Social Media Watch Thread

[Vayutuvan]

What's your better idea, again?
Fine, we may not have to wait - but in the event that US does act first, then we can use that as cover to follow suit - I'm just saying.

... west have effectively banned RT, thats all the 'cover' anyone needs really. ...

The US actually banned RT, nothing effective about it.

Interesting that Wikipedia considers BBC, a state run propaganda org, to be reliable. Same with Al Jazeera.

[Vayutuvan]

We're far more likely to see Wiki awarded for their "contribution to education" by us instead.

@m_saini gaaru, in STEM areas, it certainly is one of the best educational tools. My goto site for references if I need to understand something in CS/Math. There are a lot of links to free PDFs, course material, even text books, etc. I am sure you also know that you being in STEM yourself.

I have no idea how to evaluate them on Humanities topics.

[vera_k]

It would be a big loss if the whole of Wikipedia gets banned in India.

Maybe not. Wikipedia makes the underlying software available for free for others to use. The content is free as well. If there's enough interest, a copy of Wikipedia with the same content can be run out of India.

[Vayutuvan]

It would be a big loss if the whole of Wikipedia gets banned in India.

Maybe not. Wikipedia makes the underlying software available for free for others to use. The content is free as well. If there's enough interest, a copy of Wikipedia with the same content can be run out of India.

Would they share the content if India puts restrictions on them?

There is another thing India can do. Do not ban nor ask them to put a disclaimer. But ban donations to Wikimedia Foundation India. I am sure they have to file some kind of an FRCA or something unless Wikimedia Foundation India is a completely independent entity that has to follow rules all other Indian NGOs have to follow who don't receive foreign currency.

GoI has lot more options to make WMF kneel to ROI. Wikipedia does not have many, if any.

[Vayutuvan]

For further investigation and reference.

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

Maryana Iskander (/ˌmæriˈænə ɪˈskændər/ MARR-ee-AN-ə isk-AN-dər;[1] Arabic: ماريانا إسكندر; born September 1, 1975)[2] is an Egyptian-born American social entrepreneur and lawyer. In 2022, she became the chief executive officer (CEO) of the Wikimedia Foundation, succeeding Katherine Maher. Prior to her position, Iskander was the CEO of the Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator and a former chief operating officer of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America in New York.

Early life and education
Maryana Iskander was born in Cairo, Egypt, where she lived before emigrating to the United States with her family at the age of four. Her family settled in Round Rock, Texas.[3] Iskander matriculated at Rice University on a Harry S. Truman Scholarship, graduating with a B.A., magna cum laude, in sociology in 1997.[3][4]

In 1999, Iskander obtained her M.Sc. from Trinity College, Oxford, as a Rhodes Scholar,[3] where she founded the Rhodes Association of Women. Afterward, she enrolled at Yale Law School, graduating with a J.D. in 2003.[3]
...

1. Katherine Maher: President and CEO of NPR. She was recently in news due to some controversy.
2. Planned Parenthood Federation of America in New York: Shady organization which misused GOTUS funds, IIRC
3. Rhodes Scholar: Bill Clinton
4. Rhodes Association of Women: Isn't it the same association which wrote a complaining letter on Modi ji? I forget.

[Vayutuvan]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia ... evelopment

The Foundation summarizes its assets in the "Statements of Activities" in its audited reports. These do not include funds in the Wikimedia Endowment, however expenses from the 2015–16 financial year onward include payments to the Wikimedia Endowment.[119]
...
(PDFs are downloadable)
...

I quickly scanned the 2022/2023 one. It is quite short. They seem to run a tight ship. Their financial management is very good or so it seems to my untrained eye.

They have a total 250 million USD assets.

Out of 180 million total Support and revenue, they received 164 million in "Contributions of cash and other financial assets". How much of this 164 million donations came from India? Countrywise cash contributions is not given in this consolidated statement. My guess is that they get lot of contributions from other charitable foundations.

As far as India is concerned, WMF probably doesn't care much for the cash donations they are getting from Indians themselves. There must be some intangible that they might lose if they are banned or otherwise restricted in India. Freedom of Speech etc. is all fluff to muddy the waters and keep their real agenda hidden.

[Vayutuvan]

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

This list is not that long. Interesting list - no Indian-origin people names are there.

Another list is this one

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_p ... _Wikipedia

Only three countries in this list and only a handful of people in total. They might have been arrested for some other reason and their being Wikipedia editors is coincidental.

[Vayutuvan]

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

There is a nice map of the world showing which countries are censoring Wikipedia. China being at the forefront should come as no surprise.

[vera_k]

Would they share the content if India puts restrictions on them?

How would they not? Put a paywall up? Well, then the purpose of auditing who the contributors are would again be achieved, would it not?

[Vayutuvan]

AFAIK, if you want to replicate entire Wikipedia database, you need special permission from someone, probably WMF. It is an issue with bandwidth. Anybody who wants to download would have to pay for the download costs. AFAIK, Mediawiki software doesn't support a distributed wiki server. The database itself can be distributed for sure (one of the options is PostgresQL which can be setup as a DDBMS).

Changes can be synced on a daily basis. High frequency is not that important. Then we localize. It is an interesting software problem though.

[m_saini]

@m_saini gaaru, in STEM areas, it certainly is one of the best educational tools. My goto site for references if I need to understand something in CS/Math. There are a lot of links to free PDFs, course material, even text books, etc. I am sure you also know that you being in STEM yourself.

Completely agree yep! They're a great resource for anything STEM related. Even for humanities, they have some really nice articles/pages.

That's really how you make effective propaganda channels though. You provide unquestionable value and then mix in the biases.
BBC has some of the most amazing documentaries that no Indian channel could even come close to. It's how they gain your trust and get you hooked.
Same with YT, facebook, google etc they all provide value and aren't solely a propaganda tool. That's partly why I think we're never going to restrict/ban these things cause the temporary initial loss of the value they provide would be too much for us.

[bala]

AFAIK, if you want to replicate entire Wikipedia database, you need special permission from someone, probably WMF. It is an issue with bandwidth. Anybody who wants to download would have to pay for the download costs. AFAIK, Mediawiki software doesn't support a distributed wiki server. The database itself can be distributed for sure (one of the options is PostgresQL which can be setup as a DDBMS).

Changes can be synced on a daily basis. High frequency is not really not that important. Then we localize. It is an interesting software problem though.

Vaya ji, the entire content can be scrapped by some bot, you don't need any permission. Currently google, bing, etc are scrapping content from bharat-rakshak on daily basis. As for distributed DB etc, the current DPI/UPI India stack is using HBase big data key-value look up. Tis very fast and supports oodles of data storage. You don't want RDBMS like PostgresQL since it is not optimized for document storage. Wikipedia is document storage architecture. Even if you use PostgresQL it will be the location of storage in RDBMS. Wikipedia content is html file and some images. Images are best stored elsewhere on a file share and served by edge servers.

[Vayutuvan]

@bala gaaru
Scraping at such a large scale is inefficient. One would spend far too much time doing parsing, especially embedded LaTeX and different languages.

[bala]

Vayu ji, there is parallel processing involved. 1Terabyte (twelve zeros) of data takes approx 15 min and say Wikipedia is 500 T, using parallel processing around 15-30 min can be completed. After the initial scrape, Daily is very less since only changes are involved. Google chacha invented Map-Reduce parallel processing which is the basis for big data processing.

[Vayutuvan]

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Global_Council

WMF is handing control over to this new body. Looks like they want a transnational organization that is not answerable to anybody and is completely outside the purview of any jurisdiction including the UN/EU/ICJ/USA etc.

Quite worrying if they pull it off. There wouldn't be any oversight and they can completely go rogue.

[sanman]

[sanman]

[Mukesh.Kumar]

This guy is a quack. Please desist from sharing these kind of content however infuriating it may feel.

[chetak]

vi@WA



Social Media Jihad

A new kind of Jihad has been unearthed in India in which Muslims create social media handles by Hindu names and abuse the Hindus of other caste and states

Aim is to create rift between different sections of Hindus

Recently an independent investigative handle @HPhobiaWatch exposed two of such handles

We Dravidians : This South Indian Tamilian Hindu handle is operated by few Christians and One Muslim Shaikh Abid Hasan from Kolkata. This handle keep abusing upper caste Hindus, North Indians, Hindu Gods. Plan was to create rift between North India South Indians and Brahmin Hindus and Dalit Hindus

Dhruv Rathee (Parody) : This handle with Hindu name is Md Rashid Raza from Buxar. He constantly keep abusing Hindu traditions, Hindu Gods

There are probably thousands of such proxy Hindu handles are operating which are operated by Muslims of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh and constantly indulged in Social Media Jihad to disintegrate Hindus and India

[uddu]

The Funny part is they are collecting money as donations from Indians and using the same money to go against Indians with 0 repercussions. They are the Judge Jury and Executioner of which and all newspaper and articles that are considered banned. Articles or publications that are not banned by Indian courts and with no restrictions are not allowed in Wikipedia.

True with that 99.99% part. I went looking for who are all on the unreliable list and this came up. I agree with milder regulation like a banner coming up on the top. Wikipedia has some very good parts, especially in the STEM area. I know that it is very good in Computer Science and Mathematics areas. It would be a big loss if the whole of Wikipedia gets banned in India.

The other alternative, of course, as I suggested is to data mine all the talk pages, meta wikis, templates, and then analyze them for bias. Something similar to what Sankrant Sanu did with Encarta but on a larger scale using better tools/ML/AI.

Agree. There are two ways to deal with it. One is for the govt and other is for the citizens. Govt must do its part in fining them heavily. There are so many of violations. Take the instance the Maps in Wikipedia. What is visible to Indians are all distorted maps. Govt can issue a hefty fine with the order to correct all maps as per Indian law and non-compliance within a specific time, put more fines. 1000x times collected from Indians as fines. Their source of keeping it running are mostly from shady sources. Let them money flow to Indians. Another is them restricting news sources which are not banned or blocked by Indian govt or Indian law. So another source of fines and this can keep going every now and then. Also Indian citizens need to get in and keep editing, arguing, debating. The Admins will remove the content, they don't want for sure. But make it a nuisance for them every now and then. Turn the tide with group of editors and even grouping of editors even from BRICS grouping or so on, if we could forge such groupings and make presence felt.

[sanman]

[ricky_v]

was reading the wiki article on kumbh mela, and it is one foreigner source after another debating on indian cultural topics,

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

Kama MacLean – an Indologist who has published articles on the Kumbh Mela predominantly based on the colonial archives and English-language media,[53] states based on emails from other scholars and a more recent interpretation of the 7th-century Xuanzang memoir, the Prayag event happened every 5 years (and not 12 years), featured a Buddha statue, involved alms giving and it might have been a Buddhist festival.[54] In contrast, Ariel Glucklich – a scholar of Hinduism and Anthropology of Religion, the Xuanzang memoir includes, somewhat derisively, the reputation of Prayag as a place where people (Hindus) once committed superstitious devotional suicide to liberate their souls, and how a Brahmin of an earlier era successfully put an end to this practice. This and other details such as the names of temples and bathing pools suggest that Xuanzang presented Hindu practices at Prayag in the 7th century, from his Buddhist perspective and perhaps to "amuse his audience back in China", states Glucklich.[49]

[shravan]

To be honest, I haven’t followed all those detailed social media trends, but I get the frustration people feel about Big Tech monopolies. It’s not surprising to see platforms like Facebook or Google facing lawsuits about data privacy or monopolistic behavior. Here in India, the conversation has been heating up about creating homegrown alternatives, though the execution has been slow. Social media definitely has a stronghold on communication, but too much reliance without local options is worrying. Even shifting to simpler tools like video converters becomes important when dealing with specific formats like SWF files.

[shravan]

It’s crazy how social media is so deeply embedded in everything these days, from elections to lawsuits and even censorship issues. I’ve always been curious about how big tech handles data and privacy, especially with the controversies surrounding platforms like Facebook and Instagram. It makes you pause and think about how much of your personal details are out there.

On a side note, I recently had trouble opening an old SWF video file, and figuring out how to convert it was a bit of a headache. Eventually, I came across this SWF converter that makes it simple to switch formats like MP4 or MOV. Worked like a charm. For more details check https://www.movavi.com/video-converter/ ... erter.html

[chetak]

Swara Bhaskar’s X Account Permanently Suspended

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/ind ... 760594.cms

[Lisa]

Swara Bhaskar’s X Account Permanently Suspended

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/ind ... 760594.cms

This is not true. There is now a weight limit on an X account. On account of her recent changes 2 new accounts will be released to her!

[chetak]

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/ind ... 760594.cms

This is not true. There is now a weight limit on an X account. On account of her recent changes 2 new accounts will be released to her!

This is inspired Lisa ji.

This should be publicised om SM

[drnayar]

Here is the list of so-called Independent journalists funded by USAID-funded Earth Journalism.

This list has the names of 86 Indians who write articles on their pay roles.

source : https://x.com/vijaygajera/status/1889253474355007704




How USAID trained 75000 media persons in India (Expose)

Indian media, education, arts, and culture are dominated by Left ideology

But This didn't happen accidentally
Everything was well planned. We were brainwashed, our generations were destroyed

https://x.com/TheChronology__/status/18 ... 8887407015

Internews is US based media support NGO working in 100+ countries

They claim to train journalists, tackle disinformation, and help media outlets



hey mentioned details of all donors on their website but cleverly omitted the name of USAID from their donor list

Because they didnt want world to know that its US State dept was behind them





And name of their Indian training program is FactShala

So a quick summary :
- USAID funds Internews
- Internews runs media training program all over world in association with Google
- Their Indian partner is DataLeads
- Name of their Indian training program is FactShala



DataLeads was founded by a Delhi based journalist Syed Nazakat

Syed is board member of Global Investigative Journalism Network which is Ford and Soros funded journalist groups

All these Indian training programs are executed by Sambhaavnaa Institute of Public Policy and Politics (SIPP)

So money comes from Internews
Program designed by DataLeads
Program executed by SIPP

SIPP belongs to Prashant Bhushan



Sambhaavnaa Institute is an NGO of Prashant Bhushan

This NGO is factory of leftist activist They brainwash and create leftist for their ecosystem




They have their training center at Palampur (Himachal) where they time to time organize training workshops on leftist agendas

This Sambhaavnaa Institute was created in 2004 under banner of Kumud Bhushan Education Society



These people are associated with Sambhaavnaa Institute and part of FactShala training program :




You name the people associated with left ecosystem and you will find them in Sambhaavnaa Institute



The Donor list of INTERNEWS includes:
Ford Foundation
Rockefeller Brothers Fund
Rockefellers Family fund
Rockefeller Foundation
Open Society Foundation
Oak Foundation
MacArthur Foundation Democracy Fund
Omidyar Network
Skoll Foundation

USAID funds to Internews
- Internews runs media training program
- Their Indian partner is DataLeads and their Indian program is FactShala
- This training program is executed by Prashant Bhushan's Sambhaavnaa Institute
- All leftist journalist/Activust
are part of this training program

- On the name of media training, they spread left ideology and US Deep State propaganda
- FactShala is actually a left brainwashing program
- Till now they have trained, I mean brainwashed 75000 Indian media persons



DataLeads with Mohammad Zubair's Alt News in fact checking workshop



Alt News is also partner of DataLeads and Sambhaavnaa Institute
Please meet ambassadors of USAID funded FactShala training program

Ritu Kapoor (The Quint)
Shekhar Gupta (The Print)
JM Mathew (Malayala Manorama)
Faye D'souza (Beatroot News)

[vijayk]

Hope there is an investigation

* Media influencers who directly benefited from USAID, China
* Judges who were influenced
* Lawyers who pressured or blackmailed judges

[drnayar]

https://x.com/MarioNawfal/status/18898



DOGE investigations reveal mysterious Defense Department payments to Reuters for "large scale social deception" project between 2018-2022.

While DARPA claims it was for cyber defense, questions swirl about why a news agency received millions for "social engineering."

[Cyrano]

While all this is of course scandalous, the biggest tool of influence and corruption remains the US visa, sometimes with grants, for self or kin.

Until we Indians stop getting starry eyed for the precious sesame this corruption will continue in other forms.

[Manish_P]

While all this is of course scandalous, the biggest tool of influence and corruption remains the US visa, sometimes with grants, for self or kin.

Until we Indians stop getting starry eyed for the precious sesame this corruption will continue in other forms.

The 'Kin' part is the chink

The empire needs those who are in positions of power in India under it's control and the pressure point is the children

All branches of the indian state -- judiciary, politicians, military, media, industry -- are compromised

Former US Ambassador makes a mention on this (not as the pressure point of course ) in the ANI podcast with Smita Prakash

[AkshaySG]

The India's got latent blowback now reaching ridiculous proportions
https://x.com/ANI/status/1891470637123932533

FIRs against every cast member who was in any of shows they have done till date is, 42 cast members ,100s of FIRs for a crass statement all the while peddlers of actual hate, scammers, conversion rackets and Islamic, khalistani radicalizers roam free.

Especially screwed up is the amount of involvement Biswas and his Assam Police is doing in a matter not involving their state at all. How is a common man who has to make 5 rounds of the "thana" and bribe 4 people to get one complaint registered supposed to view this.

The "left" basically owns 95% of the stand up comedy, podcast ,content creation ecosystem and if you take such action on the remaining 2-3 guys (Allahbadia,Samay Raina etc) who are even a little bit pro Modi/Hinduism/nationalistic then the remaining 5% also goes away due to these fears

And this genre has the potential for huge impact, India isn't at US levels yet where Joe Rogan can boost or break a candidate's chances but it is getting there and if you try to strong arm every content creator that have an impact on the youth then it's a recipe for disaster.

[dsreedhar]

Agree the amount/proportion of blowback on Allahbadia is ridiculous. These kind of stupidity is what wins Leftism.

[Cyrano]

I watched a few podcasts of Ranvir when he invited learned tantriks. He was never truly pro Modi or pro Sanatan, he was just cashing in on what was trending. That he got awarded by none other than Modi ji last year made him think he has gamed the system totally and he can do or say whatever he wants. Then his cheap and vulgar inner self came out, in at least 2 instances. Which shows he has learned nothing, respects nothing.

I saw Samay only a couple of times on Chessbase India shows as they were following the world championship which was ultimately won by Gukesh. Seemed like an ok fellow, clowning and adding nothing of substance, but thats OK.

India needs role models, achievers and influencers like Gukesh, Pragg, Vidit, Arjun, and many more from the chess world and even more from fields beyond. Not these chhillar vulgar taporis. They will be forgotten sooner than they rose as "influencers".

We are NOT a free speech absolutist country like the US. Those yardsticks won't work here. You seem to think they are some role models who can greatly influence Indian youth. They are not. Its better they cool heels in jail and lose their business than getting lynched in public. All said and done, we are such a huge country that no one can put a policeman behind every tapori and where police/law cannot reach, street justice will do its job. I wish it were otherwise but the reality is its not. We are like this only.

[vera_k]

How a tiny village became India's YouTube capital

In Tulsi, a village in central India, social media has sparked an economic and social revolution.

[Manish_P]

...
We are NOT a free speech absolutist country like the US...

Is the US a free speech absolutist country?

[drnayar]

Sanyal on the extensive interference and funding of surverys etc by USAID, Open Society Foundation., within India and abroad., not just 21 million but more than 400 million USD

the deep seated influence of USAID on medical NFHS in India going back to 1920 s !!.. harvesting health data, Governements health responses , intelligence operation

overstating data, manipulating health data ...how " anemia" became prevalent in india

Women data 97 pages compared to men., creation of narratives in social spaces

USAID just one peg of a huge ecosystem , in India and periphery

[Hriday]

D.Muthukrishnan is a certified financial planner and had a following of 547K in X. His address is @dmuthuk.

There is only around 75 Twitter accounts in India that has more than half a million followers and globally only 2000 accounts.

I had forwarded several tweets by him in X here.
Mostly constructive criticism and is of valuable information to assess the performance of the Modi govt. He repeatedly claims that he had no political affiliation and can't be bought. But several of his past and the recent tweets makes one wonder if he is turning into another Dhruv Rathee.

The best way to spread lies is to say half truths and avoiding the contexts so as to give a different impression. That way one can avoid getting the label of liar.

In the recent months he said that BJP followers are spreading hate about Muslims. When one asked him to comment on the anti Hindu policies of Bangladesh he replied, "What should I do?"

On the Stalin's remarks of extermination of Sanatan Dharma, he replied that it is only a verbal vandalism. See below the post by him,

A BBC article explaining that around 1 billion Indians have no money to spend is going viral. I've shared this data many times. Only 10% Indians move and also benefit from the economy. The next 10% have aspirations but struggling. Life is a living hell for the balance 80%.

I'm not very optimistic about future of our people. The growth is deepening and not widening. The top 10% is only growing.

800 million people in the country cannot even survive but for the monthly free food grains provided by the government.

UPA 2 and three terms of Modi has killed the aspirations and growth potential of the nation. Opportunity loss for one entire generation when youth population has been peaking.

We can only weep for India and Indians.

Just think what impression an average busy person will get from this tweet?

Can anyone with a sane mind blame Modi for the deliberate practice of semi socialist policies of Congress for the 60 years since independence? It is Modi who bought toilets, pipe water, gas connection, electricity , house and rural and urban road networks so that low income people will at last get an opportunity to get jobs and increase his income. There is an award by a United Nations organisation to the Modi govt for saving the lives of lakhs of children due to the cleanliness bought by the mass toilet construction. But how many in India knows this? Also several reports are already there stating that there is a drastic reduction in poverty due to the policies of Modi govt.
Sure, BJP govts are not perfect as Deans pointed out here. But criticism should be in proper context. BJP public relations people need to properly market their achievements and expose the liars like @dmuthuk.

[drnayar]

Source : https://x.com/KreatelyMedia/status/1 ... photo/1