This is a powerful and comprehensive account of the way social media is being used for propaganda by those with political and military objectives. If you don't know your sockpuppets from your botnets this is a useful introduction. If you've been paying close attention to the intervention of propagandists in the US election, in Islamic State or Myanmar, this is still a useful and well-argued bringing together of all the information. Particularly worrying is the use of AI and deepfakes. There are some solutions posited in the conclusion but at the moment I'm finding it hard to be optimistic!

LIKEWAR

Inasmuch as I can appreciate the creative potential that social media helps unlock, I can’t help but lament the many ways by which, quite frankly, it has disrupted the world for the worse.

If you don’t feel the same way, then LikeWar: The Weaponization of Social Media from authors P.W. Singer and Emerson T. Brooking should serve as a wake up call.

The book can be described as having two parts. The first is the equivalent of “a brief history of social media” with Singer and Emerson tracing the various innovations—from computers, to ARPANET, to Google, Facebook, Twitter and beyond—that have inexorably shaped today’s social media landscape. It’s a fairly detailed yet concise account of how social media evolved, striking the necessary chords to impress upon readers that social media is qualitatively different from any form of media preceding it.

The second part of the book highlights the many ways that social media can be used for less than desireable ends. Singer and Brooking dissect various examples of the titular weaponization of social media, like how ISIS exploited online channels to recruit extremists into their fold, or how Facebook and Twitter became a new theater of battle between Israelis and Palestinians, not to mention the role that social media in general played in getting the 45th American President elected. In each case, the very characteristics that make social media such a democratizing force—its accessibility and reach—were exploited by savvy operators to push specific agendas. Messages could be amplified easily to influence public perception, thereby allowing falsehoods to become viral with the speed of a meme. The end result? A breakdown of public order and civil discourse with dire consequences.

In that regard, it’s ironic that democracies are especially vulnerable. As Singer and Brooking note,

"Western democracies find themselves at a distinct disadvantage. Shaped by the Enlightenment, they seek to be logical and consistent. Shaped by notions of transparency, they seek to be accountable and responsible. These are the qualities that made them so successful, the form of government that won both world wars and the contest of superpowers in the last century. Unfortunately, they are not the values of a good troll, be it a urinalysis officer turned provocateur, a celebrity turned politician, or a nation applying them as a global strategy for information war."

Or to put it differently, the reason why the online troll comes out ahead in social media is that the lies they spin get shared exponentially in the time it takes for reasonable people to set the record straight.

LikeWar isn’t meant to be an instructional guide for how to conduct a social media operation, though if one were to read it intently there are more than enough illustrative examples of how anyone could, shall we say, game the system. But that would be to miss the point of the book entirely. The fact that social media—often associated with sharing cat videos or food photos, if not connecting with family and friends—can be weaponized is arguably fascinating; at the same time, it’s downright wrong. And while it’s true that this is ultimately a user problem, the companies who make social media platforms possible are arguably just as culpable if not more so. The Googles, Facebooks, and Twitters of this world might view themselves as purveyors of a public service and defenders of free speech to a degree; in truth, however, they are all just businesses whose actions (or lack thereof) to address the weaponization of their platforms belie the fact that they have chosen profitability over accountability—and continue to do so.

That said, it’s worth considering that social media is still in its adolescence; hopefully, once it makes it through this weird and awkward period, things will sort themselves out. But whether this means we simply become desensitized to online trolling and therefore accept it as our new normal, or discover how to harness social media as a public square where truth prevails will depend on how we use it: in short, the user problem once again. Singer and Brooking offer the following succinct observation by way of conclusion:

"Social media is extraordinarily powerful, but also easily accessible and pliable. Across it play out battles for not just every issue you care about, but for the future itself. Yet within his network, and in each of the battles on it, we all have the power of choice. Not only do we determine what role we play, but we also influence what others know and do, and in this way we shape the outcomes of all these battles. In this new world, the same basic law applies to us all:

"You are now what you share.

"And through what you choose, you share what you truly are."

A very interesting, though worrying study about the influence of social media in areas that we don’t necessarily consider ‘social’, such as the political world, or even as warfare. The past few years especially (but not only) have led to quite important changes in how people use internet in general and social media in particular, with the advent of giants such as Facebook, and other easy access platforms like Twitter.

As much as I stand for a ‘free’ Internet (I’m a child of the 90s, after all, and my first experiences of the web have forever influenced my views of it, for better and for worse), the authors make up for valid points when it comes to listing abuses and excesses. The use of internet as a tool for war is not new, as evidenced by the examples of the Zapatistas in 1994, or the ‘Arab Spring’ in 2011; but the latter quickly turned sour, as some governments, quick to respond, turned the same weapons of freedom into tools of control and oppression. These are the same tools and the same internet we know, but with a much different outcome.

The 2016 US elections are, of course, one of the other examples in this book, one that shows how social media, through sock-puppet accounts, can be used to influence people. The hopeful part in me keeps thinking that ‘people can’t be so stupid’, but the realistic part does acknowledge that, here too, the authors make very valid points. The rational seldom becomes viral, and what gets shared time and again is all the provoking matter (not in a good meaning of this word), the one that calls to base emotions and quick response (again, not in a good way). I kept remembering what I try to practice: “if tempted to post a scathing comment on internet, stop and wait to see if you still want to do that later” (usually, the answer is ‘no’). And so we should also be careful of how we react to what we see on social networks.

Conclusion: 4.5 stars. Kind of alarmist in parts, but in a cold-headed way, one that could have a chance of making people think and reflect on online behaviours, and perhaps, just perhaps, remain cold-headed in the future as well.

Given how much time we spend on social media, most people take it at face value and know nothing about the artificial environment they are contributing too. This explains how social media is used as a political tool.

An essential offering especially considering the unmistakable influence wielded upon humanity by a rampant spread of technology and social media. What were once platforms for fun and mediums for genuine expressions such as Facebook and Twitter, have now metamorphosed into ideological vehicles and dangerous influential weapons. These tools of social media are as powerful and as damaging (if not more) than the physical devices of war and hatred.

In this truly relevant and insightful book, P.W.Singer and Emerson Brooking lay out the perils and pitfalls that come unannounced along with the addictions of social media.

What an extraordinary book this is! I am currently engaged in a love-hate relationship with social media. I love the ability to keep track of what is going on in the lives of the people I care about; I hate that this keeping track seems to be replacing actual human contact. I love the ease of knowing what's going on in people's lives; I hate the ease with which miscellaneous people I don't want to know every detail somehow manage to glean it from things I put up to share with those I care about. I love that it's harder to hide wrongdoing in an era in which everyone has a camera and a platform; I hate that it's harder to define "wrongdoing" as a result because everything is now a-contextual and a glimpse is presented as "reality" and that I never know what is real and what is fake/manufactured for public viewing anymore.

I could go on and on, but won't - chances are you know what I mean, and if you don't, I won't be able to convince you. That's something else social media has taught me...

In a very thorough and detailed manner, Singer and Brooking examine the history of social media and its increasing influence on everything along the personal-public, social-political spectrum. It's not only social bullying/warfare we need to worry about anymore; now it's actual, martial bullying/warfare too - to an extent I wasn't aware of, but now am with brutal clarity. This is a great and engaging read that pictures a horrifying yet excessively necessary picture of what the world is literally coming to these days. I think it should be required reading for everyone, since the authors make it clear that it is increasingly the case that everyone is affected by the insidious nature of this media-as-message.

#LikeWar #NetGalley

The authors provide a multifaceted view of the social media as a powerful tool that can use as a weapon or a peace flag. The ultimate goal of the authors is to explain to everyone has the choice of all these influence battles. The book reflects the current situation of the fake news and how everyone has the responsibility to look for the truth, A deep and bright masterpiece.

I enjoyed this book, but in all honesty, you have to be pretty social media savvy to follow the (computer) threads... more so than I am. As a result, I sometimes had difficulty keeping up with the plot and understanding the covert methods being used, which reduced my overall enjoyment of the book. Highly recommended for super-bright 20-somethings, though... it should keep you mesmerized!

This is a great explanation of how social media can be twisted into propaganda tools. Lots of scary examples. This fits in well with the new crop of books on Russian interference and the rise of misinformation.