“The trust in the old top-down system of institutions, experts, authority figures, and mass media isn’t simply declining. Within a significant portion of the pubic it has been reallocated to the bottom-up system of influencers, algorithms, and crowds.”
This book addresses the reasons behind the recent polarization of American society. DiResta was a technical research manager at Stanford Internet Observatory and has done extensive work studying rumors, misinformation, disinformation, propaganda, and how false narratives spread online. This book focuses on the mechanisms and actors that shape online discourse and belief systems. She describes the ways social media algorithms put priority on serving up sensationalistic material that generates outrage, which then generates virality on social media and produces income for the influencers who propagate these false narratives. It is partly a memoir, and she outlines the ways she has been harassed both online and offline via doxing and in-person stalking, including showing up at her house.
One of the main points is how social media influencers have become powerful propagators of erroneous information. The more people narrow the list of whom they trust, the more powerful these folks become. It is worth remembering that the goal of the influencers is to gain power and wealth, with little (to no) regard for fact-checking or truthfulness. They use disclaimers such as saying “if true” to protect themselves from lawsuits. It is unfortunate that many people have now incorporated false information into their value systems, forming what DiResta calls “bespoke realities.” This explains to a large degree the reason rumors, misinformation, and outright lies have found equal footing alongside facts in American society. (The book applies more widely but DiResta is focused on the US.)
What is dispiriting to me is that the situation seems like Pandora’s Box – once these evils are released into society, how does one corral and correct them? After all, corrections to false statements are not given the same level of visibility. The author suggests a few actions that could help, such as additional moderation and modification of algorithms to serve up more factual content. This would, of course, require the cooperation of social media corporations. Those doing fact-checking should be "building up an audience through regular public communication." I found it informative and worth reading.
“The trust in the old top-down system of institutions, experts, authority figures, and mass media isn’t simply declining. Within a significant portion of the pubic it has been reallocated to the bottom-up system of influencers, algorithms, and crowds.”
This book addresses the reasons behind the recent polarization of American society. DiResta was a technical research manager at Stanford Internet Observatory and has done extensive work studying rumors, misinformation, disinformation, propaganda, and how false narratives spread online. This book focuses on the mechanisms and actors that shape online discourse and belief systems. She describes the ways social media algorithms put priority on serving up sensationalistic material that generates outrage, which then generates virality on social media and produces income for the influencers who propagate these false narratives. It is partly a memoir, and she outlines the ways she has been harassed both online and offline via doxing and in-person stalking, including showing up at her house.
One of the main points is how social media influencers have become powerful propagators of erroneous information. The more people narrow the list of whom they trust, the more powerful these folks become. It is worth remembering that the goal of the influencers is to gain power and wealth, with little (to no) regard for fact-checking or truthfulness. They use disclaimers such as saying “if true” to protect themselves from lawsuits. It is unfortunate that many people have now incorporated false information into their value systems, forming what DiResta calls “bespoke realities.” This explains to a large degree the reason rumors, misinformation, and outright lies have found equal footing alongside facts in American society. (The book applies more widely but DiResta is focused on the US.)
What is dispiriting to me is that the situation seems like Pandora’s Box – once these evils are released into society, how does one corral and correct them? After all, corrections to false statements are not given the same level of visibility. The author suggests a few actions that could help, such as additional moderation and modification of algorithms to serve up more factual content. This would, of course, require the cooperation of social media corporations. Those doing fact-checking should be "building up an audience through regular public communication." I found it informative and worth reading.