I think the study of #information cascades needs to become a field like epidemiology.
We are not there yet in science, but we can already see the roots of an emerging field that we will need to contain the spread of harmful information #pathogens like #conspiracy myths.
Having "information police" hunting "bad influencers" and dismantling their communication networks is a bad idea. Who decides what is the "misinformation" that needs to be hunted down?
If only people could get somehow inoculated with #knowledge so they are "immune" to conspiracy theories. Ah yes, it's called #education.😉
That is not what this is about.
Here is a follow up article explaining a bit better the role of toxic amplifiers in information cascades.
https://protagonistfuture.substack.com/p/the-rise-of-information-pathogens
Just saying that from where I stand there are no external information sources that can or should be regulated. Everything is just #data.
Every one of us as a #dynamical #learning #system creates our own #information based on whatever data we deem trustworthy in this external cacophony.
What data we select to create our own information and what we make with it depends solely on the internal state of our current #knowledge.
The environment can throw anything at you but what you make of it is up to you. While someone may get "sucked in" the downward spiral of conspiracy theories, others (with a different knowledge state) will just get annoyed.
So, bottom line? #Education is of paramount importance.
By all means, investigate and prosecute criminal behavior. Citizens and consumers need protection, both legal (formal from government agents) and communal (informal from individuals and society at large).
But don't go and preventatively de-platform "influencers" because, in someone's opinion, they spread harmful misinformation. It is not uncommon for bad actors to start playing the victim in order to silence dissent or information they don't like.
You have one recent example with the de-federation of the #qoto mastodon server:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Mastodon/comments/z68m3e/jeffrey_phillips_freeman_eugen_rochko_ceo_of/
Should **Fox "News"** be banned for spreading misinformation?
https://www.niemanlab.org/2023/03/why-journalism-schools-wont-quit-fox-news/
@Kihbernetics
No disagreement that education is important.
But so is consumer & citizen protection.
Information systems can be addictive, information can be used for warfare.
Leaving people to themselves in these environments, no matter their education, will be a net negative compared to some moderation, intervention and protection strategies,
Otherwise bad actors just spam all info channels with GPT4 created content, basically DDOSing society and democracy.