Abuse of power on Steemit easier like on other platforms?
Announcement
My first week here on Steemit is over and I decided to post my articles from now on in both German and English.
On one hand, I’m hoping to reach a bigger audience with this method, on the other hand my previous followers will now be able to choose in which language they would like to enjoy my content. Thanks to @oliverschmid who gave me the final impulse of doing this.
Back to topic
Since I’ve been here for some days now I could get a general overview how things are working here. And I surely noticed that this platform is becoming more and more popular because of block chain technology which should prohibit censorship.
The force of Steem Power and how it could be abused
But I also noticed that some users who own a lot of Steem Power are in a position with a lot of influence. On one side, they are able to push an article with a strong upvote way up within the trends, but on the other side the exact opposite is possible with a downvote / flag.
Since the maximum weight of a vote mainly depends on the users Steem Power, I started to consider about the following scenario…
In commercial media, we are at least also just being served only the news they want us to read or listen to. If you’re interested into the other side of the critical part you need to dig them out for yourself or in some nations it’s just been censored or deleted completely, so it’s very hard to get that information.
But within this environment it’s not enough to own a lot of money to practice censorship. You need to work very hard at to obtain a position of power that will allow you to do this. You need to be a governmental institution or for example on of the leading news service providers.
Like I already mentioned on Steemit the weight of a downvote mainly depends on the Steem Power a user has. So, I asked myself if it wouldn’t be an easy game for rich people or rather institutions to start instructing or giving directions just by putting a lot of money inside an account.
They would be able to instantly obtain a lot of power without doing anything for it, whether they have followers or not.
Another more passive method of prohibiting independent thoughts might be that users may feel scared to get a downvote and lose their good position when talking about specific topics which those whales don’t like. Or they might just show an opinion which doesn’t reflect their own, true one.
What’s your opinion on these thoughts? Do you agree with my doubts or do you think I am completely wrong? Feel free to tell me about it in the comments section.
Have a nice day everyone!
If you liked this article please upvote. You can also follow me @liveyourdream. I’m talking these days about psychology and communication.
Why not remove flagging so there'll be true freedom of speech and no abusive censorship?
On one side you're right it would mean true freedom. On the other side there must be some way to stop people from spamming. There's a discrepancy I know but it's really hard to find a solution that everybody can agree with, if there will ever be one.
What if spammers are penalized with a reduction of steem power and likewise false flaggers, subject to review by users with a clean record for honesty on Steemit?
Right now its an issue because steem has so few users, but when there are millions and billions, there will be only so much flagging that can occur... and besides all flagging does is change the rewards and rep, but the info is still on the BLOCKCHAIN - so yes the gov can come in and try to remove controversial subjects from the trending page - but they will never be CENSORED!!! long live STEEM!
My guess is that there are more than one of these US deepstate/Soros & co funded profiles with very deep pockets active on this Steemit platform and that these profiles that have a lot of alternative accounts at the same time are trying to create chaos here by organising 'fake flamewars' etc. in an attempt to scare away newcomers or to silence differing opinions, mainstreaming Steemit as it happens with Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and the western MSM.
I think at the beginning #steempower is the most important to focus on. So when your #blog or #vblog will get upvoted and you get your pay out in 7 days, use all of it on Steempower. I think tehre are also many of us who rightaway inversted own money in to #Steem and converted it to Steempower. I seen some blogger that registered 4 days ago and already have 4 blohs makiing 200$ per post. Could be that they have friends on steemit with a lot of influance but maybe the blogs where promoted or other users checked the wallet and seen that the blooggers influance is high and started following and upvoting.
There are also small communities that help eachother by upvoting, commenting, promoting and more. That's how new users get that push to have more influance if the user decides to put every reward to steempower.
Don't forget that you have to be seen as much as possible and it is important that you woould be the first one to comment on a blog cause then everyone will see it and if it's an interesting comment or a reply you may get upvoted and then followed by others.
Yeah I’m aware of that and I already took first steps in optimization and looking for some people to join. Anyway in a group it’s much more fun! Thanks for the advice :)
Some interesting thoughts here. I like how you compare it with the media, or governmental institutions. I think on both sides you can find people who are abusing the system, trying to find holes in it and exploit them rather than fixing them. looking forwards for your new posts!