I could be totally wrong and just airing my personal grievances here, but I think one of the things that lead to the rise in 'fake news' and the like, was that many websites banned people or deleted comments that were regarded as insulting to other posters, but left comments that contained falsehoods alone (with the exception of comments that contained potentially libelous statements.)
I've been banned from sites because I'm a blunt person who calls out people for making false or illogical statements and, if I notice a pattern of them doing it, I'll 'insult' them as by calling them a 'liar' or an 'idiot.'
I noticed that on the websites where I was be banned or had my comment deleted even when I linked to websites that showed the person I was replying to was factually wrong, their comment would be left alone.
I think the writers of these fake news stories and those who deliberately post 'fake facts' also noticed that most websites with comment sections were/are far more worried about insulting comments than whether the comments were based on 'real facts' or not and realized this could be exploited.
I'm not going to name names, but one of the websites I like to visit is politicalwire.com and one of the former moderators there (the mods were done away with after disqus allowed people to block posts from commenters) is an a--hole who is now on the Democratic National Committee.
I could be totally wrong and just airing my personal grievances here, but I think one of the things that lead to the rise in 'fake news' and the like, was that many websites banned people or deleted comments that were regarded as insulting to other posters, but left comments that contained falsehoods alone (with the exception of comments that contained potentially libelous statements.)
ReplyDeleteI've been banned from sites because I'm a blunt person who calls out people for making false or illogical statements and, if I notice a pattern of them doing it, I'll 'insult' them as by calling them a 'liar' or an 'idiot.'
I noticed that on the websites where I was be banned or had my comment deleted even when I linked to websites that showed the person I was replying to was factually wrong, their comment would be left alone.
I think the writers of these fake news stories and those who deliberately post 'fake facts' also noticed that most websites with comment sections were/are far more worried about insulting comments than whether the comments were based on 'real facts' or not and realized this could be exploited.
I'm not going to name names, but one of the websites I like to visit is politicalwire.com and one of the former moderators there (the mods were done away with after disqus allowed people to block posts from commenters) is an a--hole who is now on the Democratic National Committee.