information operations - Politics - Sleepless Dystopian - dystopian cyberpunk writer2024-03-29T10:38:40Zhttps://sleeplessdystopian.com/politics/feed/tag/information+operationsSensemaking in the senseless digital theatre of politics https://sleeplessdystopian.com/politics/sensemaking-in-senseless-digital-theatre-of-politics2019-11-18T23:08:37.000Z2019-11-18T23:08:37.000Zi am Sam i amhttps://sleeplessdystopian.com/members/mentalistpoet<div><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3719173804?profile=RESIZE_400x&width=400"></div><div><p>It is polling time again soon in the UK and who are you going to vote for? Do you know? Have you made up your mind? Or are you going to listen to what's said and make and “informed decision?” </p>
<p>Is that even possible in today’s world? Can you make sense of all the noise? If we put aside for one moment the rhetoric and hyperbole from each of the main party front liners and their spin doctors, which are bad enough, and we listen to the media pundits, bloggers, podcasters and YouTubers can we define what is real or not. What are the right issues to focus on and be concerned about and what are just sensationalism? </p>
<p>If that alone weren’t enough we know we are up against the likes of Cambridge Analytica, albeit they may have gone but plenty of contenders for the role no doubt remain even if in the shadows. Then there are the Information Operations (state-sponsored, foreign and fundamentalist), Hackers and Crackpots. The political technologist, behavioural economists, dark advertisers and data scientists all trying to understand you, manipulate you and nudge your vote one way or the other. All battling for your attention and all willing to lie, cheat and steal your data to get to the top. And you willing let them do it, because you think it has no effect on you. And maybe it doesn’t, but it affects enough people to sway votes and shake nations so unless you sit up and take notice it's going to be running part of your life, if not your entire life from now on. </p>
<p>It’s hard to make sense of what is going on when we get our news and views from social media, mobile phone news feeds and glimpses we get from our various digital ecosystems. With these bad actors and political propagandists able to access your data and use machine learning and AI to predict your next move digitally it is hard to know where to turn to find “truth” whatever that looks like today. </p>
<p>We used to get our news from the broadsheets, the radio and the TV screen, but that too was always biased. Even the so-called impartial BBC shows its true colours every now and then but quickly backtracks when called out by others. </p>
<p>To get a true view of what each political party and their candidates believe its best to go straight to their own respective websites. It is up to you then if you choose to believe and trust in what they say they will do and if it aligns with your beliefs and values. </p>
<p>As for the media and all the various vacuous form of digital ecosystem exposure you fall into each day the only advice we can give is to; </p>
<ul>
<li>Test out what you hear, read and see for truthfulness </li>
<li>Ask yourself who is, or could be, behind this message? </li>
<li>Who does this story benefit? </li>
<li>What is the imagery used trying to convey? </li>
<li>What is the tone, feeling and sentiment behind the words being used? </li>
<li>What is the other side of this argument? </li>
<li>And so on </li>
</ul>
<p>Don’t just take at face value what you see. In my article on <a href="https://sleeplessdystopian.com/politics/tackling-information-operations-propaganda-and-dark-advertising-i">Tackling Information Operations, Propaganda and Dark Advertising</a> we can see just how widespread and diverse the problem of misinformation is in this digital age that our only hope is to be our own sense makers. But it takes time, it takes series consideration and it takes stepping away from our digital devices long enough to think clearly. </p>
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</div></div>Tackling Information Operations, Propaganda and Dark Advertising: It’s not all Fake Newshttps://sleeplessdystopian.com/politics/tackling-information-operations-propaganda-and-dark-advertising-i2019-06-23T15:21:03.000Z2019-06-23T15:21:03.000Zi am Sam i amhttps://sleeplessdystopian.com/members/mentalistpoet<div><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3076269959?profile=RESIZE_400x&width=400"></div><div><p><strong>It's all fake news anyway!</strong> </p>
<p>Fake news is in the news. It's been headline activity ever since Trump helped propagate it within his ongoing media ramblings. Used now by him and his entourage of bewildered future inmates, it has become a distraction technique during and after his presidential campaign. He has now successfully driven the narrative to be able to deflect anything that is said negatively about him, even by his beloved Fox News, as a five-year-old in a supermarket meltdown. </p>
<p>Ask him about his taxes, and he deflects. Ask him how half of his campaign staff have now ended up in jail or anything else that does not put him in a good light and he will denounce it as fake news in a game of "I know you are but what am I?" </p>
<p>In fact, ""fake news"" has now become a catchall statement for anyone who doesn't know what they are talking about or can't counterargue with points to use when they do not like something or when a news report does not support their particular standpoint. It's far easier to label something as false news than do the research and take a reasoned articulated approach with righteous and pompous indignation. To add to this dilemma is that there has been a noticeable and significant increase in false news sites and a need for fact-checking both news stories and politicians' statements. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, we do not have a political standards agency as we do for advertising that can hold politicians accountable for the lies they tell. </p>
<p>You could refer to this post as fake news if you don't like its content, and who knows it might even be. </p>
<p><strong>It's not just about fake news</strong><strong>: Information Operations.</strong> </p>
<p>The issue is that focusing on ""fake news"" alone distracts from the broader narratives propagated by Information Operations around the world. Yes, it is an issue, and it has been used by many "bad actors"" to make false claims, promote agendas and distract from the truth. Some of these by "rogue states" or as acts of cyber warfare, but only going after and chasing "fake news" misses out the tackling of content, narratives and whilst not necessarily fake promote disruptive agendas. </p>
<p>Content does not necessarily have to be fake to be used by Information Operations. Often it can be opinion pieces or advertising that doesn't make any statements that could be labelled as true or false but could be of one political bias or a propagandist nature. </p>
<p>It can also be in the form of curating legitimate content from trusted sources to promote a specific narrative. The new <a href="https://demos.co.uk/project/warring-songs-information-operations-in-the-digital-age/" target="_blank">Demos report "Warring Songs: Information Operations in the Digital Age"</a> goes into detail about the definition of Information Operations and some of the tactics they use. It looks at how we might tackle these techniques and tactics but first suggests we need to push past the narrative of only focusing on fake news. We will be expanding on this report later, but it is certainly worth a read. </p>
<p><strong>Dark Advertising </strong> </p>
<p>Together with fake news and information operations, we would do well to consider dark advertising. Not only from these ""bad actors"" and Strategic Information Operations but also media, big business, academia and politics. </p>
<p>Dark Advertising, as it sounds, is the areas of digital, or direct, advertising that is incredibly manipulative by its nature. It is usually targeted at the vulnerable and more impoverished population. </p>
<p>In her book Weapons of Math Destruction, Cathy O'Neill'Neill describes dark advertising as "ads that pinpoint people in great need and sell them false or overpriced promises. They find inequality and feast on it."" She goes on to state ""Anywhere you see a great need and ignorance you'll likely to see predatory ads."" O'Neill is here talking primarily about academic advertising by both for-profit and not-for-profit colleges that encourage vulnerable people to sign up to massive student loans under the guise of ''picking themselves up out of their current socio-economic situation by gaining a degree etc.'' </p>
<p>What's wrong with that you may ask? Well, it's's the targeting of people who are ''isolated'', ''stuck'', ''of low self-esteem'', ''pregnant ladies'', ''mothers on welfare'' people in ''low-income jobs'', ''recently experienced a death'', ''have been physically or mentally abused'' the list goes on. </p>
<p>Let me just reiterate here, what she is describing is a so-called ''Academic Institution'' targeting people, vulnerable people, when they are at their most vulnerable because they know they are more likely to make emotionally based decisions. </p>
<p>If this is what the education industry is doing, we can only imagine the length that Information Operations, politics and big business are going to, we only have to look at Cambridge Analytica for some insight to this. </p>
<p><strong>What about </strong><strong>legislation</strong><strong>?</strong> </p>
<p>If we think our governments are going to step in and put down legislation that protects the average voter and consumer, to protect the vulnerable, just consider the fact that the previously mention Demos report states that of the 39 Information Operations they analysed 34 were aligned with a government of which 24 focused on internal audiences, that is audiences within their own country. </p>
<p>We have to question that when governments, like the UK, have plans to address ""online harms"" what they define as ""harm"" and the impacts this has on freedoms of expression and free speech. We have to question do they purely focus on the online bully, fake news, fraud, terrorism and so on or do they also tackle Information Operations and dark advertising, do they include themselves, their behavioural insights team and their political campaigns within these plans. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>If fake news has done anything positive it has at least but people's minds to question some of what they read and hear. Moving people on from here to critical thinking and analysis is surely the next, very challenging, step. </p>
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