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Category: In Practice

A surprising System 1 style response to a social media propaganda meme

A surprising System 1 style response to a social media propaganda meme

Most highly successful social media propaganda is visual, has few words, and is processed within seconds by the intended target, Liked and Shared, passing along the message to others. This is our System 1 quick, easy, intuitive thinking style in operation. In other words, we do not think, we respond at a gut or emotional level. Much propaganda messaging can only be countered, typically, with logic and facts, which requires, slow thinking (System 2), which is hard and thus the…

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Social media viral nonsense and the story that never ends

Social media viral nonsense and the story that never ends

TL;DR Summary Photo purports to show the ejection of a USAF Thunderbird pilot in Smyrna, TN in early June 2016. This photo had, in moments, been shared nearly 8,000 times on FB. The photo is actually from a USAF crash in Mountain Home, ID in 2003 and the photo was taken by a USAF Airman. You can read about that actual incident here. No one questioned the truthfulness of the photo – yet it took just seconds to locate the…

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How Russia uses social media for propaganda (We do too!)

How Russia uses social media for propaganda (We do too!)

“Russia’s campaign to shape international opinion around its invasion of Ukraine has extended to recruiting and training a new cadre of online trolls that have been deployed to spread the Kremlin’s message on the comments section of top American websites.” Source: Documents Show How Russia’s Troll Army Hit America – BuzzFeed News The United States government also does this. Remember back in the fall of 2013 when many of us had our health insurance policies canceled? These were the policies…

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Heads of state meet with social media CEO over propaganda opportunities

Heads of state meet with social media CEO over propaganda opportunities

German Chancellor Angela Merkel met with Facebook Nation president Mark Zuckerberg to request that Facebook Nation censor certain kinds of speech on social media: Speaking to the European leader at a luncheon, Zuckerberg was heard saying ‘we need to do some work’ in reference to the German push against racist and xenophobic posts on the Internet. ‘Are you working on this?’ Merkel, who has seen an increase in violence against immigrants in her country during a massive intake of Syrian…

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Facebook alleged to suppress anti-immigration content

Facebook alleged to suppress anti-immigration content

Groups opposed to some U.S. immigration programs claim Facebook has suppressed their content and visibility of their groups. These allegation, if true, could be due to algorithm design errors or deliberate. Either way, these allegations illustrate the potential of social media propaganda:

Social media "Mommy blogger" admits it is all fake

Social media "Mommy blogger" admits it is all fake

A prominent “Mommy blogger” says the genre of “Mommy blogs” is fake – with nonsense content, stories of fake lives, fake happiness, and paid sponsorship for product reviews that are always about wonderful products. It’s all about propaganda messaging!!! Her advice to all other mommy bloggers: ‘Just quit’ Source: Mommy Blogger Josi Denise Admits Articles Are Fake – Motto She says these bloggers inflate their reader numbers by cheating and lying about their readership, by paying assistants to post links to…

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Wall Street Journal demonstrates propaganda usage on Facebook

Wall Street Journal demonstrates propaganda usage on Facebook

The WSJ takes a look at how Facebook classifies users as either liberal or conservative, and then, how this yields either liberal or conservative perspectives (social media propaganda posters) within one’s news feed. This demonstrates the thesis of this blog – that social media has become the world’s most effective propaganda operation: See Liberal Facebook and Conservative Facebook, Side by Side Source: Blue Feed, Red Feed Update: I noticed that I mostly see left-wing propaganda posters in my news feed…

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The Center for Immigration Rights Communication

The Center for Immigration Rights Communication

If you read this blog, you know the terms public relations, communication and propaganda are synonymous. All forms of public persuasion were once called “propaganda”. The negative connotations of government and military propaganda programs early in the 20th century resulted in the late Edward Bernays proposing the use of “public relations” as an alternative. Today, public relations has evolved into “communication” specialists. These terms are synonymous and describe the methods and programs used to persuade the public to adopt someone’s…

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Once again: "Why is the media ignoring 'this'?"

Once again: "Why is the media ignoring 'this'?"

This is a fun “meme” to getting targets emotionally riled up so they will share this false claim others. I wrote about this propaganda method not long ago. Some one did a similar “the media are ignoring this!” about an alleged protest in Poland. “They” are keeping this secret! Why are people ignoring “this”? It “must be a conspiracy!” Share if you agree! It’s the same as the news web sites that create click bait titles like “Girl opens door and…

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Public relations people are liars

Public relations people are liars

Read the story of the smug, arrogant and elitist Ben Rhodes, the deputy national security advisor for strategic communications in the White House, a man that Foreign Policy Magazine calls an “asshole” for his disdain of the public and his insulting treatment of reporters. In a follow up, the author of that article adds additional background showing how the “strategic communication” specialist uses social media propaganda to manipulate the public, even acknowledging that this leads to a “dangerous distortion of…

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