Is Misinformation a Thing of the Past?

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Li: I think we can see in recent years how social media has been used to propel, you know, conspiracy theories. But i have to believe that human beings are smart enough to be like, siatictoc video of like a guy parachoting and flogging and be like, that's probably not real. Li: The idea of trying to sort of combat misinformation on line, to try like sanatize the ins andout, for, like, lack of a better word, is kind of a project that seems to kind of be counter intuitive to how lots of kind of on line culture emerges.

Paris Marx is joined by Ryan Broderick and Hussein Kesvani to discuss how war gets filtered through social media and the content economy, and what that means for how we make sense of it.

Ryan Broderick writes the Garbage Day newsletter and hosts Content Mines. Hussein Kesvani is a writer and the co-host of Trashfuture and Ten Thousand Posts. Follow Ryan on Twitter at @broderick and Hussein at @HKesvani.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.

Find out more about Harbinger Media Network at harbingermedianetwork.com.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Ryan has written two issues of Garbage Day trying to make sense of what’s happening in the war.
Hussein wrote a very good tweet.
Sam Biddle wrote about how Facebook is allowing users to praise the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion.
Taylor Lorenz wrote about Instagram meme pages capitalizing on the conflict.
Journalists have been saying some pretty racist things about why the war in Ukraine is different than those in the Middle East.
Chris Stokel-Walker wrote about how TikTok is designed for war.
Jonah Peretti wrote an article called “Capitalism and Schizophrenia.”
NBC’s Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel wondered aloud on Twitter whether NATO should start World War III.
Hillary Clinton neglected the consequences of the US arming Afghan “insurgents” against the Soviet Union in the 1980s.
The media isn’t applying the right level of scrutiny to Ukrainian war stories, like Snake Island.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could have consequences for semiconductors.