Talk:Strategy/Wikimedia movement/2017/Sources/Considering 2030: Misinformation, verification, and propaganda (July 2017)

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Bigger immediate concern[edit]

The greater concern I see is the continued increased in the volumes of promotional editing by undisclosed PR firms on behalf of their clients. Often the sources used are closely related to the subject / PR firm in question. Or sources are attached to sentences which they do not support to create the illusion of verifiability. We are thus currently struggling to maintain our independence from the source we write about. The number of undisclosed paid PR firms working on Wikipedia appears to be growing. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 23:34, 11 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

that would be misinformation? = Influence: Commerce. i also see a rise of POV editing of controversial topics, with framing language with a POV. not enough good faith editors to defend NPOV, since getting people sanctioned is part of the tactics. Slowking4 (talk) 17:05, 17 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The fight against censorship begins at home…[edit]

Your independent report talks about fighting censorship. I agree that’s an important thing for Wikipedia to do.

But one of the sources quoted in the report seemingly does not agree — the paper by Christopher Paul and Miriam Matthews, "The Russian 'firehose of falsehood' propaganda model", published by a leading American think tank, the Rand Corporation.

Paul and Matthews present some examples of alleged inaccuracies in the way Russian media have covered the conflict in Ukraine; but they make no attempt to assess the reliability of information disseminated by the other side in that conflict... Paul and Matthews conclude that in order to counter Russian propaganda, the US and/or its allies could “use various technical means to turn off (or turn down) the flow ”. (page 10, italics in original) They go on to list possible specific methods: “jamming, corrupting, degrading, destroying, usurping, or otherwise interfering with the ability of the propagandists to broadcast and disseminate their messages”. (page 11)

For those of us who want Wikipedia itself to be freely accessible around the world, doesn’t any political censorship of online media set an unhelpful precedent? Even if the censored material is considered a “firehose of falsehood”… Is it appropriate to cite the Rand writers' "charges" against Russian media without looking at their paper's bottom line? Kalidasa 777 (talk) 20:04, 22 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

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