SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the overlords-for-the-robotic-overlords dept.
This morning I was trying to find a video via Youtube of a dust-up that happened in an MLB game last night. I tripped over an annoying video with a robotic voice and still images being scrolled across the screen. I thought I hit this same video more than once, but it may have been multiple videos after seeing what Destin has come up with.
This evening, I finally watched a Smarter Every Day video that's been in my notifications for a few days and lo, he starts talking about political videos that look exactly like the one that plagued me this morning.
The first third of the SED video is the part I thought would be interesting to Soylents. It explains how these multiple videos with subtle changes are intended to avoid detection by algorithms that are looking for repeat postings. Later he also looks at how they are using the different platforms to generate buzz on each other, pushing the fake content up in listings. (In the 9th minute we're shown how easy it is to buy likes and comments and a farm of hundreds of smart phones to get it done.)
The technical measures Big Tech (Youtube, Twitter, Facebook) are both employing and being inundated with to either protect us or get content in front of us is fascinating.
Part 2 and 3 will cover interviews with Twitter and Facebook. I'm sure there are folks here that were already familiar with these goings on, can you share with us any other places to educate ourselves?
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 06 2019, @04:00AM (1 child)
Indeed. My point where I realized just how manufactured it all is was a trip across the united states. I was an avid NPR listener. Can't get more benign than that right? Station after station reading the same story over and over. Each time by a different person. Presenting it as if they wrote it themselves. That was 20 years ago. The more I looked for 'balanced' the less I see 'news' or 'facts' but click bait, manipulation, half-truths, and opinion disguised as facts.
A common tactic I see from 'liberal' stations is what I call association. It will be something like lets say a political figure does something that most people do not agree with. If it is a republican the story will read almost every time something like "John Doe, a Republican senator for the state of blah, did something bad" whereas a democrat will get something along the lines of "John Doe a senator did something bad". They will selectively leave out facts to sway you into association of bad things to other groups. That is but a simple one and one of the first ones you can find. Once you 'see' the pattern it is hard to 'un-see'. 'conservative' sites have their own set of tactics too.
Another common tactic I see is what we called on the green site 'slashvertisiments'. Basically political and companies will buy news. They do not even have to pay much. Most news is wildly rushed out the door. So political groups and companies will pre-prepare stories for the news to basically read for when they have a gap (and there are many). Once you realize they can buy trivial news. What if there was real money or power on the line? They are willing to do it for a few bucks. What about when hundreds of thousands are on the line? What would they do?
The tabloid style click news is what rules now. These groups have seized upon it with such vigor you could almost admire it if it were not for the poison they are foisting upon our society. The more division they create the more the echo chambers they build work. The more people click and reclick on their stuff. All so they can show you an ad impression and make 0.0001 cents from you.
In the case of the new gate keepers. They have mistakenly bought into the idea that there is a final truth and that only they can see it. They have fallen into the smart person fallacy that they can fix this and that they are right by default. The root of the issue is money, power, and the enabler of this advertisements. There is money to be made so the whole system is being manipulated, even by the gate keepers themselves. They even freely admit it and deplatform those they do not agree with.
If you had told me 20 years ago that CNN would go off the rails like it has, and google would deliberately censor information, I would have thought you crazy. But here we are.
At first you think 'nah I am just being crazy'. Then you see more lies. Then more. Then more twists of truth into half truths. Eventually you realize "I am not crazy I am being gaslighted by liars and narcissists".
The logical thing to do is to ignore these raving idiots. They are yelling louder and louder as more people tune them out. It is how narcissists draw you back into their web of lies and how they feed on your misery. The same tactics you use to disassociate from a narcissist work with these news wonks.
You may think 'but I may miss the news'. The big stuff pops out. The trivial shit designed to piss you off falls away.
Do not feed the trolls. Which is what these people have become. They have become what they hate.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 06 2019, @05:55PM
honk honk