• crispy_caesus@feddit.org
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    14 hours ago

    I like the idea of not letting stupid people spread misinformation on the internet (unless it’s myself), but this is just gatekeeping the right to speak out in public about certain topics which I find deeply problematic.

    • AA5B@lemmy.world
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      6 hours ago

      There’s got to be something to do for accountability, but ….

      Just want to point out the guy who made up the whole vaccine-autism scare was a scientist. All of the propaganda against anti-smoking, anti-climate change, anti-pollution, anti-lead efforts over the years has been produced by scientists

      Educated people are people too. Just because they should know better doesn’t mean they are

      • r0ertel@lemmy.world
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        5 hours ago

        You’re spot on with accountability. Why not just legally allow people harmed by following the advice to be ableto sue the influencers and allow those with proper credentials to become certified in the topic and certification protects from lawsuits?

        Or maybe not the second part. Anybody giving bad advice should be sued.

        “This isn’t medical advice, but drinking battery acid will allow you to live forever.” Would never hold up in court.

        Freedom of speech seems to be the most misunderstood right.

        • AA5B@lemmy.world
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          3 hours ago

          The challenging part is a lot of it is indirect. General incitement to violence or misinformation is difficult to tie back to directly causing harm.

          Freedom of speech was simpler before internet when you were likely singled out as a kook and ignored. Now with the internet you have a much bigger audience as well as other kooks where you can build on each other. Your reach is farther, you can more easily appear to have common opinion, you can do more harm, and yet are more distanced from the harm you do.

          I have no idea what to do differently but we’ve seen free speech in an online world without any accountability has been able to do a lot of harm.

    • loldog191@lemmy.ca
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      10 hours ago

      Yeah, I think more is being lost here than “solved”. Sometimes you need to ask simple questions about complex things. Ask any teacher and they’ll say that students deepen their own understanding just as much as they teach back. It’s part of the flow of creative ideas and inspiration. Everybody should have the right to be curious, ask questions, learn and make new discoveries.

      Instead, this feels like “You are only allowed to have ideas once you’ve gone through the propogandization program to have the right ones”. But I still do agree that we need to start trying lots of things to combat misinformation. Maybe a rebrand of education to show how much more interesting reality is than conspiracy theories. A focus on the truth that so much remains unknown, and conspiracy theories are like unhealthy junk food that never satiates that truth.