PM orders internet blocked for anyone spreading info that might frighten people
Pretty much all of us at HN are against censorship, but we habitually fail to get to grips with the very real problem of deliberate lying. There&#x27;s abundant evidence that the &#x27;marketplace of ideas&#x27; is in no way self-perpetuating. I think this conception is a side effect of software development, where the computer is a pretty reliable honest referee, so ultimately either your code works or it doesn&#x27;t.<p>The problem is that wetware is inherently messier, and it can quite profitable to mess with it. Consider this (graphic and horrifying) example of fake news I saw a troll circulating earlier today:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;m.beforeitsnews.com&#x2F;politics&#x2F;2021&#x2F;07&#x2F;tortured-baby-corpses-come-to-surface-during-european-floods-3240656.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;m.beforeitsnews.com&#x2F;politics&#x2F;2021&#x2F;07&#x2F;tortured-baby-c...</a><p>This website is obviously trash, but it pulls in an estimated $30k&#x2F;mo in revenue: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.whoismark.org&#x2F;beforeitsnews.com" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.whoismark.org&#x2F;beforeitsnews.com</a><p>More importantly, there are quite a lot of people who buy into this sort of nonsense, and it&#x27;s a problem.