[bhouston]

Reddit and Twitter are flooded with semi automated political bots. And it will just get worse. Given that Llama is free to use why does Mera even have to give permission, how would they know?

It will reinforce the political lines of those with the most resources/motivation who can afford the most human like bots in the greatest number. No way mere humans with only a single manual account each can hope to be influential on those topics.

The sooner everyone realizes this the better. I think it means we need to move towards verified user accounts, that tell people you are a real person in the actual country, in any place where there are parties who have interests in manipulation.

[cen4]

First of all the whole notion that Reddit and Twitter are a source of Influence is a joke. That have not been designed to Influence people. They let you believe it cause more than anything else you want to believe it.

People have been conditioned to think how many view/upvotes you get = Influence.

But if the viewer who reads your post then goes and reads 100 other posts your influence is diluted by 100. Platforms don't show you that even though they are quite capable of showing you that.

And that missing Signal is intentional cause it benefits the platforms - oh you aren't getting enough views over the other guy - then pay us more.

So people get trapped, just like the Presidential candidates and their campaigns spending more and more each year with zero change in Influence over anything.

[bhouston]

> But if the viewer who reads your post then goes and reads 100 other posts your influence is diluted by 100. Platforms don't show you that even though they are quite capable of showing you that.

I am specifically referring to /r/worldnews which is a top reddit, 42M members, and it is constantly pro-Israel, even though that should be a minority opinion in the world at this point -- neutral would be more accurate of where people stand.

Check out this list of the top stores this week on the topic - all the stories about Palestinians in Gaza dying are at 0 votes, you have to scroll way down:

https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/search/?q=Israel&cId=8c30...

https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/search/?q=Gaza&cId=d51936...

Here is a screenshot of all of the 0 vote stores, they have something in common:

https://benhouston3d.com/images/posts/reddit-worldnews-bots/...

It is like this every week. If you read Reddit r/worldnews casually, you will not read about dead Palestinians. This is definitely rigged.

[ThunderBee]

I would actually argue the opposite. r/worldnews is one of the few major subreddits that actively blocks the hordes of pro Palestinian bots.

The pro Palestinian propaganda campaign being run by US adversaries might be the most effective I’ve ever seen.

I could write a very lengthy post on this topic but it’s exceptionally rare to find anyone willing to have a discussion and not a yelling match.

[bhouston]

ThunderBee wrote:

> I would actually argue the opposite. r/worldnews is one of the few major subreddits that actively blocks the hordes of pro Palestinian bots. > The pro Palestinian propaganda campaign being run by US adversaries might be the most effective I’ve ever seen. > I could write a very lengthy post on this topic but it’s exceptionally rare to find anyone willing to have a discussion and not a yelling match.

I think this is what they claim to be doing, but really they are just blocking people who aren't pro-Israel while claiming they are bots.

I think you just explained what is going on. It is being done by the moderators.

The majority of opinion in Canada and US is negative on Israel's military campaign. Blocking this viewpoint from r/worldnews is censoring a majority viewpoint because I guess the moderators disagree with it. At least I am understanding now what is going on.

For example:

* 50% of Canadians believe that Israel is engaging in genocide: https://www.readthemaple.com/polls-show-gap-between-canadian...

* 40% of all US citizens and the majority of US democrats believe Israel is engaging in genocide: https://www.jpost.com/us-elections/article-800603

* Even 30% of American Jews believe Israel is engaging in genocide: https://www.aa.com.tr/en/americas/one-third-of-american-jews...

And even if you don't think that Israel is committing genocide, it doesn't mean you don't care about Palestinians dying in Gaza.

The moderators and the non-blocked inhabitants of r/worldnews are creating an alternate reality and self-justifying it by claiming everyone who doesn't agree with them are bots.

[ThunderBee]

Could you explain why you believe that the war in Gaza is a genocide?

I’m not discounting the fact that many people believe it’s a genocide, I’m saying that they think so because our adversaries propaganda has been incredibly effective. I frequently see posts from communities of people who would be executed in the ME for their beliefs supporting the regimes who would drop the guillotine.

Civilian deaths are a tragic but expected outcome of war. The real deaths counts are completely within the expected civilian death margin for a typical war. The only claims I have seen with numbers that would actually indicate a genocide come from propaganda rags.

I think Israel is showing a lot of restraint and is mitigating civilian deaths as best it can but Iran and their proxies have embedded their fighters within the civilian population and aid organizations to an extent that makes minimizing civilian casualties extremely challenging.

On a separate note, the bot problem on Reddit is arguably worse than anywhere else on the internet.

I’d encourage you to seek out some of the astroturfing services to get a sense of how bad it is as good botnets are basically undetectable nowadays. They use real looking accounts with post schedulers to simulate real activity and then mix in their clients messages.

I do agree that the actions taken to mitigate the bots can cause a siloing of opinions that can elicit an echo chamber effect but what else could they do? Reddit is completely uninterested in dealing with the problem because it boosts their metrics and bots can overwhelm any sub that doesn’t attempt to contain them.

[aguaviva]

Per the UN Genocide Convention, which defines genocide not just in the totalistic sense (as practiced by Nazi Germany for example) but as "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group".

It isn't simply a matter of body counts (though I disagree with your spin on them). Israel's obvious intent to render Gaza to be basically uninhabitable, and to encourage what it coldly refers to as a "voluntary transfer" of its population; combined with its accelerated strangulation of the West Bank since the start of these activities, are what place its actions squarely within the scope of this definition.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocide_Convention

I’m saying that they think so because our adversaries propaganda has been incredibly effective.

No, it's because they read and understand the above definition, and have been observing Israel's long-term game plan (particularly since 1967).

And have successfully immunized themselves against its own relentless and insidiously toxic propaganda machine.

[bhouston]

> Could you explain why you believe that the war in Gaza is a genocide?

My formal answer: https://zionismlite.com/blog/2024-09-09-is-israel-committing...

> I think Israel is showing a lot of restraint and is mitigating civilian deaths as best it can

Unicef this week say: "The entire Palestinian population in North Gaza, especially children, is at imminent risk of dying from disease, famine, and the ongoing bombardments." https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/statement-unicef-execu...

If you don't like Unicef, try Peace Now, a major Israeli/Jewish group that supports a 2 state solution - it is ethnic cleansing/starvation/expulsion:

https://x.com/peacenowisrael/status/1853441295974375518

Many genocides are actually happen once an attempt at ethnic cleansing is frustrated. Or done in concert with ethnic cleansing.

I would say that it is >90% likely that the ICJ rules that this is a genocide at this point.

> their proxies have embedded their fighters within the civilian population and aid organizations to an extent that makes minimizing civilian casualties extremely challenging.

This is no longer a war against Hamas nor it is about getting back the hostages. The first is achieved and the second Netanyahu doesn't care about because it would mean ending the war.

Instead because many in the Israeli government dream of Israeli settlements (https://www.timesofisrael.com/government-ministers-call-for-...), they do not want any rebuilding and do not want a day after plan that involves Palestinians staying in Gaza. This is what the war is about now: Israeli settlements in an ethnically cleansed Northern Gaza.

Netanyahu is also scared that any moderate government that emerges in Gaza led by Palestinians could lead to a two-state solution. He is against that no matter what: https://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-boasts-of-thwarting-... https://www.jns.org/netanyahu-rejected-palestinian-state-as-...

So what will happen now? Israel continues ethnically cleansing/genocide and in return becomes more and more of a pariah state. If Harris wins, she may get tough with Israel, whereas with Trump, he probably lets Israel do what it wants.