Читать книгу Digital Universe - Peter B. Seel - Страница 11

This begs the question as to why there is so much rancor, polarization, and misinformation online. Some of it is intentional, planted there by government agents such as the Russian “Internet Research Agency” cyberwarfare unit, which took legitimate social posts and modified them with exaggerated messages, both to create division in the British debate over the “Brexit” from the European Union, and to affect the 2016 presidential election in the United States.¹³ These intentional disinformation campaigns demonstrated the power and reach of social media to affect daily life for millions of global citizens. It also demonstrated the reach and power of the tech companies who own these sites. Facebook faced intense criticism for allowing Russian agents to place these divisive messages on their sites and Twitter was blamed for the rise of Donald Trump as a political force in the United States.

Another example of intentional cyberwar attacks meant to create division is the pervasive harassment of correspondents online by mean-spirited trolls. This online harassment can range from snarky (and sometimes amusing) comments all the way to death threats, which can drive other users offline. Author Gideon Lewis-Kraus suggests that some netizens actually enjoy stirring up rancor and intentionally reposting misinformation as a form of digital anarchy. He says that the giant tech companies defined by the acronym GAAFYM – Google, Apple, Amazon, Facebook, YouTube and Microsoft – are often blamed for their search algorithms, which ratchet up progressively more incendiary content to hold viewer’s attention so they can be shown more ads. Lewis-Kraus states that some users just enjoy being trolls and creating divisive messages.¹⁴

Other critics have suggested that the fundamental problem is the anonymity that is built into the internet, beginning with the creation of unique user names, which typically are not the contributors’ real names. This anonymity allows trolls to hide their real identity and attack others with impunity (until banned by moderators from online sites). Others argue that anonymity is one the hallmarks of online communication and allows participants to freely express themselves without fear of retribution, which brings the problem back full circle.