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I generally try to avoid conspiracy theories but, in this case, I think the conclusions cannot be rationally avoided. Various interests around the world are deliberately and very skillfully using social media to derail democratic societies. The basic idea is to use the ideal of free speech against nations that try to protect free speech. Russia's known efforts to manipulate US elections is just the tiny tip of a giant iceberg.
I'm wondering if anyone here has read this book: LikeWar: The Weaponization of Social Media https://www.likewarbook.com/
I have not yet read the book, but I did hear an NPR interview which I found somewhat shocking, even though I was already familiar with many of the examples and ideas: https://www.npr.org/2018/10/09/65582...d-consequences
I think we need to take these threats seriously, and I think we should all make a conscious effort to foil these conspiratorial efforts by not falling for the trolls/bots, etc. who are fueling a lot of the deep political and social divisions in America. The question is: How do we protect ourselves?
And if any mods are reading this, I would love to know what, if anything C-D is doing to identify bots, etc., who might be bringing this "war" here to C-D threads. Have any nefarious agents of this sort been identified and kicked out of C-D? If so, are their posts still available for viewing?
I haven't heard of it, Galylenwolf, and NPR is good about these things, but I'm a little cautious about books that aren't from a major publisher, and the authors seem to have right-wing-ish credentials.
But I'll in turn mention a book I heard about from NPR:
I think bots are actually protected. I really do. I think social media is aware of their existence on their forums, and they are serving a purpose to get "debates" started. Great for the sites, bad for overall morale.
I am actually surprised that this hasn't been proposed already because it happened for years with the e-mail chains that say Obama is a Muslim who got sworn in the Q'aran.
I haven't heard of it, Galylenwolf, and NPR is good about these things, but I'm a little cautious about books that aren't from a major publisher, and the authors seem to have right-wing-ish credentials.
If you listen to the NPR interview, I think your concerns about the credibility of the authors will be alleviated. But I want to emphasize that these authors are looking at examples that range far, far, far beyond Russian bots in the 2016 election. Gang wars in Chicago, for example, triggered by social media posts. "Twitter wars" in the Middle East. Fans of Taylor Swift vs. fans of Kayne West, etc.
Basically, you can join on-line "armies" aiming to sway public opinion one way or another. And there are "click farms" where 100s of people in impoverished countries are paid (sorta like "sweat shops") to click on "likes" etc. (I've also heard of companies paying people to produce fake product reviews on Amazon.)
One major casualty, of course, is our ability to distinguish real news from fake stuff (e.g., truth gets consistently buried under mountains of flat-out lies), but a lot of it also leads to straight-up physical violence - in some cases even fairly large-scale violence. Also worrisome: AI tech being used to with greater and greater effectiveness to create fake pics and videos that are nearly indistinguishable from actual recordings ("deep fakes"). And on the theme of AI, we find that "AI wars" are starting to emerge in which AI vs AI leaves us caught in the middle of floods of fakery and propaganda. https://www.npr.org/2018/10/09/65582...d-consequences
Last edited by Gaylenwoof; 10-09-2018 at 08:34 PM..
The biggest facilitators of this are the big wigs like FB and Google themselves. Lies, deceit and propaganda are tools of the radical ends of the spectrum and today the Leftist end controls the media in all of it's forms. These giant Leftist media conglomerates are Fascist tools to be used to push lies, discord and division just like the Commies wanted to happen for over a hundred years here.
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