PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

Twitter Feed on G infinity has spam and misinformation
by FYI Thursday, Sep. 24, 2009 at 4:02 AM

Is there a way for local IMC admin for clean up spam and troll comments on the G infinity twitter feed?

The twitter feed may have sounded like a good idea but it is turning out to be a poor substitute for an IMC moderated and verified newswire. To be clear: a twitter feed in not a newswire. For a newswire to be reliable and useful it needs to be spam free and moderated to weed out trolls. Also posts on the newswire should be confirmed by the editorial staff with a second source to avoid spreading rumors and bad information.

The G Infinity site looks great and is well constructed. However the ULR redirect to G infinity has effectively made this main local IMC site devoid of traffic.

Indymedia in general should be careful when using corporate sites like twitter and google within IMC sites. IMC sites have true open publishing with no need to register. Twitter is not opening publishing. This allows sys admin folks at Twitter to trace IPs and data mine for resale. Not sure if this is occurring but by registering with Twitter one is giving them the ability to do this. As for Google their violations and collusion with various governments is well documented.

I hope no one at IMC takes offense at this. It is intended as construct commentary only.

My thanks to all at IMC for their commitment to independent media and all the hard work they do to maintain this site.

Yes, I'm not the only one
by indyonlee Friday, Sep. 25, 2009 at 9:21 AM

Finally someone pointing out the obvious! Yes, Twitter is a corporate site. This is a concern not just because of ethics but because of the security of IP addresses. Also, the coverage on Twitter is abysmally shallow. I like how fast information shows up, but this is information for those with short attention span. Absent are the long articles giving the details, stories and feeling of what is going on in Pittsburgh. Meanwhile, your open publishing portion of your IMC is less active than cities where there is basically nothing going on. Portland IMC has more activity in its open publishing section right now than yours.

At least do us a favor and make the link to the open publishing section that much bigger on your front page. Also feed the link to those people on Twitter so these people remember its there. The author of this post will prove right and your troll problem will vanish once your open publishing section is used.

This use of a corporate site is really not too far from using facebook or myspace. If I have to go to an anarchist or socialist MySpace page to look at G20 pics, I will vomit all over my keyboard. For the sake of my equipment, remember the Indy ethos.

sorry
by indyonlee Friday, Sep. 25, 2009 at 10:48 AM

sorry for being so harsh. I didn't mean to insult your efforts. Twitter is a good idea for alerts. What I was saying is that open publishing should be the staple of your reporting since Twitter isn't a safe activist site. By safe I mean one which will fight for the anonymity of protesters. When an IMC runs a site, we fight to keep personal info private. Twitter in my opinion could be a risk. It is good for warning people about events as they happen. It is piss poor for genuine reporting. Otherwise, thanks for experimenting. This is so necessary as well.

"we fight to keep personal info private"
by in the know Friday, Sep. 25, 2009 at 3:58 PM

That's an outright lie.

There are various IMC's documented as to blocking individuals from posting on their sites. Now just how could they possibly do that while claiming they can't know your IP?

The San Fran site was notorious for such duplicity, (word was the editor was cooperating with the police) and so was/is New Orleans, Houston, Sydney, Los Angeles, South Africa, and the list goes on.

Let me clarify
by indyonlee Friday, Sep. 25, 2009 at 7:20 PM

I was referring to how when the po po tried to subpoena IP addresses off an IMC site years ago, that was all. I agree that I have observed some suspicious activity with IMC's before. I think the best defense is to use an anonymous browser to hide your IP address at all times. This is suggested advice for activists in other repressive police states. Some are software and cost money, therefore I avoid them. The best free IP hider I've used is anonymouse.org. I can deal with a few Asian pop up ads.

I know we are infiltrated, but I know it isn't everyone at IMC's. It is just the same as it is for any activist group right now. You will have a fox in the hen house and not see it. I can see patterns better because I've been on Indymedia since the beginning and I remember the crude early ways cops used to troll our sites. It only stands to reason that they would get more clever over time and this is our curse now. What I see is some people maybe twisting our values and using them against us.

An example of strangling us by our own values is when I posted a link to a phone based polygraph device/service as a suggestion for weeding out infiltrators. This was during the Green Scare. Someone attacked the product because it was "corporate." All our computers are "corporate." Our phones are "corporate." Actually, the product was by some obscure company. Anyhow, the thought did occur to me that this one guy attacking my post may have been a cop who knew full well that it would make it hard for infiltrators to operate if this device was used. I only think that because that he posted multiple times under supposedly different users. Know your Trolls- don't feed them!

Forgot
by indyonlee Friday, Sep. 25, 2009 at 7:39 PM

Yes, the "recapta" thing made me have to retype again without making my point.

The IMC which had its IP address cache subpoenaed fought off the po po. I don't Twitter or any corporate site would ever do this. I also don't like how Twitter requires an email to utilize their service. The author of this post had a point about the data mining aspect as well. At best we will have our emails hit with spam for bandanna, and hoodie retailers and maybe some Green items like Hybrid cars. At worst- I don't know.
I don't trust Google either. I don't know what just having their map will do. I know Google Desktop is pure evil and should be destroyed at all times. I ragged on MySpace because they are a known evil, and I think Facebook is run by the same people.