Social media in politics

[Deleted User 286]

I'm starting to believe that social media is the devil.

We talk a lot about foreign influence in our elections....but it's sad all they have to do is create a meme or gif to confuse/trick/mislead their targeted audience.

I've got this FB friend. not a real life friend anymore. went to high school with him. he went to prison for a while. now he installs flooring and updates bathrooms (nothing wrong with that). Appears to have cleaned his life up (no more heroin....yay!). Anyway.... dude is now a FB political expert, and of course a die hard trump fan....today he posts some stupid caption "this is your last president" or something similar, tags his GF who is obviously a liberal, and links to an article.....on the fucking site it literally says "satire, parody, tomfoolery" in their about us.....but this idiot doesn't realize that and posts their nonsense every single day almost.

My point is, "we" don't make it very hard for foreign influence to sway us 1 way or the other....it's not like we can outlaw "satire"...and honestly I can't blame people with foreign interests from making fake memes and satire sites. If we're that stupid (in general) then it's hard to feel sorry for ourselves.

Do you consider making a satire meme or article an act of "meddling in elections"? Personally, I'm not sure I do. When I think of election meddling I mainly think of changing votes, making votes that were cast disappear, or preventing people from voting.....can we really expect foreign govts/etc to not make satirical memes if we are dumb enough to fall for it?

[Shirley]

Why do you think republicans have been on a decades-long crusade to dumb down Americans, and vilify "intellectual elites" such as college professors, et.al.? Why does Trump constantly attack the press? To raise people's suspicions about anything they read in the "lamestream media", and hope they default to believing he's the only source of truth. It creates a fertile field of targets, like the guy you referred to, for those with misinformation to promote, both foreign and domestic. It's not that we shouldn't take what we read with some skepticism, but to throw anything and everything out that doesn't confirm your preconceived notions, is damaging our country, and making us vulnerable to interests who don't share American interests. And social media makes that possible in a way we haven't seen before.

July 24, 2018: At a Veterans of Foreign Wars Convention in Kansas City, Mo., on Tuesday, President Trump told veterans and guests that they shouldn't believe what they're reading about his administration or seeing on the news.

"Just remember, what you are seeing and what you are reading is not what's happening," Trump said. "Just stick with us, don't believe the crap you see from these people, the fake news."

[ousdahl]

there was this bit on NPR the other day about how YouTube algorithm is radicalizing lobster. Basically watching one video prompts similar videos until one's whole youtube experience is catered to one's preconceived notions of whatever - fake news, grizzlies in Colorado, neo-nazi propaganda, whatever. The algorithm does a good job of prompting similar videos, but doesn't do as good a job of recognizing the substance of the content, and keeps feeding the monkey regardless of whether a major housing crash is really gonna happen.

I was gonna post it, but couldn't find a link to an online article.

[Deleted User 89]

despite zuckerberg’s contention to the contrary, many americans either aren’t smart enough, or just don’t care to proof the shit they read on social media

[ousdahl]

somebody needs to start an anti-Facebook campaign on Facebook and see just how much Facebook is willing to put up with in the name of almighty ad revenue.

Elizabeth Warren did this, sort of.

Oh! And I also meant to post this, but didn't Zuckerberg get absolutely scorched by lawmakers last week? "If your shady ass can't be trusted with anyone's private info then why the fuck should we trust you with digital currency?"

[jhawks99]

This is kinda funny. More power to him.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/28/tech/fac ... index.html

[MICHHAWK]

Those of us that are adults do not rely on the social media. We do the work that is required all by ourselves.

[Shirley]

This is kinda funny. More power to him.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/28/tech/fac ... index.html

That's funny.

[Shirley]