> TikTok is the generation that is most malleable to propaganda in a way that can undermine an entire generation
Citation needed. Come on.
Citation needed. Come on.
My pessimistic side says they probably are, and maybe they even did.
https://www.thinkbox.tv/research/thinkbox-research/a-matter-...
[1] CIA didn't exist before 1947, so it would have to have been a different they for late 1920s, or even a different medium for "Remember the Maine!"
Bonus blog: https://joshuaspodek.com/north-korean-propaganda-our-adverti...
Also 60 seconds of video is a ton of information. And it’s not just one video at a time. The total session aggregated per user per active user is way higher than that. These are behaviors where users use the app all day. Their entire worldview is based on the content within the social network experience.
seek variety of manipulated information: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24600424
systematically analyse received information: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23897577
analyse especially source levels: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24459177
compare https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24403135 and remember we may have evolved big energy-guzzling brains in order to see through primate politics.
The Arthashastra recommends never acting on intelligence which hasn't been confirmed through at least three independent channels. Russian, swiss, and US secondary sources agree on the the underlying events of that scenario. I guess if the soviets really had had a highly-placed mole like Stierlitz, they could have done more, perhaps have been subtly encouraging top nazis first to prioritise ideology over pragmatism and then to get into speed, into the occult, and into the bunker.
However, I think a simpler explanation for the later events of 1945 would be: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23401308
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Nighttime, 1944 Berlin: A ushanka-wearing man with skis and a parachute creeps silently along the hallway of an apartment building. He raps quickly on one of the doors.
A dishelved german in nightcap and house shoes opens after a few minutes.
"The eagles fly over the campfire. Repeat: the eagles fly over the campfire!" whispers the man in the hallway.
"Sorry," says the german, "I'm Otto Stierlitz the plumber, born 1904. You want Otto von Stierlitz the spy, born 1899. He lives up on the third floor."
Would that influence anybody?
A single 60 second video is not materially useful. But steady repetitive exposure to the same or similar messaging videos, is the foundation of TV advertising. There is likely some useful weaponization in there somewhere when the videos can be made without the assistance of a Madison Avenue crew and contract, and the consumers are pecking at the screen for more videos for long stretches of time like a pigeon in a psychology experiment.
Someone is going to try something to achieve controlled/directed opinion shaping with that kind of mass population behavior in a relatively regulation-free context compared to conventional centralized media. It has to be too tempting a centralized target to leave alone. Opinion shaping in these channels already is being attempted commercially. I'd like to hear from domain experts whether the metrics bear out such efforts actually work in the commercial sector, and if other domain experts in politics and defense think such experience warrants those sectors dabbling in making their own attempts.