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Category: In Practice

Social Media is a stupidity amplifier

Social Media is a stupidity amplifier

The news that big insurance companies are dropping out of the exchanges doesn’t mean Obamacare is broken, writes Tim Mullaney. The problem is easily fixable once we realize it’s really about a few specialty drugs. Source: How Gilead ‘broke’ Obamacare This article, from a Marketwatch.com reporter says insurance companies are dropping out of ObamaCare due to expensive “specialty drugs”. This assertion does not pass the giggle test. This article, and its sharing on social media, demonstrates how social media amplifies…

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Some speech is more equal than others

Some speech is more equal than others

“Throughout the document, OSJI’s position appears to be that private actors on the internet must be brought under international control in order to prevent them from suppressing each other’s freedom of expression and speech.” Open Society Justice Initiative Proposed 2014 Strategy/DCLeaks Source: Leaked Soros Document Calls For Regulating Internet To Favor ‘Open Society’ Supporters Via @dailycaller Propaganda is all about influencing – or controlling – the media. This blog has shown how social media has become a frictionless conduit for the dissemination…

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How to use charts for misleading propaganda!

How to use charts for misleading propaganda!

This chart appeared on a blog post saying auto sales are “down again” and this should worry us about a recession.  See that blue arrow at the right? Looks horrible!!!! But this chart design is a real mess. First, the blue arrow anchors our view on the blue line and its downturn at the right. But the real chart is the harder to see gray column chart. Column charts are a *terrible* way to show a trend – line charts…

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A surprising System 1 style response to a social media propaganda meme

A surprising System 1 style response to a social media propaganda meme

Most highly successful social media propaganda is visual, has few words, and is processed within seconds by the intended target, Liked and Shared, passing along the message to others. This is our System 1 quick, easy, intuitive thinking style in operation. In other words, we do not think, we respond at a gut or emotional level. Much propaganda messaging can only be countered, typically, with logic and facts, which requires, slow thinking (System 2), which is hard and thus the…

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Social media viral nonsense and the story that never ends

Social media viral nonsense and the story that never ends

TL;DR Summary Photo purports to show the ejection of a USAF Thunderbird pilot in Smyrna, TN in early June 2016. This photo had, in moments, been shared nearly 8,000 times on FB. The photo is actually from a USAF crash in Mountain Home, ID in 2003 and the photo was taken by a USAF Airman. You can read about that actual incident here. No one questioned the truthfulness of the photo – yet it took just seconds to locate the…

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How Russia uses social media for propaganda (We do too!)

How Russia uses social media for propaganda (We do too!)

“Russia’s campaign to shape international opinion around its invasion of Ukraine has extended to recruiting and training a new cadre of online trolls that have been deployed to spread the Kremlin’s message on the comments section of top American websites.” Source: Documents Show How Russia’s Troll Army Hit America – BuzzFeed News The United States government also does this. Remember back in the fall of 2013 when many of us had our health insurance policies canceled? These were the policies…

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Heads of state meet with social media CEO over propaganda opportunities

Heads of state meet with social media CEO over propaganda opportunities

German Chancellor Angela Merkel met with Facebook Nation president Mark Zuckerberg to request that Facebook Nation censor certain kinds of speech on social media: Speaking to the European leader at a luncheon, Zuckerberg was heard saying ‘we need to do some work’ in reference to the German push against racist and xenophobic posts on the Internet. ‘Are you working on this?’ Merkel, who has seen an increase in violence against immigrants in her country during a massive intake of Syrian…

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Facebook alleged to suppress anti-immigration content

Facebook alleged to suppress anti-immigration content

Groups opposed to some U.S. immigration programs claim Facebook has suppressed their content and visibility of their groups. These allegation, if true, could be due to algorithm design errors or deliberate. Either way, these allegations illustrate the potential of social media propaganda:

Social media "Mommy blogger" admits it is all fake

Social media "Mommy blogger" admits it is all fake

A prominent “Mommy blogger” says the genre of “Mommy blogs” is fake – with nonsense content, stories of fake lives, fake happiness, and paid sponsorship for product reviews that are always about wonderful products. It’s all about propaganda messaging!!! Her advice to all other mommy bloggers: ‘Just quit’ Source: Mommy Blogger Josi Denise Admits Articles Are Fake – Motto She says these bloggers inflate their reader numbers by cheating and lying about their readership, by paying assistants to post links to…

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Wall Street Journal demonstrates propaganda usage on Facebook

Wall Street Journal demonstrates propaganda usage on Facebook

The WSJ takes a look at how Facebook classifies users as either liberal or conservative, and then, how this yields either liberal or conservative perspectives (social media propaganda posters) within one’s news feed. This demonstrates the thesis of this blog – that social media has become the world’s most effective propaganda operation: See Liberal Facebook and Conservative Facebook, Side by Side Source: Blue Feed, Red Feed Update: I noticed that I mostly see left-wing propaganda posters in my news feed…

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