This is what state-sponsored propaganda looks like on Tumblr
Yeah, I got one of Tumblrâs you-may-have-unwittingly-interacted-with-propaganda-blogs emails too. And like everyone else, I kind of shrugged because really, what am I supposed to do about that now? I have search disabled on my blog, and my tags are a mess; thereâs no way I could go through and actually find any of the propaganda I may have inadvertently boosted over the seven years Iâve been on this site.
But out of curiosity I looked over Tumblrâs list of IRA-linked blogs. And one username stood out to me. I recognised it because for several months last year it had been showing up constantly in my notifications after I reblogged one of their posts with a response.
That username was black-to-the-bones, and this is the post I reblogged from them:
When I first saw the post by black-to-the-bones, I wanted to know more about these women. I dug up the original Tweet, ran a reverse Google image search and⊠well, as you can see from my reblog, there turned out to be quite a lot of information about them on the internet, which I spent the next hour or two collating into my post.
Now, donât get me wrong here: I am one hundred percent aware that history regularly erases the contributions of women, and especially women of colour. But as you can see from my reply, in this particular case the history of these three women absolutely is not âhidden from usâ. The person attempting to hide these womenâs history was black-to-the-bones themself.
The original post â which we now know was posted by a state-sponsored propaganda blog â took a legitimate issue, but misrepresented facts to stir up emotion about that issue. The issue was perfectly tailored to resonate with Tumblrâs culture of social justice, and it worked. The vast majority of reblogs of the original post do not include any correction or further information.
Again, donât get me wrong: anger is important. Itâs a necessary part of social justice. But we have clear evidence that bad-faith actors are intentionally fomenting false anger to keep us reacting emotionally rather than thinking rationally. And they are smart about it. They will mix in their attempts to divide and enrage us with innocuous cute videos to gain followers, and legitimate posts about issues. So that when they do post actual misinformation, it slips under our radar.
When propaganda blogs do something like try to smear a Jewish woman as a white supremacist, itâs obvious who their target is, and what their goal is. But I wanted to highlight the black-to-the-bones post above because itâs a subtler, more insidious kind of propaganda. Itâs part of a continuum of tactics designed to keep up a constant background noise of outrage.Â
Because while anger is important, constant anger makes it harder for us to empathise with each other. It makes it harder for us to be constructive, rather than destructive. And ultimately, it just exhausts us and leaves us too apathetic to care.
So getting back to my original question: What are we supposed to do about that now?
Your racist grandparents arenât the only ones being targeted by fake news. We are being targeted with posts that are specifically designed to appeal to Tumblrâs social justice culture. So if you see a post about an issue that makes you angry, stop before you reblog. Check the source. Google the details. Make sure your anger about legitimate issues isnât being exploited by malicious actors.
Propaganda like this relies on us reacting to outrage before we stop to think. Be smarter than that. Donât let yourself be manipulated.
snowghoul
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