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Comment by talkingtab | Hacker News Reader

The big problem with the internet - which is very dysfunctional - is not censorship but propaganda. Everyone on the internet is selling something because that is the only way to pay for being on the internet.

If the people who pay for the internet are not the users then who will the internet serve? Not the users. and since corporations are known soully (as in that is their soul) what would you expect? If people who want to profit by targeting people with lies pay for the internet, is that censorship? Well sort of - but maybe worse.

We need a community internet task force. Lets start one. Request for comments.

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RFC.. but we would have to agree what the ground rules are. I somehow suspect that those will be will be somewhat different ( kinda like some would argue against/for codes of conduct ) person to person. Still, if we could upend at least some of the underlying commercial interest or even the need to rely on advertising, it could be something.

edits abound

> Still, if we could upend at least some of the underlying commercial interest or even the need to rely on advertising, it could be something.

This is some good brainstorming on the matter:

https://www.noemamag.com/the-last-days-of-social-media/

One persons propaganda is another persons truth. Who are you or your task force to decide? The big problem with the internet is it gives dumb people access to each other.

> gives dumb people access to each other

Was this a serious comment? It made me realise that prior to the Internet, information flow was controlled by journalists or through peer reviewed papers and academic forums. People without advanced education would, generally, be limited to people in their local area.

I feel like it is generally a flippant but serious comment. A lot of social problems right now are caused by the fact that rather than having to travel to some large city for a meetup with people that have your particular neuroses, against the friction of well-adjusted people in the real world, now there is a fan club one click away that will ratify whatever fake illness/condition/problem that you have with no serious pushback. A LOT of personal, social, and political problems right now basically boil down to this.

This makes so much sense, this is why I like Hacker News, you get smart people from different political views all having interesting and healthy discussions.

That just points out that another real problem with the internet is that everyone's voice carries the same weight in ways it didn't used to. Every city has a few folks who believe aliens walk among us or otherwise wear tinfoil hats, but their message was limited to AM radio and cable access, and it was clear their content was not of the same journalistic level as the three major networks used to be - used to, because they've also changed. For example, there is conclusive, repeatable and verifiable evidence that the world is not flat, and it shouldn't be so easy to make convincing content that seems like it is.

> shouldn't be so easy to make convincing content that seems like it is.

I agree with some of your points, but, who on Earth is getting convinced that the world is flat?

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

Until 1995 commercial use of the internet was completely banned, reviving that rule would solve 99% of the problems with the current internet.

YOU USED TO BE ABLE TO FIND INFORMATION ON THE INTERNET. i sound insane right now because the internet is a store but it used to be a library

— <https://kind.social/@wehpudicabok/117317910370913792>

> We need a community internet task force.

"We"? I think you can look to the history of the 20th century for your soul mates. The kind of thinking you express in your comment always ends with wholesale murder and mass torturing of innocent people to death.

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