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Comment by alibarber

1 month ago

There is some evidence to suggest that certain countries (Russia, China, Iran itself) have an incentive to use the Gaza conflict to cause disunity in the west - and hence keep it in the news cycle and public opinion.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/03/technology/israel-hamas-i...

Interestingly, during the last internet blackout in Iran, a lot of the pro Scottish independence X accounts went quiet too:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_influence_operations_i...

I'm sure many Iranians are deeply concerned about that cause.

9 comments

alibarber

Reply
dreambuffer  1 month ago

If it is that easy for foreign governments to influence the very thoughts people have day-to-day, then something is extremely broken in your system and nearly all the blame is on your government for allowing that to happen.

  • alibarber  1 month ago

    It sounds like the Iranian government have indeed taken steps to make it harder for their population to be influenced.

bigyabai  1 month ago

All of America's failings are leveraged to sow political division by foreign actors. Abu Ghraib, SAVAK, Dimona - these are America's mistakes, not foreign fabrication.

DrScientist  1 month ago

Interesting, but also absurd.

The Scottish independence movement is a very strong, grass roots campaign that has been building for many decades ( pre-web never mind pre-twitter ), with the Scottish ambivalence to the Union having deep cultural roots.

What keeps Gaza and the wider actions of the current Israel government in the news is the constant killings and injustices. If they didn't want to be in the news perhaps they could stop killing people.

Next you will be telling me Minnesota is only in the news due to Russia bots - and nothing to do with the killing of civilians on the streets.

  • alibarber  1 month ago

    No I am absolutely not saying that.

    I am saying that there is evidence that the amount of media (and I am including X/Twitter and other social media) attention given to various causes around the world is actively manipulated. This is in response to a comment querying the perceived disparity in media coverage of events. Not that these events are or are not occurring or a more 'worthy' cause than one another.

    I very much understand the history around Scottish independence, but unfortunately it will take me a lot of convincing to genuinely believe that twitter accounts in Iran sharing news that Balmoral castle has been taken over by protestors [1] are well meaning.

    [1] https://web.archive.org/web/20260117184736/https://www.teleg...

    • DrScientist  1 month ago

      You talk about distraction - and I would argue that the article you are linking to is a distraction.

      If you don't believe Iranian tweets are a major factor in Scottish independence - then why mention it?

      And while I agree there is a lot of media manipulation attempts out there - I'd argue, if you take your Iran/Israel issue as an example - do you truely believe that Iran is outgunning Israel in this regard??

      In terms of coverage - did this incident gget much coverage? https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20260125-israeli-forces-ki...

      In the 848 days since Oct 2023, 1109 people have been killed within the occupied terrorities by Israeli government forces or settlers.

      That's more than 1 a day. Are you arguing that has disproportionate coverage?

      I'd argue it hardly gets a mention.

anthk  1 month ago

Nice try with the Hasbara, but in the end Netanyahu's gang, Iran crazies are Trumpists arent that different in the end. It's all about power, as 1984 stated. Ideology it's just marketing and bullshit for the people.

  • baxtr  1 month ago

    I agree that people on the top usually got there because they wanted power. Also, they want to stay in power as long as they can. The greatest feature of democracy is that change of power is organized.

    With that said, I would argue there is a huge difference between those you have mentioned in how they deal with protests.

    To make my point clearer, I have an idea for you: In each of the countries you mentioned, go to the capital with a sign "I am against this regime, I want change" and see what happens.