112
6 A Planetary-Scale Threat
6.8 Censorship and Propaganda
The selective attention effect is obviously an inherent element of the attention
economy, while the conformity effect can be produced by filter bubbles and echo
chambers.
24 Both is being used for censorship and propaganda.
In order to understand the underlying mechanism, one needs to know that Social
Media do not send messages to a choice of recipients predetermined by the sender (in
contrast to the way Emails or text messages are being sent). Instead, it is an algorithm
that decides how many people will see a particular message and who will receive
it. Therefore, Social Media platforms can largely determine which messages spread
and which ones find little to no attention.
It’s not you who determines the success of your idea, but the Social Media platforms. While you are given the feeling that you can change the world by sending
tweets and posts, by liking and following people, this is far from the truth. Your
possibility to shape the future has rather been contained.
Already without deleting Social Media messages, it is quite easy to create propaganda or censorship effects, by amplifying or reducing the number of recipients. In
the meantime, algorithms may also mark certain posts as “fake news” or “offensive”,
or Social Media platforms may delete certain posts by “cleaners”
25 or in algorithmbased ways. Some communities have learned to circumvent such digital censorship
by heavily retweeting certain contents. However, their accounts are now often blocked
or shadow-banned as “extremist”, “conspiracy” or “bot-like” accounts.
In fact, the use of propaganda methods are at the heart of today’s Social
Media. Before we discuss this in more detail, let us look back in history. Edward
Bernays (1891–1995), a nephew of Sigmund Freud, was one of the fathers of modern
propaganda. He was an expert in applied psychology and knew how methods used
to advertise products (such as frequent repetitions or creating associations with other
themes such as success, sex or strength) could be used to promote political or business interests. Joseph Goebbels (1897–1945) used his book “Propaganda”
26 a lot
to help establish the Third Reich. Using new mass media such as the radio („Volksempfänger”), the effects were scaled up to entire countries. At that time, people
were not prepared to distance themselves from this novel “brain washing” approach.
The result was a disastrous kind of “mass psychology”. It largely contributed to the
rise of fascist regimes. World War II and the Holocaust were the outcome.
In the meantime, unfortunately, driven by marketing interests and the desire to
exert power, there are even more sophisticated and effective tools to manipulate
people. I am not only talking about bots
27 that multiply certain messages to increase
24 Pariser [6].
25 See https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Im_Schatten_der_Netzwelt, http://www.thecleaners-film.de.
26 Bernays [7].
27 See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_bot.
6 A Planetary-Scale Threat
6.8 Censorship and Propaganda
The selective attention effect is obviously an inherent element of the attention
economy, while the conformity effect can be produced by filter bubbles and echo
chambers.
24 Both is being used for censorship and propaganda.
In order to understand the underlying mechanism, one needs to know that Social
Media do not send messages to a choice of recipients predetermined by the sender (in
contrast to the way Emails or text messages are being sent). Instead, it is an algorithm
that decides how many people will see a particular message and who will receive
it. Therefore, Social Media platforms can largely determine which messages spread
and which ones find little to no attention.
It’s not you who determines the success of your idea, but the Social Media platforms. While you are given the feeling that you can change the world by sending
tweets and posts, by liking and following people, this is far from the truth. Your
possibility to shape the future has rather been contained.
Already without deleting Social Media messages, it is quite easy to create propaganda or censorship effects, by amplifying or reducing the number of recipients. In
the meantime, algorithms may also mark certain posts as “fake news” or “offensive”,
or Social Media platforms may delete certain posts by “cleaners”
25 or in algorithmbased ways. Some communities have learned to circumvent such digital censorship
by heavily retweeting certain contents. However, their accounts are now often blocked
or shadow-banned as “extremist”, “conspiracy” or “bot-like” accounts.
In fact, the use of propaganda methods are at the heart of today’s Social
Media. Before we discuss this in more detail, let us look back in history. Edward
Bernays (1891–1995), a nephew of Sigmund Freud, was one of the fathers of modern
propaganda. He was an expert in applied psychology and knew how methods used
to advertise products (such as frequent repetitions or creating associations with other
themes such as success, sex or strength) could be used to promote political or business interests. Joseph Goebbels (1897–1945) used his book “Propaganda”
26 a lot
to help establish the Third Reich. Using new mass media such as the radio („Volksempfänger”), the effects were scaled up to entire countries. At that time, people
were not prepared to distance themselves from this novel “brain washing” approach.
The result was a disastrous kind of “mass psychology”. It largely contributed to the
rise of fascist regimes. World War II and the Holocaust were the outcome.
In the meantime, unfortunately, driven by marketing interests and the desire to
exert power, there are even more sophisticated and effective tools to manipulate
people. I am not only talking about bots
27 that multiply certain messages to increase
24 Pariser [6].
25 See https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Im_Schatten_der_Netzwelt, http://www.thecleaners-film.de.
26 Bernays [7].
27 See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_bot.