To me there is a definite Keystone Kops aspect to all the serious disussion of “disinformation” and “misinformation” and “malinformation” (MDM) and the solemn duty of Social Media to censor them. In case you didn’t know, according to the US Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA):
Misinformation is false, but not created or shared with the intention of causing harm.
Disinformation is deliberately created to mislead, harm, or manipulate a person, social group, organization, or country.
Malinformation is based on fact, but used out of context to mislead, harm, or manipulate.
So that’s all right. The bureaucrats must be right, OK? You see,
Foreign and domestic threat actors use MDM campaigns to cause chaos, confusion, and division. These malign actors are seeking to interfere with and undermine our democratic institutions and national cohesiveness. The resources provided at the bottom of this page provide examples and more information about MDM activities.
You can see the Carl Schmitt angle here. You are either friend or enemy, and if you are committing MDM then, well, didn’t we just say that “threat actors use MDM campaigns to cause chaos, confusion, and division.”
I must say that I had never heard of MDM until the COVID nightmare, and I understand what it’s all about. If you are in a war — and COVID was a war against pandemic — then the regime narrative is the only allowed narrative and everything else is causing “chaos, confusion, and division” and is getting in the way of the glorious march to victory. Therefore, it is essential to censor social media because otherwise we will all die of COVID.
In the event, of course, what happens is that “threat actors” have nothing to do with the case. For example, you have the Great Barrington Declaration being labeled “misinformation” by social media. La Wik: “It claimed harmful COVID-19 lockdowns could be avoided via the fringe notion of "focused protection". But the Declaration was issued by mainstream scientists. (Although La Wik sniffs that the Declaration was sponsored by AEIR and “a Koch-funded network that denies climate science.”)
Yeah, but even “fringe notion” is not a “threat actor.”
And now we have PayPal threatening to fine users up to $2,500 for committing “misinformation.” Only now it’s decided not to. Its threat againt “misinformation” was an “error.” Hey PayPal, isn’t “error” another word for “misinformation?”
I guess what is interesting to me is the groupthink. Evidently, “everyone who is anyone” up there in the joint political and business ruling class is thinking the same thing, like teenage girls thinking OMG who are those losers wearing those ugly clothes, like, whatever? They all think they are deadly serious and terribly important and if wrongthink should spread among the plebs, well, it could be the end of everything.
Guess what, cupcake. There is always crazy stuff going on out there. Crazy people are coming up with crazy ideas. Mostly, the crazy ideas fade away. But sometimes the crazy idea is Communism and 100 million people die, and sometimes the crazy idea is Special Relativity and E = mc**2. And there is one thing that’s for sure. The AI algorithms at social media won’t have a clue which witch is which, and certainly the Barnacles and Stiltstockings at the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency won’t have a clue except how much their pension will be if they retire next year.
This is not that hard. If you have top-down control of information and the economy then the ruling elite better be right, because failure means defeat or a mountain of skulls. But usually, the ruling class gets it wrong. Right Mao?
If you let information exchange, then the result will be chaos, and good ideas compete with bad ideas compete with good ideas that work and good ideas that don’t work.
But, in the chaos of information there is a tendency for good ideas that work to emerge from the chaos and benefit us all. In the top-down information system there is a tendency for the ruling class to impose its will and force bad ideas — like lockdowns — onto the the people and for the rulers to Make Things Worse.
This is not rocket science.
So my advice to PayPal and to all the ruling class Stiltstockings out there: Cool your jets. You are not as smart as you think you are, not by a country mile. Stop your stupid ruling class censorship antics and get a clue.