Re:The Internet Will Be the Death of Us
by ascagnel_ on Wednesday October 31, 2018 @08:58AM
(#18345252)
> There should rather be laws that prohibit the use of certain online marketing tools in political campaigns. For example, it should be a punishable felony to use viral marketing in political campaigns that involves any kind of fake comments, replication bots, deliberately falsified news, or fake accounts not tied to real persons. Maybe these tools should also be prohibited for ordinary marketing - IANAL but I think in many countries they already are -, but they should definitely be strictly prohibited in political campaigns.
The issue is around defining what is fake and what is real, and that extremist governments will do their absolute best to twist the meanings of these words to fit their agenda.
Re:The Internet Will Be the Death of Us
by jonathanstrange on Wednesday October 31, 2018 @09:42AM
(#18345587)
Sure, such issues need to be decided by the judicative and a nation's constitutional guarantees for the division of power must ensure that a government cannot abuse them. If a particular government can interfere with or directly influence the particular decision of a judge, then it's probably too late to save democracy anyway.
In that case there is no need to abuse laws about political campaigns, though, it suffices to put political opponents into prison and/or take away their rights to be elected, as happens in countries like Turkey and Russia.
But I don't believe that censorship are good solutions. Strong moderation is needed to keep a forum interesting and worthwhile reading, but that's a practical issue. Government censorship goes way too far.
There should rather be laws that prohibit the use of certain online marketing tools in political campaigns. For example, it should be a punishable felony to use viral marketing in political campaigns that involves any kind of fake comments, replication bots, deliberately falsified news, or fake accounts not tied to real persons. Maybe these tools should also be prohibited for ordinary marketing - IANAL but I think in many countries they already are -, but they should definitely be strictly prohibited in political campaigns.
Right now, it seems that e.g. in the US almost anything goes in political campaigns as long as no foreigners are involved, and we know from the Cambridge Analytica case that some companies act like mercenaries for hire without any conscience or care for democracy. That's what needs to be addressed, not the lunatics and crackpots on forums who will always exist.