LikeWar

The Weaponization of Social Media

By: P. W. Singer, Emerson T. Brooking

Narrated by: George Guidall

Length: 11 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's summary

Two defense experts explore the collision of war, politics, and social media, where the most important battles are now only a click away.

Through the weaponization of social media, the Internet is changing war and politics, just as war and politics are changing the Internet. Terrorists livestream their attacks, “Twitter wars” produce real world casualties, and viral misinformation alters not just the result of battles, but the very fate of nations. The result is that war, tech, and politics have blurred into a new kind of battlespace that plays out on our smartphones.

P. W. Singer and Emerson Brooking tackle the mind bending questions that arise when war goes online and the online world goes to war. They explore how ISIS copies the Instagram tactics of Taylor Swift, a former World of Warcraft addict foils war crimes thousands of miles away, Internet trolls shape elections, and China uses a smartphone app to police the thoughts of 1.4 billion citizens. What can be kept secret in a world of networks? Does social media expose the truth or bury it? And what role do ordinary people now play in international conflicts?

Delving into the web’s darkest corners, we meet the unexpected warriors of social media, such as the rapper turned jihadist PR czar and the Russian hipsters who wage unceasing infowars against the West. Finally, looking to the crucial years ahead, LikeWar outlines a radical new paradigm for understanding and defending against the unprecedented threats of our networked world.

©2018 P.W. Singer and Emerson T. Brooking (P)2018 Recorded Books

Illuminating, and disconcerting

I hope to use this book as a call to action amongst my friends and family. Having seen the debris of information warfare always around me in my time at university, this text finally gave me the perspective to understand many of the disturbing trends which I observed there. Delivered in a dynamic, entertaining narrative style, it conveys its points and amazing facts and figures in an effective but laid back manner. If I had more stars to give, I would!

Should be "Like Required Reading"

Helps to bring the new information age into perspective for Gen Z through The Greatest Generation. There is only one truth but it can be buried deep by loud and broadly spread lies. America and the World need to find a workable solution.

Must listen

truly the most timely, relevant and life changing ideas I've been exposed to in years. we all need to be more aware of our role in influencing each other and our responsibility to think critically about what we see and hear. amazing

Pretty good book

A little long in some chapters. Overall pretty good. However the narrator just isnt for me.

A must read.

This book will forever change how you view social media, and how You interact with it. I cannot recommend this book enough.

The Absolute best and up to date...

Easy to listen to and well read... Great sources with up to date resources... Thought provoking and enlightening...

Some minor flaws, but the gist is correct

Overall this was a great title, which fits beautifully into my filter bubble and highlight what seems to me is the net delusion. In many ways this is rehash of previous works, albeit adding its own angle and addressing the psychology of individuals and groups. Again I doubt this is unique or solely new ground, but it is compact, coherent and all in the same place.

There are some flaws that stood out to me where points are made that mistranslation of words are used in propaganda, no doubt this is true but 'cadaver' is German for dead body, it can imply animal in context but generally to be explicit German would specify 'tier'. This does not invalidate the point but subtly makes another, which isn't then addressed. One could say its in the negative space... . Either way, this makes me wonder about other facts which might not be so specifically, though it does not detract from the point being made, and in the context is minor. This certainly is not what the thrust of the book rests upon, and only comes up once but it stood out to me.

That nitpick aside, great book.

There are deep philosophical & social ramifications of this work

Read it once for information and again for deeper thought. It shook my perception of reality. I wish the authors political biases weren’t so obvious but otherwise enjoyed the book. I also find it odd that the author is an expert on the problem yet he trusts platforms to appropriately self-regulate. In a post-Elon Twitter reality we know for a fact what these platforms do with their new tools.

Social Media is the Battlefield of the Future

This book highlights the increasing struggle we face in information warfare of the future... the influence of social media to sway masses will be used and manipulated by our enemies... this book should be read by every person to help them realize the challenges of our future... my only issue is this book may only resonate with half of Americans as the book has a somewhat biased tone (not overly)... 2016 was an unprecedented time with Russian influencing on our elections; maybe connecting some more alt left social media use could help level the tone (outside authoritarian regimes in Russia and China)... we live in such a polarizing time, and the only way we can mitigate it is by inviting everyone to the conversation rather than shouting down people you disagree with regardless if you're right or not... bottom line, I have a more open mind and found this book incredibly rewarding and crucial to how I will interact with information on all mediums in the future.

Interesting, compelling, myopic, or biased

This book is very interesting and quite compelling. It explains in great detail how social media has been used/weaponized:
- by gangs to extend conflict form on-line to in-person
- by terrorist groups such as ISIS to ‘prepare the battlespace’ and win battles almost without fighting them
- by countries like Russia for propaganda and repression
- by repressive regimes like China for systems repression
- by Trump supporters in the 2016 election
It does paint a compelling and chilling picture.
However, the picture is incomplete and somewhat distorted, perhaps even intentionally biased. The Authors seem intent on repeatedly associating terrorists, Russia, China, and Trump supporters that they avoid what would seem to be obvious topics that would fill out the story such as:
- They note that social media platforms, such as Google and Facebook, are controlled by a few powerful moguls and key ranking algorithms. However, they say nothing about how these platforms employ those algorithms to influence what stories people see on these platforms in line with the political beliefs, and campaign contributions, of their owners. They suggest that the social media executives are apolitical, but reality has proven that to be abjectly false. In failing to note these types of things, they then miss a larger topic of how, just as repressive regimes control what is seen and believed, so can tech elites, aside from governments.
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- They fail to make a seemingly obvious comparison between the efficacy of social media campaigns, such as Trump’s, relative to the reach and impact of friendly coverage in the ‘mainstream media’ news, late night talk shows, etc. This seemed an odd oversight in that it talks about how these social media campaigns are akin to asymmetric warfare but misses the obvious comparison here. In many cases, the social media campaigns are seen (rightly or wrongly) as a response to what’s going on in the mainstream media.
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- They seem to consciously avoid discussion of the use of social media weaponization by groups on the other end of the US political spectrum (Antifa, BLM, etc.) to set up flash mobs, organize demonstrations, and turn online threats into physical ones by releasing private addresses or locations of political figures they encourage people to harass or threaten.

Due to when it was published, the book also misses discussing how, in response to some of the concerns about the weaponization, the platforms have implemented their own control mechanisms, such as Facebook fact checkers. Or how Biden’s DHS tried to create an office to combat domestic disinformation, with strong shadows of 1984’s Ministry of Truth. In looking at these, they would seemingly be hard pressed to NOT draw haunting parallels to the repressive techniques of China’s unity campaigns.
So, the book is interesting and compelling. However, as the book went on, I was dismayed that it didn’t hit these things.
It’s discussion of AI exhibited more than a little of a Frankenstein Complex, assuming that AI was going to evolve to exert control, whether anyone directed it to or not.