19 Comments
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Ms JLG's avatar

Mass manipulation by media. Not new, but increasingly common. I'm old as dirt and still recall many decades ago a teacher said - "The media can't dictate how you think, but it manipulates what you think about." The advent of internet and social media has made media more powerful and more harmful.

Cheryl Hames's avatar

Like that movie, I think it was called, The Tail Wags The Dog… it was made as a comedy but it darkly pointed out just how easily we can be influenced!

I recall too, when I was working near to the world of Information Technology, I was in a supporting role, I didn’t understand how the algorithms were initiated. It was explained to me as a mathematical calculation. But it was also presented as something that almost created itself! More recently, I have come to understand the lie, behind algorithms, that they are created by humans who have an agenda and the algorithms build on that! They can be changed! More searches for information that we know exists can influence the algorithms too! We also need to resist paying attention to rage bait!

Anna Bolique's avatar

It was called, simply, Wag the Dog. 👍

Ana Santiago's avatar

Well, we all know the oligarch techbros who own the social media networks have a vested interest in keeping us distracted from their creeping takeover of the planet.

Lesley Smith's avatar

have you tried (t)rump fvckfac.... ?

VRC's avatar

Holy smokes, I just tried it and got exactly the same results!

Closer to the Edge's avatar

at least we got to learn about FASCHING

Claudia Siefer's avatar

And now my job is to access Youtube search for TRUMP FASCISM. I'll be doing just that as soon as I hit "POST" this comment

Closer to the Edge's avatar

Please let us know what autocomplege suggestions you receive as you type in each letter.

Yvonne McCarthy's avatar

I stopped getting any results at "fascism tr" but when I spelled it out there they were. Google wasn't much better. This can be the new objectivity test for apps and search engines!

Sharyn Dimmick's avatar

Great experiment. Thank you.

US Taxpayer's avatar

Taxpayer censorship by Government through Corporations.

Lynn King's avatar

Duck Duck Go…. Nope, no suggestions

Brenda's avatar

I tried "How do I fight TRUMP FASCISM" and it pulled up 2 Robert Reich videos, and a bunch of shorts after. I think we all need to type this daily into YouTube for it to get the idea!

Closer to the Edge's avatar

We think YouTube put rules in place so there isn't much we as users can do about it. The engineering team at YouTube has to make the fix.

Steph Abberley's avatar

Same here, although being in the UK it did offer me ‘Trump Farage’. But zero fascism (hey, I found some on my own!)

Frances Prevas's avatar

You should have clicked on tump fasching - no lederhosen there. From Google "Donald Trump has frequently been the subject of sharp political satire and caricature floats during German Fasching . . . " " Floats have depicted Trump in provocative or critical scenarios, such as dancing pantless with a gagged Statue of Liberty marked with "ICE" references, looking into a mirror with kiss marks from various global entities, or acting as a schoolyard bully..."