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Google Bombs Are Our New Normal (wired.com)
mirandakatz writes: Tech companies' worst crises used to come in the form of pranks like Google bombs: Users figured out how to game search results, such as when a search for "miserable failure" turned up links to information about then-president George W. Bush. Today, in the era of fake news and Russian interference, that's basically our new normal -- but as Karen Wickre, a former communications lead at companies like Google and Twitter, points out, tech companies' approaches to dealing with the new breed of crises haven't evolved much since the age of Google bombs. Wickre suggests a new, collaborative approach that she dubs the "Federation," writing that "No single company, no matter how massive and wealthy, can hire its way out of a steady gusher of bad information or false and manipulative ads...The era of the edge case -- the exception, the outlier—is over. Welcome to our time, where trouble is forever brewing."
The answer to noise isn't more noise. If someone is popping off their motorcycle, that doesn't mean someone else has to buy a jet engine to drown out that sound. We are already dealing with a deluge of bullshit every day, with crap coming from all directions, and major social media sites actually paid to disseminate propaganda. Had FB existed in the 1980s US, the Feds would have dismantled and shut down the entire company for acts of sedition and overt treason, be it giving aid and comfort to the enemy, or disseminating enemy propaganda.
What is really needed is a peer to peer signing and moderation system with trust delegations. That way, if I trust Alice on her opinions of news sources and articles, and if she downmods one place, then her negative weight will affect what I see. Similar if Bob rates another place very positively, that positive weight gets passed on. If I find Alice or Bob trolling, then I distrust them, and perhaps add more weight to what Charlie likes or not. This applies to multiple axes. For example, I would trust the Onion for humor, but I might not trust them for news honesty. While, some sources, I might just not trust whatsoever because they are propaganda depots, pure and simple, be it the ones funded by Soros and Bloomberg, or the ones by the Koch Brothers.
That's exactly what a Russian dezinformatsiya agent would say.
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You are welcome on my lawn.
Look, you people are seeing TEH ROOSHINS in every post, on every thread. If you think Slashdot has any reach anymore, you're sadly mistaken. Most stories barely get double digit comments these days. The whole "blame the foreigners" thing is such an obvious dodge to avoid accepting that Trump voters might have had a point. We all know Podesta came up with this dolchstoss-legende within 24 hours of Hillary's loss, right? You people are seeing TEH ROOSHINS under your bed, and it's honestly kind of sad seeing such great minds succumb to paranoia.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!