Pruning Facebook

A friend of mine asked me today:
"What does pruning Facebook mean?"

Pruning Facebook for me, means cutting back on exposure and involvement except for connections with family and friends. I want to highlight and emphasize the positive instead of focusing on the negative. I want to take better care of myself mentally and emotionally.

"The Great Hack" among other documentaries and sources is a keen reminder to me for the importance of being more mindful, not getting caught up in the drama and carried away in chaos.

When I joined FB in 2009, it was for the purpose of connecting with friends and family who lived across state, across the nation and across the world.

Over the years, groups I've joined (activity-based, political, social, etc) have overwhelmed my FB feed to the point, that my friends/family presence is no longer prominent.

Among other things, the political discourse and divisiveness is not good for my peace of mind...I find myself being so upset about something I have nearly no control over.

And quite frankly, the creation/propagation of misinformation and focusing on our differences for the sole purpose of inciting division is not only unsettling, it is evil.

Tragically, there are many influential/powerful individuals and groups that attempt to bring strife and pit "us" against "them". These entities then sit back and watch the ensuing chaos with glee, able to swoop in and grab further control, most particularly politically.

Some people/groups take great pleasure in spreading evil like a hacker spreading a virus. Pruning Facebook for me, means installing antivirus by unfollowing or leaving groups...it already has made a difference 🙂

#ownyourdata

Down the Rabbit Hole with "The Great Hack"

"The Great Hack" is a terrifying expose of Cambridge Analytica's "full service propaganda machine" and their irrefutable effect on the 2016 election. Cambridge Analytica founded by conservative businessmen Steve Bannon (yes, THAT Steve Bannon) and Robert Mercer was Bannon's arsenal of weaponry to wage a culture war on America using military strategies.
Parent company of Cambridge Analytica was SCL Group (formerly Strategic Communication Laboratories), a private British behavioral research and strategic communication company. Nigel Oakes founded SCL Group, Publicly, SCL Group called itself a "global election management agency", and was known for involvement "in military disinformation campaigns to social media branding and voter targeting". "The Great Hack" lays out, in quite shocking detail, the level of influence that Cambridge Analytica's techniques have had in other political campaigns across the globe – including Argentina (2015), Trinidad and Tobago (2009), Thailand (1997), India (2010), Malaysia (2013), Italy (2012) Kenya (2013) and Colombia (2011) to name a few that were listed in the documentary. The company claimed to have 5000+ data points on every American and could use this to predict the personality of every adult in the United States. "It's personality that drives behavior, and behavior obviously influences how you vote," said former Cambridge Analytica CEO Alexander Nix. More than a THIRD of the USA population (87 million people) was purposely data mined without their knowledge, consent or permission. The subsequent data was analyzed classifying people according to five traits — openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.

In September 2016, the company pinpointed 20 million persuadable voters in battleground states and target them with messages carefully tailored to those traits. These persuadables were regarded as suitably malleable and micro-targeted with inflammatory propaganda. Cambridge Analytica's shrug-the-shoulders-we-didn't-do-anything-wrong excuse that people still had free will to choose who ever they wanted to vote for is utter and complete bullshit!!!!!
What Cambridge Analytica did is tantamount to putting the bullet in the gun, pointing at the target, pulling the trigger and then blaming the bullet for ripping the target to shreds! Cambridge Analytica PURPOSELY targeted the persuadables by weaponizing data for the sole purpose of changing their behavior, unite them in an ideology and point them to a candidate who aligned with there ideology (in America's case tRump). And then the persuadables voted for that candidate. As programmed. As predicted. There's a word for that. It is called brainwashing. It is called PSYOPS. Cambridge Analytica should be charged with performing PSYOPS on a populace against their will, without their permission! PSYOPS should be illegal and Cambridge Analytica/those involved should be charged with a crime! Cambridge Analytica knowingly, purposely and STRATEGICALLY manipulated people (persuadables) pushing them into a predictable direction for a particular goal of electing tRump (among other world leaders in 30 other countries). If ever there is a cabal, this is it! Cambridge Analytica dissolved in 2018 but the moral, and possible legal, implications continue to be investigated. Today, I spent time deleting / disconnecting sites on Facebook, double-checking privacy settings, linked apps, etc. My goal is to get back to ONLY my friends and family. If the Facebook algorithm won't allow me to do that, I will delete my entire account. I enjoy the community feel of Facebook, to be able to stay connected with friends/family who live across state, across the nation and across the world.

This pic looks like a "heat map" of a global pathogen outbreak around because at a deep level, that is EXACTLY what it is/was: an engineered virus delivered with precision to a particular subset of the population in over 100 election campaigns in over 30 countries spanning 5 continents for the sole purpose of propagating an ideology, controlling & changing behavior of specific people in order to achieve a purpose. That is how a computer virus works: the engineered virus is delivered via a payload through an exploit for the sole purpose to propagate, infect, damage and control a network. Facebook and Twitter (predominantly) was the infrastructure -- they were the highway along which Cambridge Analytica deployed it's weapon against the world. The scene in which the Cambridge Analytica executive rejoiced about the "global revolution" which was kicked off with tRump's win was absolutely horrifying!! If Facebook (as well as other social media sites) want to put their money where their mouth is, in regard to the divisive political weaponization of their platform, of their user's data, they need to modify it accordingly. I suggest they go so far as "blacking out" social media X amount of time leading up to the presidential election. TOO much is at stake!! Sadly, the persuaders who were targeted and subsequently duped, will never think they were influenced because many/most (all) of them don't possess necessary ability/skill towards logical thinking or critical analysis. The persuadables are malleable and compliant sheep, prone to rejecting facts, discounting science and perform extreme mental gymnastics in order to preserve their preferred view of reality.
The conclusion of "The Great Hack" is a heavy one. In this new digitally-led world, it seems that Pandora's Box has now been opened. The technology, rightly or wrongly, exists to manipulate voters without their realizing it – so where does that leave our democratic processes? #ownyourdata

Worms worming their way into systems...

The funniest thing I've read today! 😂 "WORM-LIKE AMPHIBIAN NAMED AFTER DONALD TRUMP" As an IT Professional, I particularly appreciate choosing to naming a worm after him (poor worm though!). In my field, here is the classic definition of a computer worm*:

Worms (unlike viruses) self-replicate and propagate. Once a worm has made its way onto a system, usually via an internet or network connection, it makes multiple copies of itself and spreads via the internet infecting any inadequately-protected systems on the network. Because each subsequent copy of a worm can also self-replicate, infections spread very rapidly via the internet and other systems.
EXCERPT FROM THE ARTICLE: 

D. donaldtrumpi is a type of caecilian—a group of limbless amphibians resembling serpents or worms. The group was named after the Latin word “caecus” which means “blind”. 

EnviroBuild co-founder Aidan Bell shared the inspiration for the name:
“As Demorphus donaldtrumpi is an amphibian, it is particularly susceptible to the impacts of climate change and is therefore in danger of becoming extinct as a direct result of its namesake's climate policies. 

“Capable of seeing the world only in black and white, Donald Trump has claimed that climate change is a hoax by the Chinese. 

“Burrowing [his] head underground helps Donald Trump when avoiding scientific consensus on anthropogenic climate change."

As I'm fond of saying, "The greatest, most powerful, and smartest computer is the one between our ears! Be sure to upgrade it, protect it, optimize it and use it!" 😊
------ * Computers are infected by various nefarious methods, including: worms, virus, malware. Hence the importance to keeping computers protected with updates, rigorous security measures and by using best practices.