Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/01/18/the-first-ever-close-analysis.html
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The idiots at the top are in love with the idea of controlling social media. Reality is they are trying to herd cats. People don’t like the message, don’t agree with the message, they simply move to another social media venue. That is the reality, why the hell participate in a social forum if you do not agree with the social forum, either you are just an asshat troll or a paid propagandists, either way all you do is piss people off and they now hate what the trolls, paid or free, are trying to sell.
So no victory but the morons, after driving most people away believe they have won because their message now dominates that forum, yeah you fools because everyone you were trying to win over left and you are just trolling yourselves.
They then of course sell that as a victory to the people paying them but in reality the message they were trying to silence just moved to another forum and the trolls and just spreading their message to no one but themselves.
Social media platforms attacked by paid government or corporate propagandist should keep records and then sue those agencies for purposeful disruption of business, considering that with social media billions could be up for grabs, those civil suits should be pursued with a vengeance.
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I don’t know, but I’ve a feeling that trying to sue the Chinese government isn’t going to work too well, whether you’re inside or outside China.
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It doesn’t seem to work like that. You provide lots of confirmation bias. The political right likes confirmation, the left wants to argue and discuss. So you end up facilitating the Right and you get Brexit, Trump, Le Pen and Pegida.
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Hey, how 'bout them Yankees?
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Further to @Enkita’s comment, disrupting a single forum has a diffusing effect. People might well leave but they will go to a bunch of other places and their voices will be proportionately less powerful than if they were a coordinated whole.
If they all go to the same place? Fine; shut down the new place with the same inanity.
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One implication: if we assume that the Chinese government is very good at controlling public opinion, and if we want to adopt their tactics to counter Trump…
These tactics are more likely to be used against Happy Mutants. Who here is more like the Chinese government?
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I agree. At best this sounds like a new sort of arms race. It is really hard to come up with tactics that can’t be used in support of any political goal.
Just spitballing here, but I think Enkita’s observation about the differences between groups is the seed of something more effective. Identify characteristics inherent to the group itself and focus on them. The right seems to be more authoritarian and less (honestly) skeptical. How do you exploit that? I don’t know. But that’s where I would start when looking for tactics.
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This article will be edited to reframe it as a Correct The Record exposé, and posted everywhere unsourced conservative conspiracies are sold.
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If you are talking about the Chinese government, I would say that they are far from idiots. After all, even the most able American politicians can only manage 8 years in power - the Communist Party of China is closing in on 70.
Moreover, it used to kill millions of its own population each year in order to retain power, and now what? Perhaps thousands, if that. Meanwhile, the leadership (and the country) are immeasurably wealthier than they were.
How many dictatorships can claim the track record of the CPC?
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