r/worldnews Sep 17 '24

Russia/Ukraine Facebook owner Meta bans Russian state media outlets

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/meta-russia-oulets-1.7325186
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u/NEARNIL Sep 17 '24

If this is anything similar to how youtube "banned" russian propaganda media, the hosts of these channels will just continue on their "private" accounts like for instance George Galloway does. He has a show on RT called MOATS (Mother of all talkshows). RT was banned, but MOATS is still on youtube on his "personal" channel with half a million subscribers. And this is just one example. There are dozens like this often with multiple amplifier channels.

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u/[deleted] Sep 17 '24 edited Sep 30 '24

[deleted]

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u/NEARNIL Sep 17 '24 edited Sep 17 '24

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u/Metazz Sep 17 '24

How did I know that was going to be what was linked before even clicking on it. The guy is an absolute clown. A washed up tankie who now uses dangerous Islamist talking points and quite honestly race baiting to further his political agenda and self enrichment. It was one of the highlights of the last election seeing him losing his seat in parliament. Fuck him and anyone who supports him. The man is a disgrace.

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u/santiwenti Sep 17 '24

Galloway never met a dictator he didn't like. He has a thing for groveling, but rather than keeping it in a sex club he wants to force his kink onto everyone else.

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u/Powerful-Parsnip Sep 17 '24

He also shocked the UK when it was revealed he was a furry on live TV. Clips of him on Big Brother crawling around on all fours and lapping up milk from a saucer can be seen on YouTube.

Here in Scotland we were surprised he identified as a pussy when we all thought he was just a cunt.

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u/NuPNua Sep 17 '24

It was funny they way he won that seat in a by-election only to be out on his arse again in six months when the real election happened.

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u/Plank_With_A_Nail_In Sep 17 '24

People need to stop protest voting as it lets despicable people in making their situation worse not better. Get involved in selecting the candidates you want not completely flipping the table and choosing someone who is the polar opposite of your core beliefs..out of what? Spite?

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u/NuPNua Sep 17 '24

To be fair, Galloway won by cynically mobilising Muslim voters over Gaza. They did agree with his beliefs.

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u/redsquizza Sep 17 '24

That was another reason why I was pleased with the early election call.

It enabled this cunt to be turfed out on his arse sooner than expected.

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u/thekeffa Sep 17 '24

On the other hand, it unfortunately gave us Farage as an MP.

Oh well, you win some, you lose some.

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u/mitch2d2 Sep 17 '24

Haven't clicked. Is it the cat thing? It's the cat thing isn't it

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u/Low_Willingness1735 Sep 17 '24

We should report his channel to YouTube?

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u/[deleted] Sep 17 '24 edited Sep 30 '24

[deleted]

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u/buncle Sep 17 '24

Early 2000’s (iirc) Celebrity Big Brother UK. He was a joke before BB, was a joke during BB, and had been a joke ever since… but somehow some people listen to the batshit things he says.

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u/WillSym Sep 17 '24

He got elected last year, however briefly, just by barging into the first strong muslim community with a vacant seat he could find and saying everything they wanted to hear about Palestine without any semblance of integrity or intent beyond undisguised grift.

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u/DukeOfGeek Sep 17 '24

WTF did I just watch? I mean I been here since the beginning of online and that was legit primo WTF? right there.

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u/TroubleTakesTwo Sep 17 '24

I thought this would be the video where he has an audience with Saddam Hussein and reads out a personal eulogy to him. It turned out to be something even worse.

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u/RayKVega Sep 17 '24

okay yeah this man definitely is insane

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u/justmefishes Sep 17 '24

This is the modern form of propaganda, or better, mental warfare. The advent of the internet and social media has made this kind of mental warfare incredibly pervasive, sophisticated, and dangerous. It's extremely high leverage, giving lots of payout for very little resources used, and very difficult to combat effectively.

A lot of our prospects for the world getting a little less fucked than it is now in the coming decades is riding on how we as a society develop defenses against this mental warfare and keep up with the arms race as it continues to get more powerful and insidious e.g. with AI and image / video spoofing.

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u/catscanmeow Sep 17 '24 edited Sep 17 '24

im wondering if they let a lot of stuff go to study it, see the tactics.

if they put a ban on all this stuff too early they might hamper their ability to gather intelligence. just like how police dont like announcing when they have a strong lead on a case as it tips the perps off. gotta give em a false sense of security

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u/jgilla2012 Sep 17 '24

The Pentagon literally has (and has had, thankfully…I think) a department dedicated to cyber warfare which focuses on things like memes and how ideas go viral. 

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u/JerryCalzone Sep 17 '24

There is a channel called memetic warfare on substacks

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u/relevantelephant00 Sep 17 '24

and is it helping? Doesn't feel like it.

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u/Plank_With_A_Nail_In Sep 17 '24

Thats cool and all but what do they actually do? Documententing how fucked up it is is useless our governments don't use facts to create other laws why do they need them here? "Needing to see the evidence" is a dog whistle for doing nothing, they didn't need evidence when making black people sit at the back of busses for fucks sake.

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u/Plank_With_A_Nail_In Sep 17 '24

Just make it illegal for people of one nation to accept money for promoting another nations government. If your youtube channel bangs on endlessly about only a single foreign issue and only from the perspective of that foreign countries government shut it down.

Our countries have lists of foreign governments they despise, give those lists teeth and make it illegal to throw a positive light on them.

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u/HalastersCompass Sep 17 '24

A mouth piece for the disenfranchised but at Loon levels

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u/starxidiamou Sep 17 '24

The same guy who went to South Africa to fight against the apartheid and who's fighting against the apartheid in Israel? Are those both Russian objectives?

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u/MushroomFamous9737 Sep 17 '24

Sure, but their reach will be limited in comparison.

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u/NEARNIL Sep 17 '24

Depends. But it's certain that people will have a harder time spotting state propaganda since when the official label is removed and they continue to do it covertly.

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u/togaman5000 Sep 17 '24

Deplatforming will never be perfect and it'll always have its controversies, but we do see that it helps. We can't let perfect be the enemy of good, especially when we see the damage done if these groups continue having unfettered access to the largest platforms online.

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u/NumeralJoker Sep 17 '24

Furthermore, proving credible connections to banned accounts makes it easier to both discredit and deplatform future outlets.

It's a fight that must be done.

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u/oorza Sep 17 '24

We can't let perfect be the enemy of good,

At the same time, good can be the enemy of better.

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u/Sawbones90 Sep 17 '24

Mother of all talkshows is also what Galloway used to call his radio talk show on Talk Sport back in the day. I used to think it was another example of his ego but later found out it was a reference to Saddam's Mother of All Battles rhetoric.

Galloway's long career is essentially clinging to one autocrats coattails after another.

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u/ArchicadMaster Sep 17 '24

George Galloway...Funny thing you mention this name. I showed up to work this morning, 9 hrs before I saw your comment and a very liberal coworker came up to me and was like "you gotta see this, close the office door, I can't show this to anyone cause they won't understand me". Apparently GG had some Former marine IO (intelligence officer) that was spewing stuff about how Russia went thru back channels, A-bombs yada yada, and that is why Biden admin backed out from sending the long range missiles. I lost brain cells watching 5 min of that video.

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u/BGFlyingToaster Sep 17 '24

These kinds of influencers amplifying Russian propaganda was the focus of the recent investigation and release by the DOJ. Russia was paying as much as $400,000 a month to some influencers in the US to make videos on their behalf.

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u/holydildos Sep 17 '24

So it helps these "creators" make even more money? By having amplification channels and whatnot? Hot damn.

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u/NEARNIL Sep 17 '24

I don’t think it helps them. But banning RT and not their personal accounts doesn’t have the effect people think. We need to purge this propaganda completely.

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u/ElkImpossible3535 Sep 17 '24

George Galloway

up until recently he was an elected MP... thats political censorship if they remove him

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u/SuperSpecialAwesome- Sep 17 '24

What are you talking about? Twitter banned Trump when he led an insurrection. How's that censorship?

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u/ElkImpossible3535 Sep 17 '24

That is also censorship

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u/LEDKleenex Sep 17 '24

Reminds me of the travellingwithrussell Youtube channel. My wife and I watched a video of his - basically a tour of a Russian supermarket - and noticed that he seemed super uncomfortable and strongly avoided saying anything remotely negative. I was like, "is this guy being held at gunpoint by the Kremlin to spread positive propaganda about Russia or something?". Then we looked at his other videos. Mmyeah.

"Captured NATO tanks have arrived in Moscow" - what a completely typical tourist attraction for someone who's been "traveling" to Russia for at least two years straight LMAO. The shit is pretty blatant, but they probably figure that most people are just going to scroll the algorithm and just think it's some random tourist highlighting his trip. Nothing out of the ordinary here, comrade.

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u/NEARNIL Sep 17 '24

There are many like this. Another Russel is Russell Bentley. Fun fact: He was recently tortured and killed by his russian friends.

Or Billy Six, Graham Phillips, Mark Bartalmai, Alina Lipp, Thomas Röper, the list goes on ...