The Power of the Web

From a North American Perspective

The Commodification of Data and Our Attention

The web has taken a large stake out of our collective reality. As a result, our old reality, rooted in the physical world, will fade away.

As we’ve mature through our technological adolescence, we’ve come to realize data is the new oil — the fuel to our economy and technological progress. Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon are worth more than the entire oil industry. The numbers here are from 2020, and don’t account the near doubling of these companies’ wealth since then:

Three Companies That Are Bigger Than The Entire Oil & Gas Industry | OilPrice.com

Alex Kimani Alex Kimani is a veteran finance writer, investor, engineer and researcher for Safehaven.com. The U.S. oil and gas sector was once worth a combined $3 trillion; now there are three companies with higher valuations than the entire sector.

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Three-Companies-That-Are-Bigger-Than-The-Entire-Oil-Gas-Industry.html

I need to emphasize that the data used to power this economy is largely inputted by us. Social Media relies on user engagement to both sell ads and to sell products for advertisers. These companies essentially require users to give over personal data in order to better place ads in front of them that leads to a financial transaction. Essentially, users are given up their data to these companies so they can better understand how to manipulate the user into buying a product. Subsequently, the more effective the company’s algorithm is in the regard, the more successful the company.

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Dive Deeper: Data Dignity—an ethical approach to our new economy, from Jaron Lanier

Online forums rely less on algorithms to feed users’ content stream. When ideas take off on forums, they do so in a more organic manner than the likes of Facebook, Twitter, or TikTok. They are spread through a digital word of mouth. When those ideas eventually make their way from forums to social media sites, it merely adds fuel to the fire of the original forum conversation and its concept.

This is how QAnon caught on, a conspiracy theory that helped fuel the January 6th insurrection attempt in the United States (we’ll examine this further below). Starting on 4Chan and eventually making its way to the site 8Kun, QDrops inspired the QAnon following, and legions of forums, groups, pages, and influencers were born — all creating groups dedicated to deciphering the clues the anonymous user Q was dropping regarding the deep shadow state operating behind the scenes in the United States and world.

The Attention Economy

The Attention Economy treats human attention as a resource but this resource surpasses the level of a commodity. In the attention economy, user based platforms (or products) work in two ways: users customers of the platform, and users are potential customers for clients of the platform — which makes the user a commodity to be sold. In both scenarios, users give up personal data in order to access the platform which is used to convince them to spend more time on the platform and to engage and purchase from clients on the platform. For the first scenario, a company like Netflix uses user data to suggest new shows to the user that will keep them using the platform and likely also informs Netflix creatively, in terms of creating or purchasing new content. Netflix users are paying customers. For the latter scenario, a company like Facebook is a great example. Users offer up personal data which is used to push content toward them that keeps them on the platform longer and also to push products for sale on them. Facebook’s customers are advertisers and companies looking to advertise.

The companies that operate in this economy are extremely powerful, featuring the likes of Alpha (who owns Google) Meta (owning Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Oculus) along with companies like Microsoft and Apple.

Screen time was a term born out of the attention economy. This has also pulled attention away from traditional broadcasters and media companies, our most trusted source for the news.

Now, there is increased mistrust with the traditional media, and a wide array of information being shared by users who can be classified as a new form of media “pundit” — from YouTuber, to blogger, influence, TikTok star, to someone like Jordan Peterson, who rose to Internet fame on question-and-answer site Quora (note: this is not an endorsement of Jordan Peterson). And, these new media pundits are being viewed as serious sources of news and information.

These online influencers also often act as users, to some degree. Lines can often blur as to when someone is a user or influencer. For example, Elon Musk routinely uses Twitter to share his views on various topics, often political, and to also promote his companies. He’s had success and influence in both fields, along with amassing tremendous wealth — at the time of this writing, he’s the richest person in the world, and he just arranged the financing to purchase Twitter and take it private as the company’s biggest shareholder.

While this only explains a segment of the online social space, it’s enough to demonstrate the shift in how information is shared in our society, and that there’s more opportunities for more individuals to influence society. To know surprise, this also provides the landscape for disinformation to spread in a more effective manner. Disinformation is a weapon, and its aim is to sow social discontent, to create tribes, and to push agendas to serve those seeking power.

Disinformation

Disinformation is false information spread to deliberately deceive.

Disinformation has been strategically used in a political and military sense as far back as before Christ.

Disinformation - Wikipedia

Disinformation is a subset of propaganda and is false information that is spread deliberately to deceive. It is sometimes confused with misinformation, which is false information but is not deliberate. The English word disinformation is from the application of the Latin prefix dis- to information making the meaning "reversal or removal of information".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disinformation#Etymology_and_early_usage

If disinformation is a bullet, algorithms programmed into internet platforms would be the gun. Trolls, politicians and the politically driven, and capitalists are just some of the people who aim the gun, and pull the trigger. Their targets may differ, but their aims are precise and effective. Some influencers get lucky, other leverage their capital in the real world, or from the past world, to give them enough of a base to stake a big claim on the web.

During the latter half of the 2010s, leveraging disinformation with user data — essentially harnessing the power of social media — was in full swing. Notably, the company Cambridge Analytica, who served both the Brexit and Trump campaigns, used tools to help their clients win key elections. Foreign actors, such as Russia, continually use social media sites to create civil discontent and chaos in other countries, attempting to do everything from influencing votes, spur debate about gun laws, pouring fuel on the Black Lives Matter Movement, and likely played a role in the discourse surrounding the Trucker Convoy protests in Canada. <footnote> this story took a backseat (congress asked Facebook to look into it) given the Russian occupation of Ukraine occurred a short time later.

At a time when information can be instantaneously and globally communicated, the threat of consuming misleading or false information looms large. Unverified digital information can sway public beliefs about politics, health, science, and current events, and can influence how people perceive differing opinions, experiences, and cultures.

https://online.umich.edu/teach-outs/disinformation-misinformation-and-fake-news-teach-out/

'Fake news': A guide to Trump's favourite phrase - and the dangers it obscures

Donald Trump has called journalists and news outlets "fake news" nearly 2,000 times since the beginning of his presidency, averaging more than one daily broadside against the press over the last four years.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-election/trump-fake-news-counter-history-b732873.html

Disinformation vs. Misinformation

From

www.ntcenter.bg

https://www.ntcenter.bg/en/classification-of-misinformation-and-disinformation/

Fake News

Donald Trump essentially rewrote the dictionary definition of Fake News — assigning the label to any information source that didn’t align with the “truth” he was pitching to the public, or any reports he simply didn’t like. It’s worth remembering the Trump administration used the term “alternative facts” — a term more frightening than the illogic nature of the fake news term, especially when it’s coming from the office of the supposed leader of the free world.

Alternative facts - Wikipedia

" Alternative facts" was a phrase used by U.S. Counselor to the President, Kellyanne Conway, during a Meet the Press interview on January 22, 2017, in which she defended White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer's false statement about the attendance numbers of Donald Trump's inauguration as President of the United States.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_facts

Here’s a right-wing take on the term, published 11 February 2017:

The Left, Not Kellyanne Conway, Invented 'Alternative Facts'

One marvels at the curious quiet of postmodernists, semioticians, deconstructionists, and pundits of the left-leaning variety. These latter may be presumed to be well familiar with the provenance of "Alternative Facts" and the role of the left in fostering our current political culture.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/ralphbenko/2017/02/11/the-left-not-kellyanne-conway-invented-alternative-facts/?sh=694490cd658c

As for the term “Fake News” and its history, here’s a November 2019 article from the Guardian on the subject. It’s older than you think:

Before Trump: the real history of fake news

s the UK slouches towards yet another general election, the social media giants have adopted contrasting approaches to the problem of dishonest campaigning. Twitter has banned political ads altogether, while Facebook will serenely allow them to spread falsehoods.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/nov/22/factitious-taradiddle-dictionary-real-history-fake-news

However, despite popularizing the term, Trump wasn’t the first one to utter the phrase “Fake News” on the world stage. As reported by The Independent — in a great deep dive on the term, published in October of 2020 — Hillary Clinton actually used the term two days before Trump claimed it as his own:

The QAnon Timeline: Four Years, 5,000 Drops and Countless Failed Prophecies - bellingcat

QAnon is not a static conspiracy theory. Since it first emerged in 2017, it has continuously evolved, focusing on different key topics and adopting elements of other conspiracy theories. As Bellingcat has recently written, this elasticity has been the key to its success. With the inauguration of US President Joe Biden, QAnon's faithful are adrift and confused.

https://www.bellingcat.com/news/americas/2021/01/29/the-qanon-timeline/

Disinformation in Action

Of course, QAnon — tied with Trumpism — proliferated between 2017 and 2021 (it’s somewhat quieter now):

"How QAnon Can Catch On" - Sophisticated Electronic Mechanism

"I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time-when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one

https://electronicmechanism.com/how-qanon-can-catch-on

"How QAnon Can Catch On" - Sophisticated Electronic Mechanism

Filter Bubbles

We often create our own filter bubbles without being aware that we’re doing so.

Your filter bubble is created through algorithms, dictated by the content you engage with. Likes, shares, retweets, website visits, the amount of time you spend looking at an image, or in an app, along with the time and place you do so, in addition to your contact list, and the people you share wifi with, all influence your filter bubble. Essentially, much of what you see on the internet is curated for you based on what you engage with.

Don’t confuse engagement with what you enjoy. In fact, algorithms often curate content that you won’t like. People are often more engaged with content that upsets them rather than what makes them happy.

TO PUT IT PLAINLY RAGE = ENGAGEMENT

If you use Google and algorithm based social media (SnapChat, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit) regularly, your experience with content is tailored to you. There are ways around this, but the vast majority of internet users are unable to escape the filter bubble of their own making.

How Filter Bubbles Distort Reality: Everything You Need to Know - Farnam Street

We find ourselves in a filter bubble any time we're only surrounded by views and opinions we agree with, while being sheltered from opposing perspectives. Filter bubbles distort our understanding of the world and hamper our ability to make balanced decisions. Here's how to pop the bubble.

https://fs.blog/filter-bubbles/#:~:text=The%20term%20%E2%80%9Cfilter%20bubble%E2%80%9D%20refers,we%20encounter%20ideas%20and%20information.%E2%80%9D

Current issues to watch:

The Great Reset

The climate crisis has been fed disinformation for decades, and vaccine skepticism — which started with an illegitimate academic paper linking vaccines to autism — has continued to thrive through the Covid era. But there are current issues that are picking up steam in 2022.

As of this writing (end of April, 2022) I’m curious to see how far “The Great Reset” conspiracy theory grows. It refers to the economic recovery plan for Covid-19 as discussed by the World Economic Forum, but also references Klaus Schwab:

What is the Great Reset - and how did it get hijacked by conspiracy theories? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-57532368

The Great Reset Conspiracy: How it Spread in the Netherlands

Institute for Strategic Dialogue The Institute for Strategic Dialogue is an independent, non-profit organisation dedicated to safeguarding human rights and combating hate, extremism and disinformation worldwide.

https://www.visionofhumanity.org/the-spread-of-the-great-reset-conspiracy-in-the-netherlands/

The Great Reset Conspiracy: How it Spread in the Netherlands

There’s a lot of rhetoric around the idea, “of owning nothing, and being happy,” which seems to be a cause of anger and focal point of conspiracy theorists:

Fact Check-World Economic Forum letters show 51st Annual Meeting invites

Invitations for Dutch politicians to the World Economic Forum (WEF) summit have been misrepresented online to claim they are "leaked" letters and evidence of secret collusion between the Swiss organization and the Dutch government to push "The Great Reset", a proposed economic...

https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-coronavirus-netherlands-idUSL1N2T6137

Klaus Schwab first mentioned this in 2015, and a popular article by Ida Auken, a member of parliament in Denmark penned an article with a similar tone in 2016. Interestingly, as of this writing (April 2022) there’s no longer a link to this on the WEF website, only a re-publishing on Forbes:

Welcome To 2030: I Own Nothing, Have No Privacy And Life Has Never Been Better

Welcome to the year 2030. Welcome to my city - or should I say, "our city." I don't own anything. I don't own a car. I don't own a house. I don't own any appliances or any clothes. It might seem odd to you, but it makes perfect sense for us in this city.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/worldeconomicforum/2016/11/10/shopping-i-cant-really-remember-what-that-is-or-how-differently-well-live-in-2030/?sh=7868ab091735

What conspiracy theorists don’t seem to realize is that Auken and Schwab are referencing a shift in economics, with major companies such as Uber, Airbnb, Facebook, Twitter, and others who don’t really only what we generally refer to as capital in their respective industries (in this case, automobiles, hotel rooms, and media) but have upended their industries, due to the appetite and desires of consumers and the rise of the gig economy.

The Great Replacement Theory

Great Replacement - Wikipedia

The Great Replacement (French: Grand Remplacement), also known as the replacement theory, is a white nationalist far-right conspiracy theory, disseminated by French author Renaud Camus. It states that, with the complicity or cooperation of "replacist" elites, the ethnic French population-as well as white European populations at large-is being demographically and culturally replaced with non-European peoples-specifically Arab, Jewish, Berber, Turkish and sub-Saharan Muslim populations-through mass migration, demographic growth and a European drop in the birth rate.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Replacement

From Wikipedia: “The Great Replacement (French: Grand Remplacement), also known as the replacement theory, is a white nationalist far-right conspiracy theory... The theory is popular among anti-migrant far-right movements in the West. It aligns with, and is a part of, the larger white genocide conspiracy theory except in the strategic replacement of antisemitic canards with Islamophobia.This replacement, along with a use of simple catch-all slogans, have been cited as reasons for its broader appeal in a pan-European context.

Critics have dismissed these claims as being rooted in an exaggerated reading of immigration statistics and unscientific, racist views.”

The Great Replacement Theory has inspired mass shootings against racial groups. The most recent major homicidal event occurred in Buffalo, New York, on May 14, 2022:

The Buffalo supermarket shooting suspect posted an apparent manifesto repeatedly citing 'Great Replacement' theory

A manifesto claiming to be written by the suspect in a mass shooting at a Buffalo supermarket that killed 10 laid out specific plans to attack Black people and repeatedly cited the "Great Replacement" Theory, the false idea that a cabal is attempting to replace white Americans with non-white people through immigration, interracial marriage and eventually violence.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/buffalo-supermarket-shooting-suspect-posted-apparent-manifesto-repeate-rcna28889

As noted in the above article, and in multiple news posts covering the killings, the shooter was radicalized on 4chan, a forum often finding itself linked to radicalization and conspiracy theories — notably, it was home to the first Q drop.

Realize that radicalization can be achieved by stoking the fears and frustrations of individuals. Studies have found the cognitive factors involved in radicalizing an individual include elements of unfairness and injustice. They find others who experience similar feelings, otherwise known as collective deprivation:

Psychological Mechanisms Involved in Radicalization and Extremism. A Rational Emotive Behavioral Conceptualization

Extremist acts and the process of radicalizations got into researchers' attention worldwide since 2001. The aim of this paper is to offer a broad image on radicalization and extremist acts and to bring a new perspective for the conceptualization of radicalization. Radicalization is a process of developing extremist beliefs, emotions, and behaviors.

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00437/full

From the above: Uncertainty-identity theory (Hogg and Adelman, 2013; Hogg and Wagoner, 2017) postulates that people are motivated to reduce self-uncertainty, specifically feelings of uncertainty about their life, their future, and uncertainty about their self and identity. One way to solve this problem of self-uncertainty is group identification. Individuals use the groups that they are part of to define their self-concept (social identity theory, Tajfel and Turner, 1979). Social groups are represented as prototypes, sets of attributes, values, beliefs, feelings, behaviors that define the group and its members and distinguish it from other (self-categorization theory, Turner et al., 1987). Therefore, by prescribing prototypes, groups provide people identity and reduce uncertainty regarding who they are, how to behave, and what to think, and who others are and how they might behave, think. When self-uncertainty becomes chronic, pervasive, or acute, people are strongly attracted to extremist groups, because they prescribe a clear prototype for how one should behave, think, and feel in all situations, and how to behave toward out-group members (Hogg and Wagoner, 2017). Self-uncertainty drives people toward distinct and clear groups, motivates them to defend their in-group against out-groups who are perceived as threat for their group’s values and beliefs.

Both the above study and the following also note that radicalized individuals also experience societal disconnectedness:

How do people radicalize?

Preventing Violent Extremism (PVE) has been a global concern of multi-level actors - states, I/NGOs, and the private sector. * This work examines how extremist practices are learned and the role of educational channels through which they are spread. * A 10-step radicalization model of how an ordinary person becomes radicalized and ready to engage in terrorism is introduced.