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Turning off social media........and Covid


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I’m just opening this out for a discussion I don’t believe this is the way to go or anything:

Remember back during the London riots of around 10 years ago after the guy was shot by the police? At the height of those riots either there was discussion (or I think it actually happened) of the government closing down Blackberry instant messaging because a lot of people used it for communication and the authorities felt the riots were being co-ordinated in some way through that channel.

Well in this current situation I continue to see some crazy stories coming out about protesters outside of hospitals, people in America dying of Covid whilst at the same time claiming it’s a hoax and I’m pretty sure a lot of this thinking is helped along by all the mis-information shared on social media. From those with millions of followers right down to your local Facebook full time mother talking to her friends.

Do you think at any time any of the democratically elected governments have considered closing down social media or any section of the internet in any way and/or what do you think the reaction would be if they did?

Twitter is the main social media I use and I think it’s a great source of information but I do feel it should be in some way more audited, quality checked etc. However that then would start to impact on supposed free speech.

The main reason behind posting this topic is the growing number of people who either work in the NHS or have lost someone close to them whoI see replying to the conspiracy theorists around Covid. Personally I have not suffered any loss of anyone close to me at all but I can only imagine the anger/frustration these people must feel when they have to read posts claiming it’s all some kind of hoax when they are so closely affected by the virus.

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If you use social media correctly then it's been essential during the pandemic.  I have learned more from many armchair virologists than I would using any other medium.

It'd be interesting to see how the British government would react if thre was a major terrorist attack or we were in a war.  The last major conventional conflict was the invasion of Iraq in 2003 which was well before social media was so widespread, even internet usage was far less common then.  If the UK invaded another country now I'd bet that there would be significant restrictions, either tacit or openly.  I'm sure that troops would be briefed about this - there have been instances of breaches in operational security due to social media usage.  Russian troops were traced to Ukraine by their social media check ins and US Special Forces personnel exposed several secret middle eastern bases by using Strava to track their runs.

 

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I think Manchester was quite a major terrorist attack tbf. 
 

Im also sure there would be plenty armchair strategists and “soldiers” telling a us how things are going in the event of an invasion.

Edited by Melanius Mullarkey
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Funnily enough, I've relied on social media to keep myself sane these past few months. You just need to look in the right places and follow the right accounts.

If I was only getting updates from the mainstream media I reckon I'd have topped myself months ago. Some of the headlines and standard of reporting has been nothing short of a disgrace.

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11 minutes ago, Melanius Mullarkey said:

I think Manchester was quite a major terrorist attack tbf. 
 

Im also sure there would be plenty armchair strategists and “soldiers” telling a us how things are going in the event of an invasion.

Aye, you remember that and let us get on with it.

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46 minutes ago, Sortmeout said:

Do you think at any time any of the democratically elected governments have considered closing down social media or any section of the internet in any way and/or what do you think the reaction would be if they did?

The Government, and their spokespeople, use social media as much as anyone to communicate their messages, so I really don't think they'd be in any rush to close it down, regardless of the damage conspiracy theorists and science-deniers do on there.

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Twitter is a much better site than Facebook as they actually take down a lot of nonsense if you report it. I have found myself in rabbit holes of AntiVaxxers on a reporting spree when I get bored and it's incredibly frightening to see what people at least pretend to believe.

As for Facebook they make more money so extreme content is like gold to them look at the UsForThem stuff I think all that stems from the Hunters on Facebook who get thousands of views by endangering trials of dangerous peopl,  Facebook should clamp down but of course it drives clicks and therefore cash. It tells you everything you need to know about Nick Clegg that he jumped into bed with Facebook once he had been punted out of politics. The sites should have full responsibility of what's posted and how their service is used. But that said there are a lot of good things on Twitter especially if you use other people's lists to get a view around the world and the odd laugh.

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51 minutes ago, Melanius Mullarkey said:

I think Manchester was quite a major terrorist attack tbf. 
 

A lot of people died and were injured, but it was carried out by one person acting alone and it was one bomb. Impact aside, it was as small as a terrorist attack could possibly be.

Not that they could know that on the night, of course.

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53 minutes ago, ICTChris said:

If you use social media correctly then it's been essential during the pandemic.  I have learned more from many armchair virologists than I would using any other medium.

 

Totally agreed. Most of the mainstream media are really bad, because there aren't enough journalists who are nerds. They're not curious enough, they don't do any digging themselves and they are fascinated by gossip. I follow accounts like this one for hard data and analysis that tells the story without waffle: https://twitter.com/COVID19actuary 

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1 hour ago, Melanius Mullarkey said:

I think Manchester was quite a major terrorist attack tbf. 
 

That's a fair point.  I was meaning if there was a multiple attack, like the July 7th bombings or September 11th with multiple major casualty attacks.  If there was a series of suicide bombings in London I'd imagine that turning off social media might be something considered.  Who knows what would really happen though.

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4 minutes ago, GordonS said:

Totally agreed. Most of the mainstream media are really bad, because there aren't enough journalists who are nerds. They're not curious enough, they don't do any digging themselves and they are fascinated by gossip. I follow accounts like this one for hard data and analysis that tells the story without waffle: https://twitter.com/COVID19actuary 

I reckon some working journalists would love to do in depth investigative stuff. The need to get clicks means they're strongly incentivised to write sensationalist drivel and not supported with time or budgets to do any digging. 

Lots just want a media profile, but i think that's always been there. 

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1 hour ago, Sortmeout said:

Well in this current situation I continue to see some crazy stories coming out about protesters outside of hospitals, people in America dying of Covid whilst at the same time claiming it’s a hoax and I’m pretty sure a lot of this thinking is helped along by all the mis-information shared on social media. From those with millions of followers right down to your local Facebook full time mother talking to her friends.

Do you think at any time any of the democratically elected governments have considered closing down social media or any section of the internet in any way and/or what do you think the reaction would be if they did?

Well Trump has been banging on about something along those lines. But he is nuttier than a squirrel's shite.  And he did not understand the laws he was shouting about. 

I doubt most governments have seen Covid19 as anything close to that kind of emergency. The conspiracy theories on it have not had that much impact other than those refusing to wear masks. 

Governments would leave a massive paper trail over investigating something like this. They civil service from multiple departments would be digging through the legality and mechanics of it. It would leak like DoSAC.  Governments tend not to work how many people think. Its not a couple of people with dark capes in secret rooms making all the decisions. Its a huge mess of competing interests arguing with each other over where to put a bus stop. 

For the most part so long as about 60% are prepared to get the vaccine then that is pretty much the exit strategy for this crisis. 

"The government" was not really trying to shut down Blackbury. The Met and a few inside the homeoffice were making noises about something they had little legal power over to try to strong arm the company into doing what it wanted in lieu of legal avenues. 

The way interaction on social media is designed it does favour polarisation. The angrier you are the more likely you are to be "engaged" i.e. stick around their site and read the adverts. 

 

 

 

 

You ever notice how its always "them" getting radicalised and driven to extremes by social media, never "us". 

The problem is bigger but much more subtle than Covidiots. 

But that said I stopped posting about Covid on here many months ago (other than the occasional humorous post) due to the "expert at everything" type posters taking over the discussion. 

 

And its very likely healthy for everything to disconnect from social media for a few weeks to month every few months. 

As with everything your mileage may vary. 

 

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Social media is fine but what isn't is the nefarious and greedy ways the designers have written the software behind it.
It makes you addicted, increases mental health problems, makes people intolerant, dumbs down arguements so people fit in, feeds fake news or offensive material to you but you must keep looking at it. They used people who worked within online gambling to ensure that you keep looking at the screen.
The people who designed Facebook won't let their kids use it and apologised on tv about designing it this way.
Billions of people have been socially conditioned without even realising it.
I know this all sounds tinfoil hat but it isn't.
The most active people on it all seem mentally unstable to me and in constant need of attention.
I get that you can gain things from it but I'd rather get that from books where there isn't any underlying agendas or malicious code trying to get me do stuff.


This guy can explain it better than me



Get it in the sea.
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1 hour ago, D.A.F.C said:

Social media is fine but what isn't is the nefarious and greedy ways the designers have written the software behind it.
It makes you addicted, increases mental health problems, makes people intolerant, dumbs down arguements so people fit in, feeds fake news or offensive material to you but you must keep looking at it. They used people who worked within online gambling to ensure that you keep looking at the screen.
The people who designed Facebook won't let their kids use it and apologised on tv about designing it this way.
Billions of people have been socially conditioned without even realising it.
I know this all sounds tinfoil hat but it isn't.
The most active people on it all seem mentally unstable to me and in constant need of attention.
I get that you can gain things from it but I'd rather get that from books where there isn't any underlying agendas or malicious code trying to get me do stuff.


This guy can explain it better than me
 

 


Get it in the sea.

 

It really does depend how you use it. Facebook seems to be toxic AF and I only lasted a few months on it. It's fine as a glorified group chat for those with lots of family and real friends, but that's it. Twitter is good if you use it to follow people who point you towards things rather than point towards themselves. And it's useful in my line of work for seeing what folk are talking about. One thing I've learned is to make sure it is always set for latest tweets - otherwise all it will do is through tweets at you that are designed to make you angry, because that's what drives engagement and content.  

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