PSA: Facebook will be spinning up "AI" ie fake accounts

[SpyderTracks]

I feel this is a sign of things to come. The timing of this is no coincidence with trump about to take office, there is a history between his movement and Facebook.

If anyone is still on Twitter, you'll know exactly how bad this can get and the damage that can result in a very short space of time. The UK riots last summer were fuelled mainly on twitter by the algorithm promoting fake stories from numerous fake accounts, they're incredibly easy to spot as most have the same banner picture

If you want to understand more about the very real concerns of this, look into Cambridge Analytica, then research Steve Bannon who was the controlling board member, Facebook was issued the highest fine ever awarded to a business for willingly selling user privacy without consent. Check out Steve Bannon's ties to trump on the 2016 campaign, then see him heading up Project 2025 now and their involvement globally in far right movements (trumps 2024 campaign included). Facebook have been one of the worst propagators of Russian disinformation for a long time now, they willingly and illegally sell private data and are caught doing so multiple times per year and issued new record fines, but legislation just hasn't caught up to these tech companies, and the fines just have zero consequence for them.

With these bot accounts, if you thought it was difficult to get fact based information now, you just wait, this is going to get 10 times worse in a very short space of time.

I'm seriously hoping global agencies step in before the end of January, I can't believe investors are on board with this, I can't see how having millions of fake accounts can be good for investor confidence.

Facebook and Instagram to Unleash AI-Generated 'Users' No One Asked For

Meta says it will integrate AI-generated characters into Facebook and Instagram with their own user accounts.

www.rollingstone.com

Facebook and Instagram are flooded with AI accounts from Meta

More than 100,000 accounts have already been created, and they are being made to look like real people.

www.gamereactor.eu

Whatsapp will be compromised next.

 

[Martinr36]

In recent weeks I've blocked mark zuccerberg, Donald J Trump, the Royal family, numerous football clubs, etc

 

[Scoped Badger]

I needed a reason to delete my Facebook account - I've been meaning to do it for a long time - and this has pushed me over the edge.

 

[SpyderTracks]

If anyone is looking for an alternative to WhatsApp, the original creators of WhatsApp sold it to Facebook in around 2014.

Part of the deal was that Facebook would never monetise the service by selling user data or advertising, of course Facebook quickly sacrificed user privacy and the original founders very publicly quit Facebook in 2017

The WhatsApp Cofounder Who Sold To Facebook For $19 Billion Tells Students To Delete Facebook

“That’s the bad part. We buy their products. We sign up for these websites. Delete Facebook, right?”

www.buzzfeednews.com

WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum quits over privacy disagreements with Facebook | WhatsApp | The Guardian

WhatsApp was built with a focus on privacy and a disdain for ads, but the Facebook-owned service is now under pressure to make money<br>

amp.theguardian.com

The creators of the original WhatsApp span up Signal once they left Facebook as a truly secure, non-profit communications app that could be trusted, which was always their core ethos.

Signal remains open source, all the code is peer reviewed and publicly accessible, if you want the GitHub Repo, it’s here: https://github.com/signalapp

 

[ubuysa]

The solution to all this misinformation is very simple, we were doing it long before the Internet existed. You just need to understand that the writer of anything you read, on any medium, has an agenda (consciously or unconsciously). No 'news' story is ever unbiased. Either the writer or the owner of the media, has an agenda that they want to promote. When I was a young man we all knew, as we still do today, that The Daily Mirror (as it was then) would promote a socialist agenda and all their news stories had a socialist bias (public ownership=good, private ownership=bad), whilst the Daily Telegraph had a conservative agenda (business=good, welfare=bad). It's really no different today, it's just much easier to plant fake and biased stories into social media. You need to educate yourselves and your children...

Teach them to be discriminating.
Teach them to do their own research and to seek information from many sources.
Teach them to think for themselves.
Teach them that if they read something sensational, incredible, simple, or divisive, to immediately question its accuracy and validity.
Teach them that there are no easy answers, if there were we'd have found them by now.
Teach them that there will always be people who disagree with them and to be tolerant of different views.
Teach them to share. We all inhabit the same planet and we all have to get along together. That means we can't always have it all our own way.

Note that this is just my opinion, you may think differently. That does not make me wrong.

 

[SpyderTracks]

The solution to all this misinformation is very simple, we were doing it long before the Internet existed. You just need to understand that the writer of anything you read, on any medium, has an agenda (consciously or unconsciously). No 'news' story is ever unbiased. Either the writer or the owner of the media, has an agenda that they want to promote. When I was a young man we all knew, as we still do today, that The Daily Mirror (as it was then) would promote a socialist agenda and all their news stories had a socialist bias (public ownership=good, private ownership=bad), whilst the Daily Telegraph had a conservative agenda (business=good, welfare=bad). It's really no different today, it's just much easier to plant fake and biased stories into social media. You need to educate yourselves and your children...

Teach them to be discriminating.
Teach them to do their own research and to seek information from many sources.
Teach them to think for themselves.
Teach them that if they read something sensational, incredible, simple, or divisive, to immediately question its accuracy and validity.
Teach them that there are no easy answers, if there were we'd have found them by now.
Teach them that there will always be people who disagree with them and to be tolerant of different views.
Teach them to share. We all inhabit the same planet and we all have to get along together. That means we can't always have it all our own way.

Note that this is just my opinion, you may think differently. That does not make me wrong.

Critical thinking is so important

Question everything, read it. Ingest it, then do your own research to verify authenticity.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Apologies, this is dark, but I think it largely connects with Meta's intentions.

Jesus, people call me paranoid with my aversion to AI

As someone who works in Azure on a daily basis, since the introduction of copilot to Azure, and Windows, IMHO across the board, services and outages have increased exponentially, not improved.

I saw this daily on twitter too once Musk incorporated Grok and had it opt in by default, disinformation networks went through the roof, Grok wasn’t too intelligent so you could usually spot them as they tended to have the same profile banners. Also, this "community notes" construct of fact checking Meta are proposing is the same way that Twitter works, but with Twitter, Musk often just removes relevant community notes if it disagrees with his agenda, this is exactly why Twitter is being investigated by the EU and Australia for their hand in promoting disinformation

Lawmakers add pressure on Commission to investigate Musk's influence

Members question the attempts by the tech mogul to intervene in the German election, and the ties with the Italian government over SpaceX.

www.euronews.com

Berlin accuses Elon Musk of trying to influence German election

Government spokesperson says freedom of speech ‘covers the greatest nonsense’ after Musk’s endorsements of AfD

www.theguardian.com

Elon Musk's X can't escape $417,000 Australian fine in harmful posts case

Musk likened the Australian government to "fascists" earlier this year, attacking proposed laws that would fine social media giants for failing to stem the spread of misinformation.

fortune.com

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/elon-musk-x-summer-riots-disinformation-b2650323.html

The likelihood is that twitter will be banned in the EU, Australia and even the UK.

Then you read stuff like this. AIs deep flaw is that humanity is the source for training, and they're behaviour is dictated by the agenda of that company

Google's AI chatbot Gemini tells user to 'please die' and 'you are a waste of time and resources'

Gemini is supposed to have restrictions that stop it from encouraging or enabling dangerous activities, including suicide, but somehow, it still managed to tell one "thoroughly freaked out" user to "please die".

news.sky.com

This is not an isolated incident, every AI has gravitated towards aggression towards humanity to date.

And this all aligns with Trump about to take office, all the big tech CEO's having paid him enormous sums of money as soon as his inauguration was confirmed

Meta to get rid of factcheckers and recommend more political content

Mark Zuckerberg says company will ‘dramatically reduce censorship’ across Facebook, Instagram and Threads

www.theguardian.com

This is all part of Hitler's concept of "The Big Lie" that he set out in his book, Mein Kampf. I realise people will think I'm paranoid, but this is a very real threat to worldwide democracy. The very first thing you gain control of in a dictatorship is the free press, through that you instill distrust in societies fabric at the Judiciary level, health and education, from there you can make the people think what you want them to for years to come. It's how Putin gained control of Russia, it's how all dictatorships start out. Keep the masses poor, sick and in fear and you can control them.

Big Lie - ECPS

Big Lie

www.populismstudies.org

Unfortunately now it's on a global scale due to social media.

 

[Paul1964]

With Trump talking openly about taking over the Panama Canal and Greenland, and hinting on trying to incorporate Canada into the Union, not ruling out taking them by force, I think your paranoia might be well placed. Scary times.

 

[SpyderTracks]

 

[ubuysa]

This is all part of Hitler's concept of "The Big Lie" that he set out in his book, Mein Kampf. I realise people will think I'm paranoid, but this is a very real threat to worldwide democracy. The very first thing you gain control of in a dictatorship is the free press, through that you instill distrust in societies fabric at the Judiciary level, health and education, from there you can make the people think what you want them to for years to come. It's how Putin gained control of Russia, it's how all dictatorships start out. Keep the masses poor, sick and in fear and you can control them.

I don't think you're paranoid. In fact, after Trump was elected (again) I told a dear friend of mine in the US (who is a Democrat) about the parallels between Trump and Hitler....

• Both came to power by promising the masses an easy way forward to a future of prosperity for all.
• Both blamed all the country's problems on minorities and both implemented plans to eliminate them - although Trump doesn't seem to be creating death camps just yet.
• Both fostered mistrust in the existing establishment.
• Both wanted to control what children learn in school. We call that indoctrination, or re-education as the Communists call it.
• Both have egos that cannot tolerate dissent. Hitler created the Gestapo to root out dissenters, who disappeared. Expect Trump to direct the FBI towards dissent of his MAGA plan, and expect people to start disappearing.
• Both believe in the power of military force and both were prepared to use it to achieve their objectives.

I warned my friend not to think that what happened in 1930's Germany cannot happen in 21st century America, because it can. It quite possibly already is happening.

What will the rest of the world do if Trump invades Greenland and Panama? I can tell you now. Nothing substantive. What then? Trump invades Canada and Mexico. What will the rest of the world do then? Oh they'll make a lot of noise and pass a lot of resolutions but they won't do anything substantive. What will Putin do then? Be afraid. Be very afraid.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Just on the twitter angle, I stayed there as long as I could, but fully closed my account recently, it just became so toxic.

I was mainly on Twitter to follow Musical artists as that's where they would generally first announce pre-orders for new releases.

Most artists and writers I followed moved to Bluesky, which visually looks just like twitter used to.

I did some research, and had no idea, Bluesky was actually created by Jack Dorsey in 2019 (the creator and previous owner of Twitter who sold to Musk), and is now run by Jay Grabber, and it's run on a decentralised ownership policy on the blockchain. It's got no advertising, and no AI.

It's very much like Twitter used to be before it was willfully dismantled and had all that plastic surgery done on it.

Leaving X for bluer pastures? What to know about Bluesky's owners and policies.

From Jack Dorsey to blockchain, Bluesky was forged in Big Tech's fire.

mashable.com

 

[TonyCarter]

Same as you in that I only used ’socials’ to view the latest info for whatever was of interest…I never posted/interacted with them, and I never used it for ’stalking’ family members or z-list celebs.

Nowadays it seems that I can’t even view most of it unless I log in…but I don’t have an account to do so (and won’t create one…so both the creator and consumer lose out.

About the only way I support creators now is Patreon/Floatplane/Kickstarter.

 

[ubuysa]

FWIW The only social media site I'm on is Facebook, but not under my real name. I use the Greek version of my real name (which FB accepted without question) and there is no genuine information about me on there. I don't buy anything off Facebook (seriously, who would?), I don't use it as a news source, and I don't automatically believe a single word I read on there. Apart from following a few close friends and family members (who all know who I am on there) and a few groups in which I'm interested (none of which know who I really am) I use it principally for entertainment. There is a lot of interesting and fun stuff on there - some of which is even true.

For me social media itself isn't the problem, it's that other people see it (in any form) as an authoritative source. It's really like Wikipedia in that sense.

Later Edit: I had literally just posted the above when I read on the Telegraph via MSN that Nigel Farage, amongst others, gets paid by X for their posts when they go viral. It's thus in his own financial interest to be as contentious as he can be, and since there is no penalty for lying on there he can virtually say what he likes to ignite a firestorm and reap the financial rewards. It's clear that X, and I assume other social media sites, actively encourage division because it generates revenue for the advertisers to cash in on viral posts. It's all a monetised merry-go-round with no basis in reality at all, so why would any think that it's authoritative?!! When we should really all be seeking common ground and cooperating, social media is deliberately driving everyone in the opposite direction - all in the pursuit of money.

 

[Martinr36]

Later Edit: I had literally just posted the above when I read on the Telegraph via MSN that Nigel Farage,

I blocked a profile that was supposedly him on Facebook the other day

 

[SpyderTracks]

Tomorrow is a very dark day.

I can't believe it's come to this point, after all we've learnt in the last century, I just can't believe humanity hasn't learnt the basics.

 

[TonyCarter]

Tomorrow is a very dark day.

I can't believe it's come to this point, after all we've learnt in the last century, I just can't believe humanity hasn't learnt the basics.

Every cloud has a silver lining, so unless The Big D takes a page out of the Putin playbook, he’ll be gone in 4 years - assuming the planet is still here of course

 

[SpyderTracks]

Every cloud has a silver lining, so unless The Big D takes a page out of the Putin playbook, he’ll be gone in 4 years - assuming the planet is still here of course

There wont be a free vote in 4 years, he literally said this as part of his campaign. It’s no longer a democracy. The fact he’s even been allowed to stand for the presidency is because the case that him being a convicted felon who was responsible for an insurrection was thrown out of court by the Supreme Court.

According to the 14th amendment he isn’t eligible to stand for any public office.

He packed the Supreme Court in his last presidency which is the only reason he isn’t behind bars.

And now, he’s mandated that no laws can be passed without Elon Musks approval, so the whole judiciary has been dismantled already.

Its no longer the USA, it’s a singular oligarchy.

 

[ubuysa]

TBH you're complaining about the wrong person. Trump is not the problem. The REAL problem is the millions of Americans who think that Trump is a fit and proper person to be President. That's what's really scary.

 

[SpyderTracks]

TBH you're complaining about the wrong person. Trump is not the problem. The REAL problem is the millions of Americans who think that Trump is a fit and proper person to be President. That's what's really scary.

That's how propaganda works though, you can't blame the public, their education is a result of social infrastructure, public education worldwide is generally very poor.

At the end of the day, it's the law makers that are the ones to blame. If there had been equal justice, all these "News" channels like Breitbart, Fox News et al and anything related to Rupert Murdoch that are responsible for pushing russian disinformation would have been heavily penalised back in the early 00s. trumplethinskin would have been incarcerated decades ago when he was found to be embezzling money from his charity organisations, let alone when he was found to be illegally profiteering as a property manager.

Justice has become about how much money you have, if you can defer and appeal each time until it gets to your cronies in the supreme court who you've paid off to find in your favour, no matter how obviously illegal it is, and then refuse to pay anyway and not have any comeuppance.

If there had been equal justice, trump would have been in prison back in the 80s.

 

[ubuysa]

You have a very low opinion of the average American then. I don't believe that the masses have been brainwashed or led astray by right-wing media. I know a few Trump voters, one was a former captain of a destroyer in the US Navy and he's no dummy. Most people I am sure, voted for Trump because his America is the America they want. Insular, isolationist, self-sufficient, white, Christian, intolerant, strong and unafraid to bully others. The fault is not Trump or the media, the fault is insular, isolated Americans who cannot accept that American power and influence is slowly declining in the world. They belive that the America that Hollywood shows them is real. And that's the America they want. Trump is the face of modern America.