This was related to OpenAI announcing that they had shut down several covert influence campaigns using ChatGPT-generated social media posts. https://openai.com/index/disrupting-deceptive-uses-of-AI-by-...
The wild part about this, at least to me, is the wholesale incompetence demonstrated by Israel in this regard. If I couldn't google the talking points the bots make and see Israeli officials saying the same things, one would think these bots were Iranians acting with the intent to make Israel look bad.
So Israel does the exact thing all the politicians try to scare us into believing Russia does every election in the US. I guess the difference is AIPAC.
Not a comment about who's right or wrong in this war, but it is fascinating that we have entered the age of the Internet being a place where warfare is fought. There have always been people posting web content about conflicts but now with Gaza and Ukraine, it seems that the nations fighting are actively looking at the internet as the fourth field of battle.
Just waiting for a random US future president to create an "Internet" branch of the military. Maybe that's already happened.
Well their enemies used social accounts to garner support from US citizens so you've got to start somewhere!
It's not like we haven't done this either. I worked for a company in 2005 which was doing this paid for by politicians. Moment I worked this out, I quit.
Why is this flagged? What rule does it violate?
Out: blame AIPAC for congress funding israel
In: blame FB comments for congress funding Israel
Is it really that hard to imagine congress supporting the democratic country with one of the biggest pride parades in the world vs the country that hasn’t had elections in 18 years and is split between 2 leaders who disagree on pretty much everything?
They really targeted the dumbest, most venal people in Congress. These particular people will fight for anyone but the people who elected them, so afraid to lose their jackpot.
How are those guys not treated as some hostile foreign power and have half their embassy staff expelled is beyond me.
Is there a country that doesn't do this?
Anyone who thinks this is bad should revisit the Jane Harman affair from ~18 years ago. This is nothing new from Israel.
https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/lawmaker-n...
I was part of a company that "hunted" terrorist groups that did this. Start with sympathizers publicly posting on Twitter, find who they are connected to, and fan out and cross reference to the people who are either organizing violence or running drug operations for funding.
I assume most countries with designs in foreign politics do much the same.
If there are influence operations online is it ethical to counter them with your own? Obviously none would be preferable.
We need to better define what propaganda is. To me it's misleading or false information with the purpose of facilitating a political outcome. Or deceptive information not meant for selling a product.
it would be interesting to know how global politics and wars would change if the US were to stop shoveling money to foreign countries.
Crtl+f "NAFO" > zero hits
So I want to say that it's not entirely clear to me that social media peer pressure campaigns are not on occassion counter productive. Automating it seems like it would be potentially disasterous. At the end of the day, there's much we still dont know about psychology, particularly when it comes to efforts at online persuasion.
I guess two can play that game https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security/security-insider/in...
I'm sure the story is true, but I doubt it was effective. I don't think most politicians are really looking at their social media given most of it is trolling junk. I'm sure Russia/Iran/Hamas adjacent countries were doing the same. I just don't think they have been that effective in getting politician support. Direct lobbying or phone/email is much more effective than an online troll farm to get the attention of a politician in DC. I have worked in DC and this still feels very true to this day.
I think the more worrying is going after the low information voter. I didn't think Russia's election interference had much effect in 2016, but now when you look at US Media (largely conservative outlets) their footprint is very visible.
Always makes me wonder how many false threads exist on other platforms, even this one. There are many chats happening in this thread that seem oddly written. Either excentrics, or automatons.
You know what else garners support from US lawmakers? AIPAC. They give money directly to members of the house and Senate. And that is somehow considered ok.
I am fairly sure other countries use fake social accounts to garner support or take advantage from US lawmakers too.
Also reported on by NY Times and posted here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40583068
but like most articles about Israeli hacking, US Big Tech involvement in the war, etc it was immediately flagged once it reached the front page.
I don’t know how much of this is moderators removing posts, or if there is a pro-Israel brigade that is censoring HN’s front page.
Everytime Iam reading manupilations in social media I remind the documentation The Dissident
Comments critical of Israeli influence immediately disappear. Why?
i recommend looking at 9gag.com news... these places are flooded with propaganda from all sides, it's impossible to not get influenced...
the entire US government is deeply compromised by agents of the Israeli state, including nasty coercion campaigns by Mossad
Honestly I’ve been getting harassed by hackers and really would be excited if the United States would actively find the people bothering me and block them from the internet
Zionism at its best!
2024, dammed if you do, dammed if you don’t.
There is zero need for Israel to garner support from the US.
The point of this campaign was to highlight "fake social accounts tricking" "Black lawmakers and young progressives" (>Black lawmakers in the U.S., particularly Democrats., >young Americans, >Black Americans) because at least someone wants them to think that they, their teams and their followers are weak & easy targets, thus reducing their perceived competence and credibility without the necessity of success of the campaign itself, except that similar campaigns existed for pro-Russia and fuck-Russia content all while celebrating Ukraine's destruction, sorry, fight for independence, officially.
These campaigns are part of a cluster. They are not meant to merely polarize but to make some people resign and follow public/ the states' opinions much quicker than they normally would. At the same time, buffs, journalists, educated people and the rational kind spend more time sieving through information sources that are bloated.
I'm not saying this is a conspiracy, hell no, it's entanglement, it's marketing, it's the business of politics and national establishments and companies challenging each other to test ludicrous strategies to sway public opinion. It's all from the modern "The Drump" playbook. Just imagine how at least enough people who fall for campaigns like this, feel when they are told the truth. How many will get angry, really? How many are going to start gearing and studying up? Who are they to trust if their own government supports governments who have the need to run campaigns like this?
This whole "making people support conflicting causes" has been working pretty damn well for the (alt)Right, who is desperately trying to diminish young peoples' independence and turn them all into obedient followers to sell their 'stones are really hard' books and narratives and time on screen.
It's just dozens of millions but that's the few you need make the elected look your way when they are ready to pay2win "at all cost".
So how can we fight this with engineering? We need analysis run by red and blue teams from universities worldwide. I mean it's 2024. The scientific community does it, but their time is dictated by the scientific method. Or are there live projects already?
Hackernews have become much worse than reddit/r/gossip or reddit/r/politics or reddit/r/yellowpress or whatever. Good thing, I wasted to much time here anyway.
Still I fail to understand why the mods let this happen. Maybe quantity over quality.
We changed the URL from https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2024/06/05/israel-... to what looks like a more original source.
I find it quite concerning just how much propaganda the US seems to get from Israel. Where I live there are big billboards around, I regularly see ads on YouTube.
I know propaganda is a thing, but it feels like we are getting more about a foreign government than our own.
I feel like before what is going on now I was aware of some of the groups responsible for this being a thing, but was not fully aware just how much money there was in it those organizations until recently.
Some of the practices are concerning, like I found out recently apparently the Boston police regularly go over to Israel for training?
Regardless of what is going on right now, I don't understand how this much power over the US was ever deemed acceptable?
Israel: The "ally" that acts like an enemy. =)
(Alternately, the client state that controls its patron.)
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Israel never got the memo about calming their propaganda campaigns down - now even the most average Joe (at least in the UK) can spot them a mile off. They aren’t subtle about it.
For a country which is meant to be one of the smartest out there, their propaganda campaigns are an utter disaster giveaway to anyone with a pulse and a few dozen brain cells.
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Just as russian bots, israeli bots spreading fake news are worst thing that happened to our society. Crazy that people are falling for this but here we are
Perhaps they are trying to achieve parity with the propaganda of their adversaries, Russia, China, and Qatar.
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Wow it's been up for a full hour.
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Truly shocking. Who could've seen this coming.
On a more serious note, I figured the majority of US lawmakers already supported the genocide. I'm surprised Israel feels the need to use propaganda for this
This was on the front-page for a brief moment and is now nowhere in the top 150. The irony writes itself.
Of course it did. This is modern warfare. Welcome to the future.
Just like how we knew everyone was always spying on everyone else long before Snowden, we should all know that everyone is doing this to everyone else long before all the revaluations come down to us. There is no benefit to assuming good faith here.
https://archive.ph/sbAPI