Vyth wrote:Which political candidate would election meddlers most likely be in favour of? Who would Vladimir Putin want to win?
Figure that out, then ban all memes favourable to the candidate in question, as they are a form of political propaganda, designed to influence the outcome of American elections on behalf of a foreign state.
All art is propaganda; on the other hand, not all propaganda is art.
Memes should be treated in light of what they are: propaganda that has the potential to disrupt the ordinary voting patterns of the population. In practice, this is a form of election meddling.
A meme is an electronic image. I suppose you'd be in favor of banning billboards, posters, leaflets, etc?
The manufacture and dissemination of such propaganda needs to be tightly regulated; the future of Western democracy may depends on it. Without the influence of memes and social media it is unlikely that Trump would have won the election. Memes are clearly disruptive in nature, and the sooner these things are properly controlled and regulated, the better.
Actually,
organized cyber harassment is disruptive. You know, paid keyboard warriors and the AI/computer algorithms that fish or troll the social media pool. Despite the fact that intelligence agencies use social media to orchestrate political angst, there can be REAL movements. Look at Arab Spring, you know intelligence agencies fanned the flames, but it was a REAL movement. Only a repressive regime would want to control and regulate social media and electronic images. Democracy is founded on ideas, not votes. Votes follow ideas. Limit the flow of ideas, limit the flow of votes.
Pro-Trump memes, in particular, should be banned because Trump is the candidate that Russian election meddlers would want to win, as part of a broader strategy to disrupt the political process in all Western countries.
While we're at it, we should ban corporate ads, because those ads are part of a broader strategy to lobby and manipulate the political process.
It is impossible to trace the national origin of all the political propaganda on the internet. It is possible for memes to be disseminated through social media by Russian propagandists that pose as Americans and spoof their IP addresses; the memes are then spread by American citizens, reaching millions of potential voters, most of whom are unaware of the Russian origin of such propaganda.
An educated populace is your best defense. BUT, there is a conflict of interest, because if you have a highly educated population, domestic propaganda would become ineffective.
Do you know of any studies that link education level and the effects of propaganda?
Therefore, instead of tracing every meme to its original source, we should identify which political candidates the election meddlers are most likely to support, and then ban any memes that are in favour of that particular candidate.
That's a ridiculous and repressive suggestion.
Any memes which favour the candidacy of Donald Trump in the next presidential election, should be banned on social media as a preemptive measure against potential election meddling. They should be banned on sight, without hesitation.
Perhaps a democracy should ban political ads altogether, and force candidates to distribute their propaganda locally. Take commercial interests out of the political process and regulate the debate through a public forum. Get people off the couch, off the phone, off the computer, get em involved FACE-to-FACE.
Electronic media has been ruining the political process for sometime, and it's not a new problem. Go and study the history of American political debate. Radio and television changed it, and the internet is our newest filter.
- By Tainari88