The immediate takeaway here is, don’t share “facts” from anonymous or non-verified social media accounts, no matter how much those posts confirm your current beliefs and biases. These accounts have no reason to fact-check or research the things they share, and every reason to spread something that just sounds good.\
Propaganda is everywhere, coming from every entrenched power in the world, especially in America. Social media gave normal people a voice in the conversation, but most of us waste our voice promoting the same shit we’ve been fed for a century through mass media.
The U.S. government has its own overt propaganda on social media. It also has its hands in all kinds of media partnerships, pushing its narratives onto you, working with reporters, celebrities, and other outfits to spread beliefs like “the police protect everyone” and “the military is necessary” and “your leaders know what they’re doing” and “the rich deserve their money” and “America couldn’t be better.”
Yep this is not limited to any specific country and unfortunately the Internet and its users are being used and abused across the board. Internet users themselves then reshare the posts to create the viral aspect of the content. Much as newspapers are considered "old school" the point was you paid for something that had some editorial fact checking. I’m very aware that in many countries the press media itself was used for propaganda and censorship so it’s also not immune. But it at least did not have a viral aspect to it.
Although Google, Facebook, and others have recently signed a commitment to trying to clean up the Internet, we just have to accept now that the Internet cannot just be trusted as a source of accurate news without some checking being done. It’s getting quite messy…
See https://lifehacker.com/everything-you-like-is-propaganda-1840055819
#propaganda
#^Everything You Like Is Propaganda
A state-funded Russian propaganda agency is sowing discord in America through schmaltzy feel-good social media accounts, say researchers at Clemson University. These accounts, they claim, share clichéd “heartwarming” and “makes you think” content that sometimes goes viral. Then they slip in news that might be designed to “serve Russia’s interests in undermining Americans’ trust in our institutions.” And Americans like and share it.