Pierre Omidyar: 6 ways social media has become a direct threat to democracy

at the Washington Post

https://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/news/theworldpost/wp/2017/10/09/pierre-omidyar-6-ways-social-media-has-become-a-direct-threat-to-democracy/

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2. Spread of false or misleading information

Viral disinformation or misinformation, commonly dubbed “fake news,” runs rampant across social media channels, disseminated by both state and private actors. These false and distorted pieces of information can intensify divisiveness and make it difficult for people to trust both what they read as well as the people and institutions they are reading about.

3. Conflation of popularity with legitimacy

The idea that likes or retweets can be used to measure validity or mass support for a person, message or organization creates a distorted system of evaluating information and provides a false pulse on the popularity of certain views. This is compounded by how challenging it is to distinguish legitimately expressed opinions from those generated by trolls and bots.

4. Political manipulation

Such trolls and bots, disguised as ordinary citizens, have become a weapon of choice for governments and political leaders to shape online conversations. Governments in Turkey, China, Israel, Russia and the United Kingdom are known to have deployed thousands of hired social media operatives who run multiple accounts to shift or control public opinion.

5. Manipulation, micro-targeting and behavior change

Advertisers and their sophisticated targeting mechanisms drive the attention economy. Not all of these messages look like ads or are visible to anyone outside the target population, as was the case with Facebook’s recent admissions surrounding Russian-sponsored ads purchased during the U.S. election. This model further widens the gap between publishers and journalists and erodes the revenue and sustainability of traditional news organizations charged with holding the powerful accountable.




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