this post was submitted on 04 Oct 2026
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It's more than just spreading rumors. Rumors have been spread for millenia, and democracy made it through OK.
The difference is that the social media companies have a much broader reach than any sort of media congglamerate that came before it, and value engagement and attention above everything else. They understand that rumors generate attention, and their algorithmic feeds are designed to put whatever will generate more engagement in front of you.
I wonder how much damage media titans like Hearst would have done today if they built their empires now, on top of social media feeds, instead of in print 125 years ago....
Is there really much of a difference besides the speed of communication? Social media is the top medium that people get their news from, just like newspapers from 125 years ago, and just like TV (Fox News) from 40 years ago . Have enough control over that medium and you have control over the information flow, enough to generate your own propaganda and have a real meaningful impact.
Besides that fact that social media can post information in a matter of minutes vs. the daily cycle of newspapers, I don't really see the difference. Social media isn't really special in that regard. If anything, the control has shifted more towards the public. But, people are still lacking in critical thinking skills and continue to idolize famous people as a proxy for trustworthiness. Hence, they still fall for rumors and disinformation, especially if some famous dumbass said it.
I postulate that corporate social media has only one goal outside of making money: influencing public opinion. Any algorithms that optimize for engagement with ideas that are hostile to democracy should be forbidden, just as influencing foreign elections in general.
Just remove algorithms that are predictive in nature. Everything non-deterministic, targeted to anything more than high level and imprecise location or similar should be illegal. At the end of the day, the spirit of the law needs to be that dragnet mass surveillance, and the capture and sale of user data for predictive purposes, is an information asymmetry that is an attack vector for propaganda, manipulation, coercion, and general logical corruption of a population.
It is an imminent national security threat to allow such practices, which benefit the most unethical and immoral criminal participants, the most.