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RE: Is Steemit becoming a haven for conspiracy theorists?
It would me nice to figure out a way to refute the false conspiracies with links to factual references. But that is not always productive. So many people are playing the "but what about" game. (whataboutism).
I am afraid that it will become like twitter where well funded state actors are running huge bot and sock puppet networks to flood the information space with half truths.
Is there a way on Steemit to shut down bots that appear to be human that are spreading disinformation and upvoting their bot networks?
"Is there a way on Steemit to shut down bots that appear to be human that are spreading disinformation and upvoting their bot networks?"
You know that's literally, LITERALLY, against the express purpose of Steemit, right? You've come to the wrong place, if you want such a thing, even a little.
THe point of steemit is to be immune to any such action; it's written into its building blocks. No, it's absolutely impossible, and if it were: it'd be the ultimate corruption of the platform:
"Steem is a decentralized network that is operated by witnesses in jurisdictions around the world. All user
actions are publicly recorded on the blockchain, and can be publicly verified. This means that there is no
single entity that can censor content that is valued by STEEM holders.
Individual websites such as steemit.com may censor content on their particular site, but content published
on the blockchain is inherently broadcast traffic and mirrors all around the world may continue to make it
available.
Freedom of speech is the foundation of all other liberties and any infringement upon freedom of speech
undermines the only peaceful means of reaching consensus: discussion. Without free discussion voters
cannot be fully informed, and uninformed voters are a greater threat to society than losing the right to
vote. Censorship is a means of stealing votes through limiting public discourse. Steem is committed to
enabling free speech and building a free society."
https://steem.io/SteemWhitePaper.pdf
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I don't want you here, but if you're so afraid of these 'bots' and 'conspiracy theory wierdos' I'm afraid you're not going to have a good time here, as this is the entire purpose of the platform: to prevent anyone from having control over anyone else. I'm not going to say it done'st go over the top, honestly i think it does! But that's something I can live with, and God willing: I think it'll work.
You are right I was wrong. Steemit is different than Twitter and Facebook. I am still new here and still learning how this ecosystem works. I should learn more before I speak.
I noticed that bots here have effectively been "shutdown" because of the inherent nature of Steemit. I am speaking of spam bots. People individually call them out. That speaks to the decentralized nature of the system.
I really like that no one can hide their messaging on Twitter and Facebook people with money "advertisers" can send messaging that is not public. They can target individuals with tailored ads. On Steemit all is open.
Also steemit is decentralized. Right now twitter and facebook hide the information that would bring sunlight into their systems. They delete and censor for various powers in the world and then the public does not really know what is going on.
The other social media platforms like to sort information by how popular it is or how much ad revenue it brings in.
If there is a problem with bot spam I think the system and the people here can figure out how to take care of it. The spam bot activity I have found here seems to get starved off bandwidth wise or the witnesses find a way to slow them down.
Twitter makes it too easy to spin up bots and have them spewing 1000s of messages. it is much harder here.
" I should learn more before I speak."
Please! It's no problem, you had perfectly reasonable concerns, don't sweat it!
I joined around the same time as you, so I'm still learning too! ;)