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All that "memetic warfare" shit and all the useful idiots, influence bots, and paid trolls are doing exactly this. I personally have referred to this practice in the past as "disinformation laundering." It is, again, why I squat on here yelling at people all day long... 
...not because I think it will change their minds, but because I know other people (generally journalists) will see it and perhaps be encouraged to dig a bit more. The grifters and attention seeking crowd generally launder disinfo from the absolute fringes of the very far right.
That's why they scream and cry about being deplatformed. Their narcissism and need for attention makes them ideal for this. Ex: Loomer, Milo, Posobiec, all those twerps. Anyway, moving on
Sound familiar? Oh, I bet it does. It was perhaps most obvious when Jacob Wohl and @Jack_Burkman (you know, the guy who doesn't know how to zip up his pants, like hell you're gonna break some huge story buddy, lol) fucked up those dumb press conferences about Robert Mueller.
I mean, like, c'mon. It's another reason I just straight up say what I'm doing on here. Also we at @erumors are all very happy to work behind the scenes with journos if they need background on specific disinformation campaigns or even debunking dumb-ass myths.
Next up. QAnon is another one of these. It hijacks open-source information techniques to fit a specific narrative, and rejecting everything else. It works best on the absolutely lost and reporters coming up against a hard deadline.
The best way I can think of to describe this is:
News orgs: Do your homework so you don't get caught up in this. If you do get caught up in this, own your mistakes immediately & transparently! That's the only way to maintain trust and credibility. You'll still get shitty comments from assholes. Fuck them. They're assholes.
Keyword squatting is a favorite. I actually am fond of doing this to troll thin-skinned far-right shitbirds with verifiable truth whenever possible, but that's just me. It's often an attempt to smear or silence various groups, or at least just confuse everyone as much as possible
Hmmm, yes. Hi @d1gi! I have a lot to say on this - one of my big research topics for years has been priming as an advertising technique and advertising's role overall in democratic societies - but that will have to be later. For now, I'd just like to say emphatically yes.
Transparency is the only way forward and the only answer to this, especially after this weekend's events with MIT and all that may follow.
ahem, hem hem hem
For example:
1.) Sharpiegate
2.) Pundits & commentators yap about it
3.) Discussions appear on 4chan or r/the_donald etc.
4.) Heavily involved users have "meme contests"
5.) "Influencers" create appearance of mainstream interest
6.) Journalists think it's legit & do the rest
1.) Sharpiegate
2.) Pundits & commentators yap about it
3.) Discussions appear on 4chan or r/the_donald etc.
4.) Heavily involved users have "meme contests"
5.) "Influencers" create appearance of mainstream interest
6.) Journalists think it's legit & do the rest
Now, as all this is happening, social media algorithms are using every single piece of data platforms have compiled to "coincidentally" show radicalized users ever more violent/racist thoughts. The effect is as powerful as it can be subtle, but it keeps `em outraged ("engaged")!
Wash, rinse, repeat, and here we are, in the Bad Place.
Oh & proud to see someone from my alma mater (UCSD) involved! That's where I developed my interest in priming thanks to Dr. V.S. Ramachandran's synesthesia research, then once I realized its power its role in advertising & propaganda. Random example:
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…
