I watched the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing live on CSPAN. I was riveted. Clint Watts became my immediate hero. Finally! Someone within the intelligence community was putting words to something I've known bits and pieces of for months. Russia is polluting our sources of information and the Trump administration is using it to their advantage. Recent diaries have pointed out the
effectiveness of the bots, and their
targeting of Healthcare and more.
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But, my most immediate worry is the lack of solutions.
Our current leaders don't care or don't have enough power to act. Republicans will go along with Trump until he's no longer useful and then the investigations will magically unfold. Then what? Sanctions? We can't wait that long, a significant minority of our citizens (see my relatives above) are entirely defenseless. Do we want Russia dictating the narratives of our midterms?
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So, what do we do about it? I don't think anyone in government knows how to fight back even if they had the will to do so. Back to our dear friend Clint Watts... as much as I appreciate his work and insight, I have some major criticisms of his solution.
Social-media companies should band together in the creation of an Information Consumer Reports. This non-governmental agency would evaluate all media organizations, mainstream and otherwise, across a range of variables producing news ratings representative of the outlet’s accuracy and orientation. The score would appear next to each outlet’s content in web searches and social-media streams providing the equivalent of a nutrition label for information. Consumers would not be restricted from viewing fake news outlets and their erroneous information, but would know the risks of their consumption. The rating, over time, would reduce consumption of Russian disinformation specifically and misinformation collectively, while also placing a check on mainstream media outlets that have all too often regurgitated false stories.
This will not be effective for the following reasons:
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1. The people being manipulated aren't looking for accurate information.
The food label analogy is quite apt, just not the conclusion. If I go to buy a bag of cookies because I have a sweet tooth, am I going to look at the nutrition labels of two different bags to see which is "healthier"? Hell no. I'm not there for nutrition, and neither are my family members who have been sucked in by the bots of Facebook. They are tuning in for an emotional fix, not an informational one.
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2. The well is already toxic.
Fake news. Fake polls. When's the last time you ever changed a conservative's mind by linking to a Snopes article? Politifact? No. Any source of information they disagree with has been tainted. This would happen to Clint's agency before it ever got out of the box.
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3. Social media self-interest
The masters of social media make money from ad revenue. Do they want their statistics on users, comments, and pageviews shaded by accusations of bottery? They have no interest in getting on board with this - and even if they did we don't have time.
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4. Time
Clint's solution is not quick. Sanctions are not quick. No solution that I've seen anywhere addresses the problem with the sense of urgency that it requires. Russia is engaging in active measures as I type this. The story yesterday is that they are
propping up Trump's wiretapping claims. They are also
engaged in the European elections. They are engaged everywhere at all times, because it is cheap and easy. Every moment that passes, our citizens are at risk of irreparable manipulation.
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Let’s talk about a solution.
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If Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit allow this massive infestation of bots from Russia... why not bots from America?
- Where are our bots out there today demanding that Roger Ailes be locked up?
- Where are our bots reminding everyone that Republicans vowed to filibuster our next nominee for 8 years?
- Where are our bots showing the love triangle between Trump, DeVos, and Prince - with our children paying the price?
- What about a scary Fawkes mask reading their internet search history?
There are a hell of a lot of salacious truths to draw from. Memes and juicy tidbits galore. That's what they understand, that's what they need, especially when it "looks" like its coming from real people (most can't tell the difference). Memes to draw them in could do so easily by piling on their buzzwords: God loves Patriots. Freedom and Situational Awareness. Tag it all with #MAGA so it spreads - Make America Genuine Again. I can take the irony, if it has an impact. At least these bots would be grounded in the truth, pushing the interests of our democracy.
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So, where is our bot army?
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It isn't illegal, corporations have been pushing their brands with bots for years. What's the worst that can happen? Success? Maybe the social media masters will decide that allowing bots is a really bad idea and shut them all down. I would call that one hell of a win.
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“It’s all us, not Russians,” MicroChip said. “And we’re not going to stop.”
MicroChip claims he was a longtime “staunch liberal” who turned to Twitter in the aftermath of the November 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris and “found out that I didn’t like what was going on. So I redpilled myself.” Through Twitter, he found a network of other people who thought liberal politicians had blindly acceded to PC culture, and who had found a champion in Donald Trump. In his early days on the platform, MicroChip said, he started “testing,” dabbling in anti-PC tags like #Rapefugees and seeing what went viral. His experience as a mobile developer had exposed him to the Twitter API, and a conversation with a blogger who ran social media bots convinced him he could automate the Twitter trending process.
If you want nightmares, read the rest of that article.
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Whether our enemy is within our without, it is time to fight fire with fire.
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While I’m interested in helping to organize, I don’t have the skills to do this on my own. My coding abilities are pretty basic, but some of the tools are as well. If others are willing to join with me, I’m ready to act.