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The Israel-Hamas War Is Drowning X in Disinformation

https://www.wired.com/story/x-israel-hamas-war-disinformation/#intcid=_wired-verso-hp-trending_607518c0-191a-42cf-aa34-b421ef85876f_popular4-1

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.

The Israel-Hamas War Is Drowning X in Disinformation

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/6589988

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.

22 comments

foksmash

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The article seems like a hit piece for having to pay for Twitter. If it's that important to use it, pay the money. Otherwise, like goes on just fine without the platform.

squirrel

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Archived version without paywall

Neon_Dystopia

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Permanently Deleted

SuckMyWang

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So censoring disinformation is bad because no one can know with 100% certainty that it’s actually disinformation or not? Isn’t there a lot of caveats here?

squirrel

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no one can know with 100% certainty that it’s actually disinformation

[Citation needed]

If video or pictures are being posted that weren't shot in Israel/Gaza or have already been posted in the past, while posters imply that they are from the current conflict, then we can say with 100% certainty that this is disinformation.

SuckMyWang

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I did suggest there are caveats to this premise. Your example doesn’t solve for a consumer of information being able to prove that it is disinformation in every case, and even the methods used to prove something is disinformation can potentially be flawed. I’m not arguing that disinformation doesn’t exist, because it clearly does. I’m saying that you can very rarely prove with 100% certainty that something is misinformation. Then you end up with who gets to deem what is and isn’t disinformation? These people and institutions are fallible to corruption and things can potentially be worse than they are already but this is debatable hence these discussions

Franzia

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In this case, if a video was first posted online in 2015, and is being shared as part of this conflict now, but with a Hamas logo added to the corner, we can use a search engine to say with absolute certainty that the video is misinformation.

SuckMyWang

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Yes this seems like a solid case that no one anywhere could argue with. My only point is when the line starts to get fuzzy how do you decide? And is it worth having a total hands off approach at the cost of things like this so that when things get emotional and susceptible to bias that there’s always the full range of information at hand to be able to find the truth? I’m not really for or against btw and I lean towards being at least proactive about this obvious shit

Franzia

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I would prefer not to even get close to the fuzzy line. I think a little bit of misinformation is something society can handle, and we are experiencing a flood of very easily proven wrong misinfo.

I think the Twitter Added Context feature was a pretty elegant solution, and fit into the "this is wrong, even harmfully so, but I can't prove its on purpose so maybe deleting it isn't the right move."

These are seriously issues that Lemmy is perfectly positioned to approach solving. Our community is eager to craft the perfect takes. We are so incredibly informed, and debate-ready. And the instances / communities / open source nature means we can literally make our own solutions to the ongoing problems of the net.

SuckMyWang

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I hope you are right. It’s a problem and it needs some solutions. It appears equally as important to get it right and the only way I personally see that happening is by not having a knee jerk reaction to the problem and becoming properly informed and respectfully understanding where the other side is coming from before moving forward too brashly. It’s important to separate this side from trolls who are acting in bad faith. I would put Elon in half believing in it and half acting in bad faith because he is obviously half child. Not always a bad thing, it gives him the ability to be creative and adventurous but we all know sometimes children just want to smash the building down for reasons they don’t even understand.

The strongest point against censorship is that you don’t know what you don’t know, as in once the switch is flicked we no longer see what is being censored so once it’s out of sight the mechanisms that were put in place have to be air tight from corruption and unintentional bias.

Franzia

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This is so eloquently said. You don't know what you don't know.

squirrel

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Insisting that nothing can be falsified unless there is 100% certainty all the time is ridiculous. Who would even define what 100% certainty is supposed to be?

Because you come up some unattainable standard that you claim needs to be met, does not mean that anybody else has to agree with that standard.

You are free to believe in such nonsense, but otherwise it's just sophistry.

SuckMyWang

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I’m sorry I’m having some trouble following your thread of conversation. In my very first comment I simply stated what the argument for absolute free speech is and then asked the open ended question of there is surely some problems/warnings (caveats) with this premise. You replied (citation needed) which kind of means the same thing.

In my next comment I wrote some of the problems with combatting disinformation, namely who gets to decide what and what isn’t disinformation (who gets to decide what is 100% certain or as close to truth as can be). I then mentioned that truth can be often be subjective so it’s not attainable.

In your last comment you inferred that I said I was insisting nothing can be falsified unless there is 100% certainty. I did not say this anywhere, to be honest I’m not even sure what that means.

I’m not sure if you have read my comments correctly. I do not want disinformation spreading and it’s obvious it’s extremely harmful to society. People like Elon who claim they are free speech absolutist are saying it in bery bad faith. Elon wants to criticise the government while tightly controlling information that aligns with his world view. This is a perfect example of what free speech in a capitalist society looks like and it’s riddled with disinformation and bias. My point is if you shift this control from a private citizen to the government will you always get a better result? I know in Elons case it seems obvious that you would but as we saw with Trumps purging of scientists from the government because they didn’t agree with his views on Covid I’m not sure.

TLDR: I’m not for or against anything, I hate disinformation and I’m simply stating there are caveats to free speech and controlling disinformation

squirrel

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Yes, you attempt to argue about hypotheticals. In practice fighting disinformation is about fact checks by various parties, including - but not limited to - OSINT researchers, scientists, independent journalists, news orgs, NGOs and government agencies.

Can some of these be corrupt? Absolutely!
Does it matter? Only if the piece of news in question cannot be corroborated by other parties.

The basis of news has to be facts that can be checked in order to be confirmed or debunked by other parties. There is no possibility to determine with 100% certainty if a piece of information is correct or not, because there is no objective observer who could make that kind of judgement. All we have - and always had - is simply the possibility to check and compare information with the underlying facts.

It is a messy process, but that does not mean that we cannot reach a consensus on which pieces of information are not supported by fact and that this is misinformation. Such consensus is part of the social contract.

Ultimately the consensus will never be supported by every involved party, but that does not mean that consenting parties aren't allowed to take appropriate action against the misinformation.

Franzia

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I wonder if Lemmy has a better track record for misinfo than 2018 Twitter. Or even... Pre-2016 twitter. Gosh twitter has been shit for so long. Anyway. Do we have a news community that makes strides to be perfectly correct? I bet a lot of people would hate posting and commenting there lol.

squirrel

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I assume it's a mixed bag: Some servers will remove it, others won't and the worst of the worst will actively disseminate it.

Franzia

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Brb gonna make the Misinformation-Only instance. Well, actually disinformation is also welcome.

TheBlue22

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You mean lemmygrad?

squirrel

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Great idea, I can't wait to post my theory of the earth being a 5th dimensional pyramidion over there.

flossdaily

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Disinformation about Israel is practically all anyone ever sees.

Consider that there are less than 16 million Jews in the world, and 475 million Arabs/ 2 Billion Muslims.

In this conflict that's largely viewed as Jewish vs Arab or Jewish versus Muslim, Jewish voices are drowned out by either 30:1 or 125:1.

Israel is the only country in the region where lesbian Muslim woman can wear what she wants, vote, live in peace, and become an elected official.

But when you have 30:1 voices in the world making bullshit claims of apartheid, posting misleading infographics, and generally creating an atmosphere of overwhelming 1-sided sentiment it's really easy to see why Israel is vilified.

zbyte64

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Israel doing the longest military occupation in modern history isn't bullshit.

flossdaily

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Agreed. It would be pretty cool if the Palestinians would accept one of the many peace offers that have come their way.

zbyte64

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That would require elections which the occupying force hasn't allowed in about a decade.

SuckMyWang

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It’s possible both sides are full of shit. It’s what happens when one side starts using what the other side views as immoral methods. The side that feels the injustice may feel like they have no other option or even have the moral right to reciprocate. It then becomes a race to the bottom. I don’t know enough about the Jewish religion but it seems like this conflict has an eye for an eye written all over it