How Do We Stop Meta in 2024? We Fix the Information Loop

Consider the communication roles in a typical social media platform. There are posters, amplifiers, and aggregators.

The Poster synthesizes the world around them. These are your bloggers, micro-bloggers, essayists, shit-posters, or anyone who forms narratives.

The Amplifier spreads the word, often sifting through our noisy feeds for signal. These are your rebloggers, quote tweeters, and video stitchers.

The Aggregator guards the zeitgeist and compiles a complete accounting of events. These are your weekly digesters, Wikipedians, and digital archivists.

A natural information loop is perhaps less prevalent on platforms like Threads and Twitter, where algorithms influence behavior and taint motivations. Modern algorithms are why grindset accounts and the worst hot-takes reign supreme on Threads. The incentive is not to inform but to provide content the algorithm "likes."

Discursive dominance is "the ultimate emergence of one discourse as dominant among competing ones in their struggle for dominance." Once discursive dominance is secured, objectives are easier to achieve. It's why lobbyists exist.

Bad actors must develop new methods for breaking the information loop for platforms with chronological feeds like Mastodon.

Such methods may include:

• Manipulating content moderation policies in a way that favors desired speech. • Coordinate efforts to co-opt dissenting opinions in a way that weakens peoples' willingness to express their views over time. • Flood feeds at opportune times when dissenting posts gain traction. • Continuity in a single narrative across a select group of prominent Posters. • Targeted amplification of specific articles and posts that do not provide new information but continue to push a single narrative. • A reduced ability for Aggregators to aggregate. Whether it be from suppressing dissenting speech or reasonable doubt of authenticity.