this post was submitted on 12 Sep 2025
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Fediverse vs Disinformation

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Pointing out, debunking, and spreading awareness about state- and company-sponsored astroturfing on Lemmy and elsewhere. This includes social media manipulation, propaganda, and disinformation campaigns, among others.

Propaganda and disinformation are a big problem on the internet, and the Fediverse is no exception.

What's the difference between misinformation and disinformation? The inadvertent spread of false information is misinformation. Disinformation is the intentional spread of falsehoods.

By equipping yourself with knowledge of current disinformation campaigns by state actors, corporations and their cheerleaders, you will be better able to identify, report and (hopefully) remove content matching known disinformation campaigns.


Community rules

Same as instance rules, plus:

  1. No disinformation
  2. Posts must be relevant to the topic of astroturfing, propaganda and/or disinformation

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/35786937

Free Speech Goes Only One Way

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[–] DrFistington@lemmy.world 62 points 7 months ago (3 children)

There are no major news outlets that actually are actually liberal. There was A point maybe 20+ years where several outlets had a slight liberal bias, but America was a more accepting place in general, so it could have been a reflection of that.

But since then journalism has been decimated, and media outlets have been consolidating, and they are all owned by a handful of billionaires. Adelson, bezos, Murdoch, Zuckerberg, Musk. 90% or more of what you see, hear and are told is truth, comes curated through their outlets.

Every single one of them is a conservative, who's given millions to billions to get trump elected.

The idea that the current US media landscape is in ANY way liberal, is so fucking laughable, it's probably the best litmus test to see how programmed someone has become. By calling it the liberal media, someone has to be living in a land of pure fantasy

[–] taco@anarchist.nexus 16 points 7 months ago

Pretty sure it was BS 20 years ago too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Liberal_Media%3F

"The liberal media" is just the result of effective propaganda.

[–] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 7 months ago

There are no major news outlets that actually are actually liberal

That's not true. Modern liberalism is Neoliberalism, a center right to right wing and pro-capital, pro-cop ideology that sometimes allows pretending to be left wing but never actually BEING or ACTING in accordance with left wing ideology.

MSNBC, CNN, CBS News, Politico, Huffpo, and the NYT are all examples of Neoliberal major news outlets.

American liberalism hasn't been left wing or progressive since before Bill Clinton became the Dem nominee in 1992.

[–] happybadger@hexbear.net 33 points 7 months ago (1 children)

After Gaza, liberals have nowhere to go except full Hitler.

[–] onslaught545@lemmy.zip -5 points 7 months ago (4 children)

I guess holding your employees to a higher standard than other news outlets makes you literally Hitler.

[–] Rom@hexbear.net 20 points 7 months ago (1 children)

You really don't get it lmao

[–] onslaught545@lemmy.zip 4 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (3 children)

I do get it. Basically saying, "they had it coming," publicly, at work, to millions of people about someone who was just killed is generally frowned upon.

All of the other people who did it for slain Democrats should have been fired as well.

I agree with his sentiment; Kirk did have it coming. But I'm not dumb enough to say it at work because I know there would be consequences.

[–] Rom@hexbear.net 21 points 7 months ago

No, you don't get it. The point is the media bends over backwards to protect fascists and their images, but the same courtesy is never extended towards anyone who chooses not to submit to the fascist party line. The entire system is built to defend and amplify the most vile of pro-capitalist, pro-fascist voices and silences anyone who speaks out against them. There will never be consequences for slandering anyone they declare to be an enemy.

[–] Wakmrow@hexbear.net 15 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Word.

Cause I keep hearing that Hamas has a base under that hospital therefore those kids had it coming. Looking forward to all the firings coming.

[–] onslaught545@lemmy.zip 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I don't understand why you think that's related to the discussion at all.

[–] Kumikommunism@hexbear.net 6 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I think it's funny how liberals think that their worldview is all disconnected pieces of random data floating in an abstract space. Don't ever relate anything to anything else. It's not like your way of thinking can affect how you think of two different things at once. Everything's just random and individual, apparently.

[–] onslaught545@lemmy.zip 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Thinking that it's appropriate for people to be fired for inappropriate remarks on air and thinking Israel did nothing wrong are two very different things.

The fact that you think they are mutually inclusive speaks a lot to your knowledge of liberals (here's a hint, it's not much).

[–] ThermonuclearEgg@hexbear.net 7 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

I think the point is that it might be more socially acceptable to say "Hamas has a base under that hospital therefore those kids had it coming" as "Charlie Kirk's own hateful thoughts and words leads to hateful actions, so maybe he had it coming". Why has nobody been fired for making remarks of the former kind on air?

Also, I think @Rom@hexbear.net said this to you 5 hours ago and you didn't respond.

[–] onslaught545@lemmy.zip 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

They should have been fired for both. I never said otherwise.

[–] Wakmrow@hexbear.net 4 points 7 months ago
[–] LeeeroooyJeeenkiiins@hexbear.net 13 points 7 months ago

I agree with his sentiment; Kirk did have it coming. But I'm not dumb enough to say it at work because I know there would be consequences.

But you're dumb enough to normalize firing people for saying shit you claim to agree with by saying they "hold their employees to a higher standard," directly supporting fascism as it continues to ruin people who say good things while showing favoritism towards people who have actual fascist opinions.

[–] FortifiedAttack@hexbear.net 19 points 7 months ago

No, it makes you a doormat to fascists.

[–] happybadger@hexbear.net 9 points 7 months ago

Were you born this fucking stupid or did you just wake up this morning and choose to insult the world with your existence?

[–] WHARRGARBL@lemmy.world 20 points 7 months ago (4 children)

When did MSNBC become “liberal”? Has the definition of liberal changed again? I’m tired and I can’t keep up with this shit.

[–] NewDark@lemmings.world 25 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Liberalism in general is a center right ideology. It's just the furthest left you can be in America without being demonized.

[–] Goodlucksil@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 7 months ago (4 children)

I fail to get why USians cannot make a real left government

[–] djsoren19@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 7 months ago

because we did once, and so the wealthy and powerful spent ludicrous amounts of money taking over the country to ensure it never, ever happens again.

[–] psycho_driver@lemmy.world 8 points 7 months ago

Because we're an Oligarchy and liberal ideals are the last thing they want to encourage.

[–] PhilipTheBucket@piefed.social 8 points 7 months ago

They did, somewhat, back in the early 20th century. There was a massive labor movement, direct engagement into political life by a whole lot of ordinary people, and a big effort to turn the awesome power of the central government into working to address ordinary (white) people's problems.

It's part of what made it into a superpower by the 1950s. Before that it was just farms and racism. Then we got lazy, and let the assholes take over as the decades rolled by. But we can recover again, it just takes a ton of work.

[–] Zorque@lemmy.world 1 points 7 months ago

Manifest destiny.

[–] PhilipTheBucket@piefed.social 19 points 7 months ago (1 children)

"Liberal," at least on Lemmy, has become more or less a meaningless word. Any word that has so many definitions, different depending on who you talk to, it becomes sort of corrupted and useless.

I've literally seen several times a conversation generally of the format "You support Israel!" "wtf no I don't" "Yes you do because you're a liberal and I know that because (whatever)! You're lying, you support Israel! All liberals support Israel!" I'm exaggerating slightly but that's the basic core of it.

Interestingly enough, the proto-MAGA movement was trying for years to turn "liberal" into a slur before the internet turbo-leftists got in on it. It basically fulfills exactly the same function in both cases: Just a checkbox that means "enemy" which can be used to shut down critical engagement, because humans have an instinctual category for "enemy of the tribe" for which engagement is meaningless, and you just need to attack.

IDK what word you could use to refer to news like MSNBC. I actually don't see a problem with saying "liberal" to mean news like MSNBC / The Atlantic / similar points on the spectrum, but on Lemmy, you're going to really get people confused. The word in general is just best left avoided I think.

[–] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 13 points 7 months ago

It's called the Overton Window .... where you subtly over time shift the political landscape from one extreme to another without anyone noticing

[–] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 7 months ago

When did MSNBC become “liberal"

🧑‍🚀🔫🧑‍🚀

Has the definition of liberal changed again?

Depends on your definition of "again". American liberalism has been Neoliberalism since 1992.

You may be thinking of Leftism or Progressivism, neither of which is liberalism.

[–] Nougat@fedia.io 12 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Prologue: I do not disagree with this post one bit.

Notably, "free speech" has both a constitutional and colloquial usage.

Constitutionally, your First Amendment right to Free Speech (in the US) is a guard against the state interfering with your speech, even if it is offensive. Still, that's not universal; consider libel and slander, gag orders, for example. The Constitutional free speech protection does not shield you from consequences of your speech handed down by non-governmental persons or organizations.

Colloquially, "free speech" is often used to refer to situations like the one posted here: where a non-state actor takes a retributive action against a speaker. This usage is leveraged by people across the political spectrum.

[–] Rom@hexbear.net 15 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Yeah the fash like to use "free speech" to mean "I can say whatever I want whenever I want and no one is allowed to criticize me for it" which mysteriously does not apply to anyone who isn't also a fash

[–] Wakmrow@hexbear.net 11 points 7 months ago

Counterpoint: fascism doesn't get included in free speech. But everyone else is allowed to voice an opinion.

[–] Thordros@hexbear.net 11 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Get a load of that dorkus over in the lemmyworld comments doing the whole:

berdly-actually "Um, actually, freedom of speech only applies to the government censoring you. When the government makes a private company censor you it's cool and good!!"

Get Snowgraved, nerd.

[–] godlessworm@hexbear.net 10 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

yeah which is why we dont debate fascists. they dont believe in free speech. they believe in using it to spread hate then taking it away from the rest of us once they’re in the position to do it

any liberal dumb enough to believe charlie kirk gave a shit about free speech is choosing to believe that because they want to believe it because at the end of the day they agree with him and are just too weak to say it. shoot a fascist in the throat and a liberal bleeds

[–] psycho_driver@lemmy.world 8 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

Liberal media? You're on it. Reddit was always waaaay left just because it started out being populated mostly by people who were way above average in intelligence. It's pretty enshitified and censored these days though so it will probably switch over to a funded far right propaganda machine soon enough.

[–] ScoffingLizard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 7 months ago

The bots in /r/conservative are really fuckwd right now.

[–] StalinistApologist@hexbear.net 5 points 7 months ago
[–] cyborganism@lemmy.ca 5 points 7 months ago

"What? The land of the free? Whoever told you that is your enemy."

[–] TachyonTele@piefed.social 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

A reddit screengrab of a twitter post. Nice.
Let's get this post on imagr too, really widen the ocean of posts.

[–] Marshezezz@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 7 months ago

A Reddit screengrab of an Imgur screengrab of a Twitter screengrab of an encarta screengrab of an amiga screengrab of a punch hole screengrab

[–] AdolfSchmitler@lemmy.world 3 points 7 months ago

They're the biggest fucking hypocrites