October 23, 2019

Tweetstorm on Social Media Control

by: Jaffer Ali

1) Can oligarchs maintain control without control of institutions? In ancient Greece, oligarchs controlled public spaces and would censor people by banning them from those spaces to isolate their voice.

2) In modern times, social media are privately owned public spaces and each person on the platform has a voice. If voices of dissent become popular, oligarchs have a real problem. NAFTA went down. Brexit caught oligarchs flat-footed.

3) Trump was elected BECAUSE oligarchs could not control the parameters of discussion. It is my belief that the censorship of Twitter, Google and Facebook are directives generated by oligarchs that want to regain control of the *public spaces*.

4) If one cannot control the parameters of *debate* or *discussion*, the plebs can challenge oligarchs. YouTube eliminated 17,000 channels in one day. Twitter uses AI to shadow ban. FB algorithms control timelines rather than leave control to the plebs.

5) In authoritarian venues, the control is in plain sight and EVERYONE knows this. But in brain-dead liberal *democracies*, the illusion of freedom clashes with the reality. Social media represents more of a challenge than MSM. Why?

6) With MSM 6 corporations own it all. Voices of dissent are banned. MSNBC told Ed Schultz he wasn't ALLOWED TO COVER SANDERS in 2016. MSNBC fired Donahue despite having the #1 show BECAUSE he was antiwar. Ventura was hired & fired before his first show because he was antiwar.

7) MSM was easy 4 oligarchs to control. Social media is like controlling a public square w/ millions of voices. Overt censorship MUST be imposed & covert censorship implemented. If social media does not work hand in glove with state power/oligarchs, they will not survive.

8) Social media is a complex system that is proving to be extremely difficult to control because of 2nd and 3rd order effects. Banning (censorship) may be the wrong tool for the wrong time BECAUSE illusions are giving way to reality. And when plebs discover that they do not have...

9) the freedom they THOUGHT they have, they rebel. Oligarch mouthpieces from Pinker, Summers, Maddow, Hannity, etc. are like yelling into the void of "Marabar Caves" with all sound coming back with a BOOM!

10) The oligarchs are also unhinged and not monolithic. They are fighting like mafia families because they are faced with a complex environment they do not understand and cannot control with old methods. Grab the popcorn.

Original Article: Tweetstorm on Social Media Control