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Japan News

Japan Plans New Government Unit To Deal With Disinformation Campaigns (nhk.or.jp) 89

Posted by msmash from the shape-of-things-to-come dept.
Japan's government is making arrangements to launch a new unit next year that deals with the spread of disinformation. From a report: Experts say disinformation spread through social media networks could influence public opinion and cause social turmoil. Some analysts say Russia has employed such methods against Ukraine and that China has done so against Taiwan. Chief Cabinet Secretary Matsuno Hirokazu says spreading fake information not only threatens universal values but could also affect security.
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Japan Plans New Government Unit To Deal With Disinformation Campaigns More

Japan Plans New Government Unit To Deal With Disinformation Campaigns

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  • Wah wah my freedom of speech (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Good job idiots, you caused this. We all know it's going to get abused at some point, but it's you idiots spreading bullshit to the point where no one knows what's real or not that is causing governments to go down this route. Get fucked

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by mustafap ( 452510 )

      Blame Trump

      • When Trump was president he would have LOVED to have the government shut down all the "disinformation" he didn't approve of.

    • You were gonna be out of work anyhow. (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      What you guys do could easily be done by chatGPT:

      Check this out:

      It was a dark and stormy night. President Obama was in his kitchen, cooking up a storm. And by storm, we mean a bunch of orphans. He had kidnapped them from orphanages all over the country and brought them to his secret lair. He was going to cook them and eat their adrenochrome to obtain superhuman abilities.

      The orphans were crying and begging for mercy, but Obama didn't care. He was going to do whatever it took to become the most powerful man in the world. He laughed maniacally as he cooked them in the oven and then devoured their flesh.

      Soon, Obama started to feel different. He could feel his powers growing with each bite. He was becoming faster, stronger, and more intelligent. He was on top of the world.

      But then, something strange started happening. His skin started to turn green and his eyes started to bulge out of his head. He was turning into a monster.

      The orphans had been right all along. Obama was a monster. And now, he was going to use his new powers to take over the world.

      But don’t despair! There are plenty of openings for work as a drone target in Ukraine! Go serve your country proudly!

    • Tell a person what is true or not, and they become a slave to your propaganda

      Teach a person how to think critically and to recognize common propaganda techniques and they will remain free for life

      At this point in history, the gutting of the public education system, by preventing them from teaching on some subjects, and allowing public education money to be spent at private schools, where they intentionally indoctrinate people are creating a generation of people who could not recognize a fact if it punched t

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward

        ^^^ THIS ^^^

        I blame both sides...

        The Retardicans because cost-cutting education and having an ill-informed, illiterate, and uneducated electorate serves their purpose of having sheep that will do their bidding unquestioned.

        The Dummycrats for ass-kissing the teacher unions with pay, benefits, and tenure for K-12, while not requiring anything in return - such as, IDK... competency?

        WTF does a K-12 teacher need with tenure? They don't publish. Tenure was developed at research universities to allow those that

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Killall -9 Bash ( 622952 )
      YOU thinking that free speech can be "abused" is the fucking problem. Go lick a policeman's boots, you leftist faggot.

      If you wanna be butthurt about fake news, blame the fucking news for being fake.

      What the FUCK happened to this country that turned the lefties into the boot-licking authoritarians?

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Read "The Road to Serfdom", it was written by an economist who left germany for the UK before WWII. It speculates that the desire for authoritarianism is just the natural progression once you try to bring central planning into an economy which is the death to any classical liberalism. Get a version that has good footnotes though, as some of the terms don't mean the same thing now as they meant back when it was written. For being published over 70 years ago it remains a remarkably intelligible read.

        I suspect

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Ichijo ( 607641 )
        "it seems contradictory to extend freedom of speech to extremists who ... if successful, ruthlessly suppress the speech of those with whom they disagree." --Michel Rosenfeld, Harvard Law Review, 1987

      • What the FUCK happened to this country that turned the lefties into the boot-licking authoritarians?

        They got power.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by CQDX ( 2720013 )

      You're talking about the press, right?

      Because it's clear the MSM is biased, both in what spin they put on the news, or what they flatly refuse to cover.

      When you can't trust the press, people will turn to alternative sources.

    • Governments, authority bodies, powers that be have never needed an incentive in the past to suppress ideas and movements that they find threatening.

      Why do you think the USA has a First Amendment in the first place? Why do you think other countries have added freedom of expression as a recognized and protected right in their charters?

      It's because authorities have a long history of wanting to censor and suppress for the purpose of squashing ideological and political movements that threaten them.

      You don't need

      • Re:Wah wah my freedom of speech (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Erioll ( 229536 ) on Monday January 30, 2023 @04:40PM (#63251743)

        The writers of Alpha Centari [wikiquote.org] said it well years ago (emphasis mine) :

        As the Americans learned so painfully in Earth's final century, free flow of information is the only safeguard against tyranny. The once-chained people whose leaders at last lose their grip on information flow will soon burst with freedom and vitality, but the free nation gradually constricting its grip on public discourse has begun its rapid slide into despotism. Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master.

        Anybody who doesn't want you to see "disinformation" or "misinformation" is saying you're too stupid to figure out the difference. Or they're saying that the "other" is too stupid to know the difference. News flash: the "other" usually is YOU sooner or later, on one thing or another. They see manipulating you as Good.

        Or to be more quippy on the topic as a whole, it's really easy to defend somebody's right to Freedom of Speech when you agree with them.

        • Anybody who doesn't want you to see "disinformation" or "misinformation" is saying you're too stupid to figure out the difference.

          But many of them - and us at times - are too stupid.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Erioll ( 229536 )

            I agree with you to a point: everybody will get fooled by something, sooner or later. As "whomever" said (opinions vary), "You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but not all of the people all the time." The problem comes from your underlying attitude: You think that you are part of the "few" that are only "some" of the time. Be a bit more humble: most of us are fooled a lot. Don't think you're special. You're probably not!

            The problem is actually that the

            • Fair comments; as with the statement 'Democracy is the worst form of government except all the rest', freedom of speech is the least bad solution to the problems.

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by Erioll ( 229536 )

                Fair comments; as with the statement 'Democracy is the worst form of government except all the rest', freedom of speech is the least bad solution to the problems.

                I agree with that post 100% without reservation.

        • If people could remember one thing, this would be a much simpler topic: They're not right just because they disagree with the things you disagree with. For example, the government is crooked, but that doesn't mean people are trustworthy when they tell you the government is crooked to justify themselves.

          People indeed are too stupid to know the difference between information and disinformation. Telling the two apart is a skill that you have to learn and a fairly large percentage of people never do and indeed

      • In my opinion, as much as I hate those who knowingly lie and mislead, "disinformation" is just another example of controversial messaging.

        That's false by definition, because it's knowingly spreading false information to achieve a specific goal. You're (deliberately? ignorantly?) conflating disinformation with underinformed opinions.

    • Calm down, Francis.

    • Oh come on, seems like only a few of us in the 90s with all that "information age" hype going around realized that it was going to get so much worse and pondered if society can survive the information age. This cancer just continues to grow.

      Censorship was clearly going extinct as it became easy to pile on a big haystack over every needle of truth. Do not touch the truth and draw attention to it; ignore it and pile on more distractions to have to filter out. Combine that with increased gullibility due to eas

      • Over sufficient time I expect freer access to information to lead to progress, if the ecosystem persists for long enough. But it's not surprising that there's upheaval now as the nations whose education systems don't teach critical thinking get slammed with disinformative propaganda, both foreign and domestic. This increased access to information changes the basis of winning and losing, from being able to get information at all to discerning the quality of information more rapidly.

        • Critical thinking skills have been given lip service since I was a teen and it sure didn't appear anything was being actually done. I've read 2 studies now that noticed the ability to discriminate between fact and opinion has gone DOWN in each generation since Boomers. I do remember in elementary school a unit we did on fact and opinion so I suppose some of this was going on after all.

          Apparently, it has failed... or would it be even worse today?

          Free access to useful information for science will help a minor

          • I do remember in elementary school a unit we did on fact and opinion so I suppose some of this was going on after all.

            I can remember exactly one time when I got any information on this sort of thing before college, one of my teachers in junior high taught us about propaganda (in English class.) That doesn't mean there weren't other times, only that if there were, they weren't memorable. But in general education has been getting worse. Class sizes have gone up to the point that there's little time for anything but babysitting.

            • There is a war on education and it's been waged by the GOP since Nixon. I personally know a former big-player in the background of the GOP; their goal is the destruction of public education but it's so important and popular they must first undermine and weaken it. He believes that we can sustain ourselves over the multi-generational decline required and not only quickly rebound after they replace it with free-market education but surpass what we had. The fool has nothing but faith to justify it-- that is,

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by NFN_NLN ( 633283 )

      Yup. It was all the idiots spreading FUD that there was a secret virology lab in Wuhan or that natural immunity could protect most healthy people from from COVID-19. Perhaps the biggest misinformation is that people with the vaccine could still spread the disease. That just causes anti-anti-vaxxor hesitancy.

    • We all know it's going to get abused at some point, but it's you idiots spreading bullshit to the point where no one knows what's real or not that is causing governments to go down this route.

      Censoring misinformation just causes bullshit purveyors to think of themselves as 'martyrs'. The proper treatment for misinformation is repudiation, not censorship.

    • Good job idiots, you caused this. We all know it's going to get abused at some point, but it's you idiots spreading bullshit to the point where no one knows what's real or not that is causing governments to go down this route. Get fucked

      Which idiots are you talking to? Because it's not the "idiots" that caused this, they're victims and tools. Governments themselves are the biggest spreaders of lies, and also the ones that operate the education systems that produce the useful idiots that repeat them. Unfortunately, creating idiots in your country means not only that they repeat your home-grown bullshit, but that they are susceptible to everyone else's as well.

  • Some analysts say Russia has employed such methods against Ukraine

    Yeah. That's why people get confused thinking the Ukraine war is about NATO or some other thing when really it's just a land struggle of Crimea [wikipedia.org]. Both sides want it.

    • Some analysts say Russia has employed such methods against Ukraine

      Yeah. That's why people get confused thinking the Ukraine war is about NATO or some other thing when really it's just a land struggle of Crimea. Both sides want it.

      If you think a major world power is doing something for one reason, you're wrong. There is no reason for Russia not to be concerned about NATO, which is essentially the anti-Russia alliance.

      • Concern about NATO is not why Russia invaded Ukraine. They wanted Crimea.

        NATO isn't even an anti-Russian alliance. If it were, Russia would already be gone.

        • NATO isn't even an anti-Russian alliance. If it were, Russia would already be gone.

          Why? Russia's too expensive to invade, so the only reasonable defensive strategy has always been containment.

          • Russia could join NATO if they were willing to apply. But Putin wasn't willing to apply.

            • Russia could join NATO if they were willing to apply. But Putin wasn't willing to apply.

              That's literally my point, except that Russiaisn't willing to apply. It's not just vlad poopin'.

              • I won't say that there aren't people in Russia who worry about the geopolitical aspects of NATO, and some people in Russia complain about what NATO did in Yugoslavia. But complaints about NATO putting missiles in Ukraine or tanks rolling into Moscow through Ukraine (as opposed to Latvia or Finland) are not enough to motivate an invasion of Ukraine.

                Ukraine and Russia have been fighting over Crimea (first verbally) since the 90s. There was a bit of armed confrontation in 2003 [wikipedia.org]. They made a bunch of treaties an

                • complaints about NATO putting missiles in Ukraine or tanks rolling into Moscow through Ukraine (as opposed to Latvia or Finland) are not enough to motivate an invasion of Ukraine.

                  Sure, that's obviously a pretext. Various peoples have been fighting over Crimea since at latest the 3rd century B.C. I propose that Russia's concern about NATO is that its primary purpose [nato.int] ("deterring Soviet expansionism" is given as the first reason) is to stop Russia from invading everybody nearby.

                  • To say it in nerd terms, Crimea is the Arkenstone for Ukraine and Russia (although very recently it's gained practical value with the discovery of natural gas in the black sea).

                    When the USSR fell, the world idea was that we would solve all disputes in the UN with words, not weapons. (Neocons in the US and Russia opposed this). When the US bombed Yugoslavia, the Russian "neocon" Primakov did his famous U-turn [theguardian.com] while still in flight. After that, Primakov's "neocon" agenda won the debate on foreign policy in R

                  • Incidentally, the problems caused by neocons (and their counterparts in other countries) is tremendous. We literally had morons saying things like [wikipedia.org]: "We should start a war so people fear us."

                    Dumbest dumbshits the world has ever seen.

                    • Yeah, all that. But I do just want to say, with all appropriate irony given that I'm American, that Russia has something of a long history of invading neighbors– and occasionally being invaded, sometimes successfully, sometimes with comic effect, if you can call it that. And I just did, I guess.

                      It's really quite striking how democracy dies if you compromise education sufficiently that the voters don't know shit.

  • Ministry of Truth (Score:3)

    by Big Hairy Gorilla ( 9839972 ) on Monday January 30, 2023 @04:24PM (#63251683)
    Hey! Didn't I read India's doing it? Everybody will be following suit.

    The race to the bottom is accelerating.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      On the other hand, Russia appears to have destroyed the UK without firing a shot. They simply used misinformation and secret support for bad policies and political candidates to ensure that the UK self-destructed. Economic ruin, likely followed by the break up of the union.

      Countries can't ignore this threat to their national security, but they also need to make sure they aren't suppressing the truth or limiting journalistic freedom. A balance must be struck because neither alternative is acceptable.

  • freedom of speech? (Score:3)

    by CrimsonAvenger ( 580665 ) on Monday January 30, 2023 @04:43PM (#63251757)

    So, how are they planning on ensuring that the new agency won't start doing its own propaganda? Not really much point in having an anti-propaganda agency if said agency is busy putting out propaganda of its own....

    • Faktisk.no is a service/website was funded to find wacky positions on social media and debunk them.
      Norway's media and state channel together funded a counter viral news publication in 2017, meaning its been running for half a decade by this point.

      The core flaw is that it will take a popular topic shared across social media, find a angle a attack can be made via credible sources, and then make a statement. Sometimes that involves taking EU stats and stating that our position is in the correct tier, but factu

    • how are they planning on ensuring that the new agency won't start doing its own propaganda?

      They need to make double sure there's enough checks and balances such that all (notable) political parties and all branches of gov't get to inspect and audit the work.

      We've seen how conspiracy theories gummed up the Covid vaccination pace in the USA and caused an attempted coup. Thus, some tempering of "freedom of speech" is needed. Our next crisis may not have a margin of error to correct against the rabid teeth of m

      • What's needed is education, not censorship. All that does is drive evil into hiding, where you can't keep tabs on it. Then someone emboldens the trolls and they come out and eat people's pets

  • As we all know, only approved government sources can properly tell us what is true or not.

  • https://www.dailydot.com/debug... [dailydot.com]

    I know some have forgotten about the 2017 hoax called "Hamilton68," but it's vital: it was the first attempt to launch this fraudulent "disinformation expertise," and the first clear sign of the new political union: Dems, neocons (Bill Kristol) and CIA.
    @ggreenwald

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Here we have an article about Japan starting to officially track and address misinformation campaigns. (Most obviously from China, being the biggest purveyor of online astroturf in the region.)

    Predictably, just as trained, at the mere suggestion that online propaganda campaigns might be, somewhere, a real thing - immediately those who have been taken in by them start flooding the comments.

    They even pass up the opportunity to shit on China. Wow. You can tell they're really triggered any time disinformation i

    • Ah, there's the downmod. There we go. Hey, don't forget to rail against "Slashdot moderation groupthink" same time tomorrow!

  • Bit of a tangent, but hey, gotta start somewhere...

  • I hope some government will start saying 'leave your social media apps or we will have to raise taxes to pay for these units'.

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