So, until recently, I have been using https://github.com/rimu/no-qanon/blob/master/hosts.txt
However, as some issues that I have opened have shown, there are a bunch of left wing and progressive sites on this list ( https://github.com/rimu/no-qanon/issues ). I no longer think that it is trustworthy. Especially after reading some of the repo owners replies. Intentionally added was t.me which is a generic url for any telegram group. Discordapp.com was on it at one point.
Oy Vey. It’s clear to me that the owner of this repo is not actually spending much time actually curating this list and instead it’s just a shotgun approach. Does anyone know of a good alternative?
sorry for the potentially dumb remark but… couldn’t you just avoid navigating to QAnon websites? I’ve never had an issue unintentionally navigating to one. It also seems like this repo owner is quite opinionated and trying to create a “no bad sites” filter list, which… honestly, you can control your own destiny with web browsing.
if this is to protect kids on your network, I think it’s probably a good idea to have a broader conversation with them about evaluating sources, tell them about media bias checking sites, and just generally educating them on red flags to distrust. This will probably serve them much better than trying to block right wing sites, especially since plenty of normal websites have harmful right wing content. YouTube in particular disseminates extremely misleading and harmful material via ads (lots of anti-trans hate speech).
In any case, I can’t find another repo - if you need the filter still, maybe you could fork the list yourself, and remove anything that you don’t find objectionable? (again, I feel like this is an example of why to not rely on a third party to block websites based off opinion/politics)
if this is to protect kids on your network
Sadly, I suspect this is to protect adults on the network…
I mean, that would be kinda crazy, and I also don’t think it would do any good to try and filter them. Like, you’ve got conspiracy-driven right wingers under your domain - no matter what way you spin it, you’re dealing with shitty people. You’re either going to bring them to a fever pitch in an argument over you blocking their internet access, or you’re going to give them access and have to deal with them perpetuating their harmful views to you and all around them.
If you’re at that point, better to consider whether or not you really want those people in your lives.
If you’re in a situation where you can’t cut those people off, what do you expect to achieve other than a different form of conflict by inhibiting their internet access? If you’re going to be quiet about doing it and hope they don’t understand, is it really healthy to be pulling those strings and manipulating like that? Hell, I’m not even sure it would be ethical, I feel like that kind of manipulation would be really shitty to do, even to shitty people and their shitty views.
EDIT: I’m of course assuming the adults need “protection” because there’s no path to just, like, discussing things healthily. If there’s a healthy way to discuss… that should really be the preference.
Easily conned elderly parents with poor internet savvy are a thing. They get manipulated out of their life savings too often. Keeping them from being linked to conspiracy sites they otherwise may not encounter on purpose probably isn’t a bad thing.
Just an example.
OK, I guess that’s a valid edge case. Still, I’d be wary of how that would really work out - if they were to become aware that you were filtering the internet, I would suspect that could lead to some really bad conflict.
Though, for the very elderly, yeah they probably wouldn’t notice. There’s some nuance there I didn’t think about.
Well, if they’re of the mindset that they want to visit websites like that and are mad about it, there’s probably drama going on no matter what.
But if they’re just confused and wondering why you’re doing it, probably sitting down with them and a curated list of Jim Browning’s YouTube channel on scammers would be a good step.
yeah, OK, I didn’t realize QAnon had outright financial scams out of it. Wow.
(Found this research on one particular scam - helps put it into perspective. Linking for anyone else who might be unaware)
Oh shit yeah, with the current grassroots environment everyone and their mother has a donation page up for themselves or a cause.
Also makes it really easy for people who don’t care about anything qanon to inject their own scams in, because requesting money for incomprehensible bullshit reasons blends right in.
Mm dunno if you ever read the qanon casualties posts on Reddit. There’s no discussing or reasoning with the people who have fallen prey to believing this shit. And if often leads to financial ruin. Blocking access to those sites is, for many, like taking the car keys away from an elderly parent who will only hurt themselves and others if you don’t intervene.
Yeah, that’s fair - but I suspect if it is anyone not super elderly, or just anyone not bumbling their way into it unintentionally, they may be more likely to be aware of your actions - and that’s bound to create some very nasty conflict that you might be no better off if you get into.
As the other commenters pointed out though - for certain classes like the elderly, and maybe anyone else not-at-all technically savvy, it might make sense. I’m sorta responding assuming intent of the person to get to QAnon, and assuming they might know enough to find they can access it on other networks but not home.
I don’t think I have an iron in this fire, but I do think that filtering some crap out of a gullible person’s Internet feed is way kinder and way healthier than cutting them out of your life completely.
Yeah, another commenter made the point of very elderly people, which admittedly I might not have the best perspective on needing to handle. They would probably not notice, and it would probably not create any real issues.
My reaction was more if you tried to do this to a normal, younger to middle aged person - where I would suspect if the filtering were to come to light, it could create some very nasty conflict. But also in that case I’d suspect anyone trying to reach QAnon material is more likely intentionally trying to get to it, versus some 80-something who might have one Q moron in their Facebook feed that sends them somewhere no one ought to go.
Regarding your third paragraph, it’s been shown (anecdotally at least) that blocking access to these kinds of sites and fox news does a lot in bringing older, easily manipulated people out of the q anon rabbit hole. It’s difficult at first, but with nothing feeding the conspiracy, they go back to normal eventually.
If that’s the case foxnews would like cut out most of the challenge. I’m not old enough to have adult children yet but I still have a hard time grasping news channels are entertainment venues.
News used to be actual news done by reporters. It had credibility and a degree of respect. This shift has been near impossible for my parents generation
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The issues you raised about those sites were fixed within two hours.
https://github.com/rimu/no-qanon/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aclosed
Those were just the ones I found. There are likely many, many more. The sites I found are not even small publications either. Commondreams, rawstory, dailykos? Those are some very recognizable sites. if big ones like that slipped through, then that tells me that there is zero effort going into vetting the list.
By all means, put some effort in. Please.
Perhaps the curator is running a red herring with the intention or blocking liberal media?
I highly doubt it tbh, but the thought did cross my mind.
If you’re doing this in a business environment, I wouldn’t fool around with a home rolled option and would just go straight with a Websense subscription:
https://www.websense.com/content/support/library/deployctr/v76/dic_wcg.aspx
To be fair, last I checked, commondreams was so far to the left, they fell right off the flat earth. I consider myself pretty progressive and a lot of the stuff I saw from that site made me roll my eyes and go “this is where people get those crazy ideas about progressives having crazy ideas!”
Anyways, it’s been a few years since I paid any attention to them so maybe they’re not so cringe anymore.
Doesn’t it sound at least a little bit foolish to trust someone else to intentionally censor the politics of your internet? You’re creating your own echo chamber.
How can you understand and disagree with the other side if you can’t even read their content? I’m not even talking about hate groups, I’m talking basics like WikiLeaks and the NRA.
No, it’s not ‘creating an echo chamber’ to avoid the discussions of a deranged cult.
Labeling the opposition as a deranged cult that must be censored doesn’t exactly sound anti-fascist to me. Again, not talking about hate groups here or anyone that advocates for violence.
Perhaps you are not familiar with qanon and their beliefs, but they are not ‘the opposition’. And they do advocate for violence, frequently.
Perhaps you’re not familiar with this blocklist and how it doesn’t exclusively include QAnon sources, as I indicated.
No list can exclusively contain QAnon sources. It isn’t possible. You’re relying on someone else or a group of people to make that determination. In doing so, you’re blocking non-QAnon sources that you may just happen to disagree with. They also block far-right sites as described in the Github. How far to the right does the site have to be to be blocked? You’ve now created an echo chamber by blocking the opposition, all because you trusted that a list called “no-qanon” only blocked QAnon.
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Everyone is susceptible to misinformation, information silos, and bad arguments. Someone who claims that they are not susceptible to these things is the most susceptible.
You can view it as efficiency. Something coming from a qanon source is going to be garbage, so you’re saving yourself the time of having it be in your view.
Even if what you’re saying is true, you’re now relying on someone else (or a group of people) to censor sites you wouldn’t like and also not be susceptible to those things when creating this blocklist. You’re ignoring the risks associated with false positives. You can’t outsource your own critical thinking.
You’re kind of arguing against the foundation of human society. If we’re all required to “do our own research” about things, where does that requirement end? How can I buy food if I have to do my own research on what’s healthy or what’s dangerous? What about my tap water? How can I put gas in my car? Use electricity? A computer? A phone?
Somewhere along the way you have to trust the systems that have been built by the people before us to function, and for people who work in those fields who are experts to use their expertise.
Obviously oversight & verification is also important. It’s important that people earn trust and work to maintain that trust and get booted if they violate that trust.
But it’s foolish to just stop trusting experts out of nowhere. It’s extra foolish to stop trusting experts specifically because they say things you don’t like to hear. As far as I can tell, that’s been the accelerating project of the Republican Party since at least the talk radio explosion following the demise of the Fairness Doctrine. Maybe longer if you go back to Moon landing deniers and their ilk.
You’re kind of arguing against the foundation of human society. If we’re all required to “do our own research” about things, where does that requirement end?
Yes, you should do your own research. How much research you need to do depends on the subject matter, how critical it is, and the potential for motivation to mislead you. I can’t tell you where that ends, but for politics and news I am of the opinion that it should end a lot later than trusting a random stranger to censor your access to content.
How can I buy food if I have to do my own research on what’s healthy or what’s dangerous?
You probably should research this.
What about my tap water?
Yeah, you probably should also research this before drinking it because of how critical it is. Maybe get it tested or read your city’s water test results. Do they have motivation to mislead you?
How can I put gas in my car? Use electricity? A computer? A phone?
I’m not sure what the struggle is here.
Somewhere along the way you have to trust the systems that have been built by the people before us to function, and for people who work in those fields who are experts to use their expertise.
Yes and no. Should you see inconsistencies, you should probably verify that what you’re trusting is accurate. Inconsistencies like blocking wikileaks on a qanon blocklist. However, what you’re talking about isn’t even the case here. We’re talking about a blocklist maintained by strangers on the internet.
You put qanon on the same level as wikileaks?
Well both are suspected to be influenced by Russia, with the goal of undermining the west.
Name a major media outlet that hasn’t been suspected to be influenced by Russia.
Nope. The linked list does. Check the URLs. WikiLeaks is blocked.
I use that list as well as the ones at https://github.com/antifa-n/pihole/ (though they haven’t been updated in years). I also use OpenDNS upstream to block their “Hate/Discrimination” category (among others).
I’ve been pretty happy with this setup, but I would welcome alternatives/additional blocklists.
I’d rather be able to filter these topics from sites like Lemmy, I’ll never actually go to them. I’m curious what you’re really trying to accomplish.
