Mastodawn

Plantain Feb 23

Brainwashing, 2026 edition. This paper shows how X's algorithmic feed shifts people's views rightwards. It's a sophisticated, highly effective form of reorientation. And it is utterly chilling. If you're still on that platform, unhook yourself now. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The political effects of X’s f...

The political effects of X’s feed algorithm - Nature

Among users initially on a chronological feed, 7 weeks of exposure to X’s algorithmic feed in 2023 shifted political attitudes and account-following behaviour in a more conservative direction compared with those remaining on a chronological feed, whereas switching the feed setting in the opposite direction, from algorithmic to chronological, had no effect.

Nature

George Monbiot Feb 23

The role of Musk's X in the 2020s is remarkably similar to that of Rothermere's Daily Mail in the 1920s and 1930s. It pushed a narrative which claimed we were being "swamped" by "aliens" (mostly meaning Jews), undermining British interests and values, threatening "our" women and children ...

George Monbiot Feb 23

... introducing ideas of universalism and equality (ie woke), making us "weak" and less "virile". It sang the praises of Mussolini, Hitler and Britain's homegrown fascists. What we are seeing is technologically new but politically old. Potent new technologies used to project toxic old ideas.

George Monbiot Feb 23

Oh, and I forgot to mention the conspiracy fictions, remarkably similar to some of those promoted by Musk: the Zinoviev letter it published (which it must have suspected was a forgery), the publicity it gave to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion (another forgery) and plenty of similar frothing.

George Monbiot Feb 23

Rothermere seems to have been a similar character: a megalomaniac devoid of empathy, convinced of his own genius, taking credit for other people's work, jumping up and down with excitement when he thought he had pulled something off. A classic case of Billionaire Brain.

George Monbiot Feb 23

It's not as if the Mail and other legacy media have disappeared. X, Meta, Substack etc - a new generation of bigoted billionaire channels - have not replaced the old but are laid on top of it. What we see is that with such tools in their hands, the oligarchs can fool most people, most of the time.

Eleanor Fielding Feb 23

Well yes, the bigoted billionaire bully-boys are ALWAYS bigoted and bullying, but some of us (outwith workspaces w built-in networks+networking tools) are using social media and Substack for contesting meanings and generating community. Resistance is important - as I know you know 😊

Eleanor Fielding Feb 23

My latest form of resistance

Davydh Trethewey Feb 23

@georgemonbiot.bsky.social though a lot of news websites have a cookie-or-pay wall now so a lot of people will only see the news through social media

Nicole Parsons Feb 25

@mawkernewek @georgemonbiot.bsky.social

Larry Ellison, Zuckerberg, Elon Musk are the new version of the Newspaper Axis.
https://jacobin.com/2022/09/right-wing-media-wwii-newspapers-olmsted

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/the-newspaper-axis-six-press-barons-who-enabled-hitler-power-without-responsibility-1.4856354

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/capsule-review/2022-04-19/newspaper-axis-six-press-barons-who-enabled-hitler

Willing to collude with fascists to further the agenda of the 1%

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/05/06/pages-their-newspapers-they-downplayed-hitlers-threat/

https://www.ucdavis.edu/blog/curiosity/how-did-americas-right-wing-newspaper-barons-help-fuel-hitlers-extremism

https://www.timesofisrael.com/bad-news-for-the-jews-how-six-us-and-uk-media-moguls-aided-the-nascent-nazi-regime/

Larry Ellison is aiming for a one-party media monopoly.
https://fair.org/home/as-ellison-buys-out-tiktok-us-moves-toward-one-party-media/

https://www.wired.com/story/larry-ellison-is-a-shadow-president-in-donald-trumps-america/

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/18/opinion/larry-ellison-paramount-cbs-tiktok.html

Fascist-Sympathizing Newspaper Barons Were the Blueprint for Today’s Right-Wing Media

In the 1930s, six right-wing oligarchs used the US’s and UK’s largest newspapers to spout sensationalist xenophobia, and at times even boost fascist propaganda. Today, Fox News and other right-wing mass media outlets are using the very same blueprint.

Paul Barnfather Feb 23

I do like the term "Billionaire Brain".
Musk probably wasn't always nuts (or even particularly evil), but somehow the combination of ignorance + unfathomable wealth seems to drive these people over the edge...

@georgemonbiot.bsky.social 👍

Andrew Deacon Feb 23

@georgemonbiot.bsky.social And The Daily Mail hasn’t changed, it is still a fascist rag.

DeterioratedStucco Feb 23

@georgemonbiot.bsky.social
It would be asking a lot for Musk to have an original idea. Like most of this lot, he takes discredited (and appalling) ideas and fictional dystopias, and uses them as a playbook.

@georgemonbiot.bsky.social

US corporate social media is a tool for data collection, propaganda and regime change, and the response of the American govt to China-owned TikTok ought to be taken as a warning to European govts.

Weymouth Expat Feb 23

@ReggieHere @georgemonbiot.bsky.social I have ditched X, FB and IG but Gmail and the rest of bigG trammelment will be difficult to scrape off.

grob (teeth era) 🇺🇦🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️Feb 23

@georgemonbiot.bsky.social that's a wee bit concerning, don't you think, @EUCommission @Bundesregierung @dielinke @GrueneBundestag ?

Fredrik Björeman Feb 23

@georgemonbiot.bsky.social @johank76 Didn’t have this idea on my bingo card, but now that it’s in my head I wonder if EU regulation against algorithmic timelines wouldn’t be a pretty good thing 🤔 @HennaVirkkunen

Fredrik Björeman Feb 23

@georgemonbiot.bsky.social @johank76 @HennaVirkkunen I mean really, what would the downside be?

Robotistry has moved Feb 23

@georgemonbiot.bsky.social It hadn't occurred to me that social media algorithms are actually ratcheting mechanisms whose result is to nudge people towards conservative viewpoints that emphasize fear and rage.

Makes me even more thankful my social media feed doesn't include algorithms.

Robotistry has moved Feb 23

@georgemonbiot.bsky.social @ElbowsUpforDigitalSovereignty This seems like a useful tool in the "we should be encouraging politicians to wean themselves and their followers off X" argument, since any left-leaning politician that uses X is effectively contributing to gradually shifting followers away from their policy preferences.

Nicole Parsons Feb 23

@georgemonbiot.bsky.social

The same far-right radicalization process has been observed with captive audiences of Fox News in seniors' homes & army bases.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Brainwashing_of_My_Dad

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/apr/11/fox-news-viewers-watch-cnn-study

https://www.bylinesupplement.com/p/how-i-lost-my-father-to-fox-news

https://www.salon.com/2021/10/27/senko-brainwashing-fox/

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2022/02/10/its-time-pentagon-pulled-plug-fox-news

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/20/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-nicole-hemmer.html

It's why Larry Ellison wants a one-party media monopoly

https://fair.org/home/as-ellison-buys-out-tiktok-us-moves-toward-one-party-media/

https://btlonline.org/right-wing-media-takeover-follows-authoritarian-playbook/

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/18/opinion/larry-ellison-paramount-cbs-tiktok.html

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/feb/21/cbs-trump-anderson-cooper-stephen-colbert-paramount

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/09/opinion/netflix-paramount-warner-bros.html

The Brainwashing of My Dad - Wikipedia

@georgemonbiot.bsky.social why label conservative and traditional shift as brainwash, far right etc? Are you brainwashed too?

Mark Wieczorek Feb 23

@georgemonbiot.bsky.social I would like to see a similar study for Bluesky.

Robotistry has moved Feb 23

@mrak @georgemonbiot.bsky.social I suspect the ratcheting aspect of it is consistent across anything with an algorithm, since the ratchet is the result of three interlocking properties:
- following is low inertia due to interface design and the social tendency to want to be part of a group
- following is a function of the algorithm, since it determines the groups available
- unfollowing is high inertia due to interface design and the social tendency to want to be part of a group

To eliminate the ratchet but keep the algorithm, I guess you'd have to compensate for the social tendency to group by designing the interface so that unfollowing is much, much less difficult than following.

david not david 🇵🇷🐘Feb 23

link leads to this, can you share an updated link?

Torparskytt 🏴Feb 23

@georgemonbiot.bsky.social Highly effective but with ”absence of a detectable effect on partisanship”

kaffando Feb 25

@georgemonbiot.bsky.social

Oh, my word. I did not know you were here, George!!! Bloody excellent news!

Followed!