Be an Information Warrior: Fun and Easy Too
September 16, 2022
I spotted an article in Politico. I won’t present the full title because the words in that title will trigger a range of smart software armed with stop words. Here’s the link if you want to access the source to which I shall refer.
I can paraphrase the title, however. Here’s my stab at avoiding digital tripwires: “Counter Propaganda Tailored to Neutralize Putin’s Propaganda.”
The idea is that a “community” has formed to pump out North Atlantic Fellas’ Organization weaponized and targeted information. The source article says:
NAFO “fellas,” as they prefer to be called, emblazon their Twitter accounts with the Shiba Inu avatar. They overlay the image on TikTok-style videos of Ukrainian troops set to dance music soundtracks. They pile onto Russian propaganda via coordinated social media attacks that rely on humor — it’s hard to take a badly-drawn dog meme seriously — to poke fun at the Kremlin and undermine its online messaging.
The idea is that NAFO is “weaponizing meme culture.” The icon for the informal group is Elon Musk’s favorite digital creature.
The image works well with a number of other images in my opinion. The source write up contains a number of examples.
My thought is that if one has relatives or friends in Russia, joining the NAFO outfit might have some knock on consequences.
From my point of view, once secret and little known information warfare methods are now like Elon Musk. Everywhere.
Stephen E Arnold, September 16, 2022
False Expertise: Just Share and Feel Empowered in Intellect
September 15, 2022
I read “Share on Social Media Makes Us Overconfident in Our Knowledge.” The write up states:
Social media sharers believe that they are knowledgeable about the content they share, even if they have not read it or have only glanced at a headline. Sharing can create this rise in confidence because by putting information online, sharers publicly commit to an expert identity. Doing so shapes their sense of self, helping them to feel just as knowledgeable as their post makes them seem.
If the source were a hippy dippy online marketing outfit, I would have ignored the write up. But the research comes from a cow town university. I believe the write up. Would those cowpokes steer me wrong, pilgrim?
I wonder if the researchers will take time out after a Cowboy Kent Rollins cook out to explore the correlation between the boundless expertise of the Silicon Valley “real news” crowd and this group’s dependence on Twitter and similar output channels?
That would make an interesting study because some of the messaging is wild and crazy like a college professor lost in a college bar on dollar beer night.
Stephen E Arnold, September 15, 2022
Tweet Terror in Some Geographic Areas
September 8, 2022
While western countries are chided for controversial engagement with LGBTQ groups, they cannot compare the staunch hatred they face in the Middle East. The Middle East is dominated by fundamentalist Islamic governments that criminalize homosexuality and transgender people. Unfortunately, these groups experienced a new wave of hatred Euro News reported in, “Arabic Anti-LGBTQ Campaign Goes On Twitter.”
The anti-LGBTQ campaign is called Fetrah, meaning “human instinct” in Arabic. Three Egyptian marketing professionals experienced in social media campaigns designed Fetrah. Fetrah promotes only two genders, rejects homosexuality, and supporters show a blue and pink flag.
Meta deleted the Fetrah page, but supporters managed to get a different page up on Facebook as well as on Instagram. Unlike other social media platforms, Twitter does not ban hate groups like Fetrah:
“Mahsa Alimardani, a digital rights expert told the Cube that Twitter and other social media platforms should be investing more resources into fighting this harmful campaign. ‘Too much censorship and policing can actually be a problem on some platforms but with Twitter we often find that the reverse is true, especially when it comes to harassment and harmful content targeting vulnerable communities’ said Alimardini. ‘We can see here a prime example of how queer communities in the Middle Eastern and North African regions can be harmed by Twitter’s inaction. The platform has very high threshold when it comes to policing content, which can be harmful,’ she added.”
Western countries have their faults, but many people have a “live and let live” attitude when it comes to LGBTQ people. People in the Middle East are not that different, but hatred is unfortunately promoted by religious governments.
Whitney Grace, September 8, 2022
A Surprise: Newton Minnow Was Prescient
August 30, 2022
Social media is to blame for most misinformation spreading across the Internet faster than viral videos. Despite declining numbers, TV still plays a huge part in the polarization of the American populace. Ars Technica explains why: “It’s Just Not Social Media: Cable News Has Bigger Effect On Polarization.” While social media echo chambers exist, it is not at the huge scale we have been led to believe.
Researchers from Microsoft Researchers, Stanford University, and the University of Pennsylvania tracked TV consumption from thousands of American adults between 2016 to 2019. They discovered that selective news exposure did increase polarization, but it mostly came from TV. They found that 17% of American TV news watchers are politically polarized with a near-split average between left and right politics. That is three to four times higher than online news watchers.
TV watchers also do not change their viewing habits:
“Besides being more politically siloed on average, our research found that TV news consumers are much more likely than web consumers to maintain the same partisan news diets over time: after six months, left-leaning TV audiences are 10 times more likely to remain segregated than left-leaning online audiences, and right-leaning audiences are 4.5 times more likely than their online counterparts. While these figures may seem intimidating, it is important to keep in mind that even among TV viewers, about 70 percent of right-leaning viewers and about 80 percent of left-leaning viewers do switch their news diets within six months. To the extent that long-lasting echo chambers do exist, then, they include only about 4 percent of the population.”
Also depending on the TV viewers’ political leanings, they never stray too far from preferred news networks. The political imbalance is increasing among how audiences get their news, because more are shifting from broadcast news to cable.
This is not good, because it increases divisions among people rather than showing the commonalities everyone shares. It also makes news more sensational than it needs to be.
Whitney Grace, August 30, 2022
How Fragile Is Twitter?
August 25, 2022
The question is, “How fragile is Twitter?” I am not a tweeter. I think we have a script which posts items from this blog, but I am not sure. Twitter is more of a left and right coast thing. Those who love it find that it can deliver “followers” and one hopes personal satisfaction, fame, and fortune.
The datasphere is rippling with Twitter news. I glanced at Techmeme today (August 25, 2022 at about 6 30 am) and spotted many, many Twitter stories.
There was the former DARPA technology security wizard. This individual offered assertions about Twitter’s management and technology ineptitude. The Washington Post is excited about the individual’s forthcoming testimony before the adepts on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Mark your calendar and warm up the TV. The event takes place on September 13, 2022. For the breathless explanation of how a critique of the tweeter thing becomes a Senate hearing in a few short weeks, read “Twitter Whistleblower To Testify In Congress About Security Failures.”
Twitter’s senior manager takes a different position. The tweeter is up to snuff.
Elon Musk is excited because the to and fro about Twitter may be helpful to his brilliant business maneuvering to bring the Musky scent of excellence to short messages mostly unrestrained by someone with a sense of propriety. “Twitter Lied To Elon Musk About Bots – Peiter Zatko, Ex Security Chief” explains
Following the publication of Zatko’s revelations on different news outlets, Tesla CEO, Elon Musk took to his Twitter profile to comment about the issue. Musk tweeted a screenshot of The Washington Post covering the whistleblower’s revelation, accompanied by another tweet of an image, with the phrase “give a little whistle”.
My reaction to the Twitter thing has two parts. The first part is the craziness that Twitter has engendered in its service, its management trajectory, and its PR magnetism. Twitter has zero impact on me personally or professionally, and it is remarkable that so much weirdness surrounds a text messaging service in which the content is publicly available.
The second part of my reaction is the sense that some of the journalists, pundits, and wizards who have achieved Twitter fame may be in for some life realignment. These people will either surge even higher in the Twitter Hall of Fame or end up hoping their TikTok videos deliver what has been lost.
As I reflect on the coterie of Twitter addicts users and the fascinating management history of the company, I come back to the question, “How fragile is Twitter?”
One can argue that it survived with a part time boss, technical failures which involved a very happy beluga icon, and appearing at the bottom of high-tech social media company revenue disappointments. Thus, Twitter is robust, a survivor, a resilient digital creature.
On the other hand, Twitter is engaged in a legal spat with the mercurial Mr. Musk. Twitter is in the news because it loses executives who allege silly technical policies. Twitter is getting love from the tweeters who depend on the service for fame and sales leads. The internal cohesion of a wild and crazy high tech outfit like Google makes Twitter look like a stack of objects stacked by inebriated college students.
I don’t have a dog’s musk gland in the Twitter fight. What I can say is, “Twitter. Interesting.”
Stephen E Arnold, August 25, 2022
Yandex: Has Russia Embraced the Chinese Approach to Social Media and Online?
August 23, 2022
The answer to the question “Has Russia Embraced the Chinese Approach to Technology?” is, “Seems like it.”
Like China, Russia has come to understand the power and threat online services represent to the entities holding nation state power. Technology companies which follow different rules than “regular” countries have to be brought under control or killed outright. Russia is into control.
Vkontakte top dog is the scion of Mr. Putin’s top dog. If you are into Russian names, the boss of Vkontakte is Vladimir Kirienko. Mr. Putin’s confidante and senior administrator is Sergei Kirienko. But a tame CEO is not enough. Threats have to be put in a cage and made subject to a higher power, not people with mobile phones.
Vkontakte is a semi-Facebook, just in Russian. It has about 100 million users. The company’s properties include Mail.ru, the social network Odnoklassniki, and a food delivery outfit. According to “Yandex Reaches Binding Deal to Divest News Service, Homepage to VK”:
Yandex said it is pursuing a “strategic exit from its media businesses” with the sale of Yandex.News, Yandex.ru and the Yandex.Zen blogging tool to VK. The Yandex.ru domain will be renamed dzen.ru under VK’s control and further development. Yandex’s main page — with search, mail and non-media tools — will be renamed ya.ru.
What happens to Yandex email addresses? In addition to being read and analyzed by the watch dogs, the future of Yandex mail is fuzzy.
The key take away for me is that China and Russia recognize the threat social media and online information pose. If these nation states’ concerns are valid, will countries with uncontrolled social media operating without meaningful oversight and regulation tear themselves apart?
China’s and Russia’s strategic military thinkers could be anticipating this result. Which view is correct? Social media is the Zucker’s view of bringing people together or the opposite?
Interesting question to consider.
Stephen E Arnold, August 23, 2022
Ah, Ha! The Social Media Conundrum?
August 8, 2022
Facebook and Twitter both began as humble undergrad side projects. Both platforms, and social media in general, have since mutated into something much more consequential. That is why The Next Web declares “Social Media Companies Should Be Converted Into Nonprofits.” Writer David Ryan Polgar asserts:
“Social media companies like Twitter have morphed — whether their founders intended them to or not — into important social institutions with grave consequences for both the future of democracy and the human condition. Yet these platforms still remain constrained by their structures as for-profit companies with a duty to their shareholders. Whether Mark Zuckerberg or Elon Musk (if the Twitter deal goes through) are acting in the best interest of the public as they lead their respective companies is missing the larger point: They should never have such unchecked power. To allow such is to enter a future where the public is vulnerable to billionaires’ whims as they shape the future of communication. That isn’t a future I’d want to live in.”
You mean we cannot trust a few billionaires to navigate the fine line between protecting free expression and reigning in hate speech, misinformation, and other harmful content? While such a balance is tricky even for governments, Polgar notes, at least there voters have some say in who is making these choices. The write-up continues:
“Twitter’s growth into a ‘de facto public town square,’ I would argue, should necessitate its radically reimagining its business structure, transforming into a nonprofit or benefit corporation, which is a legal structure that includes the overall benefit to society as an objective of the business, not just maximizing profits. If the platform immensely affects the public — as both Jack Dorsey and Elon Musk argue it does — its business model should serve the public interest and not shareholders or the ego of a company leader.”
We cannot argue with that last sentiment, but not all nonprofits benefit society as one would hope. The other direction implied here would be to make social media platforms into government entities, an idea that would float as well as a lead balloon in today’s climate. So what is society to do? The solution continues to elude as we chug along in a landscape paved by social media.
Cynthia Murrell, August 8, 2022
Surprise! Undisclosed Sponsorships Abound on TikTok
August 4, 2022
Would you consider this weaponized information or just Madison Avenue in the digital era? Vox reveals, “TikTok Is Full of Shady Secret Advertisements.” Regulations specify social media influencers must disclose if they are being paid to endorse or display a product, but many fail to do so. And with issues like privacy protection taking top priority, the FTC is hard pressed to stop them. Though the problem has existed across social media platforms for years, TikTok has taken it to a new level. Reporter Sara Morrison writes:
“It’s pervasive because it’s easy: With the internet and social media, there is a seemingly infinite supply of content to regulate and almost no transparency, which makes it exceedingly difficult for the agencies charged with enforcing the rules to know when they’re being broken. … But TikTok’s undisclosed ad problem seems to be particularly bad. The app is believed to be especially addictive, with users spending far more time on TikTok than on competitors’ apps. And everything is younger: the users, the creators, and the platform itself. TikTok is only now encountering some of the regulatory and legal growing pains its social media platform peers faced years ago. TikTok is also very popular with a desirable and elusive demographic: Gen Z. And brands know that influencers can be a great way to reach them.”
See the article for several examples and some of the factors making it difficult for regulators to curb such “sponcon.” Sponsors and influencers might be underestimating Gen Z, however, and this tactic may eventually backfire. Most of those born after 1997 have enough digital savvy to know when they are being sold to and resent attempts at trickery. Though it sounds like an oxymoron to older folks, members of this generation value authenticity in their virtual interactions. If TikTok continues to let sponsorship violations slide, it might just see its treasured target audience slip away.
Cynthia Murrell, August 4, 2022
Figure This Rights Issue Out? Too Confusing for Me
July 28, 2022
I spotted a post at this Reddit location. I want to believe everything I read on the Internet because the information superhighway is so darned safe, well marked, and a clean, well lighted place. (Thanks, Mr. Hemingway.)
The post about which my attention wobbled is from an entity/persona named Simon Longbottom. The individual says:
I work at Adobe Stock Premium and it has come to my attention that Picrights is using this photo image and we have no record of their license to use this picture.
The picture is referenced in the Reddit post.
Simon says:
I am authorizing everyone reading this to act as an agent of Adobe Stock Premium to get fair compensation for their infringement. You should all be familiar with how to request this payment. I suggest sending them an email demand letter telling them to to take down the photo immediately and pay our standard licensing fee of $1786 for this image to settle our claim. My boss says that you can keep 85% of everything you get from this terrible company that has committed such terrible infraction. They need to learn a real lesson – please help me teach it to them.
Picrights is a professional services firm which collects use fees for rights holders. I am not too familiar with the outfit, and I don’t know if Simon works for Adobe.
The question is, “What’s going on in this post?”
The matter is complicated by the inclusion in the thread of emails for professionals working at Picrights. Those emails might be used by bad actors I suppose.
I like to think of Reddit personas and outfits which walk close to possibly improper behavior as outliers. My assumption may be incorrect.
In my upcoming lecture for a Federal law enforcement group, I am going to comment about what I call “soft fraud.” This single Reddit post raises some interesting questions, and there seems to be little recourse for those caught in a Web of digital fluffery. Reddit seems unwilling or unable to clear up the “entity” issue. The references to Adobe are in need of verification. There may be the ancillary question about the Picrights’ activities.
Perhaps a better question is, “Does anyone care?” Reddit? Adobe? Simon? Picrights? Anyone?
Stephen E Arnold, July 28, 2022
Kenyan Survey Shows Social Media Usage Tripled Since 2015
July 27, 2022
Global market research firm IPSOS conducts a study in Kenya to get clues on how media and other organizations can better reach their audiences in that country. Last performed in 2015, the company just released its latest iteration. We learn some of this year’s findings in Capital News‘ article, “Social Media Reach Triples in Past 7 Years.” Reporter Wendy Wangui tells us:
“The Kenya Media Establishment Survey 2022 revealed that mobile device has been the major disruptor in the media landscape with an increase in ownership from 79% to 95% and growth of smartphone from 19% to 51%. Speaking during the launch, IPSOS in Kenya Managing Director Chris Githaiga said that Kenya has witnessed accelerated growth and diversity in media touch points since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. ‘We found out that internet use has more than tripled from 13% to 46% mainly driven by social media. We also discovered that social applications such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google are debasing more quickly as newer applications like Betting, TikTok, Telegram and Opera become more attractive to the youth,’ he said.”
So it seems a combination of mobile devices and COVID are helping platforms extend their reach. This survey illustrates how social media’s grip over the Internet is spreading around the world like a plague. Alas, we may be approaching a day when no one remembers a Web free of its big tech overlords, a time when the Internet is synonymous with social media. Then again, perhaps folks working to avoid that digital dystopia will prevail.
My hunch is that social unrest will increase.
Cynthia Murrell, July 27, 2022
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