Title, I'm a leftist but after reading some things on lemmygrad and here it seems I might have been lied to all my life. I have talked with some people from Cuba and Venezuela (expats) that support the west narrative about poverty and mismanagement. I "believe" that Russia is attacking Ukraine for selfish reasons and that China censors access to foreign information using the Great Firewall, please prove me wrong. Furthermore, it ultimately depends who do you want to believe or there are hard facts from reputable sources that are simply a hidden by the mass media?
EDIT: Thanks everyone for your very civil responses. I'll answer as many as I can!
China blocks foreign websites so that there will be a domestic solution created. And they're right to. Idk if you live in the US, but if you don't, seeing Google, Facebook, Apple just do whatever they like and not face any consequences really makes you remember you're the vassal here.
Different platforms in China have different rules, for example Andy Borham said a US official was dumb I think? And his post was removed on one platform because of that word, but the same post on another was not.
Social media is so popular that it's become increasingly important to develop domestic solutions. In Europe we need our own platforms too, far from US meddling. Like where did the anti vaxx movement come from in Europe?
Truthfully the firewall protects us more than it protects China lol, people love the Cpc over there, if they turned the wall off libs would not be ready for the bullying they would take when they say shit about China.
It's true that those big companies do nearly anything without much consequences. I don't really see the need for each nation to have domestic social media, what's the point? I think that something global would be better (global and not heavily tied with US or any other).
Regarding anti vaxx, I don't know where it came from and it's wrong but why would you censor it? Once you begin to censor, where exactly is the limit? On lies? Who decides what is truth?
You say the above here. But...
You say this elsewhere in the thread. Why is it okay to not allow hate speech and fascism, but anti-vaxx should be allowed? Anti-vaxx rhetoric has made the world considerably more dangerous for everyone. Why does censoring that warrant a "where exactly is the limit?" from you, but hate speech and fascism does not? Personally, I would consider anti-vaxx rhetoric the same as eugenics. Its hate speech brought into real action. It advocates for the death of the disabled.
Not to mention some diseases and cancers are regional and have treatments that help certain social and geographic groups more than others. So not only is antivaxx ableist, it's also frequently racist and queerphobic
I'm assuming you're from the US or Canada, feel free to correct me.
The point of having domestic social media is to have sovereign solutions. Why should Europe be beholden to Facebook? is the better question. Facebook leaks personal data, brings it back to the US with their abysmal laws on privacy, runs unethical tests on their users (since they don't need an ethics board, as a private company). And we're just supposed to accept that?
It's too late for us now, the free market will never compete with Facebook, it's too engrained in our daily lives. But China had the right idea.
Because I don't want to die from COVID because some ignorant USians who have never gone through bio in high school start spreading their bullshit to my country.
I'm from Europe