X has fallen and cancel culture expands in banking
Notes From the Desk: No. 12 - 2023.10.12
Notes From the Desk are periodic posts that summarize recent topics of interest or other brief notable commentary that might otherwise be a tweet or note.
X has fallen, disinformation wins for $3.72
Upper Echelon, who has previously done some extensive mappings of bot networks on Twitter, recently reviewed the current state of X in regards to the platform being used for propaganda and engagement farming.
Although, not new, Upper Echelon believes this has reached new and unprecedented levels on X in part due to the new monetization features which incentivize engagement farming with no regard to the accuracy of information.
The review goes over many examples of recent problems and explains why there is no incentive for the posters to correct any misleading posts as it still just adds to their engagement revenue.
Upper Echelon also demonstrated a fake viral post could be achieved at only a cost of $3.72 using a burner account.
“… people don't seem to realize or understand that quite literally nothing on that platform is credible or trustworthy. Not the creators who post the breaking news not the factchecking that's done beneath them and all of it is spiraling out of control because these people are being directly paid to post as much inflammatory content as possible while they are actively disincentivized to to ever remove it even when it is successfully called out.
I have never seen something more dangerous on social media … nothing comes close to the size and scale of the problem on Twitter because it was created or has created a space where the more shocking the lies are the more money you make and you keep keep making money basically no matter what happens.”
Upper Echelon - Disinformation Has a New Face
It is hard to imagine how much worse this gets. I see a lot of debate now on images being shared for current news events over whether they are genuine or AI-generated. So we have already arrived at the point that people are having a difficult time discerning the difference between AI and real. Of course, that is not a problem unique to X, but is going to make all platforms significantly worse.
X has been a significant disappointment so far. Initially, there were many censored and banned accounts restored, but the promise of restoring everyone never came to pass. X now has its own Orwellian definition of free speech and the new monetization algorithms seem to be severely limiting smaller accounts while adding a lot of noise from larger accounts engagement farming.
My perspective is that staying sane on X requires that you create your own lists so that you have more control over the content you consume. The “For you” feed is often quite terrible.
New wave of cancel culture enters banking
National Australia Bank has just updated its terms of service to include your personal conduct as part of the requirements to be allowed access to your money.
NAB will investigate instances where it identifies or is made aware that an account or an electronic banking service is being used in a financially abusive manner, including:
making profane, derogatory, discriminatory or harassing comments to any person;
Unfortunately, these policies are likely to spread globally as that is the current path everyone is currently racing downwards. This is not just censorship of your speech, but control of your ability to live and function in society. It is the gilded cage. The prison is disguised as a functioning society. You are not locked in a cell, the world is the cell and the banks are the wardens.
Looking for some insight in the age of disinformation?
Some additional perspectives I wrote recently about information and media.
No compass through the dark exists without hope of reaching the other side and the belief that it matters …