But AI is next in line as a tool to accelerate this, and it has an even greater impact than social media or troll armies. I think one lever is working towards "enforced conformity." I wrote about some of my thoughts in a blog article[0].
The problem is this only seems to work best when the technique is used sparingly and the messages are delivered through multiple media avenues simultaneously. I think there's very weak returns particularly when multiple actors use the techniques at the same time in opposition to each other and limited to social media. Once people perceive a social stale mate they either avoid the issue or use their personal experiences to make their decisions.
This is called the Firehose of Falsehood and it's a very effective way of killing public participation.
>use their personal experiences to make their decisions
Yes they can if they have them. But people use other peoples personal experiences when they don't, which means all you have to do is become their facebook friend and then tell them that 'trans mexican aliens from mars stole their job' and they'll start repeating it as a personal experience.
With modern algorithmic social networks you instead can game the feed and even people who would not choose you media will start to see your posts. End even posts they want to see can be flooded with comment trying to convince in whatever is paid for. It’s cheaper than political advertising and not bound by the law.
Before AI it was done by trolls on payroll and now they can either maintain 10x more fake accounts or completely automate fake accounts using AI agents.
Every time you interact with an AI, its responses and persuasive capabilities shape how you think.