I... don't know what to say about this right now. I'm reading the AdNauseam paper, to see whether that helps.
This has... disturbed me.
Synthetic Messenger: A botnet scheme for climate news
11–20 of 34 posts
Re: Synthetic Messenger: A botnet scheme for climate news
#12I want to like this as an art project but just can't. Yes, it's interesting to point out that manipulating content algorithms to favor special interests is a reality. It would have been nice to at least acknowledge that this is generally not employed for wholesome causes. Mostly, though, this just literally doesn't work.
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Re: Synthetic Messenger: A botnet scheme for climate news
#13I think that ultimately this project might do more environmental harm by consuming more electricity (therefore creating carbon emissions) to function/transfer webpages then it can offset by increasing engagement with environmental content.
Re: Synthetic Messenger: A botnet scheme for climate news
#14I guess they expect to get caught, and make headlines as well? Otherwise, why make a website and YouTube stream?
So the meta-game is, they're expecting to get caught and that there'll be headlines about them trying to game the system to elevate news about climate change, and those articles will inevitably also talk about the need to pay attention to climate change.
Re: Synthetic Messenger: A botnet scheme for climate news
#15So they built a click fraud farm? The advertisers they're defrauding could probably sue them.
Re: Synthetic Messenger: A botnet scheme for climate news
#16This is insane. Check out the live feed of a bot in action - a browser being automated, with various photos of human hands clicking the ads, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEHgOTgtGso . It may or may not be broadcasting but you can seek to the past. "Scroll scroll scroll... click click click click..."
Wow, that's uh, wow.
Re: Synthetic Messenger: A botnet scheme for climate news
#17One of the links was an article titled "in the current NFL climate, owners should hire more offensive coaches", with no mention of climate change. Looks like they need to improve how they pick the articles
https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2021/01/05/in-the-curr...
Re: Synthetic Messenger: A botnet scheme for climate news
#18I guess they expect to get caught, and make headlines as well? Otherwise, why make a website and YouTube stream? So the meta-game is, they're expecting to get caught and that there'll be headlines about them trying to game the system to elevate news about climate change, and those articles will inevitably also talk about the need to pay attention to climate change.
And/or give another argument to the denialists: climate change is overblown / propaganda, as evidenced by the botnets artificially inflating its importance in the media.
Re: Synthetic Messenger: A botnet scheme for climate news
#19Good conceptual art should be like a PoC exploit for what people percieve as real. Either it prompts us to patch our beliefs with concrete experience, or we just accumulate intellectual debt that eventually makes us unable to grow, respond, or cope, and become utterly dependent on surrounding ourselves with people who preserve our fictions for us and we'll give them anything to just reassure us of the safety of our compliance.
This one isn't a wormable meme, but it exposes a glimpse of the cultural substrate and challenges our ability to sustain dissonance.
Re: Synthetic Messenger: A botnet scheme for climate news
#20From the technical perspective this is a great execution of an idea. But those actions will probably be considered as ad-fraud and web sites will be penalized by ad-networks.