The Weaponization of Social Media

in truth •  7 years ago 


Now openly admitted, governments and militaries around the world employ armies of keyboard warriors to spread propaganda and disrupt their online opposition. Their goal? To shape public discourse around global events in a way favourable to their standing military and geopolitical objectives. Their method? The Weaponization of Social Media. This is The Corbett Report.

TRANSCRIPT AND MP3: https://www.corbettreport.com/?p=25740


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Brilliant video as always James.
The masses have fallen into the social media bear trap and the only way out is to switch off, buts let's face it, it ain't gonna happen. They're too dependant on the validation they feel they get for their posting of bullshit pictures of holiday meals and inane twittering.
I fear Steemit has already been infiltrated and those who believe it is uncensorable are sadly deluded. Censorship is easy on a platform that rewards content but allows the richest account holders to remove rewards, as soon as governments realise that the truth posts will be flagged out of existence leaving the Facebook style crap that pervades the platform. The good news is though that they may censor by removing rewards but they can't delete the work off the blockchain.
Thanks for keeping it real dude, you're the best.

Sadly, I have to agree with much of what you say. I find it all rather depressing. I left FB many years ago partly because of the collective insanity on display. There are many people doing good work to expose the rampant injustices in this world committed by big money and their puppet politicians.
However, such people only touch the minds of small minority at best.
I do believe that we can take some comfort from studying how mass consciousness can change quickly in periods of great volatility such as we are entering. Ultimately, it will be big events and the rapid transition from periods of superficial stability to periods where things are changing very quickly that will shake up people and get many to question the matrix they are living in.
The coming economic crash, which promises to be much bigger in scale than 2008 as lets face it central banks have only compounded the problems that created the crash then, will force people to question their complacent existence when the shops run out of food or the cashpoint runs out of cash.
It is events such as this that will force people in the affluent West to start to question their programming.

So many have thought that everything is solved with writing and collecting, and from that is that we find a lot of junk content.

This content is never addressed to the final public, nor does it reflect the interests of the users, and only speaks of itself and its interests.

Greetings from Venezuela

unfortunately insightful posts like this one are preaching to the choir while the vast majority of the populations will never venture to venues like this.

an unfortunate truth.

"balanced and zionist in nature" - sounds legit.
I did an experiment on wikipedia years ago where I made an edit to the page titled "world peace". The page stated that world peace is basically impossible. I deliberately only made a simple change to introduce the reality that world peace is certainly possible, provided the necessary changes are made in human psychology and decision making processes.
Within 5 minutes my edit had been overwritten and I then ended up in a 'discussion' with 'editors' who essentially showed they were subtly threatening me and mocking me due to them feeling they had the upper hand in the situation. Clearly wikipedia, just like Youtube, G+ and Facebook is a highly corrupted source of information and should never be blindly trusted.

I look forward to the continued growth of public blockchain based social media as a correct response to this cowardly and frankly evil attempt at subverting mass consciousness in the name of 'security' or whatever other doublespeak they come up with. I will continue to dedicate significant time and resources to ensuring the success of Steem and my own social network - ureka.org. :)

Wikipedia has also deleted many posts. Looking forward to Everipedia which will be built on EOS.

Since there is clearly an infowar going on, it will be interested to see how EOS improves the situation, yes

Nice video... lets just suppose theres a solution... what could it be?

Social media is so easily weaponized because ppl are so easily influenced by their peers.

James your content continues to develop and get better. @corbettreport production value is second to none, well done sir. Shout out to @lukewearechange, you nearly made Cass Sunstein faint in front of a room full of people.

My hopes are that with uncensorable blockchain technology we're going to bring together reasonable amount of people who care for the truth. Together we have the ability to enlighten minds of others and show them the truth. We can serve an agenda of love and compassion instead of hate and division.

Thanks for sharing and being here for us!

Yes Yes, that's the train of thought I'm on as well.

Lets hope the train stays on the track.

Apart from Spiritual Warfare their approach is also one of Psychological Warfare - for which, sadly, they are highly effective at.

In my post entitled Architects of Social Engineering Speak Out the Truth former Facebook execs admit being part of such operations, were disgusted, left FB, and now speak out about it.

Social_Engineering-small.jpg

The good news, is that us - the masses greatly outnumber them! So, let's keep spreading truth, as it (and we) shall prevail!

Good comment, I think in this day and age we need to carefully look at the source of any info. Hopefully posts like this and your post will help people to understand the nature of mainstream social media (and wikipedia) and how we can combat these lies and propaganda.

Thank you, James. It's getting real now for sure, but to be an angel's advocate: For the last 15 years thinking people have sampled the delicious taste of open sourced information such as your channel, and GenZ is smarter and more observant than we give them credit. https://steemit.com/news/@tonypapa/gen-z-vs-millennials-and-gen-xers-and-what-is-the-most-important-question-gen-z-should-be-asking.
Technology is surging ahead faster than laws and comprehension. We have an opportunity to take the decentralized technologies being developed now in the world of fintech, developer tools, social media, data transfer, currency sovereignty (Monero, Zcash, Cloak), authentification, etc. and build a new ethos. It is now being done. eg.I'm giving you value from my Steemit upvote. Nothing is perfect but the quest of perfection inspires most. This flailing of legacy media of which youtube has merged, is an obvious beginning of planned tempter tantrum that was most probably Huzzahed! into play at the last Bilderbirg/Bohemian grove/InsertFavoriteGlobalistConference. And that's all for today.

I only want to add that there are practical technologies conflating with the inspirational, like 3D printing, solar power, weaponized drones, etc... Technology inures initially to institutions with deep enough pockets to acquire it. As progress ensues, it becomes dispersed to all and sundry, just as have telephones, automobiles, and firearms.

These abilities inevitably concatenate, and it is impossible to believe society will not decentralize given progress in all of these technologies. How long until we can print drugs, organs, and nuclear weapons at home? In every case centralized control of US is eliminated.

We WILL be free. It's just a matter of time and engineering.

Thank you for adding wealth to these ideas and to our power. Even though I don't know you, knowing there are others with the same frequency helps build our power exponentially.

Using government agents and infiltrators with false identities to debunk conspiracy theories – the irony! The absolute irony :)
However… I don't want to throw out the baby with the bathwater. A few years ago I used to be quite vocal about my political views on Fakebook and Twitter. I got the impression that either people weren't interested or that my "political" posts weren't being seen. Now I just use Fakebook for fun interactions with friends. I take reasonable precautions – for example, if I'm mentioning a large business on Fakebook, I always asterix or misspell their name, so it doesn't add to my social profiling. If I'm filling in a "fun" survey I always put untruthful or misleading answers. I think younger people who have grown up to think social media profiling is "normal" are more at risk from manipulation.
I would say that Meetup has enriched my life enormously. I have lots of actual flesh and blood friends who I've met via that platform. I've noticed some questionable political networks springing up on Meetup, but I use it only for fun/hobbies.
As an aside, I think a Meetup-style social network would work really well on Steemit.

And they often counter those "conspiracy theories" with conspiracy theories of their own...adding to the irony.

I know! As the old saying goes, just because you're paranoid, it doesn't mean they're not out to get you! :)

Hey James,

I tried reaching out, maybe this time I get picked up in between the spam.

Can you recommend a source on the broader picture around the Venezuelan crisis?

I'm struggling to find non-hyperbolic sources and your archives didn't return anything either.

and no, I don't care for PETRO... i mean the general situation and how it developed over the past 2-3 decades.

A more powerful weapon perhaps, but not a new idea. Everything from books, to newspapers, to radio shows, to silent films, to 'talkies', to radio, to television have been used the same way.

If you want to hear a "real time" unfolding of this from the second World War go find some old time radio programs. The Superman serials were especially interesting in using propaganda to shape social ideas and ideals. During the war you would hear about the 'japs' 'yellow skins' etc. There were even commercials asking kids to send in nickles for bullets because one more bullet means one more dead jap! Almost immediately after Japan surrendered, the themes of the shows changed drastically to acceptance of Japanese Americans, featuring themes of tolerance and acceptance.

I understand that this does not track 1:1 with what you are saying, but the general idea is analogous. Whatever tools are available to the human race will be used and eventually corrupted by the government without fail. Every. Single. Time.

I think you're right, but the reverse is also true. Corruption will always engender heretics and whistleblowers from within. Always keep all channels open and keep that critical reasoning faculty well-whetted ;)

the internet changed everything when it came to distribution of information and its not surprising that propaganda is rampant on the free market of the internet. Its a dangerous path we are going down , but its no different than any time in previous history where the lack of social media made it easier to shape the entire consensus of individuals to fight for different causes.

Great post cheers

Dante

This what we have been doing ,providing more and more information to the DARPA ...we are being watched everytime , what ever we post , what ever we think ....our psychological behavior all of it.... This really is something that everyone needs to bring concern about....it is law of nature whatever in universe can have advantages can be much more dangerous at the same time....isn't it well said
" To every advantage there is corresponding disadvantage "

Yes, you are unfortunately correct, but what is the alternative?

We dont need to get addicted to the social media ....it is for nothing desipating our time , our life to be more precise .....Alienation is what we are being subjected to ....but we dont care it is gradually changing our thought about what life is actually meant to be like....even if we are in front of our family we dont even look at them.....our senses are always bend & stick to the screen ....we need to skip these things in our lives...in my opinion more we minimize the use of social media more happiness we will seek.....

Indeed, it does seem to be an addiction for a great many people nowadays. My question re an alternative, was directly connected to James' s report and how the internet has provided a real platform for truth seekers. That platform is, as demonstrated, under attack and freedom of speech along with it. It is clear that they monitor our thinking and communicating, but what is our alternative - I cannot see one which even closely, matches social media platforms like YouTube / DTube for reaching audiences seeking alternative news media. I appreciate your response.

There is a clear difference between being subjected to it, to being addicted to it, and mastering it, and using it to inform people of the truth. It's not hard to see the difference, at least for people that haven't been indoctrinated from birth.

Use it for good. Don't let it abuse you to spread evil empires.

Sorry @valued-customer is your comment addressed to me? Or to @obaidb2?

@obaidb2. Just pointing out that one needn't be addicted or abused to be highly engaged and use social media.

Edit: I guess it is impossible to avoid being abused in the process. Maybe I should rather say it isn't necessary to be abusive.

I suspect even how we play computer games is monitored. What kinds of decisions do we make? Are we aggressive? Innovative? Conventional? Creative? etc ...

This is our biggest challenge going forward not just because misinformation is being disseminated, but also because people's way of responding to this information is actually being changed physiologically by their social media habits. This is definitely a time where legislation will have to be introduced.

while I agree with the clearly identified problem... your solution feels VERY wrong.

Legislation won't help anyone here.

I have to agree @fraenk. Considering the problem is that governments are lying to us, in order to gain more power over us, how likely is it that government legislation will protect us?

Is it possible, just possible, that any such legislation might instead further subject us to propaganda, and make rejecting and opposing it more difficult, even illegal? I see that is what is happening across EU now, making 'fake news' illegal.

Except by fake news, they mean the truth.

Consider how that is being used in China, where dissidents have a special ring you hear when you call them, or they call you on the phone. Where they can't buy plane tickets, or participate in various other market endeavors. Employers aren't encouraged to hire them. This is the model the EU is following, and WhatsApp, owned by Fakebook, is now going to show a special badge when users access information that Fakebook doesn't like. Fakebooks own anti-fake news program recently failed when people found items Fakebook deemed fake news to be more likely to be true.

Look at propaganda campaigns in the past, during times of war. Demonization, dehumanization, and slaughter of people was openly and blatantly conducted. Look at recent psyops, like the Bana Alabed story, or the al Sabah claim that Iraqis threw babies on the floor to steal incubators when they were selling WMDs in Iraq so they could invade it and cause what is happening there now.

It is also obvious that the destruction of Iraq wasn't the endgame. Killing Saddam Hussein and destroying the Sunni power of Iraq left the power open for the Shi'a of Iran to seize. Now the same is done in Syria. Why are they handing power over a large swath of the ME over to Iran, their avowed enemy?

Is it possible that Iran wasn't a powerful enough enemy to justify a really profitable war? Libya was the highest standard of living in Africa before 2011, and had been the lowest in the world in 1951. What Gaddafi had done since his investiture there was great for Libyans - and thus very, very bad for banksters.

The endgame isn't in sight. The current conditions in Iraq, Syria, and Libya are probably just stepping stones towards it, from where they were prior to destruction, among the most habitable and prosperous places people could live, to where the banksters want us all.

Clearly the open slave markets in Libya, if considered merely a waypoint on the way to the endgame desired by the banksters, are utterly chilling in that context.

Legislation isn't what we need more of.

What we need more of is the truth.

We won't get it from them.

I appreciate your comments but do not agree that governments are 100% evil. I know that this is the prevailing conversation in many circles but thy actually do some good. Yes they do a lot of evil too. But are they inherently evil? I study history an cannot say that this is factual. Every system of managing will have its benefits and drawbacks and be greatly influenced by those people who must implement that system over time.

The US constitution is an amazing document, and gets a lot of things right. It is also the most copied formed of governing in the world because of its power. It also problem solves and set up a system of problem solving that is nothing short of brilliant. The challenge is that it makes the assumption that any document would and that is that the people will approach it with a inherent desire to implement it and not manipulate it for their own purposes.

Things fall apart when this happens and we discover the weaknesses of any system. So it is not the system of government. but the people who are the issue. I say this because whatever system that is implemented you will have people operating it. I know the argument about anarchy, but anarchy as a system cannot last. It can for a short period but humans seek leaders. This has been proven over time. It is in our DNA.

With this in mind, the issue I addressed about legislation is very relevant and needed. DO I trust people to back away on their own? No. In many cases they cannot back away. and with AI coming it will get nearly impossible to back away even with critical thinking skills. Like it or not, there has to be intervention. And that intervention must be laws prohibiting companies from doing certain things.

Finally, this conversation about *them" and "they" in terms of the government does not resonate with me. I am not sure where you live but in America the "them" and "they" are actually us and we. We are the government and if we do not like our representation, it is up to us to change it. And the great news is that we can. Thanks.

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Woah! Amen brother!

Legislation cannot teach critical thinking and this is what is required to discern truth, even when efforts are made to obfuscate that truth.

People should walk away from these sites and never look back
Youtube and Facebook seem to be a government arm of the propaganda storm we are suffering from

Cutting their exposure and cutting their finances is the only way

Perception is reality. Social media is especially weaponized when the information supplied is dishonest and misleading. It is very dangerous when you start mixing informative news with entertainment and bias. Especially if the purpose is to manipulate or motivate an action from the target audience.

Social Media is a great weapon we should use it.

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

Sir you are great, I would like to say you thanks for everything.
I respect you. You can write everything pretty well.
I find the sweetness in your writing.
You are an outstanding personality.
Thanks for all your activities.

Its really sad that humans arent being allowed to express the truth

Sometimes I feel like the government wants us all in jail. I actually deleted my Facebook account this week and I feel really good about this. I have so much more time now and have more awesome thoughts of my own. This is a very relevant post @corbettreport. The vulnerability that we're under is striking!!!

That's a great move @antares-scorpius. I realize that what Android, Apple and Facebook are doing is using people to do battle with each other and I will have not part in it anymore..
Nice post stunner..

Thank you. Yes you have to stop feeding these companies if yo don't agree with them.

It is a war to conquer and control our minds their paychecks depend of that.

Their paychecks must be getting smaller and smaller then, which is why they are panicking and desperation is starting to show.

Social media should use wisely ... think before you click.. because it will give us the capacity to ruin something or people.

I would love to see the next report that logically proceeds from this one. Where do we go from here?

How can we best oppose propagandists with the avowed purpose of handing ever more power and wealth over to the banksters?

Thanks!

Brilliant content. This is why I came to to steemit.
#freefreespeech

This is not so surprising. We kinda expect things like this can happen in an innovating world we're living in. Who knows what military is doing behind our backs?

James one question, is there a chance that some of these personas have been automated?
I imagine a big corporation hiring lots of sockpuppet/meatpuppet but that gets expensive and higher probability of leaks. So they simply use Artifical Intelegence to seek out any conversation on any social media platform that is relevant and engage in that conversation to sway and/or direct the message.

Great video. Tangible evidence of how our minds and thoughts are being manipulated and truth seekers are attacked. Every FB addict or wikipedia user should see and understand this video.

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

Excellent report full of verified facts and a couple of superbly revealing confrontations by Luke on truth! It was fascinating to hear that training is provided to zionist editors of Wikipedia to ensure that 'a balance is achieved which is zionist in nature'.

As Always James your on target. Thanks for fighting from the front line.

smells like a conspiracy theory to me.

Great stuff man. The quality of your work is always so impressive.

So happy to find you here, James Corbett. I blog on Steemit, and am happy to see a move in this direction. I covered the subject of the 'age of spin' here: https://steemit.com/transformation/@talk2momz/the-age-of-spin

This is exactly why I joined Dtube (finally let me join today). Constant Government and Corporate intervention manipulating political discourse with social media via censors and disinformation agents to further subjugate us and twist our minds. Great video

BBses could be considered the first generation of Social Media....

There is one very important positive that comes from this, or is at least exposed by this. The parasitical system that thinks of itself as the "elite" including the industrial military complex is so scared of us - the normal everyday man and woman on the street - discovering the truth and thinking for ourselves that they go to these lengths to deceive and manipulate. No wonder they are panicking that people are beginning to wake up.

It wont take guns and bombs and force to bring this control system down - there are far more of us than there are of them (see the Tiny Dot -

) - all it will take is for people to wake up and stop giving them our engery and allegence. Then they will turn on their heels and run to hide in their bunkers. Which will end up being their tombs.

You are right

really social media play an important roll in our life.

BEWARE, AND BE AWARE
AS THEY, ARE EVERYWHERE!

STEEM! WHERE EVERYONE GETS A FREE PONY!

Image via Freedom Feens

"The fact that everyone "wins something" plays on the same psychology that casinos use to keep people gambling. In other words, small rewards help reinforce the idea that it is possible to earn bigger rewards." – SteemWhitePaper.pdf - (Page 16) last paragraph!

Superb informational video James! Soon I will be revealing the truth about this platforms needless soft-censorship tactics. They will have to ask themselves some very tough questions. They can continue on down this treacherous road, and face the same downward spiral as uTube, Twatter, and Fakebook. Or become better, allow necessity to be the mother of invention, and then rise to the top with great innovation!

The casino gulag is real, and we're all in it, pretty soon everyone will be in it. I think we may be looking at the next monetary replacement (crypto in general). This is why it's very important to fight for freedom of expression on these various UIs early on. They are building a monster and they know it, the question is will it control us, or will we control it?


Coming Soon: The great MEME wars of 2018! -or- How to Wake that 100th Monkey


Memes are viruses of the mind, construct them for the good, be the change!


I don't like most social media, but I do not think they were created with bad intentions. Many, many things can be addictive in the way social media is, and we are capable of doing those things in moderation, so I don't think social media addiction is more dangerous than any other psychological addiction. With the constitutional immunities the Patriot Act bestows upon the NSA, it's not like we're giving them information they can't get anyway. Unless you live in a country where your government isn't allowed to spy on you, then you have reason to be concerned that using social media lowers your privacy.

This is nothing new. Propaganda has been around since the medieval period. All Social networking allows is faster dissemination.

You're right, except it's been around far longer than that - since at least pharaonic times in Egypt and probably even earlier...

I am not understand English language ,can any channel hindi language because i am aindian,

big brother is always watching

Awesome Report James

Honestly, I think reddit is different from the rest with some of the original purpose of these platforms left. It has more freedom of speech and gathering of facts in my opinion

Brilliant

Yes this is so true.
We should all work hard to bring as many people as possible over to the blockchain part of the social media. This would help us with unwanted influensing from these types of actors!

D.tube and Steemit is for sure one of the solutions!

As more people wake to what is really happening they will not longer be able to hide behind fake news and distracting stories.

There's another componant to this weapon that you've talked about before James. It's the actual pain it can cause. I literally feel worse after a visit to FaceBook...for example. When I used to go to FakeBook, I began to notice that my attitude/emotional state was deminished afterwords. In other words... I felt bad after browsing my feed on my profile. Now, I know it's been covered in this video when F.B. was manipulating peoples news feed inorder to affect their mood one way or another. I'm not saying I was a victim of that social experiment, I wouldn't know of I was, but I have first hand experiance with the effect that these social media site can weild on your mindset & feelings. This can be a weapon against individuals as well as larg groups of people & if we're going to use these platforms to connect with people or reach out to spread the TRUTH then we have to find ways to insulate ourselvs from these effects/attacks. I for one do not use F.B. any more because of this effects on my mindset however, many still do. I do find it interesting that steemit.com doesn't have the same effect on me.

Thanks for doing this video.

Great video James, as always.

good post, and you deserve the dream you want, and I follow you,
sorry, I'm new in steemit, will you help to improve my ranking? thank you

Very interesting, well someone had to try this; lol. Further someone will try this as long as it is possible. Lets keep finding solutions.. I'm going with reputation and identity or pseudo anonymous identities.. I'm not sure I'm ready to turn off my computer though ..

Good to see your high quality work and good to see Luke! thanks..

I love that clip!

My name is Bill-De-Berg from Brooklyn college...

Bilderberg! haha brilliant.

I don't think anyone in that audience including Sunstein picked up on that.

Social media is simultaneously the best and worst thing to ever happen to our democracy, and I think it actually gets to the heart of the problem of direct democracy in general. When you democratize and facilitate the free flow of information, you create echo chambers among insular groups, which can rapidly turn angry and violent. On the other hand it also allows activists to organize and make changes more rapidly, as happened in Cairo. (Of course, Cairo's revolution didn't turn out so well...) So it's a double edged sword.

DARPA is getting deeper and deeper into the psyche of the minimum. It will continue since the machine is being fed by narcissistic personality disorder.

After reading this I think about some FUD campaigns lately.
Anyone else?

True...The information will not stop. It up to each and everyone of us to do our research and not be swayed so easily from one side to another. Great video quality. This is good style content. Im taking notes for the future...thanks corbettreport!