r/technology • u/Regular_Eggplant_248 • Jul 21 '25

Social Media YouTube wipes out thousands of propaganda channels linked to China, Russia, others

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/21/youtube-channels-propaganda-china-russia.html
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u/mortalcoil1 Jul 22 '25

The best time to wipe out thousands of propaganda channels linked to China, Russia, others was 20 years ago.

The second best time is today.

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u/Nokomis34 Jul 22 '25

I was just talking with my wife how if we managed to remove all the bots from social media things would change almost immediately.

But this is what I've been talking about when I say we've been in the middle of WW3 for years, just the weapon is information (or misinformation if you will) instead of bombs. And so far the war has been pretty one sided. It's time we at least defend ourselves, much less start fighting back.

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u/SoFetchBetch Jul 22 '25

Yes! Media literacy needs to become trendy.

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u/Lazerus42 Jul 22 '25

Yes! Media literacy needs to become trendy.

And then hopefully media too...

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u/ScarryShawnBishh Jul 22 '25

Both of you are on the money. I don’t think people are as dumb as they make the selves out to be.

We all can obviously read so we can bully, peer pressure, and shame each other into knowing how communicate to each other.

But not literally like they did 20+ years ago more like using that as a reason to explain that it is important to them

2

u/RedditIsDeadMoveOn Jul 22 '25

What time do you want to meet for your corrective bullying?

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u/ScarryShawnBishh Jul 22 '25

I take my tongue lashings for being wrong with pride

Typically I try to only punch up but sometimes my aim is not the best 😅

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u/Dugen Jul 22 '25

Yea.. I'd like to see some laws too. Manipulating democracy should be harder.

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u/azzers214 Jul 22 '25

The problem is, as much as I hate this, not everyone is going to be smart/wise enough. That's the part with algorithms/control people need to understand. Sure you and I can figure it out. It's slow-Jim over there that's the problem.

You can do better, but you can't engineer completely resistant people.

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u/mortalcoil1 Jul 22 '25 edited Jul 22 '25

Too bad the Trump administration is going in the opposite direction.

I heard all Alaskan Airlines flights were grounded today due to "IT outage," which, many people who know more about the IT community than me have said is likely code for cyber attack.

On the other hand, there is that famous quote by Einstein, "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones,"

I suppose it's better than nothing that humans have found a different way to wage war.

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u/IAMA_Plumber-AMA Jul 22 '25

I got downvoted to hell for even mentioning it in passing.

8

u/DrizzleRizzleShizzle Jul 22 '25 edited Jul 22 '25

Ama question: My bathroom sink takes a long time to drain (ages! But it still drains eventually). What steps could I take to diagnose the low drain rate problem? I am a renter but would be happy to share my findings with my landlord.

Edit: thank you all for the suggestions! I may not report back with results but I do feel prepared!

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u/Level_32_Mage Jul 22 '25

You might be able to investigate the P trap below the sink (pretty sure it's the squiggly bit under the sink, it can sometimes be unthreaded and cleaned for any settled yuckiness).

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u/Plow_King Jul 22 '25

get one of those long, plastic things with teeth on it and pull out all the hair from the drain.

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u/IAMA_Plumber-AMA Jul 22 '25

You probably just need to have the pop-up plug cleaned out, they get clogged up with hair and soap scum over time.

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u/[deleted] Jul 22 '25

[deleted]

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u/IAMA_Plumber-AMA Jul 22 '25

Sorry, budget cutbacks.

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u/PyroDesu Jul 22 '25

Liquid drain cleaner.

Even if it's not good for the pipes, you're a renter. Heck, I'd say because of that, you should not attempt to dismantle drain traps for cleaning like I see someone suggesting. The pipes are your landlord's problem.

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u/ew73 Jul 22 '25

I was just talking with my wife how if we managed to remove all the bots from social media things would change almost immediately.

Do you remember that week or so a while back when the various cybersecurity organizations in the world worked together and took down a huge Russian botnet and knocked several of the bot farms offline entirely?

Social media was awesome. People were generally calmer, nicer and tended to engage, at least, in good faith. And the day the bots came back, everything went back to shit.

Keep in mind, the current guy has gutted many of the federal organizations that specialized in defending against these sorts of attacks.

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u/PmMeUrTinyAsianTits Jul 22 '25

Russians have killed more Americans in Cold War 2 than Americans killed Japanese people with nukes.

Russian misinformation and infiltration of the GOP is a HUGE part of why covid went as poorly as it did. From anti-vax propaganda to getting the rotted orange elected.

That's just covid. The people that are going to die from USAID and medicare cuts are also at the feet of Russia. The Reds would not have gotten power in America if they were not backed by the Reds in Russia.

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u/Zran Jul 22 '25

I've oft thought the same about WW3 that it shall be fought for our very minds not for land and little with guns. Never seen/heard it elsewhere before feels validating to see it.

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u/FlametopFred Jul 22 '25

Yes

asymmetrical warfare

early days of internet up to 2000-2002 was wonderful time, wonderful growing community

then growing hostile trolls began to have an impact .. finally social media on phones with professional troll farms have poisoned and brainwashed billions

remove the toxic social media and we can get some of the community back

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u/MetalingusMikeII Jul 23 '25

If Russia is creating swarms of bots for Russian propaganda, we need the same. Fight propaganda with propaganda.

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u/Original-Aerie8 Jul 22 '25

I say we've been in the middle of WW3 for years

Not to be rude, but this sounds like it comes from someone with a very detached view of war. Information Wars are a thing, but they are really nothing like war.

And I think the whole narrativ is shifting a ton of blame. Climate change, social media, socio-economic rifts, Far Right shifts.. The big issues are all self-made. It's our job to reigning that stuff in. It's self-destructive behaviour and even on social media, there is no adversary attacking us.. It's rich corps making stacks, while saying they don't really understand "the algorithm" either, in order to dodge legal responsability.

Hell, Twitter enabled the fucking Arab Spring. If someone has a right to be afraid of free flow of information, it's should be autocratic systems, not the Western World. Give us them leaks!

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u/conquer69 Jul 22 '25

The rot spread and is now domestic. They won't delete those.

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u/The_Barbelo Jul 22 '25

I am still waiting for that “animal cruelty” report button category…. But I’ll take this as a small step in the right direction.

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u/GamerOC Jul 22 '25

I don’t think there were many YT propaganda channels when the site was first created.

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u/_bits_and_bytes Jul 22 '25

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say youtube wasn't infested with chinese and russian propaganda bots 5 months after it went up and running in 2005.

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u/Sprolicious Jul 22 '25

You gotta be pretty confident to say that a third of the humans on earth deserve to be erased from what you consider acceptable

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u/mrkicivo Jul 22 '25

Yep, and let's just keep our own, very objective reports. Because truth is what trusted media says, it's never somewhere in the middle of both propaganda.

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u/ADHDebackle Jul 22 '25

Pretty sure the second best time was 19 years 364 days, 11 hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds ago.