The Gorilla Channel Satire Demonstrates The Ridiculousness Of Banning Fake News
from the gorilla-channel-hot-takes dept
If you spend much time on political Twitter -- or the more fun elements of the self-described "Weird Twitter" -- then you're probably already quite aware of the truly wonderful @pixelatedboat account. That account's biggest claim to fame is Milkshake Duck (the best absurdist encapsulation of how the internet frequently builds up some new internet superstar out of nothing, only then to discover their hero has flaws...), but the account also has a very long (and very amusing) history of posting "fake screenshots." See, for example, the one PixelatedBoat posted on New Years, satirizing Neil deGrasse Tyson:
Looks like old Professor Science is up to his science tricks again! pic.twitter.com/Zc7WxD5Iry
— the gorilla channel thing is a joke (@pixelatedboat) January 2, 2018
On Thursday evening, just as everyone was going crazy over Michael Wolff's book about the Trump White House, PixelatedBoat posted an obviously satirical screenshot of it, claiming that White House staffers, at the President's demand, had created a special "Gorilla Channel" that the President watched 17 hours a day, and which they had to alter to include more gorilla fights.
Except... as you may have already heard, what seemed obvious to many of us was apparently not so obvious to those with what some have referred to as Trump Derangement Syndrome. Basically, because there actually are so many crazy stories about President Trump and his administration -- and the Wolff book was already revealing a few more of these "nutty" anecdotes -- some people were primed to accept this satire as fact... and they ran with it.
Now, let's just take a step back for a second and point out something: this is what good satire does. It fools people. When 100% of the people get the satire, it's not good satire. A large part of the point of good satire is to fool people and help make people think about things. The classic of this genre, of course, Jonathan's Swift's A Modest Proposal, in which he merely suggested feeding poor children to the wealthy as a way to alleviate the problems of poverty. It was, of course, a powerful way to mock the attitudes some had towards the poor. And, a lot of people thought he was serious. That's part of why we still remember the work today, centuries later.
And, with PixelatedBoat's tweet... a fairly large number of people -- including some "high profile" Twitter users -- completely fell for it, which then quickly led others to mocking them. Even in cases where some people initially realized it was fake... they began to question themselves. Perhaps my favorite response was from the NY Times' Farhad Manjoo (who is a super nice person... but... really...)
I’m sorry I have a question
Is the gorilla channel thing real or fake?
I thought it was clearly fake but people are talking as if it’s real and I don’t know who’s mistaken.
If you don’t know what I’m talking about don’t look it up because it might be fake.
— Farhad Manjoo, dad of soc. med. (@fmanjoo) January 5, 2018
Manjoo then told everyone to stop posting satirical fake screenshots, which seems like a bit of hole digging:
Don’t tweet screenshots of fake text (of book excerpts, court transcripts, etc) even as a joke.
You’re making things worse.
The jokes just don’t work in a partisan-echo-chamber-feed world where everything is divorced from context and authorship.
Also they’re not funny
— Farhad Manjoo, dad of soc. med. (@fmanjoo) January 5, 2018
But that's wrong. Satire is an extremely powerful force in getting people to think more carefully about a variety of different social issues -- and whether intentional or not, PixleatedBoat's tweet did exactly that.
But, what's much more interesting to me is how this impacts two other recent stories. First, last week we wrote about French President Macron's awful idea to "ban fake news" in France during election seasons. And, second, Germany's new "social media platforms must delete bad speech" law, which has already been used to go after satire on social media.
As Fabio Chiusi noted, if the whole Gorilla Channel PixelatedBoat saga had played out in Germany, Twitter might be facing a €50 million fine (and its employees a €5 million fine). And that doesn't even get to the situation in France. After all, this satire is "fake news." It literally is exactly that. But it's also a perfect example of why banning fake news is so dumb. Beyond the difficulty of determining what really is fake news, there is plenty of "fake news" that we want to protect. And satire is a big part of it.
I mean, banning "fake news" would require shutting down The Onion. Sure, you may know its satire -- but others get fooled by The Onion all the time. And that's part of the fun -- in part because it can spark discussions, debate and (*gasp*) actual introspection. Under the rules being pushed in Europe right now (and which some in the US would like to emulate), banning or punishing satire would cripple some of the best social commentary out there. "A Modest Proposal" may have made some people angry, but it made many more think. Just because some people get fooled isn't a reason to ban such things or to push for censorship. It's a reason to encourage discussion, debate, introspection and learning -- which is often pushed forward thanks to satire.
Now, when's that Gorilla Channel going to be available to the wider public?
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Filed Under: censorship, fake news, free speech, gorilla channel, gullible, pixelated boat, satire, weird twitter
Reader Comments
The First Word
“President Trump definitely fits in there. Other well-known Tyson Zone inhabitants include Michael Jackson and Lady Gaga.
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When this happens, all bets are off any side believes there's still any "funny" left in the "joke".
I suppose it could be worse, though. Imagine if a prestige medical journal published facts vaccinations can be linked to autism.
When the lines get blurred and innocent people suffer for it, at what point does news lose its integrity to be honest.
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well, that will certainly be good for everyone.
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The worst fake news is from NYTimes or WashPo. -- You still believe the "Trump-Russia collusion"!
READ "1984": fake news is a tactic to destroy minds. The globalists don't care what you believe that's fake, but don't want you to believe ANY Truth.
However, we're not quite there yet, so if want to impeach Trump, still need some substance, not fictions.
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Re: The worst fake news is from NYTimes or WashPo. -- You still believe the "Trump-Russia collusion"!
Wikipedia: Links between Trump associates and Russian officials
127 citations.
Wikipedia: Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections
393 citations.
C'mon. Read.
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Re: Re: The worst fake news is from NYTimes or WashPo. -- You still believe the "Trump-Russia collusion"!
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Re: Re: Re: The worst fake news is from NYTimes or WashPo. -- You still believe the "Trump-Russia collusion"!
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Re: Re: Re: Re: The worst fake news is from NYTimes or WashPo. -- You still believe the "Trump-Russia collusion"!
2. Wikipedia staff don't write every page, Wikipedia is open for the public to edit, so not every page has been written by staff.
3. There are hundreds, thousands, potentially hundreds of thousands of people monitoring changes to Wikipedia so incorrect entries are usually caught fairly quickly.
All this is not to say that it never has any incorrect information or doesn't contain mistakes on occasion, but that tends to the exception, not the rule.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: The worst fake news is from NYTimes or WashPo. -- You still believe the "Trump-Russia collusion"!
4. There have been studies that show that there's not a higher rate of errors compared to more traditional encyclopedias, and
5. Nowhere does anyone state that Wikipedia is a primary source for information. Like any encyclopedia, it's a quick reference tool and starting point for any subject, not the only thing you should look at. Primary sources are linked, not contained within.
Anyone who criticises Wikipedia in the manner seen here generally either a) doesn't understand how it actually works, or b) can't refute any of the evidence presented so prefers to attack the platform that presents it.
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Re: The worst fake news is from NYTimes or WashPo. -- You still believe the "Trump-Russia collusion"!
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Re: Re: The worst fake news is from NYTimes or WashPo. -- You still believe the "Trump-Russia collusion"!
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Re: Re: Re: The worst fake news is from NYTimes or WashPo. -- You still believe the "Trump-Russia collusion"!
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Re: The worst fake news is from NYTimes or WashPo. -- You still believe the "Trump-Russia collusion"!
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Re: The worst fake news is from NYTimes or WashPo. -- You still believe the "Trump-Russia collusion"!
Why do I get the feeling you've never followed this advice yourself?
"However, we're not quite there yet, so if want to impeach Trump, still need some substance, not fictions."
Yes, that will be why the ongoing investigations are taking place.
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Re: The worst fake news is from NYTimes or WashPo. -- You still believe the "Trump-Russia collusion"!
READ "1984": fake news is a tactic to destroy minds.
I'm guessing you never read it. If you did, you would certainly ascertain that fake news was what was being produced by (wait for it, dipshit...wait for it...) the state.
Or did you think Winston was a self-employed journalist?
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Re: The worst fake news is from NYTimes or WashPo. -- You still believe the "Trump-Russia collusion"!
"However, we're not quite there yet, so if want to impeach Trump, still need some substance, not fictions."
So... we should have an investigation then?
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Just because some people get fooled isn't a reason to ban such things or to push for censorship.
We live in a world where Silly Putty has warnings not to shove it in your ears. Let's not overestimate the populous at large.
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March is national procrastination week. (yes, really)
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Want to sign up!
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Re: Want to sign up!
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This is a completely wrong analysis
Trump actually complained that he didn't see himself on the Gorilla Channel hitting male gorillas and feeling up female gorillas. His actual complaint was that it didn't seem real enough, for some reason.
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Trump seems to take his bullshit quite seriously. If anything Trump fits the profile of a psychopath fairly well. He does have abnormal social behavior for sure.
Then again so do a lot of anti-Trump thumpers too!
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Trump is the US President. Being mentally unstable is BIG NEWS. Genuine news. And truly something to be concerned about.
I think Poe's Law applies perfectly. It's the very definition of such a case.
In the 18 months leading up to the election, the things Trump said got daily news coverage. I was asking myself if he could sink any lower, or say anything worse or more offensive. But there never seemed to be any limit. He was always able to top yesterday's definition of outrageous.
This is EXACTLY what makes Poe's Law possible. No mater how crazy of a fake false story someone might concoct, people will take it as just another example of Trump not having any limits on how crazy he might act or how far he might go.
And for a US President, that is a real problem to have.
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Trump is not the walking poe's laws. Poe's law requires that Trump not convey his intentions and attempt parody. 2 requirements for Poe's law.
This in no way was intended to claim that others or Trump himself could not be a rich source of generating Poe's Law material, which I believe was the OP's objective, he just did not say it in a factually correct way.
So yea, just being pedantic but that is because this is how the stupid breaks out and words start to mean something they do not any more.
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President Trump definitely fits in there. Other well-known Tyson Zone inhabitants include Michael Jackson and Lady Gaga.
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Remember back when . . .
Some years ago there was a fake story that the MPAA was going to license movies for the home based on how many comfortable chairs your room had? Essentially, so the story went, the MPAA was going to charge more to watch the movie if your room was able to hold more viewers.
This story went wild.
As TechDirt pointed out at the time, the problem wasn't that the fake story was created. The problem was that it was, on its face, very believable. Anyone could easily believe that the MPAA would resort to the most outrageous conduct and copyright or licensing overreach imaginable. The problem was that nobody could see it as sarcasm or parody.
This is the same with Trump. It is impossible to make up a story about how crazy Trump is, without it having at least a ring of truth to it.
A fake story involving Trump and aliens might significantly move the needle on people's BS detector. But the disbelief would be due to aliens, not Trump craziness.
proper board design requires maintaining proper circuit isolation between your genius detector and your bullshit detector
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Re: Remember back when . . .
"The problem is that it is so believable" does not mean the problem is with the president. "It rings true, so [we should act like] it is true" ranks up there with "fake but accurate": Failure to think critically, check your sources, verify stories that are too good to be true, and so forth, are all failures on the part of the listener or the commentator, not the subject.
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Just sayin'!
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In other fake news
Trump moves back 'Fake News Awards,' citing high interest
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/367834-trump-moves-back-fake-news-awards
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Re: In other fake news
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Fake news award ceremony
Colbert, Noah and Bee (maybe even Meyers) are scrambling for nominations as part of their promotionals.
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Fake News and The Onion
Just as, I'm sure, back in the day, people who tuned in to NBC late on Saturday evening might have been fooled by Weekend Update.
Or fake news on other comedy programs.
That doesn't mean it should be or even can be banned.
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Re: Fake News and The Onion
"I'll buy anything if it's shiny and made by Apple."
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Re: Re: Fake News and The Onion
Yes. That one was extremely funny.
$2,495 for the 32 GB version.
$9,995 for the 64 GB version.
(I could be mis-remering the storage sizes.)
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Re: Fake News and The Onion
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Re: Fake News and The Onion
The problem is much of the real news is indistinguishable from anything they're coming up with.
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punctuation ...
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*stops in terror*
I... Created a monster.
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What does "in Germany" mean?
Isn't it "playing out in Germany" already? They have Twitter there too. What aspect of this allows Twitter to avoid liability?
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Re: What does "in Germany" mean?
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Is your characterization of "A Modest Proposal" supposed to be satire?
Seriously? Is this political correctness or just complete cluelessness? Have you read this? It's topic is not rich vs poor but rather English controlled Protestant Ascendancy vs. Irish populace and the lack of Irish solidarity and unity that allowed the English to bleed out the Irish populace through willing Irish intermediaries, particularly the installed aristocracy.
"The poor" were the bulk of the populace rather than some isolated class. The situation painted in this bleak light by Swift actually deteriorated further and resulted in the Great Irish Famine of 1740 where more than 10% of the Irish populace died from starvation.
Let me quote from the closing paragraphs:
Does this sound like pointing at a rich/poor scenario?
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Re: Is your characterization of "A Modest Proposal" supposed to be satire?
Zero!
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Re: Re: Is your characterization of "A Modest Proposal" supposed to be satire?
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dONT MIND FAKE..
Shows that say "OPINION" are not saying anything..they CAN say anything. Its opinion.. It does not have to have Any fact in it..
But People take it as 'Some Sort of Fact'.. It has to be based on Some/A Fact of some sort..Doesnt it??
Or else its a LIE..
Then is it OPINION or FAKE??
Its like saying "Russia HACKED US",..but If we know for SURE they did, Why cant we track all those Scam letters and Emails?? And not take YEARS to find the persons??
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Re: dONT MIND FAKE..
A) Not everything they read will be truth
B) The thing they're reading right now might be fake
and C) A smart person looks for corroborating evidence before even approaching any conclusions
then it's really hard to sympathize with their plight when they repeat the fake news to their friends and family and are laughed out of the room.
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Re: Re: dONT MIND FAKE..
Do you think all those police programs on TV, have any facts??
How about driving along with the COPS, and Taping everything..90% of those were dismissed in court.
DO they tell you that?
How about court cases in COURT?? its all small claims and THEY are picked from a bunch of Small claims..
Do you think that ALL of the programs SHOW that DNA/Finger prints/other identifiable FORMATS ARE ABIT FLAWED?? or is everything they do, PROVEN TO BE 1000% FACT..
When I was young, a show called WILD KINGDOM was shown many times...and later it was proven that the animals involved were RENTED...was not mentioned in the program. But consider taking Cameras into the wild, in the 60's..
MOST of the NEWS programs on TV..do not say they are OPINION.. they are not NEWS..
As soon as they say, Would have, could have, might have, should have, a chance of...ITS OPINION..
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Re: dONT MIND FAKE..
Does it count if it only screams it's fake? Because that's what satire is about.
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Re: dONT MIND FAKE..
Yeah, it wasn't as funny.
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Especially those people.
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Some sympathy for Farhad Manjoo
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twitter
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My partner told me about the Gorilla Channel thing.
It seemed plausible and outrageous but none of the Wolff stuff I had heard about (e.g. 6pm bedtime, three televisions, cheeseburger) included the Gorilla Channel story.
So I DuckDuckGo'd it. The Snopes debunking story was on the top of the list.
On the other hand, I suspect there's enough primatology material that we could have a gorilla channel and it'd have a decent viewership for a specialty channel.
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Re: My partner told me about the Gorilla Channel thing.
It's right up there with the failed CIA piano drop on Castro's coffin.
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Good satire is plausible
My father, who is Trump's generation, is a Trump true-believer and even shares a few too many character dispositions with Trump was throughout my childhood obsessed with American football and would religiously approach and shout at the screen when stuff got exciting.
I suspect he still watches and shouts.
So for me that behavior is rather believable.
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Truthiness
Does Trump watch Gorilla TV? It sounds like it could be true.
Do vaccines cause autism? Sure, why not- it's easier to believe than looking at the medical data.
Was Obama born in Kenya? Well, he's black, so why not?
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What is Pluto tv
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Amendments! Amendments! Amendments!
Free speech people!!! How can we abridge free speech? No one wants to take away the rights of gun owners...the NRA says so....no matter how many mass shootings and how many anti-gun protests.
However will we make laws abridging free speech lest we prove imminent public danger? And I don't think our own idiocy in believing whatever errant nonsense is spewed, presented as sarcasm, satire, or deliberate misinformation is going to count as that bar of public safety necessary to create a necessity for abridging any of our constitutional freedoms.
We'll argue the point, no doubt. That's what we do. But we'll get nowhere save for wasting time, money, and energies. It's a fantastic diversion from any real issues, because it hits at the core of our values as Americans. While we focus on this, on fake news, the real action is happening elsewhere. Come to think of it, isn't that how magicians and many con artists perform their slights if hand, by diverting the attention of their audiences. We the United States Citizens are the "audience" of each and every politician in the land. THINK ON THAT FOR A BIT!!!
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