Regardless of the current iteration. Regardless of this specific tech capability and how it is currently used in this specific country I am asking myself how a society can protect itself against this.<p>If topics are manufactured and outrage is being artificially generated in that fashion classic media will probably jump onto the bandwagon because doing so will increase advertising clicks and views. It will increase revenue for said media outlets. Also social networks have every incentive to not quell these things as they drive engagement and with that advertising revenues. The same for video platforms. Basically (nearly) any ad driven revenue stream will want to participate.
Thos will be adding fuel to the fire and just increase the reach of the fabricated stories as well as the outrage and the accompanying division of societies.
Creating measures to effectively quell such things on the other hand will (nearly) inevitably create measures of mass censorship that once implemented will one day be abused because I have yet to see an example of humans not using any weapon/means to further their agenda.<p>So the question remains what societies, as well as everybody for themselves, can do to protect themselves against these forms of manipulations.<p>I have to admit that I do not have a good idea what could work. And what the side effects of doing something (as well as not doing something) could be.
I don't usually post on political topics with my main account but the title is confusing and is in my opinion misleading.<p>The Tek Fog app, according to this report, targets people including women journalist who are critical of current PM of India or the Party BJP.<p>Most journalists in India are not critical of PM Modi but a few of them are, and in fact you will never find this report on the Indian MSM.<p>A better title would be:<p>Tek Fog targeting Anti-BJ/ Anti-Modi journalists in India.
Tek fog is essentially automated trolling used to target political opponents.<p>The previous articles by TheWire on this were of better quality and didn't seem to stretch facts to push a narrative.<p>They have given no evidence that only women journalists were targeted primarily.<p>They sound like one of the opinion pieces saying "Hurricane Katrina strikes ..., women specifically targeted/affected".<p>I will note that regardless of my criticism of the linked article, I agree that Tek Fog can have significantly adverse impact on the quality of discourse and whether its usage is legal is something that needs to be brought to the court.
Perhaps we need an antifa style hacking group to take down infra/tech like this which is inherently anti-democratic ? I'd love someone to destroy that cloud database and put Tek Fog back at square 1.
This is not cool at all.<p>It's no wonder that so many people struggle with the effects of trauma from (seemingly omnipresent) misogynistic abuse.<p>Is there any escaping it? Any way to fight back?
Yikes - Seeing it documented in India this way implies it's being done everywhere at some scale, likely not just against Women as well. The centralization and growth of walled gardens has fed some very nasty side effects.
OP - don’t take it personal if this thread is flagged and removed from the front page. Yes, it is interesting and yes it has a fascinating tech angle to it. Especially interesting for me is how easily subverted social media is with the right tech.<p>But you know who this is <i>indirectly</i> critical of even if he is not mentioned. There are enough devotees of that person on HN that every thread tangentially involving him becomes flagged and removed eventually. This appears to be a chilling effect on the discussion, but moderators are very reluctant to step in. They would much rather there was no discussion of Indian politics at all, given that every conversation becomes so heated.
Typical propaganda by a Modi hating, American owned and Soros funded rag. They can’t beat Modi at polls - so one day we have Jan 6 style Maidan Color revolution to overthrow Modi, next they try to get him lynched on Jan 5 in Punjab by blocking his motorcade for 20 minutes near the Pakistani border.<p>These so called reporters are inimical toward India, write incendiary lies and collaborate with Pakistan, Jihadis and Soros style ngos. So if you gonna dish it out you better take it too from the people as that is democracy. They indulge in worst kind of Twitter tricks using fake videos and fake news weekly.