Submitted via IRC for takyon
This week, representatives from Google, Facebook, and Twitter are appearing before House and Senate subcommittees to answer for their role in Russian manipulation during the 2016 election, and so far, the questioning has been brutal. Facebook has taken the bulk of the heat, being publicly called out by members of Congress for missing a wave of Russian activity until months after the election.
[...] The point is clear enough: if you're fighting Russian interference on social media, anonymity is a big problem. In some ways, it's the original sin, creating space for that first lie that lets trolls enter the conversation unnoticed. "Account anonymity in public provides some benefits to society, but social media companies must work immediately to confirm real humans operate accounts," Watts told the committee. "The negative effects of social bots far outweigh any benefits." It's a common insight among bot-hunters, and one that's become particularly popular amid this week's hearings.
[...] The problem is social. We're used to anonymity on the internet, particularly on the services where it's still available. It's hard to know what an anonymity backlash would mean for services like Twitter, Reddit, and 4chan — all of which are named in Watts' testimony as playing a role in Russian disinformation.
In the background, there's an even harder question: is anonymity still worth saving? It's foundational to many people's idea of the internet, but amid widespread online harassment and Facebook itself, it's come to mean less and less. Even without Russian influence campaigns, the web's online spaces are largely associated with the ugliest parts of humanity. (4chan is a prime example.) With new pressure from Congress, bot analysts, and the public, online anonymity may not have any defenders left. In the face of that, Twitter, Reddit, and others might decide a real name policy is a small price to pay for forestalling federal regulation.
Source: Russia's Social Media Meddling Could Spell the End of Online Anonymity
Previously: Russia Bans VPNs and Tor, Effective November 1
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 05 2017, @02:58PM
0) This is not meddling with elections, this is trying to influence your voters. There's a difference.
1) Was it really successful? They may have meddled but was it really significant? Just because someone wanting Trump to win posted stuff on Soylentnews and Trump won doesn't mean that person successfully meddled with the elections.
2) If it was significant then the real problem isn't that the Russians are buying ads, but your voters are retarded/messed up enough to "buy" those ads.
Half the US voters think the USA got regime changed by the Russians and are whining about it. The other half thinks they won legitimately. Seems more likely some people lost the election and are trying blame others for their loss instead of getting better so they win the next election (assuming Trump doesn't start WW3).
This is a mere hint of what the US has been doing to other countries for a long time.
The USA sponsored the Syrian opposition: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-syria-wikileaks/u-s-secretly-backed-syrian-opposition-report-idUSTRE73H0E720110418 [reuters.com]
And they went further than mere words and supplied weapons too: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/27/world/middleeast/cia-arms-for-syrian-rebels-supplied-black-market-officials-say.html [nytimes.com]
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/25/world/middleeast/arms-airlift-to-syrian-rebels-expands-with-cia-aid.html [nytimes.com]