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

Michael “Monty” Widenius: It Started in 1983 With Richard Stallman (RMS)
The other co-founder of MySQL is a bit notorious for confronting RMS rather viciously
For the Second Time in a Few Weeks Microsoft Lunduke Makes False Accusations Against Senior Red Hat Staff to Incite a Despicable 'Troll Army'
Nothing that Microsoft Lunduke claims of says can be trusted
 
Links 03/10/2025: Lawyers Caught Using LLM Slop Explain Why They Did It, LibreSSL 4.1.1 and 4.0.1 Released
Links for the day
FSF Board Grew 50% Since Last Year, Has New President, Turns 40 in Two Days
It's a good move for the FSF and - by extension - for software freedom
Links 03/10/2025: Conflicts, Death of TypePad, and TikTok/CheeTok Gives a Boost to Far Right Groups in Europe
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 02, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, October 02, 2025
Slopwatch: Linux Journal, Google News, and LinuxSecurity
They carry on polluting the Web with fake articles
Gemini Links 02/10/2025: Kubernetes With FreeBSD and robots.txt
Links for the day
Links 02/10/2025: 'Open' 'AI' Resorting to Gimmicks and Fake Funding, Europe’s ‘Drone Wall’ Discussed
Links for the day
Links 02/10/2025: Brave Passes 100M Users Milestone, Kodak Selling Its Own Film Again
Links for the day
su lisa && rm -rf /home/ibm/power
Novell was ruined by another person from IBM, Ronald Hovsepian
A Record Demand at Microsoft: Demand to Cancel
What we're witnessing is a very ungraceful destruction of XBox
Microsoft is Losing Europe
Hence all the "support" and "discount" offers that are limited to Europe
The Free Software Foundation Starts Fund-raising for 40th Anniversary
New pop-up 2-3 days ahead of the 40th anniversary event
Systemd Breaks Networking in Debian and Microsoft Staff Rushes to Make Face-Saving Excuses in LWN
Microsoft's bluca is already there in the comments, his Microsoft money pays for LWN to let him leave comments early
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 01, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 01, 2025
What the End of XBox Will Look Like: a Fiery Crash
XBox is the next Skype. It won't last much longer. Expect many more layoffs.
Richard Stallman is Going to Finland to Give a Talk Next Thursday
A day later he speaks in Sweden
Gemini Links 02/10/2025: SMTP Pipelining and End of ROOPHLOCH 2025
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Plagiarism, Fake Articles, and FUD About Linux
not a day goes by without Google News feeding FUD from slopfarms
Gemini Links 01/10/2025: Chat Control and End of Life
Links for the day
Links 01/10/2025: Long Covid Risk Reiterated, "Bitcoin Queen" Caught
Links for the day
Links 01/10/2025: EA $55 Billion Deal is Debt and Slop "Raises Vishing Risks"
Links for the day
Bluewashing at Red Hat Means Redundancies
The man who sold Red Hat to IBM meanwhile became a Microsoft Mono booster
After Killing OpenSource.com, IBM ('Red Hat') and OSI Told Us OpenSource.net Would Replace It (But That Didn't Happen)
Now it's time to move on, perhaps tarnishing the "Open Source" label some more (for whatever sponsor wants this)
Linux is Not a Community Project, It's a Wall Street Product
The core goal should be freedom
Bad Actors Abusing the Free Software Community, Vandalising It Using Rogue Politics and Old Tactics
Oil giants have long attempted to do this; now, the digital equivalent of Big Oil does this in technology
Social Control Media Isn't the Future, The Federation or Fediverse Isn't Growing, People's Accounts Vanish for Good
users' accounts will get deleted, not just become inactive
IBM is Failing, This Helps Show Wall Street is Entirely Detached From Actual Commercial Performance
IBM is unable to grow, it's just constantly shrinking
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, September 30, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, September 30, 2025
Clerical Aspects of Publishing and Development
In Free software, the management aspects are considerably reduced
Slopwatch: Fake Articles and Google News Promoting "Linux" Spam or Bot-Generated Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt (FUD)
These slopfarms help misplace blame
Third Wave of Microsoft Layoffs in September, This Time Many in Liverpool Affected
Be ready for more waves of layoffs ahead of the so-called "results" in late October