this post was submitted on 10 Dec 2024
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If I have to fact-check the uncited claims made in news articles, doesn't that make me the journalist? (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 2 weeks ago by Kalcifer@sh.itjust.works to c/showerthoughts@lemmy.world
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[–] MudMan@fedia.io 1 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

As I think someone else already pointed out, defamation is not a major part of the issue and it's already in place quite strictly in many places without making a dent on the issue.

And yes, it's absolutely defeated by scale. You can't start a legal process against every single tweet and facebook post (let alone every message in a Whatsapp group you can't even see in the first place). As with paywalls, the aggregate effect ends up being that large outlets are held to a high standard while misinformation spread through social media is not just cheaper to make but less accountable.

[–] Kalcifer@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

[…] without making a dent on the issue.

"the issue" being misinformation and disinformation that's not defamation?

[–] MudMan@fedia.io 2 points 2 weeks ago

Sure. Defamation is a very specific case of improper communication.

But even defamation is hard to control in a world of distributed social media communication.

[–] Kalcifer@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

[…] You can’t start a legal process against every single tweet and facebook post (let alone every message in a Whatsapp group you can’t even see in the first place). […]

Imo, theoretically one could, but I think that it would be impractical, or at least prohibitively expensive.

[–] MudMan@fedia.io 2 points 2 weeks ago

Same thing. You'll run out of court bandwidth even before you run out of money, and you will definitely run out of money.

And you literally can't in many cases when you're dealing with messages being sent internationally.