Hello fellow Lemmys. The mod team here at !news@lemmy.world has been in discussions about the best approach to ensure we stay unbiased with news during the U.S. Election Cycle.
While we can’t say “don’t point out flaws in candidates” - nor would we want to - we do believe that when you excessively post/comment/reply negative things in News about one person, instead of, say mixing it up about topics, this feels like you are using !news@lemmy.world as a propaganda machine.
While propaganda is a normal part of elections, by posting only one topic, about one person, you are abusing the NEWS community for politics, and this could even be seen as election interference. There are other communities that this would fit better.
Doing this will result in posts/comments being deleted (with the option to appeal, of course). Repeat offenders may see temporary bans. Keep doing after that, and you may reach our perma-ban list.
As of right now, this only apples to politics. We don’t plan to extend this to other areas, but that will change as needed.
Due to how the US Presidential election works, however, many articles with a partisan tilt will necessarily be in favor of one person and against another person. So think you should also factor frequency into this.
Does someone post one progressive, anti-Trump news article a week? Or a conservative anti-Biden article? Particularly from reputable sources? I would say that should be allowed, even if they don’t give equal time to the other side.
OTOH, someone who posts several anti-Trump (or anti-Biden) articles every day is likely digging down to some questionable sites to find the content. Such a person should be given a temp ban, and advised to go touch some grass. Someone who manages to give a balanced approach to news, though, while using reputable news sources, might possibly get a pass for the lack of a social life.
I think your last paragraph is pretty much the goal. It makes sense to me. Just don’t post partisan articles from partisan sources.
OTOH, someone who posts several anti-Trump (or anti-Biden) articles every day is likely digging down to some questionable sites to find the content.
That’s exactly what was happening and why this rule had to be implemented.
Right, but in that case the problem isn’t posting one-sided content, or content that favors one person over another, but posting poorly sourced content.
I find it dangerous to say “we’ll ban people who mainly post about one person” because the US presidential race, for better or worse, is about two people. Expressing any opinion at all advocates one of those people above the other. Put the rules in terms of quality of sources, though, and you will find that you can solve the same problem without the same baggage.
This is a News forum, it seems reasonable to vet sources.
If you’re going to punish people for spamming only negative things because its basically propaganda I’d hope you do the same for people who only spam positive things for the same reason. Things don’t stop being propaganda simply because they are positive, and if you only focus on the negative culprits then you’re effectively enforcing one type of propaganda over the other.
I get the underlying sentiment in a perfect world, but it isn’t like both candidates say and do horrible things multiple times per day and trying to strike some kind of balance seems like trying to ‘both sides’ the news.
If one person is posted aboit far more frequently, but by multiple people instead of just one, or two is that going to be ok?
We understand your concerns. Our goal is not to direct or manipulate the dialogue at all. In fact, this policy is specifically to prevent any individual user from manipulating the conversation. We understand that there will almost certainly be more newsworthy material about one candidate or issue.
It might help to clarify that ‘you’ is referring to a singular poster and if comments (frequently called posting) count. Both terms are pretty vague and could lead to stifling discussion.
Something like ‘when individuals start many posts’ and ‘excessively commenting about only one candidate’ would make it clearer that you are looking for more balanced participation among the members of the community, which I am understanding your goal to be.
Thanks for the feedback, that makes sense. It’s a shame English doesn’t distinguish between you singular and you plural.
Be like jeffw, not like return2ozma.
Trying to make the news “fair and balanced” or “both sides” sounds like a great way to enable fascism. If a candidate is going to continuely do/say things that are going to have a large impact on the country, then reporting on that should absolutely be shared without fear of a ban just because the “other side” hasn’t done enough negative to write about.
I understand not wanting to be filled with shit posting, but legit news sources should be the goal, not trying to balance reporting which IMHO sounds more like election interference.
Our goal is not to enforce any type of equal representation of candidates or issues. However, the articles should reflect equal newsworthiness, as you say.
The post sounds more like a limitation on negative press than a limit on poor sources. Might be a better idea to just temp-ban politics all together till after November, then nobody needs to try and interpret this post that doesn’t seem to align with what is being agreed with in comments.
Thank you for the input. We want to be as transparent as possible so people understand the expectations. This community has always allowed politics, although this is the first US presidential election cycle. If the community decides to make a change, that is always a possibility.
Of course it isn’t. Your goal is to stifle criticism of Biden from the left.
We know this started because a (presumably, leftist) user stated they only care to share negative content of Biden and were banned.
