*Checks BBC*
No label…
MORE: https://t.co/HVRvMtt58J pic.twitter.com/Bv8BLe7uN5
— RT UK (@RTUKnews) August 6, 2020
Along with Sputnik and some others. Which is fair enough, except that the following don’t also get the same treatment:
- BBC
- Voice of America
- RFERL
- France 24
- Deutsche Welle
- Al Jazeera (!)
- Al Arabiya
- TRT
The @Russia account is labeled, but not the @Ukraine one.
However, it does include a bunch of Chinese media outlets:
- CCTV
- Xinhua
- Global Times
Amusing, though, it seems limited to ostracizing Russian/Chinese media only. PressTV is not on the list, perhaps because the progressives who run Twitter have a soft spot for Iran on account of Trump being against them.
Anyhow, this is further confirmation that Twitter is itself a “state-affiliated media” organization (though this is hardly a novel development, three years ago they banned a bunch of Venezuelan state accounts. As such, any self-respecting country that is not a US vassal would logically make Twitter and other US state-affiliated social media companies subject to the same sanctions and regulations that govern such bodies.
Please keep off topic posts to the current Open Thread.
If you are new to my work, start here.
All this is coming right after the release this report:
https://content.govdelivery.com/attachments/USSTATEBPA/2020/08/05/file_attachments/1512230/Pillars%20of%20Russias%20Disinformation%20and%20Propaganda%20Ecosystem_08-04-20%20%281%29.pdf
Farkas has characterized that report as not going far enough:
https://twitter.com/EvelynNFarkas
I’m all for honest labels. I think they might have prevented some of the trouble we are in now. BTW, for European countries, they should also add another label, along the formula of “anti-_____.” For instance, for the BBC, “anti-British.” For DW, “anti-German.”
Of course, I doubt Twitter would do that, but the use of low-information or disingenuous political labels “center-right” and “center-left” is common in media. Partly it is goal-post setting, partly it is to reserve opprobrium for the “far right.” These labels should be replaced with something more informative. Globalist/non-globalist. Or else, blank-slatist/non-blankslatist. Or Bioleninist…
Won’t anybody in this world infect Twitter HQ with a good dose of Cow Rona and shut down this TLA-sponsored hippie infestation?
Meanwhile, news illustrating what “not state sponsored” means nowadays:
https://www.unz.com/isteve/the-smollett-family-is-back/#comment-4080417
No, I don’t know what’s going on.
For the USA the label is maybe more accurately ‘oligarch-tied media’ and maybe more precisely the Soros wing of the oligarchy
It’s supposedly different for a country like the USA where the oligarchy actually owns the government, ‘muh free market private sector’ as the lolbertarians say
Versus states like Russia and China where the government is strong enough to ride herd on local high bourgoisie
There needs to be a warning label too for the CIA-Mossad Wikipedia
Given that it was shown ages ago that thousands of edits for Wiki come straight from the intelligence agencies
Facebook and Google and maybe also Twitter were created and benefitted with the assistance of US government and spy agencies, so it’s just the usual hypocrisy. Trump now wants to ban TikTok because it “spies on its users”, really… And Google/Youtube who banned who knows now how many channels still pretend to pose as champions of free speech… The saddest thing is, a lot of Americans believe their government and tech companies.
August 3rd deadline eh?
YouTube is a bit more even handed. RT et al. get the “— is funded in part or in whole by the — government” caption. The BBC and company get “— is a British/French etc. public service broadcaster”
Agree. In some case, it is very direct, e.g., WaPo: “oligarch-owned media”.
NYT: “part-oligarch-owned, all oligarch jock-sniffing”.
Ms. Magazine and Gloria Steinem: “spy agency asset”.
Also, NPR and PBS: “state-owned and -controlled”.
The list could go on and on. If they were being consistent…
let’s just be simple and do a based vs cringe
It doesn’t matter what you say.
American social media is clearly treating countries differently depending on whether it is an American “friend or “foe”.
You can say this is justified because American media is owned by oligarchs, but this is just obstufication.
There are clearly American backed organizations like Radio Free America and UK backed BBC that won’t get the label.
This is a much bigger story than most people realize.
In the past, America could rely on being the default must trusted news source.
But now that the world is bifurcating and people will have true alternative news sources people will be able too see American social media for what it is. Propaganda.
The BBC are scrupulously honest & even-handed though…
https://twitter.com/AvaSantina/status/1193815813867888641
An extreme…insane case of projection.
Seriously. Oligarchs-tied media is way more sinister than any state media. I know that, I lived in 90s Russia. US/UK/Most of Europe fits the bill
Not only should gov’t labels be present but corporate too
Once a platform like Google or Twitter goes partisan, it’s hard for me to see any reason to use it. I NEVER used Twitter, only looked at Facebook a couple times, quit using PayPal, hate Amazon, and haven’t used Google for at least 15 years. Why do people run like lemmings?
Ethnic disclosures would also be nice.
I once saw a roundtable with a couple of gents, one from RT and another from BBC. The BBC chap referred to RT as state sponsored media, but when the RT chap pointed out that BBC was also state sponsored media, the BBC chap went unto a sputtering meltdown. This is not that clip, but entertaining nonetheless.
https://youtu.be/suFzznCHjko
Nice takes, Anatoly. Hilarious even more, where’s the Government-Affiliation tag for WashPost and NYT and a dozen others, let alone every TV and radio station and channel?
In the US, only FCC grants the right to broadcast, making them ‘affiliated’. But then, that’s why Twitter is Twatter. They think we care about their little game. Only an idiot doesn’t see through it and it takes a MORON to fall into it.
Meanwhile, RT and Sputnik have become go-to’s for me.
Twitter has officially taken sides and labeled Russia an enemy of the US. I don’t know why other countries tolerate their operation within their borders. Twitter needs to be banned.