10/23/2017: Political propaganda: then vs. now
Facebook told us this month that it suspended two accounts that may have had ties to Russian operatives. The account “Blacktivist” paid attention to issues in the black community, and accrued more followers than the official Black Lives Matters account did. Another one named “Secured Borders” called for a crackdown on illegal immigration. People who followed these accounts said they seemed genuine, and engaged with them like real organizations. It made us wonder: what happens when social media meets propaganda? Marketplace Tech’s Molly Wood talks with Wendy Schiller, a political science professor at Brown, about the history propaganda and how social media changed its reach.
Facebook told us this month that it suspended two accounts that may have had ties to Russian operatives. The account “Blacktivist” paid attention to issues in the black community, and accrued more followers than the official Black Lives Matters account did. Another one named “Secured Borders” called for a crackdown on illegal immigration. People who followed these accounts said they seemed genuine, and engaged with them like real organizations. It made us wonder: what happens when social media meets propaganda? Marketplace Tech’s Molly Wood talks with Wendy Schiller, a political science professor at Brown, about the history propaganda and how social media changed its reach.
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