This is another one of the books that’s been on the TBR list for some time. While it’s not related to the overuse of social media, I thought it would be interesting to read about how social media is being used as “weapons”.

LikeWar argues that social media is being used by various groups to advance their cause – from Donald Trump’s campaign for the presidency to ISIS. Hence, the notion of a “war” taking place in cyberspace. Although the creators and first adopters of the internet saw it as a place where free speech would flourish and as a tool to take down authoritarian regimes, the book brings up several chilling examples of how this is view is flawed.

One of them is China, with its famous Great Firewall. The book describes the Chinese government as vigorously and successfully pursuing the goal of “control over not just computer networks and human bodies, but the minds of their citizens as well” through “the right balance of infrastructure control and enforcement”. The Chinese government not only suppresses certain terms, they also use commentators (the infamous 50 Cent army) to spread their version of the truth. And now, they’re also using paid social media ads – just look at how they tried to spread their version of events in Hong Kong on Twitter. While there are people trying to get around the censors using various words, it seems like China is largely successful in shaping the Chinese internet in the way it wants to be. A related op-ed points out that a combination of reliance on the same censored internet and a lack of critical thinking classes mean that even the Chinese who emigrate out of China tend not to broaden their thinking.

While China and other countries seeking to emulate it refine their techniques, turning the internet into several large fragments, those in countries with less control over the internet are not experiencing total freedom either. Social networks want to keep us hooked on their websites and to do that, they’ve created an echo-chamber. This has the result of amplifying extreme voices and reducing the amount of contrary opinions that we might otherwise hear.

LikeWar also looks at fake news or junk news as it was originally known. Apart from the unsurprising fact that people are more likely to share shocking and sensation content (which may or may not be factual), the book also takes a look at the people who create fake news, such as the Macedonians who accidentally stumbled across this money-making opportunity, something that I thought was interesting.

There’s also an interesting section on narrative. Stories that go viral tend to be simple, resonate with their target group, and contain something novel. If you can use these traits to control the narrative, you can “dictate to an audience who the heroes and villains are; what is right and what is wrong; what’s real and what’s not.” That is a lot and it made me realise that if a story makes you emotional, it’s a good idea to pause and try to figure out why it’s so – what is the value of me being emotional to the writer, what aims are there? I don’t think that every tear or rage-inducing story is necessary one meant to deceive me, but it’s always a good idea to be aware of when people want to manipulate you.

If you’ve been following and worrying about how social media has been increasingly used to further different narratives, I suspect that a lot of what you read in this book will be familiar to you. Still, having all the different threads – government censorship, fake news, the echo chamber, etc – in one book creates a big impact and makes you realise that the internet now is a far cry from the way it was meant to be. Sadly, short of intervention from other companies or governments, the only things we can do is to be more critical of the things we read and be on the alert for attempts to move us in one direction or the other.