Bonum Certa Men Certa

Getting Accurate News on the Internet is Hard; From the Web It's Even Harder



Video download link | md5sum a5864a95688e045557f49906e4cf02cb The Internet of Filth and Lies Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0



Summary: We need to detoxify the Internet in order for it to be useful again; at the moment the Web seems like almost a lost cause (for reasons we've noted many times before) and Gemini already provides a bit of a safe haven, an escape from what the Web has become

THE corporate World Wide Web is no longer a reliable source of information. This has been the case for a while now, as there's a strong correlation to the collapse of newsrooms and news operations in general (due to lack of funding, which was a coordinated plot by financial entities). The vacuum leaves room not necessarily to monopolies; it leaves lawyers to lie unchallenged and all sorts of cranks to spread harmful disinformation, even in sites like YouTube.



"Thankfully, some alternatives do gradually emerge."As someone who has posted news on a daily basis, especially on technical matters, I can really tell the difference. As noted this past weekend, a decade ago we still had some proper investigative journalism, including on difficult topics such as patents. Nowadays I see a lot of misinformation from mainstream media, especially the BBC with its misinformation about Ukraine and everything when it comes to public health (it's motivated by the government's agenda; reporting/data is made to match the policy instead of policy being based on evidence/facts/data) and there's almost nobody in "the media" writing about important technical news, such as important releases of GNU/Linux distros. A few blogs may mention it for a day or two and that's about it...

"Gemini Protocol is intentionally different. It's not designed for clickbait (there's no "sidebar" in Gemini because it's strictly linear/serial, hence no "trending" and other distractions)."Where does this end? At the moment the general population is severely misinformed, distracted, or both. For instance, there's abject gaslighting and absence of coverage about the seizure of Afghan money at a time of famine (media watchdog FAIR has done a media survey, showing in its assessment that lack of coverage was deliberate and politically-motivated) and social control media gets optimised for warhawks through clickbait. Cui bono?

Thankfully, some alternatives do gradually emerge. There's more and more to be found in Geminispace, including detailed weather forecasts, manpages, social control media and so on. Gemini Protocol is intentionally different. It's not designed for clickbait (there's no "sidebar" in Gemini because it's strictly linear/serial, hence no "trending" and other distractions).

"With at least a million pages in Geminispace (and growing fast) there's no lack of material, only a lack of time to explore it all."The ambiance in Geminispace is very different from the Web's. There are archives of mailing lists, online profiles, collection of files (much like Gopher but over Gemini instead), a big number of "just a blog" capsules, family stuff, a hub for a whole bunch of things, including Mastodon account, code, and personal updates. There's even a full Gemini Wikipedia mirror (conversions) and a growing number of people who use it to manage/share photography. For a lot of people it's a place to share news they like (or find interesting, worthy of archiving). "I am also mirroring things I like or care about," this one capsule says. With at least a million pages in Geminispace (and growing fast) there's no lack of material, only a lack of time to explore it all.

In the video above I suggest some ways to collect information through gemini:// and I focus on two graphical Gemini clients.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Microsoft XBox Layoffs: Almost 2,000 Layoffs Became "Over 2,000"? (Over 20% of the Staff)
over 20% of staff will be let go, not counting staff that leaves voluntarily
Summer Plans in Techrights and Elsewhere
massive layoffs at Microsoft
 
EPO Presentation Bemoans Misuse of Slop in Decision-Making on Patents and in Classification (Which is Likely Illegal Too)
We habitually mention failed use cases of LLMs on the Web
Mass Layoffs at Microsoft Confirmed, "XBox Hardware Is Dead"
It's possible that over 20% of the staff will be laid off
Links 30/06/2025: Kyrgyzstan vs Media Freedom, Dalai Lama Succession
Links for the day
Gemini Links 30/06/2025: Backend Programs in Gemini and Dynamic Content Without The Scripting
Links for the day
Links 30/06/2025: Zuckerberg’s Tax-Evading Scheme Harms Kids, US Copyright Office Lacks Leadership
Links for the day
Microsoft Isn't Laying Off Tens of Thousands to 'Invest' in Slop ('Hey Hi'), It's Laying Off Tens of Thousands Because It's Running Out of Money (and Willing Lenders)
the layoffs are a sign of the business failing, not "hey hi" (whatever that is) replacing staff
Intel Lays Off 20% of Its Workforce, Microsoft is Doing the Same This Year
Like a yoyo, whatever goes up will come back down
GNU/Linux Rises to New Highs in Angola, Africa in General is Abandoning Windows
Western media barely covers Microsoft layoffs in Africa, but in recent years Microsoft culled the workforce and even shut down entire operations
Destination Geminispace (in the Age of LLM Slop and Slop Images That Infest the Web and Social Control Media)
Geminispace isn't vast, but at least it is - on average - a lot "cleaner"
GNU/Linux Growing in Sierra Leone This Year
Based on what statCounter is seeing, this year there are more and more people there who adopt GNU/Linux
Serial Sloppers Gonna Slop
More sites out there ought to call out the cheaters
Quartz (qz.com) is Spam and a Slopfarm
It used to be OK. Then they fired the staff.
Links 30/06/2025: US Economic Woes, Extreme Heat
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, June 29, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, June 29, 2025
Gemini Links 30/06/2025: "The AI Hype" and New AuraGem Ask
Links for the day
Our Desktops Are Not Your Experiments, X is Not an Experiment
Breaking what already worked
Microsoft's Big Lies Regarding This Week's Mass Layoffs Have Already Begun (and They're Already Being Spread by Slopfarms)
Microsoft is the "market leader" in slop
Explaining the Full Story of SLAPPs From Microsoft Staff
For every action there is a reaction, for every attack there will be proportionate consequences
The Openwashing Shills Initiative (OSI) - Part III: IRS and Status of OSI
"They lied to the US IRS and there’s a paper trail"
IBM Red Hat's Dogmatic Fanaticism Under a Thin Veil of "Modernism"
IBM now has the audacity to paint people who don't agree as "nazis"
Microsoft's Share in Guatemala Fell From 97% to 14%
Eventually Microsoft will get stuck in a loop of layoffs, layoffs, and more layoffs
They Made Technology Scary and Taught Us That It's Innocent, Friendly, Even "Social"
Rejection of all this "apps" and "gadgets" and "Smart" (whatever that means!) status quo isn't a rejection of society
The Media is Under Attacks Partly Because There's Little Other (Remaining) Press to Speak in Its Defence
The biggest danger here is that when there's very little press or no "opposition media" left it becomes even easier to crush critics because there aren't many people left to speak about the matter
If Your Web Site is Run by Bots, Eventually Nobody Will 'Read' It Except Bots (People Don't Want to Read Slop)
Eventually people learn from mistakes
Links 29/06/2025: Microsoft Releases False/Fake Benchmarks, "Google Wants You to Watch Ads or Take Surveys to Read Articles"
Links for the day
Links 29/06/2025: Data Breaches and Online Censorship
Links for the day
Gemini Links 29/06/2025: "The Price Of Eggs" and Gemini 3D Tic Tac Toe
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, June 28, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, June 28, 2025
The "News" You Saw About Canonical is Misleading, It Made Only 18 Million Dollars Last Year and Barely Paid Any Taxes
Lies are the norm these days...
Pushing Wayland Using Straw Man Arguments
phoronix.com has long promoted the talking point of "Wayland people" (for at least a decade already)
Australia: Windows Fell to All-Time Low, Even Lower Than iOS
There's a good reason why next week there will be so many Microsoft layoffs
Slopwatch: Linuxsecurity, WebProNews, and Google News Boosting Slopfarms as 'News'
People who don't recognise the slopfarms and don't know which sites are fake would struggle to understand what's really going on
Links 28/06/2025: Hardware/GPU Wars, GAFAM Throws Money (Borrowed Cash) at Hopeless Slop Pipe Dream
Links for the day
Gemini Links 28/06/2025: Shellshock and Network UPS Tools
Links for the day
Links 28/06/2025: The Age of Integrity and FreeBSD Foundation Added John Baldwin as Board Member
Links for the day
Fedora 44
IBM now does to Fedora what it did to RHEL
Microsoft Already Shaved Off Costs Anywhere It Could. It Was Not Enough.
Office and Windows aren't "selling" (licences) like they used to
Scheduled Maintenance Next Week
Our community is alive and well
BetaNews: We're Publishing LLM Slop About LLM Slop
Beta version of a slopfarm?
3-Month Updates on Our Complaint to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA)
In short, the complaint remains open, updated, and is advancing
IBM Red States Hat (Project 2025): Our "New Thing" Replaces This "Old Thing"
The new replaces the old. That's how IBM frames it.
Start X
Just because something is old does not mean it is bad
Slopwatch: Linuxsecurity, Google News Slopfarms, and Linux Journal (LJ)
Today we take a quick look at 3 slopfarms
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, June 27, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, June 27, 2025
Links 28/06/2025: "CC Signals" Virtue-Signals to Slop Ponzi Schemes, North Korea Aims for Tourism
Links for the day