[thegrim33]

We're in the middle of an active cold war where countries are trying to manipulate the citizens of rival countries to destroy their civilization without having to fire a single bullet. Anonymous, over the internet mass manipulation, all for some minimal electricity cost.

[thesuitonym]

That's definitely the most insidious use, but I think the larger portion is advertisers and karma farmers (who later sell to advertisers).

[dylan604]

https://www.npr.org/2024/09/05/nx-s1-5100829/russia-election...

If Russia is willing to spend cash like that, then of course they're willing to run massive bot farms to pollute any forums they can. I'd be shocked if the US was not doing the same in any way they can. You have to ask why Trump killed Radio Free America as well when it was clearly not an big expense.

[pessimizer]

> Trump killed Radio Free America as well

Not sure how this relates to the subject in a direct way. Radio Free America was a outlet explicitly created and utilized to spread US propaganda, but kinda sorta barely disguised as a journalistic enterprise (not really, if you were listening to RFA you knew what you were listening to.) Shutting it down seems to be a counterpoint to all of the covert participation of US intelligence on the web which has done nothing but escalate.

[dylan604]

It was a head scratching decision that few believe was for the stated reason. Other countries are ramping up their propaganda arms while Trump shut down part of the US'. The reasoning was cost, but that doesn't make a lot of sense in the grand scheme of things. Foil hat types would easily believe it was the puppet doing the bidding of the one that pulls the strings. RFA has been a thorn in despots' side for a long time.

[mschuster91]

> You have to ask why Trump killed Radio Free America as well when it was clearly not an big expense.

The obvious answer to that question is "because he's a Russian asset". But that doesn't mean the obvious answer is also the correct one.

IMHO, we're seeing another and much more concerning trend at play here... the utter and complete rejection of anything but violence by the far-right. Diplomacy? Development aid? Cultural exchange? All sorts of soft power have been under attack for decades now, and not just by the far-right but (especially when it comes to development aid) also by mainstream centrist parties across the Western world. And it's always pseudo-masculine / "strongman" BS backing the sentiment - Bernd Höcke, German AfD mastermind, comes to my mind with "we have to rediscover our masculinity" [1], so do Hungary's Viktor Orban and his denouncement of LGBT or Trump's entire Œuvre.

I'm not saying that violence or at least being prepared, ready and willing to use it is automatically bad. Far from it. But all the various forms of "soft power"? They have a lot of value, value that the far-right is all too willing to just burn for entertainment.

[1] https://blogs.taz.de/zeitlupe/2019/03/24/die-auferstehung-de...

[thin_carapace]

wouldnt it be more productive to talk about the systemic framework leading to this inflamed state of affairs, and ways that we can tackle the issue on the ground level? perhaps inhabitants of the west would prefer pseudo masculinity to another few decades of migrant influx without corresponding upgrades to social infrastructure. this sort of internal struggle would provide a ripe substrate for foreign agents to perform subterfuge, especially in a screen based world where the narrative can be remotely influenced. conclusively, the population has been convinced that voting far right is the correct decision in their favor, but the question remains, who is it really in favor of? call me a centrist all you like but members of my family were executed under communist regimes so i find it pointless focusing on one side of yin/yang here (in other words, extremists are violent regardless as to their political persuasions).

[mschuster91]

> in other words, extremists are violent regardless as to their political persuasions

No matter where you look, the far-right kills and maims substantially much more people than the far-left does.

[81AB24FB]

That may be true where you live, but some of us have to deal with 打着红旗反红旗.

[Lerc]

AI is particularly bad at this, and regimes that employ tactics generally are not short of labour to have humans to do it.

If AI is being used in these areas it is less as an attempt to manipulate as it is to just create noise and engender distrust in what they hear.