can control the narrative. An instance with good moderators can remove bad actors and there’s no good way for a large group to get a footing and spew bullshit to everyone.

The best part is those bad actors get to still be a part of the larger picture, can still engage with each other if they choose, they just cease to have any impact on everyone else. I believe I remember reading about how when the red pill q anons moved in and got mass defederated they complained because it’s just no fun to be a troll if the only people they can talk to is each other.

It’s why we as a global society need to swap to this platform and ditch twitter. He’s literally making it so verified accounts can set it so only other verified accounts can respond. The only idiots with blue check marks are racist conspiracy dickhead trolls. If we are going to continue to call that place the sort of global commons, we are fucked.

Decentralized networks with strong moderation tools are the only future for the internet that isn’t a cesspool of shit. Right now big corps fear this adoption because they cease to be able to buy their way into whatever they want. I do hope one day to see lemmy and mastodon spread further and gain a true foothold, we as a species must have this if we even remotely stand a chance of not spiraling into madness.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Stop all such posts like the above: naked external links.

When you want to link something, you must also add something personal to it, like your opinion, your own summary of what you think is the remarkable piece of news, your knowlege about the trustworthiness of that source, etc.

Prove that you are a human. Prove that you have delivered some quality content. Or try it at least. Failure is OK. Automated low effort posting is NOK.

IMHO that's the only way how we humans can stay 'above' the bots. Disinformation campaigns are using the same bots as information campaigns.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Perhaps a federation that has very curated posts? Thinking something like snopes.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago

I think Wikipedia is working on this.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

That would cause Lemmy to be immediately flooded with disinformation.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Don't get your news from Hexbear will probably be a good start

[–] [email protected] 28 points 11 months ago (1 children)

anybody going to "x" for news is doing it wrong

[–] [email protected] -1 points 11 months ago

Same with anyone solely getting their middle east info from al Jazeera or other anti semetic sources.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 11 months ago

As opposed to a week ago when Twitter was known as the hub of all rational and nuanced discussion.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 11 months ago

The amount of disinformation on TwiXtter hasn't changed only the topic has

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Disinformation on X (formerly known as twitter) of all places? Oh my, things are really going downhill if we can no longer trust the information on X (formerly known as twitter).

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I was going to pop open a bottle of champagne after reading the first article that didn't feel the need to say those 4 superfluous words (formerly known as Twitter)

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

It'll always be X (formerly known as Twitter) to me.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] FilthyHands 6 points 11 months ago

X gone give it to ya.

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

Like it wasn't already.

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

Do they mean "X Social Media" who has had the name longest, or the competitor "X, Formerly Known as Twitter"? I get them confused because they are named the same.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

I saw a bunch of Lemmy posts get taken down. Nice job Lemmy!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Damn, what's going on with his facial hair?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Wars are fought with propaganda. This war isn't special.