Sweden creates agency to combat fake news ahead of election

https://apnews.com/article/technology-business-media-general-elections-denmark-2582018718e6ef6457a7f917fa21f1f7

by tareqak • 5 years ago

30 22 5 years ago

timonoko2• 5 years ago

The Ministry of Truth. Now even better: The European Union Ministry of Truth. Luckily there is no Britons inventing falsehoods. Poland and other riffraff will have no say in absolute truthness, of course.

AnimalMuppet2• 5 years ago

Sweden doesn't want fake news to influence their elections. That makes sense.

The government of Sweden is going to influence/control what news gets reported that affects elections in Sweden. That's... much scarier. It's creating a tool for tyrants. It may be done with the best of intentions, and current events may be showing the need, but... do you really trust the sitting government to control the news leading up to an election? If you do, do you trust the next one to do so?

fifilura• 5 years ago

What are your options when you are stuck between a rock and a hard place?

Much like a defensive military force (scary to have the military in your own country), it can be misused.

errantmind5• 5 years ago

One option is to preserve freedom of expression even when you disagree with what is being said.

timonoko2• 5 years ago

All you have to do is the give access to all data, all minute details and all the time. Britain seems to do that with Covid. Of course we ourselves have no time for those details. But then there appears a bunch of independent analyzers, and you learn with time that some are full shit and some are not, like John Cambdell. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF9IOB2TExg3QIBupFtBDxg

lovecg2• 5 years ago

What prevents the next government from setting this up anyway? If your threat model is “the other side getting elected is inevitable but we can’t ever let them control what the government does” you’ve already lost.

It’s cliche to bring up Hitler, but I’ll do it anyway. The Weimar republic made some very weak attempts to try to limit Nazi propaganda, and they successfully shouted them down with cries of “free speech!” Of course one of the first things they did once in power was to shut down any newspaper they didn’t like.

AnimalMuppet2• 5 years ago

Fair point. Still, don't build the machine for them. Make them build it themselves, for two reasons. First, it slows them down at least a little bit. Second, it makes it clear to others that this isn't normal - that they're going further than anyone else has been willing to go. Those two things are still useful, even if they can in fact build the machine and start using it.

glonq• 5 years ago

Step one: firewall Sweden's internet to block everything coming and going from Russia.

XyC03• 5 years ago

Good idea, in theory I agree with you, but unfortunate there exist vpn, and there exist idiots and russia friendly individuals that has no qualms redistrubute propaganda/missinformatin, some even belive what they reshare.

armchairhacker• 5 years ago

Maybe i don’t read enough history, but i wonder: does censorship after-the-fact actually work or does it backfire?

In places where the news has been censored for a while (Russia, China), the public seems to accept it and believe the biased views.

But if people are exposed to “fake news” and then see those news sites being censored and replaced with contradictory information, wouldn’t they just become more distrusted and paranoid?

IronWolve• 5 years ago

Everything the government tells you is true, so they would be the perfect group to censor fake news.

Sweden creates agency to combat fake news ahead of election

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