mainstream online platforms themselves are not neutral
Unless you mean they’re not neutral about whatever yields income, I’m not sure that’s conclusive.
Their “algorithm” optimizes for keeping users online regardless of what does that.
A particular political orientation isn’t necessary to do that.
That current ragebait predominantly leans right-wing may just reflect who’s putting the resources to sustain a ragebaiting campaign & evade bans.
While I’ve seen signs & reports of the right gaining influence through viral propaganda & attempts to dominate mainstream platforms, I see little sign of the left seriously doing that.
When foreign adversaries weaponize social media, instead of putting out one-sided propaganda, they target friction points by trying to manipulate people on both sides.
They’d not only push supportive propaganda, but also radicalizing propaganda to discredit the “supported” side to itself & inflame divisions.
Maybe some propaganda is needed to inflame right-wing divisions & exploit their contradictions.
Left-wing propaganda could be put out in guises that appear right-wing and probably catch on: the right isn’t exceptionally bright.
they are constantly deleting accounts of left wing politicians in my country, and went as far as blocking all left wing profiles for a while when they knew they would go viral because of recent happenings.
google and meta lobbied (and succeeded) for blocking a law that would make fascists accountable for their lies on the internet, and it’s common knowledge here youtube will push fascist, christofascist and generally conspiratorial right wing slop aggressively.
google took millions from actual fascists to push extremist propaganda in their search results. shit i could go on a bit.
in this case the one-sided foreign right wing propaganda is pushed by themselves. i don’t know how exactly they conceal this in the US, but i hear leftist content creators constantly complaining about similar shit online. mainstream social media platforms are very explicitly fascist, and run by fascists.
they would never allow such botting for left wing ideas like they do fascists.
You’ve pointed out problems with (shadow)bans of organic, real person profiles & the uncontrolled spread of right-wing misinformation & propaganda.
I’m not talking about accounts of politicians.
Politicians are not everyone’s peers.
People more strongly engage with messages spread through their network of peers.
That’s why I’m suggesting adopting the same propaganda machine tactics.
That includes bots feigning right-wing accounts to gain clout with right-wing communities, then when they have enough credibility, deftly inject left-wing ideas into “right-wing propaganda”, spread misinformation damaging the right, denounce right-wing figures as not “right-wing” enough.
Fight lies with lies, inflame tensions, cut rifts into the right.
To Brazilian sociologist Sérgio Amadeu, “online social networks and platforms controlled by big tech companies are geopolitical structures increasingly aligned with the far right.” In June, at seminars held by Bolsonaro’s right-wing Liberal party (PL), executives from Meta gave workshops teaching how to use AI and achieve greater reach on the platform.
The left could very well do likewise to “use AI and achieve greater reach on the platform”.
Instead of resist and try to restrict the lies & propaganda, they could embrace & turn the same tactics against them.
they would never allow such botting for left wing ideas like they do fascists.
I’ve yet to see that.
Social media like reddit is overrun with bots & fake content that they seem unable or uninterested to prevent.
It’s an arms race between platform operators & bot operators working new ways to raise & defeat moderator controls.
Shit gets through anyway.
It’s a matter of competing & doing in kind.
the problem with bot farms specifically is that the mainstream online platforms themselves are not neutral. i’m open to ideas.
Unless you mean they’re not neutral about whatever yields income, I’m not sure that’s conclusive. Their “algorithm” optimizes for keeping users online regardless of what does that. A particular political orientation isn’t necessary to do that. That current ragebait predominantly leans right-wing may just reflect who’s putting the resources to sustain a ragebaiting campaign & evade bans. While I’ve seen signs & reports of the right gaining influence through viral propaganda & attempts to dominate mainstream platforms, I see little sign of the left seriously doing that.
When foreign adversaries weaponize social media, instead of putting out one-sided propaganda, they target friction points by trying to manipulate people on both sides. They’d not only push supportive propaganda, but also radicalizing propaganda to discredit the “supported” side to itself & inflame divisions.
Maybe some propaganda is needed to inflame right-wing divisions & exploit their contradictions. Left-wing propaganda could be put out in guises that appear right-wing and probably catch on: the right isn’t exceptionally bright.
i mean in the literal sense.
they are constantly deleting accounts of left wing politicians in my country, and went as far as blocking all left wing profiles for a while when they knew they would go viral because of recent happenings.
google and meta lobbied (and succeeded) for blocking a law that would make fascists accountable for their lies on the internet, and it’s common knowledge here youtube will push fascist, christofascist and generally conspiratorial right wing slop aggressively.
google took millions from actual fascists to push extremist propaganda in their search results. shit i could go on a bit.
in this case the one-sided foreign right wing propaganda is pushed by themselves. i don’t know how exactly they conceal this in the US, but i hear leftist content creators constantly complaining about similar shit online. mainstream social media platforms are very explicitly fascist, and run by fascists.
they would never allow such botting for left wing ideas like they do fascists.
You’ve pointed out problems with (shadow)bans of organic, real person profiles & the uncontrolled spread of right-wing misinformation & propaganda. I’m not talking about accounts of politicians. Politicians are not everyone’s peers. People more strongly engage with messages spread through their network of peers.
That’s why I’m suggesting adopting the same propaganda machine tactics. That includes bots feigning right-wing accounts to gain clout with right-wing communities, then when they have enough credibility, deftly inject left-wing ideas into “right-wing propaganda”, spread misinformation damaging the right, denounce right-wing figures as not “right-wing” enough. Fight lies with lies, inflame tensions, cut rifts into the right.
Since you’re referring to Brazil, another article on the topic mentions
The left could very well do likewise to “use AI and achieve greater reach on the platform”. Instead of resist and try to restrict the lies & propaganda, they could embrace & turn the same tactics against them.
I’ve yet to see that. Social media like reddit is overrun with bots & fake content that they seem unable or uninterested to prevent. It’s an arms race between platform operators & bot operators working new ways to raise & defeat moderator controls. Shit gets through anyway. It’s a matter of competing & doing in kind.