Does MMO-C Leadership Have a Plan for State Sponsored Propaganda?

[deenman]

I've never been infracted for propaganda, but I potentially could be at any turn and within a reasonable discussion. This is the problem.

Example? If I say that, for example, Russian sportsmen shouldn't be punished over the military invasion by the RF because they aren't complicit, I could be infracted. I most likely won't, but I could because I'm sure there's some Russian politicians who expressed the same opinion.

saying russian sportsmen shouldnt be punished isnt propaganda,its just an opinion,and it doesnt even fall in a black or white kind of opinion either like other stuff

[Draahl]

Does the owner or leadership at have a policy to deal with state sponsored accounts spamming a forum with propaganda?

Other social media sites have slowly begun to deal with this issue by banning propaganda accounts. Do you?

From the end-user perspective they really suck.

• Them constantly spamming the same lies and gaslight is like experiencing emotional abuse.
• Why visit MMO-C to get abused?
• Watching them bait other well-meaning users into bans also sucks.
• They have baited some of the higher-quality-posters into bans. Losing the better writers like that sucks.

Its been stupidly obvious problem since the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. The current Ukraine Crisis is exposing the problem all over again.

Just a suggestion, but you might want to clarify and announce whatever policies you have to address this.

Be well.

Just ban all political posts period, problem solved.

[Magnagarde]

Same applies to the rules on trolling, on flaming, on hate speech, and so on.

This is not a unique issue, and it's an issue that's already well-recognized and well-handled. You pretending otherwise is intentional dishonesty.

If it was dishonesty, I wouldn't bother replying this often.

[Polybius]

It is, when there's the possibility for everything to be declared propaganda, even legitimate concerns.

If, for example, someone says they stronger border control, one of the resident MMOC intellectuals will jump out and say it is Russian propaganda for Trump or something like that. This is a very real occurence. It silently intimidates people into not discussing certain subjects.

Now you have OP pretending like people need to be protected from propaganda and trying to present it like this website's owners condone aggression on Ukraine because a few trolls appear here and there. It is a weasly way of having someone do what you want them to do by putting them into an uncomfortable position. This is exactly why it shouldn't be done.

Yeah, no. The clear and present danger clause would override this.

[Flatspriest]

Just ban all political posts period, problem solved.

I fully agree with banning all political posters. Leave politics out of a game forum.

[Vilendor]

Way to go comrades, send everyone not agreeing with you to the gulag

Endus, the liberal-fascist commie ex-mod commenting here makes the topic extra funny

[SinR]

Again, what kind of action was, if any, taken during the whole Jan 6th insurrection and the events leading up to it?

[vsb]

I like this idea. Western propaganda must be eradicated from this website.

[Daedius]

Which side propaganda should be allowed?

Team America, FUCK YEAH!

[Calfredd]

I like this idea. Western propaganda must be eradicated from this website.

But Russian propaganda isn't western.

[Kumorii]

That in of itself should be a warning flag, when a supposed terrible and morally corrupt entity suddenly does something that appears virtuous. It's either a broken clock is correct twice a day, or their underlying motivations and reasons aren't so virtuous. Chances are it's the latter if one even has to question whether this is the case or not.

Unfortunately, we'd have to be extremely specific as to what's considered propaganda, as it's too often used as "If it's not my narrative, it's propaganda." Same thing happened with Covid, where information that was considered propaganda and fake news 1-2 years ago by the mainstream (despite evidence to the contrary) is actually the accepted narrative by the mainstream now... but man, if you were one of those 'conspiracy theorists' you were a pariah and probably still considered so by some despite being correct.

Considering how staunchly opinionated people tend to be on this forum, I doubt even legitimate propaganda would be changing anyone's mind at this point. Regardless, I think people should have a healthy skepticism of any news you hear about the situation. If you're getting your political/world news and information from this forum, I'd say the cause is lost already.

Hits the nail on the head...
Plenty of todays facts is tomorrows misinformation and vice versa. It has been like that all throughout history and will continue to be so whenever new things occur.
Whenever someone believes they sit on 100% factual information, that's when misinformation spreads. Not saying it isn't possible that said information is correct, but it's usually better to be at least a little bit skeptical. Especially today when news get spread even faster with social media and memes.

Think we have multiple internet providers here blocking traffic to certain sites, which I think sets a bad precedent. Glad mine haven't done so. Not because I want to read those sites, but because having some other "authority" making that choice for me is not a comforting thought.

[MoanaLisa]

It is, when there's the possibility for everything to be declared propaganda, even legitimate concerns.

There's some truth to this. Faith, honest belief in stuff that may be mistaken (or lies), bad opinions, trolling, and propaganda are not always easy to sort out. It's not a rare thing for people to report anything they disagree with.

[Yunru]

I think a good idea would be, when you quote a poster to also add this:
Do you have a source from 2 sides?
This is correct information.
I cant verify your info to be real.
This is propaganda.
This is western propaganda.
Propaganda bot.

It should help people to see what is true or not (mods could also edit posts --- but they are not factcheckers for that).
I can only see it working like this, as any other solution is to either simply ban politics (disaster threads), but then people will complain is cenzorship

[Lochton]

If you believe there is a propaganda post, then I suggest you report it to the moderators with what you believe is the propaganda, and then let them handle it. I'll feel sorry for it, but if it is needed, then that'll be very retroactive as we've already been through one propaganda war that still isn't over, and we know some people call out propaganda when things aren't what they want it to be. It'll be a lot of extra work for the moderator team, and they have to be ready for a lot of appeals too.

[crusadernero]

I've never been infracted for propaganda, but I potentially could be at any turn and within a reasonable discussion. This is the problem.

Example? If I say that, for example, Russian sportsmen shouldn't be punished over the military invasion by the RF because they aren't complicit, I could be infracted. I most likely won't, but I could because I'm sure there's some Russian politicians who expressed the same opinion.

This 100%. The second you try to have a discussion in order to understand why things happen, you are running the risk of being banned, cancelled, sensored and called a "Putin supporter". Theres a difference between wanting to understand and taking a side. You can perfectly fine be on the side of "Fuck off Putin you piece of shit" while at the same time try to understand why things happen when looking at the bigger picture.

The sentiment from the OP is understandable and in some cases brings merit, but we are running the risk of being victims ourself from whatever propaganda we in the west experience all the time.

Make no mistake, we do it too. All the time. And you know what? It doesnt make it better whatsoever.

[Paetolus]

It feels like a difficult thing to handle. Lots of people just have bad views and genuinely believe some obvious propaganda. Keeping that in mind, it's hard to punish people for simply being wrong, even if it's obvious. If there is proof the person is trolling and/or clearly has bad intentions, obviously that's worth a ban or post removal, but that can be difficult to know/prove.

Any sort of verification or fact check process also seems like putting too much on moderators.

Maybe for claims deemed questionable by glance, moderation staff can add a message to the post, making it clear that the claim is sketchy? Anyone who takes issue can then supply a source to get the text removed. I doubt many people making dubious claims would bother arguing their case for their claims, so it might not be too difficult to enforce.

[Super Dickmann]

The OP posting this topic while using that avatar is better satire than anything Verhoeven could've come up with.

[XDurionX]

Mods are not journalists, how do you think they could verifiy whether a source is legit?

[Lochton]

Mods are not journalists, how do you think they could verifiy whether a source is legit?

Mods shouldn't have to go hunt for sources.

[shise]

Just ignore it lol.
This is an MMO (wow) dedicted site.

If you don´t feed the trolls they go away, this is the same.

I personally never even see this issue. IF I see it, I keep scrolling.