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Originally Posted by wireframe
I totally believe that social media algorithms are guiding vulnerable people toward extremism. People are clearly escalating from disliking Justin Trudeau to insane conspiracy theories. I also believe that the Russian state is trying to spread dis-information these platforms.
Where I'm skepitcal is that Russia is the primary cause of this rising extremism online. There are people in North America spreading the same level of disinfomation, then the Twitter or Facebook algorithm points the terror-curious further and further down the rabbit-hole. I don't see why it has to be Russia. Is Russia that much more effective at spreading dis-information than Fox News + Joe Rogan + Jordan Peterson?
Does anyone have a source to suggest that Russia is the original source of any of this? Seems like wishful thinking by people who want to blame an outside actor.
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Fox News literally didn’t drop pro-Russian talking points until the sanctions cut off the money.
These trolls are sitting in a building somewhere doing nothing but interacting with inflammatory content in inflammatory ways. The algorithm doesn’t have a defense for that.
A non-conspiratorial example - for months, I was getting a clip entitled “Major Lennox Answered with his LIFE” on YouTube. It was from an old British show called Sharpe, with Sean Bean.
I didn’t watch it for weeks. I’d see the thumbnail with some old man doing crazy eyes, and I’d consciously decide “nope, not doing it”.
Well, eventually I did find out what Major Lennox had answered with his life for, and without clicking a like button or leaving a comment, I had (and still have) Sharpe videos clogging up my feed.
Now imagine that multiplied by a thousand. Or ten thousand. Or a million. And apply it to posts about immigrants, Black Lives Matter, Hunter Biden, Justin Trudeau, the EU, pronouns, etc.
The Russians don’t even need to create this stuff - Americans do it for them. They just need to like and share. Hit The angry emoji. Leave a comment.
The damage is done.