WhatFinger

Algorithms and AI are anything but benign. They are a 'smart' dummy to which autocrats and technocrats bent on subjugating populations worldwide point the finger.

Continuing across-the-board censorship feeds disillusion, disengagement


By A. Dru Kristenev ——--January 3, 2023

American Politics, News | CFP Comments | Reader Friendly | Subscribe | Email Us


Continuing across-the-board censorship feeds disillusion, disengagement
Do social media posts appear to be going nowhere? The likelihood is that’s exactly what’s happening and not just to large accounts or recognized influencers. Big Tech’s constraint of bona fide facts has fueled citizen disengagement from public affairs. Overwhelming posts by bots, inserted by bad actors like the Chinese, have further driven voters to shelve participation in civic and social discussion, walling off themselves for introspection.

The Twitter files have revealed how massive accounts held by outspoken conservatives, from President Donald Trump, Charlie Kirk and Mike Lindell to investigative journalists Alex Berenson or Dr. Naomi Wolf, were suspended

Disillusionment and resignation has been a growing concern since the lockdowns of 2020 from which millions have not recovered their sense of enterprise. The steady media flow of what’s been dubbed “fear porn” has become a household staple except to the intrepid who have been willing to broaden their information base and investigate state-promoted hype. In the case of the “Twitter Files,” the material evidence was delivered directly from its owner and custodian, Elon Musk, to individuals who have demonstrated no sympathy with America First proponents that mainstream media have labeled “conspiracy theorists.” The reporters in receipt of the Twitter documents, Matt Taibbi and Bari Weiss, have a history with the corporatist press, yet even they appear to have been blindsided by the overt conflation of government and corporate tech operatives. Outed conspiratorial alliances between the federal intelligence community and tech/media firms has surprised insider journalists while confirming suspicions of skeptical reporters, investigators and news followers. Not to make this personal but first-hand knowledge is the leading rule of reporting, called ‘primary source.’ Generally, that means getting the story directly from those who witnessed the incident, which is also the basis of a legal deposition. Primary source can include the reporter if they were present during an event or have original documents in hand as Taibbi and Weiss have in their possession, comprising their information dumps. The Twitter files have revealed how massive accounts held by outspoken conservatives, from President Donald Trump, Charlie Kirk and Mike Lindell to investigative journalists Alex Berenson or Dr. Naomi Wolf, were suspended.

flying under the radar: How Facebook, Twitter and other platforms have been virtually silencing smallfry accounts

What has been flying under the radar is how Facebook, Twitter and other platforms have been virtually silencing smallfry accounts, a problem many of the users affected by the restrictions have had difficulty discerning. Individuals with a few hundred or thousand followers who don’t express the official dogma circulated by government agencies, mainstream media and social media have been targeted for hard-to-detect forms of censorship. Referencing the personal aspect, Twitter has used innocuous sounding categories to curtail modest accounts, such as “reply deboosted” where the reach of a reply is limited to a partial list of account followers. Other categories are “search suggestion ban,” “search ban,” and “ghost ban.” Facebook uses foreign “factcheckers” – their disputes aren’t even in English – to remove or label posts as false even when the source is one they utilize. Collectively, these methods come under the heading of “shadowbanning,” something which Jack Dorsey (former head of Twitter) and Meta’s Mark Zuckerburg denied under oath. If they’re relying on blaming automated response to absolve them of personal wrongdoing, that argument is a hurdle too high. Automation via algorithms or the all-encompassing artificial intelligence (AI) isn’t capable of shouldering the blame for one major reason – some human had to set the program standards, even the smartest AI isn’t capable of reaching any determination without first absorbing what data engineers fed into their memory. No computer can, of its own accord, know the importance of “My Pillow,” “2000 Mules,” “Ivermectin” or “election fraud” without first being fed the information by a programmer.

Support Canada Free Press

Donate

A computer or robot doesn’t know the difference between a pillow and a machete

Twitter banningBack in the day, the ‘70s for reference, a friend who was working on the computers at Dartmouth College defined the adage “garbage in, garbage out” regarding programs. What it meant then and still does now is that whatever data is input will determine what data is output by a machine. An algorithm is subject to the same principle – what the technician writes into the program to recognize and identify disinformation or hate speech predicates how the algorithm operates. A computer or robot doesn’t know the difference between a pillow and a machete until the definition and description of both are entered in as data. Blaming anything on a computer program isn’t a valid excuse because there is human guidance behind every procedure accomplished, good or bad. Passing the buck to employees who wrote the programs isn’t viable either. The CEO, COO or other management is ultimately accountable unless it’s proven the employee is operating against company policy without authority. Even a robot cannot reach its own conclusion about morality and science without the human element of data input that is bound to be biased by the perspective of the programmer uploading the billions of “facts” from which the AI “brain” makes deductions. Check out this video cut at about the five-minute mark that aired on WarRoom of “Ameca,” a robot created by Engineered Arts in the United Kingdom. Listen to the robot’s address (sermon by any other name) that was broadcast in Britain.

Notice the robot expresses opinions that could only be the result of human input because of the obvious bias as opposed to what is expected from AI, which should be bland objectivity. The only difference between “Ameca’s” speech and that of an average biological human is the lack of emotion in its delivery. Current culture is overrun with corrupt actors and financiers who instigate, fund and engineer misanthropic AI to curb free speech on every level. They are interrupting and censoring personal and public communications from email to YouTube videos, and deplatforming businesses and ministries, distancing themselves from their actions by exploiting third party automation to take the heat. Algorithms and AI are anything but benign. They are a “smart” dummy to which autocrats and technocrats bent on subjugating populations worldwide point the finger.

Subscribe

View Comments

A. Dru Kristenev——

Former newspaper publisher, A. Dru Kristenev, grew up in the publishing industry working every angle of a paper, from ad composition and sales, to personnel management, copy writing, and overseeing all editorial content. During her tenure as a news professional, Kristenev traveled internationally as a representative of the paper and, on separate occasions, non-profit organizations. Since 2007, Kristenev has authored five fact-filled political suspense novels, the Baron Series, and two non-fiction books, all available on Amazon. Carrying an M.S. degree and having taught at premier northwest universities, she is the trustee of Scribes’ College of Journalism, which mission is to train a new generation of journalists in biblical standards of reporting. More information about the college and how to support it can be obtained by contacting Kristenev at cw.o@earthlink.net.


ChangingWind (changingwind.org) is a solutions-centered Christian ministry.

Donate Here


Sponsored