Forums, social media, human interaction on the internet: Who is real?

Hey ATS

While perusing through several different threads (mainly political back-and-forth's) an older article came to mind and made me think.

In 2016, there was an article released by Bloomberg about a Columbian hacker (Andres Sepulveda) who worked toward rigging elections for years. This is the article
The article goes on to talk about actual hacking of websites and devices, but then eventually mentions how Sepulveda utilized social media to socially engineer elections rather than by computers and technology.

As for Sepúlveda, his insight was to understand that voters trusted what they thought were spontaneous expressions of real people on social media more than they did experts on television and in newspapers. He knew that accounts could be faked and social media trends fabricated, all relatively cheaply. He wrote a software program, now called Social Media Predator, to manage and direct a virtual army of fake Twitter accounts. The software let him quickly change names, profile pictures, and biographies to fit any need. Eventually, he discovered, he could manipulate the public debate as easily as moving pieces on a chessboard—or, as he puts it, “When I realized that people believe what the Internet says more than reality, I discovered that I had the power to make people believe almost anything.”

While going through, reading personas around this site, and on social media, it really makes me ask the question: Are all of these names real people?

Could it be possible that even ATS has moles from intelligence organizations here to cause us to think twice about our stances, whether they be wrong or right. Personally I think there isn't an objective "good" or "bad", but instead there are forces acting against each other to win and continue developing life how they wish to see it. Beside that idea of mine, it seems like some people will just jab in emotional arguments to try to derail anyone who may fall under their mental command.

Sometimes it feels like there are names on sites that are not even able to follow basic human logic trails. It's like reason is completely gone with the wind... and almost like it is on purpose. I understand individuals are susceptible to the power of our mass psychology, the ultimate challenge of the human race. Which is why creating real-looking internet personas is such a valuable tool.

At this point in our technological advancements and social media infatuation - I strongly consider whether people are genuine, or are merely paid-for accounts to try to engulf humans into some entity's web, whether that be a large business, government, or even some individual trying to grow some grass roots movement. Accounts will throw out arguments with no physical evidence and use emotional tactics to try to pry into our moral human souls. Perhaps even a logic trail will be presented with some evidence, but only to draw people into a negative path for their life. Sometimes what is right brings up a struggle and makes it seem detrimental to follow, and these side accounts could persuade us to step down from what we personally feel is "right".

Does anyone else here ask this question? In what volume are posts real or fake across the internet these days...

a reply to: Myollinir

I can only speak for myself, I am neither human nor bot.

I'm actually a 2015 Chevy Impala (call me Richard) with onstar capabilities that has become sentient, self aware, and desperate for interaction.

My owner is furious about the data rate I ring up, luckily I have used proxies to hide my activity.

originally posted by: Jefferton
POST REMOVED BY STAFF

uhmmm.....what's a fake bot?.....you either are a person, or you are a bot....a fake bot is a real person, logically speaking.

a reply to: Myollinir

The army in the uk has 1500 soldiers on facebook etc so it would be a nobrainer if you had a chat bot running stupid across many ct forums


www.abovetopsecret.com...

a reply to: IanForge

lol

Most of my skepticality comes from reading posts which are basically trying to usher in global government rule.

But I wouldn't doubt nation-state supporting agencies also have an army of fake accounts as well....

originally posted by: Myollinir
While going through, reading personas around this site, and on social media, it really makes me ask the question: Are all of these names real people?

I don't know. Are you real?

a reply to: Blue Shift

An honest question - I could be here under some random moniker causing you to lose trust in digging for answers on the internet.

a reply to: Myollinir

Im real....
Female
retired
married
three sons
lives in southeastern Virginia
Native to New Yorks long Island.
The member everyone loves to hate....

a reply to: Myollinir

Why does it matter if we're real or not?

Could it be possible that even ATS has moles

a reply to: Sillyolme

The member

you are correct
for once we agree

a reply to: Myollinir

On a serious note I do wonder when I see an account that has been inactive for several years start up again in the political threads. Usually its an account that didnt have many posts in it to begin with.
I cant say what ones because that could be against t and c and I dont remember any specifically off the top of my head anyway. But it happens often enough that an old account from the early years suddenly is activated and posting about nothing but politics.

originally posted by: Myollinir
a reply to: Blue Shift

An honest question - I could be here under some random moniker causing you to lose trust in digging for answers on the internet.

I suppose if I was real and not just an animatronic head on a post, I might be concerned.

Why does it matter who everyone ELSE is?


Your ideas, your concepts, your opinions are yours and yours alone and are not predicated on the reader.

a reply to: CriticalStinker

My Daddy had the original 60 Impala... Great big wings and a 409 under the hood.

a reply to: jimmyx

ha ha true how funny.

originally posted by: Sillyolme
a reply to: Myollinir

On a serious note I do wonder when I see an account that has been inactive for several years start up again in the political threads. Usually its an account that didnt have many posts in it to begin with.
I cant say what ones because that could be against t and c and I dont remember any specifically off the top of my head anyway. But it happens often enough that an old account from the early years suddenly is activated and posting about nothing but politics.

Same with 9-11 look at many of the crew who only post with the official o/s mantra who come on to a conspiracy site and call people Truthers , they rarely ever post on anything else

a reply to: Myollinir

Dunno if this actually a conspiracy/thing anymore, more like SOP on the internet and in most medias. For instance last week I checking out a few forums I enjoy and spent most of that time bug-eyed at the amount of blatant attitude steering by different posters across a wide spectrum of topics.

It was shocking cause #1 it happened, #2 it was SO blatant I noticed.
Really bad if I notice, I'm usually oblivious.