A subject you will read a lot about here is reporting TOS violations on social media. As discussed in our first blog, this is one method of countering harmful activity on social media such as disinformation, harassment and everything in between. If you are one of the individuals or groups that take part in such actions, than you already know the following: The best part of waking up, is Russian troll tears in your cup.. right next to a phat stack of notifications from a platform about another locked or permanently suspended troll account.
If you are like myself and many others, you have probably noticed confirmation notifications thinning out over time or maybe even drying up completely. Why is this? Short answer.. We don't know! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
The long answer is, we can make a pretty good educated guess and make a number of assumptions based on our extensive experience reporting harmful accounts and TOS violations. There are likely a combination of reasons for lack of confirmation notifications. Mainly, the platforms don't actually want to enforce their own rules! If they did, and action was taken every time a rule was broken and reported, there would be a far smaller user base, which translates to less value for advertisers, less stock value and less potential to generate capital.
Rage farming is another reason the platforms don't act on violations of the rules. Hate and anger both generate clicks. Clicks and such information is another form of currency to social media platforms. What we like, share, who we follow.. this information is all sold to data brokers and advertisers.
Social Media platforms financially benefit from the constant violation of their own rules. The very terms and services put in place to protect users and keep the community safe, are largely ignored in the name of profits.
So how do we counter the abuse, the disinformation, the weaponized images and content? How do we get the platforms to act or acknowledge the problem? Keep fucking reporting. As we mentioned in our first blog "Social Media Warfare and the Way of the Warrior" it takes an army, to smash a troll. Personally I think it comes down to making an accounts existence costly to the platform in terms of resources. If an account is costing a company time, energy and manpower rather than generating income, sooner or later the powers that be will recognize the problem.
Years ago, human moderators made the process of reporting abuse eventful and harmful content would get removed with little effort. Unfortunately due to Artificial Intelligence and the automated review process, this is no longer the case. This is why the following is more important than ever.. see something, say something. See abuse, propaganda or similar nonsense on social media, please take a moment to report it.
Action taken by the platforms against harmful content seems to be accumulative. Many reports eventually add up to limited action such as a lock. Many locks, add up to a permanent suspension. And there is any variation of untold consequences between the two such as the dreaded "ghost ban"
Getting the platforms AI to recognize harmful content appears to be like rolling dice or playing a slot machine. The more people reporting, the more content from a harmful account that is reported.. the more chances for a confirmed hit and higher probability of action being taken by the platform.
I also feel that a possible cause for lack of notifications is thanks to the complaints of larger disinformation super spreaders who profit from spreading hate. It wasn't long after KimDotFart and similar garbage super spreaders started crying to Elon Musk that notifications really started to thin out. These larger accounts generate a ton of capital for the platforms.. where as TOS violation reports, have the opposite effect.
Fellow #NAFOworks head-hunters, what is something we all look forward to? The positive reinforcement that brightens even the darkest of days for those reporting?
Confirmation notifications. Lots of them.
Take away the positive reinforcement and the individual reporting gets discouraged and is at risk of losing motivation. We feel lack of confirmation notifications is a direct effort to discourage "mass reporting" and our "hit-list" of harmful accounts here is our way to counter this and keep track of target accounts. After a #NAFOworks fire mission we take a good cool down period, go do normal social media stuff for a while and check back on target accounts occasionally for new violations! We have found that its normal for action to be taken by the platforms against harmful content and accounts, while the individual reporting is never notified. Why, we cant say for sure. What we can say for sure, once a troll or Z fan-boi is added to our list.. there is only one way to be removed from it, by being added to the wall of #TangoDown
Not seeing results? Feeling down about it? Keep reporting anyway! Then call in the artillery by sending us work anywhere you can find us online. Teamwork makes the dream work and more people reporting means more confirmation notifications for everyone! As can be seen via our page titled "Tango-Down" .. if you keep reporting, and you take our advice, referencing our blog and "The Pirates Guide to Social Media Warfare" .. you WILL see results improve! If not, let us know and we will see if we can help!
I find that in matters of Social Media Warfare sometimes it helps to make comparisons between what we do here, and actual Military in general or kinetic warfare. If we use such an analogy to explain the significance of reporting TOS violations and confirmation notifications.. or lack of them.. the best military metaphor would be to compare our role here, to that of the artillery gun crew and the work they do!
If we are the gun crew, our account would be the artillery itself. If you have multiple accounts working together, its like an entire battery of guns! Your enemies, the Z trolls, Putin cultists, terrorist sympathizers and racists are posted up in their fortress of sock accounts. They use these accounts as a fire base to launch attacks on us all. You aren't going to destroy a fortified position like a castle with one blast from a canon.. it takes sustained fire. Volley after volley of accurate fire. Same thing for harmful social media accounts.
Similar to the artillery gun crew while working, we may not immediately see the impact or results of our fire, if we see any impact at all. An artillery gun crew may only receive confirmation of a target destroyed or adjustments that need to be made, by radio or similar. We have the confirmation notification. And again, we may not even get such a notification because there is a variety of consequences taken by the platform against harmful accounts beyond locks or suspension.
This is in part the purpose of keeping track of harmful accounts and trolls with the "Hit-List" here on the website. While there is more than one way to thwack a troll, if the objective is a suspended account, the "hit-list" allows us and team members to easily check back on problem accounts for, and report new TOS violations.
That being said, a suspended account may not be the most effective means to counter harmful actors on social media..
"If you destroy a trolls will to troll, you need not destroy the troll account."
Often the best victory and most effective counter to disinformation blasters and trolls, is simply them knowing that we are always watching and they can no longer get away with the bull shit. We have often seen accounts that simply go inactive or some get locked with no confirmation notifications to anyone reporting. Which is why reporting disinformation and abuse on social media, is extremely important even if you do not immediately see results.
Without people out there making the reports and hunting down harmful content.. there would be zero counter, no resistance and complete freedom of operation for the enemy. Online support for Ukraine and anything else in general, would not last very long in such a scenario.
If you are one of the helpers that track down trolls, report tos violations and stack confirmation notifications like they were pancakes, what you do is important. Thank you.
Keep an eye out for new blog articles here to learn how to become more dangerous to the enemy on social media! If you find our content useful please share!
Captain No Beard
[ Tactical Strike Media ]