this post was submitted on 03 Jul 2025

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Fediverse vs Disinformation

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Pointing out, debunking, and spreading awareness about state- and company-sponsored astroturfing on Lemmy and elsewhere. This includes social media manipulation, propaganda, and disinformation campaigns, among others.

Propaganda and disinformation are a big problem on the internet, and the Fediverse is no exception.

What's the difference between misinformation and disinformation? The inadvertent spread of false information is misinformation. Disinformation is the intentional spread of falsehoods.

By equipping yourself with knowledge of current disinformation campaigns by state actors, corporations and their cheerleaders, you will be better able to identify, report and (hopefully) remove content matching known disinformation campaigns.

Community rules

Same as instance rules, plus:

No disinformation
Posts must be relevant to the topic of astroturfing, propaganda and/or disinformation

Related websites

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founded 11 months ago

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Lemmy.ml continues to allow misinfo/propaganda sites "articles" so long as it's anti-west aligned while removing good credible news sources. Instances that federate with them help their spread (lemmy.world)

submitted 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago) by cm0002@lemmy.world to c/fediverse_vs_disinfo@lemmy.dbzer0.com

27 comments fedilink hide all child comments

This is what the admins of .ml cultivate, as documented in the megathread

Credible sources removed just within the last day: https://lemmy.world/post/32298242 https://lemmy.world/post/32426343

.ml is not much different than the rest of the Triad, continued federation with them is continuing to allow them to spread toxic misinformation and behavior across the Threadiverse.

If you're an instance admin, please consider defederation.

Users, consider joining the lemmy.ml boycott today and help foster a better Lemmy-verse! No more posts, comments (except to counter their propaganda ofc!) or upvotes on any comms on the Lemmy.ml instance.

Other wonderful content, and this is just from when I looked at the local new feed a bit ago:

Classic RT I'm sure you all know and Pravda.ru "Pravda Report"

all 37 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] MotoAsh@lemmy.world 29 points 19 hours ago (3 children)

PLEASE defederate from the tankies. They should have to suffer through engaging with the real world if they want to engage with all of Lemmy, and not have a whole damn instance astroturfing their propaganda to everyone else.

Yes, it is that bad. They literally ban and block anyone who says Russia/China bad, even for wholly valid and factual reasons.

[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 11 points 17 hours ago (2 children)

Actually that last paragraph isn't wholly true. I did so and they followed me around to harass me.

[–] Vanilla_PuddinFudge@infosec.pub 5 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

I did so and they followed me around to harass me.

lmao, that sounds fun!

Russia and China fucking suck! Come get me, keyboard slaves! Pooh-bear demands it!

Remember, if it ain't Ukrainian, it ain't vodka.

[–] PrettyFlyForAFatGuy@feddit.uk 4 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

I got added to someones downvote bot after arguing with tankies from my .ml account.

Found out who it was and threatened to do it back and it stopped though

[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 0 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Anyone doing that to me?

[–] PrettyFlyForAFatGuy@feddit.uk 2 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (1 children)

It's hard to tell as a user. You need to ask someone with direct access to a federated lemmy db to look it up for you. they can see who upvoted and who downvoted who with a custom query.

I do not have direct access to a federated lemmy DB at the mo

[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 2 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

No I was just asking if you saw a downvote on my comment :3

[–] PrettyFlyForAFatGuy@feddit.uk 2 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Yes, you have one downvote on your original comment. none on your latest at time of writing

[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 1 points 9 hours ago

I see the same. Thank you :)

[–] BroBot9000@lemmy.world 9 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

I second the movement to defederate from the tankies!

[–] Agrajag@scribe.disroot.org 6 points 18 hours ago (3 children)

I sort by new and there are not a whole lot of posts on lemmy every day, but if this is bothering you that much I would recommend blocking the instance. The posts you are showing of this user aren't even popular and get heavily downvoted.

[–] cm0002@lemmy.world 9 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Instance blocks are nothing more than a comm mute, even if it worked as one would expect, it does nothing to stop them from spreading their toxic misinformation and propaganda to unknowing new users.

And downvoting to oblivion is not something to be relied upon, IME only obvious ones get downvoted like RT or ones with headlines like "UKRAINE WILL FAIL SOON SUPERIOR RUSSIA..."

Subtler disinformation, from lesser known sources, can still end up with positive upvotes and is just as dangerous

[–] Blaze@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 10 hours ago

Piefed has actual instance blocking, you might want to give it a try https://piefed.social/

[–] limer@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 16 hours ago

A voice of reason drowned out by a red scare.

Here we cherry pick unpopular posts and gripe about pro-west news censored. But I think it would be also fun to cherry pick some pro genocide from world, posts that are unpopular too, and gripe about how Chinese news is censored.

Double the fun! Yes?

[+] technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com -11 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago) (1 children)

This irony is pretty thick. OP is crying about propaganda while promoting overt imperial propaganda (radio free europe, etc.). Libs and tankies are the same damn thing with different imperial branding. That's all that this is.

[–] cm0002@lemmy.world -2 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

Radio Free [Region] is a perfectly credible news source that does a fair job of minimizing bias

In any case, bias != Mis/Disinformation. They're vastly different beasts. One just tries to subtly write things in a way that makes the reader favor their position the other is just straight lies and made up conspiracy theories to force a certain narrative among the populace

[+] fkncowardz@lemmings.world -4 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 23 minutes ago) (1 children)

[removed by mod]

[–] PugJesus@lemmy.world 0 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (1 children)

In a roundtable carried by Uzbek TV on 18 March, three Uzbek political commentators made the case for war by claiming to have concrete information that Baghdad possessed weapons of mass destruction and had direct links with terrorists. "It is a well-known fact that Iraq possesses weapons of mass destruction. Its Al-Sumud and Al-Fatah ballistic missiles are capable of causing unspeakable disaster for humankind. Just imagine this dictator and despot, Saddam Hussein, passing on such weapons to Osama bin Laden or his henchmen!" said one Qobilbek Karimbekov. He continued: "It is Saddam Hussein's regime that is currently sheltering those members of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda who fled Afghanistan.... Incidentally, there is ample proof that dozens of suicide bombers in the Middle East are receiving financial aid from Iraq."

Golly gee I can't believe a news source would quote Central Asian commentators when discussing Central Asian politics towards Iraq. It's a good thing no one would be intellectually bankrupt enough to try to take that out of context and claim the news source was trying to push that point themselves.

[–] alsaaas@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (1 children)

To anyone reading this except OP:

This is such a fucking obvious troll it hurts omg. Radio Free [Region] is literally a mouthpiece of blatant western imperialist misinformation.

This person == 🤡🤡🤡

[–] cm0002@lemmy.world -1 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (1 children)

Radio Free [Region] is literally a mouthpiece of blatant western imperialist

Ok prove it then, surely something so widely known and "blatant" to be an outlet for misinformation would have numerous online, credible, sources with their evidence

[–] alsaaas@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Radio Liberty was literally initiated by the CIA and has been controlled by the "United States Agency for Global Media" since it was privatised, please look it up...

Even fucking Wikipedia has it listed in the first 3 paragraphs

[–] cm0002@lemmy.world -4 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (1 children)

Lol, I already have

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:RFE/RL

Additional considerations apply to the use of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). RFE/RL should be used cautiously, if at all, for reporting published from the 1950s to the early 1970s, when RFE/RL had a documented relationship with the CIA.

RFE/RL may be biased in some subject areas (particularly through omission of relevant, countervailing facts), and in those areas, it should be attributed in the article body. There is no consensus as to what subject areas require attribution. The scope of topics requiring attribution of RFE/RL should be decided on a case-by-case basis.

It hasn't been true for some time now and is generally found to be credible and fairly unbiased and RFA is seen in even a more positive light:

Radio Free Asia can be generally considered a reliable source. In particularly geopolitically charged areas, attribution of its point of view and funding by the U.S. government may be appropriate. Per the result of a 2021 RfC, editors have established that there is little reason to think RFA demonstrates some systematic inaccuracy, unreliability, or level of government co-option that precludes its use.

And MBFC:

In contrast this is what RT looks like:

[–] JustJack23@slrpnk.net 2 points 11 hours ago

I love how you point to this media bias site like it's the gospel. Have you considered thinking by yourself for once?