
How technology disrupted the truth - andyjohnson0
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/jul/12/how-technology-disrupted-the-truth
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kerrsclyde
The article talks about "the future of publishing now being placed in the
hands of few" \- twas ever thus though, Rupert Murdoch and his like have
controlled publishing in a way that us as the consumers had no control over.

It does seem certain that governments are going to get interested very quickly
when they realise their control over the media has become greatly diminished,
and Facebook is going to bear the brunt of this.

~~~
junko
Can't compare govt control with corp control like apples for apples though.
Facebook and other social media platforms are arguably just facilitators of
social interaction, though incredibly sophisticated at that with
personalisation algorithms et cetra. But they don't have a control agenda, at
least not as explicit as the one traditionally associated with governments.
Well I don't know, there's never been a technological revolution like this
before except in scifi so maybe one day tech corps will be regarded with the
same disdain and wariness. But it still makes it harder for the mass majority
to 'rise up' and rebel, because this time the content is _theirs_. It's all
self-generated. We're living in a pool where the water is so murky with facts
and fiction that there's no point fishing for anything but things we happen to
fancy. Meanwhile the corps that dig up those pools are keen to convince us
that we're having a lovely time. Thanks guys,now we're free!

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andyjohnson0
Quote:

 _" Now, we are caught in a series of confusing battles between opposing
forces: between truth and falsehood, fact and rumour, kindness and cruelty;
between the few and the many, the connected and the alienated; between the
open platform of the web as its architects envisioned it and the gated
enclosures of Facebook and other social networks; between an informed public
and a misguided mob."

"What is common to these struggles – and what makes their resolution an urgent
matter – is that they all involve the diminishing status of truth. This does
not mean that there are no truths. It simply means, as this year has made very
clear, that we cannot agree on what those truths are, and when there is no
consensus about the truth and no way to achieve it, chaos soon follows."_

