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Comment by kumarvvr | Hacker News Reader

The internet is an oversized megaphone. A couple of 1000 dedicated workers can spread rumours, panic and propaganda.

When you have a country of 1.3 billion people, a large portion of whom also have smartphones, who, unfortunately are also uneducated and gullible, you have the perfect environment to cause trouble.

Apps like WA and Telegram, enable this megaphone to reach every nook and corner of the country.

If tomorrow, there is a coordinated rumour mongering going on, leading to riots and deaths, dont you think those who started the rumour be caught?

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> If tomorrow, there is a coordinated rumour mongering going on, leading to riots and deaths, dont you think those who started the rumour be caught?

There is a constant stream of misinformation spread via government sources in the country. The Indian government over the last 7 years have steadily weaponized social media to dehumanize opponents and carve away rights from a very large section of the dissidents.

This call for war against misinformation that you point to seems to be always targeted towards the government's opposition most times. Can you clarify why twitter should be on the line for this and not most other entities including news channels & politicians who directly preach to '1.3 billion people, a large portion of whom also have smartphones, who, unfortunately are also uneducated and gullible, you have the perfect environment to cause trouble.'

News channels have been on the line for a while. Defamation cases against them are not that uncommon.

> The Indian government over the last 7 years have steadily weaponized social media to dehumanize opponents and carve away rights from a very large section of the dissidents.

Would love to see examples. Really curious. Eager to learn.

> This call for war against misinformation that you point to seems to be always targeted towards the government's opposition most times

In general, the media is very friendly to the current opposition, the Congress party. The opposition has lots of connections in established media and some of them are akin to the Fox channels in the US.

Here also, I would love to see specific examples.

> Would love to see examples. Really curious.

You are either posing this in deliberate bad faith or you live under a rock. WhatsApp is flooded with antimuslim fake videos, lynching, burning, killing of purportedly Hindu people by Muslims. Many of these have been traced to BJP's IT cell.

In fact the IT cell head himself tweeted the identity of the gangrape victim of Hathras although that is a crime to do so according to criminal law.

So it is quite clear where the government's interest lies -- not in stopping government sponsored hate speech and fakenews but as an instrument to suppress criticism.

Given your stance I am beginning to suspect you may be one of those paid shills yourself.

> dont you think those who started the rumour be caught?

Do you also want people who expose govt corruption or criticise the govt to be caught?

You don't need Social media to bust Govt corruption. Openly accusing Govt with facts lends much more credibility to the accuser.

There are a number of tools available to many who want to securely send data to one another. A bit of internet search is enough to learn.

And those who plan to hurt India, would not use mass communication means in any case.

The answer should be to educate the people. Judging the progress in the ML research, it is a lost battle trying to "protect" people from propaganda/misinformation. And i don't trust the indian authorities to do it right seeing how opaque the whole system is.

Goodluck trying to educate 500 million. The government can force people to learn stuff(like China) but that doesn't work due to fear of losing elections.

The most wealthiest and developed country in the world, the USA, could not educate its own citizens enough.

And you think a country of half a billion gullible folk need to be educated.

Do you know how much time that will take, and if at all it will be successful?

US politics and the Trump machine have shown that no matter how much you educate people, a small group of people, often available to the highest bidder, will be able to influence millions of people.

If you want to talk about OGWs, let’s start with the BJP IT and WA cell

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