Three challenges for the web, according to its inventor

Posted Mar 15, 2017 3:59 UTC (Wed) by ShadowTek (guest, #112558)
In reply to: Three challenges for the web, according to its inventor by bojan
Parent article: Three challenges for the web, according to its inventor

> Except for the fact that some "information" is simply misinformation

Just like the liberal media.

> which is a different kettle of fish altogether

Different kettle, yes, but it's the same questionable fish.

> Random teenagers creating "news" in order to get paid by Facebook is what the article is talking about

And random liberals creating "news" in order to get votes for their candidate is what I'm comparing it to.

> Why/how you see this kind of thing conducive to democracy, I have no idea.

Because within this larger mess that is the Internet, lies greater access to truth. It's more burdensome to wade through it, but the greater potential that lies within is, I believe, worth it.

> Democracy based on falsehoods is not going to work very well, IMHO

I agree. Hence my dislike of the dishonest liberal-media.

> Given that the most powerful country in the world elected essentially a "conspiracy theorist in chief" neatly proves the point the article is trying to make. Don't you think?

No, because you are making the assumption that the people who elected Trump did so only because they were weak-minded and were simply tricked into doing so. Making this assumption either ignores or denies the vast array of completely valid issues that led people to vote for him either because they wanted him to win, or they wanted Hillary to lose.

I don't blame you for being confused by Trump's election. He is a curious component of a complex situation. I actually used to think of him as the senseless madman that you are alluding to, but I have since come to realize that he is not the complete fool that I once thought he was.

Three challenges for the web, according to its inventor

Posted Mar 15, 2017 4:27 UTC (Wed) by bojan (subscriber, #14302) [Link]

> Because within this larger mess that is the Internet, lies greater access to truth. It's more burdensome to wade through it, but the greater potential that lies within is, I believe, worth it.

Direct quote from the article:

"Today, most people find news and information on the web through just a handful of social media sites and search engines."

It is that burden that causes the misinformation to get to the top of people's reading lists so easily. Theory is just a theory. In practice, things are different.

> I actually used to think of him as the senseless madman that you are alluding to, but I have since come to realize that he is not the complete fool that I once thought he was.

Alluding to? Oh, no! Ignorant thin-skinned narcissist is probably the most flattering I can come up with, to be perfectly honest. As a non-US person, I can tell you that there are days when I'm worried that this madman may start a nuclear war just because he heard some new conspiracy theory on one of those right wing radio stations (which are, of course, completely objective, because they declared their bias openly - ha, ha).

Let's stop this here ... for real this time

Posted Mar 15, 2017 4:30 UTC (Wed) by jake (editor, #205) [Link]

This thread is not something that is germane to LWN. You (all) have been warned multiple times, can we please *stop* with all of this stuff.

thanks,

jake