The internet is real life after all
Ukraine memes, TikTok twitches, Ben McKenzie, romance scams, social clubs and "I'm Feeling Lucky"
Hi friends. Today is March 4, 2022.
And this week I learned the first “social media war” played out in Mexico *28 years* ago.
You already know why I Googled the subject: There’s a widespread perception — undoubtedly boosted by everyone’s burning need to Have A Take — that the photos, videos and memes we’ve seen from Ukraine diverge from prior conflicts in significant ways. But not that much time has passed between this “social media war” and the ones that came before it. Jihadists are famously pretty good at YouTube and emoji. The ongoing Syrian civil war was dubbed the “the most socially mediated civil conflict in history” by the U.S. Institute of Peace. Hell, even the Ukraine-Russia conflict was very online before last week’s invasion. So … what exactly changed between now and then? I have three speculations:
TikTok. Yes fine okay, this one is obvious: TikTok is only a few years old, and its recommendation algorithm prioritizes videos that (a) have lots of engagement in the form of likes and shares and (b) keep users in the app longer. Regular TikTok users know this combo can quickly lead them down obscure and very specific rabbit holes as the app predicts their interests based on how long they watch each clip. But it also lends itself to content that is titillating and participatory — say, for instance, a hysterical “investigation” of an otherwise normal person. Or a war on the other side of the world, which users consume as isolated blips of content that they can piece together, puzzle-like, to yield a larger narrative. On Wednesday, a researcher at the Institute for Strategic Dialog concluded that TikTok has already proven “more valuable” to Russian propagandists than YouTube — and it appears to drive more engagement for them than Facebook and Twitter, too.
Volume. There are a lot more people on social media today than there were even four or five years ago, in Ukraine and around the worst. In 2017, Facebook had 2.04 billion monthly active users; it now has 2.9 billion. TikTok has grown from just over 234 million users to more than a billion in the same period. While just over half of Ukrainians used the internet in 2013, 87 percent are reportedly online today, often via smartphones or high-speed internet. In short: There are more people making more content now. (And — because racism! — more people in the West are paying attention.) It’s also not just regular people contributing to the sheer volume of posts about Ukraine, either: Analysts have logged a huge surge in social activity from Russian-backed media, bot networks and other state-linked propagandists, who have reportedly spent the past several years trying to step up their social media methods.
Credence. I am old enough to have covered the @IDF/Hamas Twitter beef as a low-ranking baby reporter at the Washington Post, which … should tell you a lot. At the time, the notion of “social media war” was not deemed significant or relevant or urgent enough to assign to a real person — say, a foreign correspondent. (Big mistake: Later analysis showed that Israel actually appeared to *pace its airstrikes* based on Twitter sentiment.) The sea change in that perception, both in the media and the general population, has been pretty dramatic. The Post has, for instance, published at least a dozen articles about Ukraine and social media, many written by veteran tech reporters or correspondents on the ground. And those stories, like many others!, are loaded with quotes about the importance of the social media narrative:
“The truth is that humor has an enormous power, especially when facing a brutal, self-aggrandizing and extremely serious authoritarian regime like Russia,” the account added. “They are so serious that they actually fear humor no less than nukes. Memes do just that.” (via The Washington Post)
“What is far more dangerous is Russia’s ability to influence what populations everywhere believe,” Nagata said. “To get them to believe things that are useful for Russian strategic interests... If you’re able to change what an entire population believes, you may not have to attack anything.” (via AP)
“Nations are ultimately built on stories. Each passing day adds more stories that Ukrainians will tell … This is the stuff nations are built from. In the long run, these stories count for more than tanks.” (via The Guardian)
“With deadly explosions in Ukraine’s capital city of Kyiv and a developing refugee crisis, it might seem odd to cover the play-by-play of a digital encyclopedia. But internet-savvy Ukrainians, including the country’s own Ministry of Foreign Affairs, recognize that how the facts are represented on Wikipedia matters.” (via Slate)
“[Zelensky] and his team have also made excellent use of social media, with impassioned speeches showing his presence on the streets of Kyiv going viral. Ordinary Ukrainians are reporting on events in Ukraine on TikTok … [Their actions] have also had an important impact on European opinion, European officials say, making it easier for their leaders to be bolder and to more freely accept refugees coming their way from Ukraine.” (via The New York Times)
Fwiw, if you’re wondering when mainstream media started taking this seriously, I’d guess it’s around the same time people started blaming disinformation — particularly Russian disinformation — for Donald Trump’s presidency. Turns out that, in war and peace, the internet is real life after all unfortunately.
If you read anything this weekend
“Stop Making the Ukraine War About You,” by James Greig in Dazed Digital. I am really, sincerely glad that we’ve woken up to the mental health harms of guzzling so much grim shit on social media. But too much of a good thing is … narcissism. (See also: how Americans use Nukemap and World War III content.)
“The Twitching Generation,” by Helen Lewis in The Atlantic. If you read that big Wall Street Journal article on teenage tics five months ago and thought “huh, I could read a lot more on this!” — then this 3,500-word deep dive should really scratch that itch. It seems pretty definitive that tic-like behaviors are contagious on the internet … but not because half of Gen Z spontaneously developed Tourette’s.
“Trapped in Silicon Valley’s Hidden Caste System,” by Sonia Paul in Wired. Since 2020, hundreds of South Asian tech workers have sued their employers or complained to civil rights groups about caste-based harassment and discrimination. Wired followed one Dalit employee at Facebook for over a year, and even though he’s active in the anti-caste movement, the personal and professional risks remain so high that he still didn’t want his name or caste outed.
“Inside Pornhub,” by Nathan Munn in The Verge. Munn worked as a Ponhub moderator in the site’s early days, and the picture he paints is unsurprisingly grim: revenge porn, underage porn, pirated porn … and bro-y executives far more concerned with investors, growth and industry “disruption.”
“Ben McKenzie, Actor Turned Crypto Naysayer,” by Bridget Read in The Cut. TIL the preeminent heartthrob of my early teenage years majored in economics!
👉 ICYMI: The most-clicked link from last week’s newsletter was the one about white people, but it should have been the one about sexually active popes. Thanks guest curator Annie!, and also you’re welcome.
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Postscripts
Talking more about “Bruno.” The future of grocery stores. “A celebration of web surfing” and Google Alerts. How the pandemic changed the bra. Why movies got so damn long. Inside the “Salem witch trial” (lol) at Knitting.com.
The world’s trendiest Bible app comes from China, like … many trendy things? The second act of the Soho grifter. “I’m Feeling Lucky.” How a month-old far-right website won Facebook. The face that launched a thousand romance scams. There are a ton of new big-tech TV shows rn, which is surely an indictment. Cool: A crowdsourced, automated newsletter. Not: Scammy Instagram war pages. Also, IMO, “social clubs” running on “vibes and tokens.” Last but certainly not least, and among the most devastating, dystopian headlines I have ever read: “To expunge his daughter’s death from the Internet, a father created an NFT of the video” that depicted it.
That’s it for this week! Until the next one. Warmest virtual regards.
— Caitlin
P.S. Today’s banner comes from photographer Konrad Lembcke via Creative Commons.