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Is it just me, or does it feel like Lemmy is being hit with a wave of political spam? (lemmy.world)

submitted 2 months ago by voluble@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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I notice a large number of ragebait-y political communities being spun up by new users with thousands of posts & ai profile header photos. I notice comment sections are more acrimonious, and foreign disinfo talking points are circulating a lot more prolifically than before the US election started ramping up.

Anyone else notice this? Any idea on how to combat it on this platform? Are there any communities built around creating block lists of obvious troll/ai/disinfo accounts & communities?

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[-] x00z@lemmy.world 36 points 2 months ago

Keep in mind that American elections are coming up and Americans think the internet is only about them. So we're not only being dragged into this by disinformation campaigns.

[-] NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 23 points 2 months ago

Americans think the internet is only about them

Do we though?

[-] TheFeatureCreature@lemmy.world 12 points 2 months ago

You might not. Many Americans might not. But the internet is annoyingly US-centric and can be frustrating to use as a non-American. A random example: Numerous times I've gone to sign up/purchase something and put "Canada" as the country and the "State" and "Zip code" boxes never changed. I have been denied purchases and registration several times because the website was coded to only accept US zip codes even if I change the country.

So many sites just assume everyone is American, speaking American English, and interested in American things.

[+] x00z@lemmy.world -6 points 2 months ago

Yes.

[-] NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 14 points 2 months ago

Ok I'm convinced

[+] x00z@lemmy.world -11 points 2 months ago

Good.

Now go and tell your fellow countrymen.

[-] NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 11 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

lol I will say the dumber ones do think everything is America. I don’t think this applies to the nerds here on lemmy for the most part though

[-] M137@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago

It definitely applies to most Americans here too. Almost anything that's exclusively US is posted like nothing else exists. Both thread and comments are written like they aren't aware the rest of the world exists. It's VERY prevalent here just like anywhere else online, and it's infuriating for everyone outside the US.

[-] TheRealLinga@sh.itjust.works -1 points 2 months ago

'MERICAAAAA, nation as big as the Earth

That should be our new national anthem!

[-] x00z@lemmy.world -3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Smarter Americans do it too. It's mostly small things, like saying they are from "Georgia" which is a country, while "Georgia, USA" is the state. Using the "Politics" communities (and subreddits) for USA Politics, while all the other countries just post it in their country community (/subreddit). Talking about "southern people" as if that internationally means southern USA people. "Why is my hospital bill so big???" without mentioning they are from the USA (we can figure that one out easily). I can literally keep going on and on.

[-] steeznson@lemmy.world 13 points 2 months ago

Yeah unfortunately it's not primarily astroturfing... these people do it for free

[-] snooggums@midwest.social 9 points 2 months ago

Keep in mind that the US's population is comparable to all of Europe and we are bickering over one shared election while also being a bunch of loud jackasses. We don't even think about the rest of the internet while drowning it out.

[-] x00z@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago

Comparable not really. The EU has a population of 450 million compared to 350 million of the US. Europe itself has more than double at 750 million. Also, there are many more countries outside of Europe that have a lot of people that speak English online.

[-] TrickDacy@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months ago

Yeah, it's been proven America has no impact on the rest of the world at all.

this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2024

418 points (90.8% liked)

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