Twitter exec for Middle East is also part-time British army 'psyops' officer
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Re: Twitter exec for Middle East is also part-time British army 'psyops' officer
#2[deleted]
Re: Twitter exec for Middle East is also part-time British army 'psyops' officer
#3This is... tricky. There's two ways you can interpret the situation.
One is that Twitter has a desire to use the information warfare skills directly to manipulate the narrative on its platform. The other is that they recognise external actors are very likely to want to do exactly that, and this sort of hire is a great defensive move.
Twitter will never admit to the former and will always publicly state the latter. I don't think there's a real way to tell what the truth actually is — arguably it might actually be "a bit of both" — and I suspect most people will see this as proof of whatever theory they already believed in.
Re: Twitter exec for Middle East is also part-time British army 'psyops' officer
#4This is... tricky. There's two ways you can interpret the situation. One is that Twitter has a desire to use the information warfare skills directly to manipulate the narrative on its platform. The other is that they recognise external actors are very likely to want to do exactly that, and this sort of hire is a great defensive move. Twitter will never admit to the former and will always publicly state the latter. I…
I guess it makes sense that you'd want for a position like this to have someone with a deep understanding of social media in general, how Twitter is used in Middle Eastern cultures, how to discourage radicalization on the platform, that sort of thing — exactly the sort of thing you'd learn in the 77th Brigade. And yet — it's not a really comfortable sort of thing, is it? It's an admission that, at the very least, the platform is trying to manipulate its users, and at most, engaging in that manipulation on the behalf of governments it supports to the detriment of other groups.
Re: Twitter exec for Middle East is also part-time British army 'psyops' officer
#5This is... tricky. There's two ways you can interpret the situation. One is that Twitter has a desire to use the information warfare skills directly to manipulate the narrative on its platform. The other is that they recognise external actors are very likely to want to do exactly that, and this sort of hire is a great defensive move. Twitter will never admit to the former and will always publicly state the latter. I…
I guess it makes sense that you'd want for a position like this to have someone with a deep understanding of social media in general, how Twitter is used in Middle Eastern cultures, how to discourage radicalization on the platform, that sort of thing — exactly the sort of thing you'd learn in the 77th Brigade. And yet — it's not a really comfortable sort of thing, is it? It's an admission that, at the very least, the…
The Arab Spring both made and broke twitter, and for the same reason: it became very obvious that it now had the power to achieve massive social change.
That got a lot of people on board trying to achieve positive social change .. and a lot of people trying to achieve antisocial change (promotion of racism etc), states trying to neutralise it in their own politics, and states trying to promote it in the politics of their enemies.
The best ways to sabotage a social movement are with infighting, misidentification of enemies, and distraction with irrelevant goals. Twitter also provides a new one: arguing with trolls and sockpuppets. Hugely engaging, provides moral vindication, achieves less than nothing.
Re: Twitter exec for Middle East is also part-time British army 'psyops' officer
#6This is a conflict of interest, which should erode the trust that anyone would have on twitter. The man is simultaneously responsible for editorial decisions, while also serving in a brigade that "uses social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook ... to wage what the head of the UK military describes as “information warfare”.
Imagine finding out that the executive in charge of editorial decisions for Twitter in Hong Kong, is also serving in the Chinese military's department of "information warfare". As a Hong Konger, you'd have to be an idiot to continue trusting twitter at that point. The fact that Twitter is well aware of this, and didn't see a conflict of interest, makes me question their neutrality and effectiveness as a platform for online discussion.
Re: Twitter exec for Middle East is also part-time British army 'psyops' officer
#7Great to see a Twitter exec who actually uses the platform!
Re: Twitter exec for Middle East is also part-time British army 'psyops' officer
#8This is a conflict of interest, which should erode the trust that anyone would have on twitter. The man is simultaneously responsible for editorial decisions, while also serving in a brigade that "uses social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook ... to wage what the head of the UK military describes as “information warfare”. Imagine finding out that the executive in charge of editorial decisions fo…
As far as I'm aware, nobody is using Twitter as a reputable source of information.
Re: Twitter exec for Middle East is also part-time British army 'psyops' officer
#9This is a conflict of interest, which should erode the trust that anyone would have on twitter. The man is simultaneously responsible for editorial decisions, while also serving in a brigade that "uses social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook ... to wage what the head of the UK military describes as “information warfare”. Imagine finding out that the executive in charge of editorial decisions fo…
As far as I'm aware, nobody is using Twitter as a reputable source of information.
Hahahahahaha. I think you couldn't be any more wrong on this.
Re: Twitter exec for Middle East is also part-time British army 'psyops' officer
#10This is a conflict of interest, which should erode the trust that anyone would have on twitter. The man is simultaneously responsible for editorial decisions, while also serving in a brigade that "uses social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook ... to wage what the head of the UK military describes as “information warfare”. Imagine finding out that the executive in charge of editorial decisions fo…
As far as I'm aware, nobody is using Twitter as a reputable source of information.
Except almost every mainstream news source.. ever? Have you seen the amount of wrong information be blamed on Tweets?