3 ms·

Thus whole thing reeks of boomer Chinese and U.S. spies believing in magical social media mind control powers and fighting a war over something that doesn't exi

Thus whole thing reeks of boomer Chinese and U.S. spies believing in magical social media mind control powers and fighting a war over something that doesn't exist in any such meaningful form. It's idiocy borne from octogenarian hysteria.

mensetmanusman 2y ago
Geofenced psychological warfare over TikTok is happening on the Russia/ukraine border. No need to go all conspiracy.
- rockskon 2y ago
  > psychological warfare Really does sound like you're dressing up a pig treating social media recommendations as akin to warfare.
  - ksynwa 2y ago
    I get where you are coming from but I feel you are trivialising it a bit. It is only social media recommendations but I think they are a tool in information warfare. I won't cite any sources so feel free to disregard but social media is a major driver of information consumption today and it can be used to serve ideological ends if those who control it desire so. I don't know anything about the geofencing psyop bit though.
    - rockskon 2y ago
      If anything I'm not trivializing it enough. There are dozens of companies with vastly more cultural literacy vying to manipulate you into buying goods every day. Amidst the sea of "look at my notification! Look at my recommendation! ANNOYING clap AD clap TIME!!!!!!!", why do you think some random overly angry/insulting recommendation with a bizarre or nonsensical framing coming from China is going to change minds rather than be ignored? Foreign propaganda tends to gain traction when laundered through someone people pay attention to. (E-)celebrities, political figures, charismatic activist figureheads. Not a recommendation algorithm endlessly exploited by advertisers to get a tiny crumb of attention from. The Intelligence Community and the Department of Defense have minimal literacy in the economics of attention and it shows.

mensetmanusman 2y ago

Geofenced psychological warfare over TikTok is happening on the Russia/ukraine border. No need to go all conspiracy.

rockskon 2y ago
> psychological warfare Really does sound like you're dressing up a pig treating social media recommendations as akin to warfare.
- ksynwa 2y ago
  I get where you are coming from but I feel you are trivialising it a bit. It is only social media recommendations but I think they are a tool in information warfare. I won't cite any sources so feel free to disregard but social media is a major driver of information consumption today and it can be used to serve ideological ends if those who control it desire so. I don't know anything about the geofencing psyop bit though.
  - rockskon 2y ago
    If anything I'm not trivializing it enough. There are dozens of companies with vastly more cultural literacy vying to manipulate you into buying goods every day. Amidst the sea of "look at my notification! Look at my recommendation! ANNOYING clap AD clap TIME!!!!!!!", why do you think some random overly angry/insulting recommendation with a bizarre or nonsensical framing coming from China is going to change minds rather than be ignored? Foreign propaganda tends to gain traction when laundered through someone people pay attention to. (E-)celebrities, political figures, charismatic activist figureheads. Not a recommendation algorithm endlessly exploited by advertisers to get a tiny crumb of attention from. The Intelligence Community and the Department of Defense have minimal literacy in the economics of attention and it shows.