this post was submitted on 02 Oct 2025
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Fediverse vs Disinformation

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Pointing out, debunking, and spreading awareness about state- and company-sponsored astroturfing on Lemmy and elsewhere. This includes social media manipulation, propaganda, and disinformation campaigns, among others.

Propaganda and disinformation are a big problem on the internet, and the Fediverse is no exception.

What's the difference between misinformation and disinformation? The inadvertent spread of false information is misinformation. Disinformation is the intentional spread of falsehoods.

By equipping yourself with knowledge of current disinformation campaigns by state actors, corporations and their cheerleaders, you will be better able to identify, report and (hopefully) remove content matching known disinformation campaigns.


Community rules

Same as instance rules, plus:

  1. No disinformation
  2. Posts must be relevant to the topic of astroturfing, propaganda and/or disinformation

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text of microblog screenshot:

Assal Rad @AssalRad

Headline after headline fails to mention that seizing the ships and kidnapping humanitarians violates international law. Instead the articles repeat Israeli propaganda.

This is how Western media normalizes Israel's crimes.

embedded screenshot 1 (BBC News headline):

Israeli naval ships intercept Gaza-bound flotilla

embedded screenshot 2 (Reuters headline):

Live: Israel says it has stopped several vessels from Gaza aid flotilla

embedded screenshot 3 (AP headline):

Activists say Israeli navy has begun intercepting a Gaza-bound aid flotilla

embedded screenshot 4 (CNN headline):

Israeli military intercept and board several aid ships bound for Gaza, organizers say

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literal high seas piracy.

and otherwise, an attack to the states from which the ships come from.

[–] moosetwin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

I know they said headline, but cmon actually read the article

There are actual issues with these articles but you can't call it propaganda when half of it is criticizing israel

link

[–] ICastFist@programming.dev 13 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

The point is that a lot of people won't read the articles, they'll just skim the headline and call it a day. "Israeli navy intercepts flotilla bound for Gaza" and "Israeli navy kidnaps protesters in international waters" give very different ideas of the main subject.

[–] moosetwin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 weeks ago

fair enough

[–] FlyingCircus@lemmy.world 6 points 2 weeks ago

Notice how the article doesn’t actually call their behavior illegal or cite the international law they broke? They just report that other people are calling it illegal? That’s propaganda.

[–] RagingRobot@lemmy.world 9 points 2 weeks ago

They do the same thing with trump and fall for it every time.

Like the latest shit about Democrats wanting to give medical care to undocumented immigrants.

Not even close to being true but there they are for the past week repeating it everyday like it's a fact.

Saying Donald trump said --Lie-- Only spreads the lie more.

Just don't report in the lie. Skip that part

[–] apftwb@lemmy.world 5 points 2 weeks ago

"Somalian sailing cooperatives intercept cargo vessel to offer exchange of goods or services"

[–] RaivoKulli@sopuli.xyz 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Intercepts is a neutral term though. Not really repeating mucj propaganda but rather just reporting the fact that they did intercept it.

[–] LemmyKnowsBest@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

And they're reporting it because they want everybody to know that theyre conquering the shit out of Gaza and murdering all the Palestinians. But they're reporting it in a way that sounds neutral 😒

[–] RaivoKulli@sopuli.xyz 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Reuters is conquering Gaza..?

[–] SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 weeks ago

The reason mainstream media doesn't mention that it's against international law is because it's not against international law. So they just aren't lying to you, while alternative media is lying to you.

International law isn't written by the UN or whatever organization you might imagine would be passing world legislation. It's just treaties nations agree to. Nations don't want to make it illegal to do things nations want to do. This is why no one has made war illegal under international law. Countries want to still go to war, so it's not illegal under international law. Countries want to be able to do blockades, so blockades are not illegal under international law.

Sure you can say you don't like it, you could say a blockade is wrong, immoral, heinous, or whatever emotional terminology you'd like. But saying a blockade is illegal is either ignorant of international law, or just plain lying.