[akudha]

There were news reports that Russia spent less than a million dollars on a massive propaganda campaign targeting U.S elections and the American population in general.

Do you think it would be possible before internet, before AI?

Bad actors, poorly written/sourced information, sensationalism etc have always existed. It is nothing new. What is new is the scale, speed and cost of making and spreading poor quality stuff now.

All one needs today is a laptop and an internet connection and a few hours, they can wreak havoc. In the past, you'd need TV or newspapers to spread bad (and good) stuff - they were expensive, time consuming to produce and had limited reach.

[kloop]

There are lots of organizations with $1M and a desire to influence the population

This can only be done with a sentiment that was, at least partially, already there. And may very well happen naturally eventually

[immibis]

How can I wreck havoc with a few hours, a laptop, and an internet connection?

It takes a bit more than that.

[akudha]

Some woman’s cat was hiding in her basement. She automatically assumed her Haitian neighbors stole her cat and made some comment about it, which landed on Facebook, which got morphed into “immigrants eating pets” story, JD Vance picked it up, Trump mentioned it in a national debate watched by 65 million people. All of this happened in a few days. This resulted in violence in Springfield.

If you can place a rumor or lie in front of the right person/people to amplify, it will be amplified. It will spread like wildfire, and by the time it is fact checked, it will have done at least some damage.

[immibis]

These successful manipulation stories are extremely rare though. What usually happens is that you say your neighbour ate your cat, then everyone laughs at you.

Did the person who posted do the manipulation, or did JD Vance and Donald Trump do it?