Caroline Orr Bueno

It’s the difference in info environments. When we had a media that could cover a story w/ few distractions, democracy couldn’t have died in daylight. Now, democracy can be slaughtered at high noon because 90% of the country will be scrolling through reels and looking for something to be angry about.

That’s interesting about TikTok. Whenever I see an explosion of AI content like that I always wonder if someone is trying to either manipulate a trending algorithm or, even more seriously, manipulate something like a stock market or other financial market.

Surviving the Tyranny of the Algorithm A 10-point guide to taking back your reality.

Here’s the full post. Please read and share widely.

This is a fight we can’t afford to lose.

open.substack.com/pub/weaponiz...

Algorithms are not inherently good or bad; they take on the properties of the code that humans write, but apply it at a scale that humans are not capable of.

We won’t win this game. And when we lose, the cost will be control over our own minds.

There are many ways to destroy a life. Being high on drugs is one way. Wasting your youth with your head plastered to a screen watching two minute video clips because that’s all your brain can process is another way to ruin a life. Please understand the gravity of this situation.

Algorithms serve up content you like b/c they know that’s how they can hook you and get you to keep clicking, keep scrolling, and keep making them more money. They’re like digital drug dealers — and I’d argue that the effects are more insidious and corrosive than actual drugs.

This is the first piece of advice I offer in the survival guide for resisting algorithmic tyranny. Until you learn the difference between entertainment and education vs covert psychological manipulation, you will remain a slave to the algorithm.

Learn the difference. Act on it.

Surviving the Tyranny of the Algorithm A 10-point guide to taking back your reality.

To follow up on my recent article about Trump’s covert manipulation of the algorithms that curate our reality, I published a 10-step guide for resisting the tyranny of the algorithm.

You have a lot of power here, but you have to learn to use it.

weaponizedspaces.substack.com/p/surviving-...

👇A similar but related example of outsourcing the regime’s dirty work, much like the Trump administration is doing with algorithmic manipulation. Here, we see it being done with harassment of a private citizen.

bsky.app/profile/anna...

REVEALED: How the Trump admin is covertly reconfiguring online algorithms For the first time, here’s a look at the administration’s playbook for reverse algorithmic capture.

When governments can shape what you see w/out saying what they’ve done, democracy becomes a puppet show lit by a carefully engineered spotlight.

And if the algorithm is the gatekeeper, then who holds the keys?

Fight back. Starting now. Starting here. weaponizedspaces.substack.com/p/revealed-h...

Let’s be clear: Reverse algorithmic capture isn’t a policy debate about platform bias. It’s a strategy designed & rolled out by the Trump admin to realign the rules of information visibility in favor of those in power, using regulatory levers to reprogram epistemic systems.

We are witnessing the emergence of a privatized information infrastructure that serves public ideological aims without invoking the First Amendment—or admitting the state’s hand. It’s being done by rebranding algorithmic power as populist reform.

Hi, Bannon.

In the name of fighting censorship, the Trump administration is shaping digital ecosystems to favor its preferred narratives while chilling dissent. It is a form of soft epistemic authoritarianism—and we all (I hope) know what comes next.

Interestingly (to me at least), this set of tactics actually mirrors in some ways a Russian disinfo tactic called reflexive control. Though there are some key differences, what Trump is doing is basically forcing platform decisions by manipulating the choice architecture.

That’s not even close to all of it. We have also seen companies like YouTube & Facebook respond to the Trump admin’s false claims of censorship by scrapping their own content moderation practices, which almost always benefits right wing media outlets & commentators.

In a new EO, Trump codified this process of reverse algorithmic capture by forcing any company that wants to do business now or in the future with the federal government to implement standards to reduce “bias“ — which includes not mentioning things like diversity and equity.

Description of how algorithmic gatekeeping curates the content you see

A quote about algorithms as the unseen curators of reality

These algorithms are essentially unseen curators of reality. They decide what content you see or don’t see; what creators you see or don’t see; what ads you get served; what your Google results look like when you search for anything from restaurants to personal health questions.

This practice of reverse algorithmic capture has already been written into policy and is affecting the algorithms that shape everything from search results to feed curation to ad targeting, to content moderation on platforms.

It’s affecting you. Probably more than you realize.

By engineering incentives that guide algorithms to amplify preferred narratives and suppress dissent, they don’t have to issue any direct orders. They can stay at a seemingly safe distance, maintaining possible deniability, all the while pulling the strings of public algorithms.

Now, there’s no secret program or code that they’re using to do this. It’s being done through a process that I call reverse algorithmic capture.™

Instead of calling for censorship or bans directly, the Trump admin is reshaping the architecture of digital platforms in its favor.

REVEALED: How the Trump admin is covertly reconfiguring online algorithms For the first time, here’s a look at the administration’s playbook for reverse algorithmic capture.

NEW: I just published what is probably my most important article in while. In it, I reveal how the Trump administration is covertly manipulating social media platforms & algorithms to boost the administration’s narrative and suppress opposing lines of thought. 1/

open.substack.com/pub/weaponiz...

The Psychology of Deception What you need to know to defend yourself against deception, disinformation, and manipulation in the digital era.

I wrote about this and a lot more in my latest piece, which lays out what you need to know to defend yourself against disinformation and other types of digital deception and manipulation in the digital age. You can read it here: weaponizedspaces.substack.com/p/the-psycho...

When you have a strong emotional response to something online, your first reaction should not be to share that content. Rather, your first reaction should be to pause and ask yourself, “who is benefiting from making me feel this way and what are they trying to get me to do?”

It’s not that fact-checking is useless; it’s just not an effective way to counter disinformation. For that, you have to learn how to slow down and stop sharing content just because it sounds true or makes you feel good or tells a good story.

This is why fact-checking is so rarely effective as a way of countering disinformation. Fact-checking works by appealing to people‘s logical, rational minds, but disinformation works by appealing to a completely different system — one that works at an unconscious level.

Conspiracy theories like Pizzagate, the Plandemic movie, and Trump‘s claims about election fraud are designed to tap into aspects of people’s identities and morals in a way that provokes an emotional response outside of conscious awareness. The whole point is to make people NOT think.

Basically, much like FB’s algorithm, disinformation isn’t designed to inform or educate. It persuades through emotional appeals and tapping into the unconscious, not by making logical arguments or providing helpful facts. This is rooted in scientific research.

Remember the Facebook Files from 2021 — internal research that was leaked, revealing that FB’s algorithm was designed to amplify divisive & emotionally charged content in order to maximize engagement? Well, those files also revealed the underpinnings of modern disinformation.

Thank you, I appreciate that.

Computer scientists aren’t going to fix this problem. That’s not a jab at computer scientists; it’s a recognition of the reality that if experts in human behavior, psychology, social science, and human-computer interaction are not at the table, then human rights aren’t either.