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Read the Wikipedia page for the Internet Research Agency. This was a Russian propaganda outfit that organized half a dozen Black Lives Matter protests, one of t

Read the Wikipedia page for the Internet Research Agency. This was a Russian propaganda outfit that organized half a dozen Black Lives Matter protests, one of them attended by Michael Moore. Troll farms were found to control half of the largest ethnic and religious Facebook groups before the 2020 election. The tactic here is to use social media as a weapon to stoke every possible division in society. The solution is to take the weapon away.

tdeck 10mo ago
> half a dozen Black Lives Matter protests, one of them attended by Michael Moore. A whole half dozen, you say? And who could forget those iconic Michael Moore protest videos from 2020. For anyone who wasn't paying attention somehow, these protests happened day after day for weeks in many major cities. And many smaller cities and towns had protests and vigils as well. This statistic is so unimpressive it makes this sound irrelevant.
- cloverich 10mo ago
  To be clear what level of foreign government organizing protests and riots aimed at creating divisions in the US do you consider acceptable?
- mancerayder 10mo ago
  Organizing protests is one thing, but troll farms to agitate and turn the population on itself is the story here too. It helps explain the daily protests.
  - mullingitover 10mo ago
    The troll farms can't hold a candle to the first-party algorithmic engagement farming/rage baiting being conducted out in the open by Alphabet/Meta/X/etc. You don't need a conspiracy theory to explain the social dysfunction being created and monetized as part of these firms' core business strategy.
    - Sabinus 10mo ago
      And a government run identity verified social media would solve both those problems. Let the government build the digital town square, not the tech billionaires.
    - mancerayder 10mo ago
      Precisely! They were leveraging said algos and the troll farms couldn't exist without your social media list. It's definitely not a conspiracy, but part of the logic of the tactic.

tdeck 10mo ago

> half a dozen Black Lives Matter protests, one of them attended by Michael Moore. A whole half dozen, you say? And who could forget those iconic Michael Moore protest videos from 2020. For anyone who wasn't paying attention somehow, these protests happened day after day for weeks in many major cities. And many smaller cities and towns had protests and vigils as well. This statistic is so unimpressive it makes this sound irrelevant.

cloverich 10mo ago
To be clear what level of foreign government organizing protests and riots aimed at creating divisions in the US do you consider acceptable?
mancerayder 10mo ago
Organizing protests is one thing, but troll farms to agitate and turn the population on itself is the story here too. It helps explain the daily protests.
- mullingitover 10mo ago
  The troll farms can't hold a candle to the first-party algorithmic engagement farming/rage baiting being conducted out in the open by Alphabet/Meta/X/etc. You don't need a conspiracy theory to explain the social dysfunction being created and monetized as part of these firms' core business strategy.
  - Sabinus 10mo ago
    And a government run identity verified social media would solve both those problems. Let the government build the digital town square, not the tech billionaires.
  - mancerayder 10mo ago
    Precisely! They were leveraging said algos and the troll farms couldn't exist without your social media list. It's definitely not a conspiracy, but part of the logic of the tactic.