In Most Aggressive Push By U.S. Social Media Yet, Twitter Bans Sputnik, RT Ads ‘Effective Immediately’
Regular readers know that we are no fan of Sputnik "News."
See Sputnik isn't "news." Sputnik is propaganda. And not in that way where all news is propaganda. I mean actual, bald-faced lying, shameless, bullshit propaganda.
That kind of propaganda where when you interview someone for a job, one of the questions you ask is: "what would you do if we asked you to lie?"
That kind of propaganda that purports to be an actual newswire but runs stories that cite anonymous bloggers (and yes, I realize
Someone has to protect gullible and ignorant people. Normally I would leave them to their own devices, but this is war. I know Trump does not accept it, but Russia is the main short term foe and China the long term enemy.
What baloney. The enemy is within. Which includes conjuring up false external enemies, the oldest trick in the fascist-totalitarian playbook, like the one Kim Jong-un uses.
O.K. Twitter. How will you handle political adds, or more subtle propaganda, from Arabic, Israeli, Indian, Pakistani, Chinese, etc. sources? I surely do not have the answer, and I do agree that some reasonable bans are in the country’s best interest. But I’d hate to be the chairman of the committee that rules on the acceptability of the sources, and of the ads/tweets/propaganda themselves.
What about the 300 plus U.S. based left and right wing groups? Is the Tea Party acceptable? Breitbart? Antifa? Libertarians? So how far left or right is too far? Tough choices.
“We have long contended that it’s just a matter of time before social media starts pulling the plug on this bullshit”.
Really? Are you on social media? Social media is the reason this bullshit gets spread, it’s certainly not the cure for it! My social media feeds are full of idiots on both sides posting links to articles that back up their points of view that anyone with an ounce of critical thinking would know are propaganda bullshit. Hell the people posting them probably know it! Social media is the ultimate echo chamber if someone says something you don’t agree with, you get to instantly and permanently ban them…
If you think social media’s crowd-sourced criticism of our mainstream media is going to keep them honest you’re crazy. There is no intellectual honesty on either side anymore everyone just wants to be right and not hear opposing views.
Some called me an old fogey when all the Facebook and Twitter crap came along and I said, not for me, it will be the ruin of society…..and to this day I am not on Facebook and I don’t Tweet, never have, never will. I can access and read trump’s tweets via the internet (which also has it’s dangerous edge) and many news articles contain a tweet(s) that is central to the subject of the article — you read that crap a couple of days and it is very clear what grows there. Anger, hate, violence, bullies, ignorance, threats and such are prevalent and have pushed the good stuff aside. Twitter is how they got the crowd together in Charlottesville and that day ended with a young girl’s death. Cases of teen suicide related to bullying on twitter. Potential nuclear war…
Unless or Until there are some external controls on these “devices” and the people who abuse them, well, no thanks, not gonna play. You want to cut off the pipeline for white supremacist et al and take a giant step in stopping all this shit – SHUT DOWN TWITTER. You can easily live without it and you will live better without it!
So, someone please send out a tweet today and tell Russia to back off.