It's a very interesting long-form article about disinformation warfare. Not just in the US but also around the whole world. I wish things like these weren't so divisive. I'm sure most who decided to flag this article did so without even having read it.
I was also expecting to find concrete examples of disinformation in the article. For most of the article, the writer does not go into any detail, and simply explains that they personally found these nebulous videos disturbing. But when we do get concrete examples, they fail to prove much. For example, when the writer cites an alleged attempt to suppress voter turnout by claiming Clinton called a voting demographic 'super predators', I expected to find that this was either not true or taken out of context. Instead, I found that it was true and not out of context: in fact BLM had criticized her for these comments.
I don't find microtargeting true facts to be 'disinformation.'
There are a few verifiable examples, but most of them are not nearly as black-and-white as the writer pretends.
This reads as essentially a hit piece against Parscale. This isn't a surprise, since it begins with the framing of Internet advertising being 'used by dictators', whereas it is also of course used worldwide by non-dictators, where it passes mostly without comment, or sometimes with laudatory comments. Even in US eelctions this has been the case - campaigns have done their best to use all the technology available to them at the time on both sides, and will do so for the indefinite future.
The complaint appears to boil down to 'a politician I don't like used technology, so we should shut it down.' I think it deserves flagging. A more thoughtful and substantive article on the same subject might not.
I agree it’s interesting but I’m guessing the flagging is because this cuts too close to the no politics rule for submissions. Even quite neutral posts often turn into political argument in the comments, so one that could easily be seen as anti-Trump is going to attract too much mud slinging.
The case of Li Wenliang is really sad. He knew about the Corona virus epidemic at an early stage and tried to raise the alarm. He posted about it on social media. Police showed up and arrested him for spreading "false" rumors.
After a while he was released but it was too late. The situation was out of control. He got the virus himself and died.
It really scares me that increasing numbers of developers write software enabling tyranny and abuse like this.
We must not censor the rumors, but give people the tools to evaluate for themselves what the truth really is.
> The Chinese military surgeon who exposed the government’s cover-up of the the severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) epidemic in 2003 has been under de facto house arrest since last year, according to his friends and family.
As a Canadian libertarian... I’m not sure why you say that. I don’t have a dog in this fight; I just pray that neither “side” down there gets what they think they want.
Could you help me understand which parts of the article seemed to you to be "demonizing every non-leftist opponent as a deplorable, mouth-breathing, lying Nazi"?
You’re conflating Donald a Trump with someone who actually supports states rights and supports “live and let live policies”. Speaking of deliberate misinformation..
I’m not sure that each “side”, when they are in power, hasn’t sought to increase the centralization of power in their hands — and then laments that the next “bad guy” has too much power.
Again, as a Canadian libertarian, I’m not sure where you got the idea that I’m “conflating Donald Trump” with anything; perhaps you’re “projecting”?
