Social media | No New Wars – my personal blog about the concept

What have I learned from my volunteering?

A friend expressed a desire to create a peace organisation and the first things that sprang to mind were:

the need for a name. It must be meaningful, appropriate, memorable, decent, SEO-friendly.
the means to raise funds
sufficient independence to get on with what the founders want to achieve
it needs publicity
it could do with high profile supporters
a blog can be helpful for giving less formal, more human, messages
a web site is essential
a web site requires people to keep writing content
a web site requires maintenance, applying updates, security controls, interfaces with social media, checking backups are working, detecting having been hacked
at least one domain name (needed for the web site and, ideally, email addresses)
something controversial to gain media coverage and attention
an understanding of its target audiences and how to communicate with them
knowledge of similar organisations with which to collaborate
the means, time and knowledge to create and drive collaboration with other organisations
a purpose
a plan
an idea of what “finished” or “success” will look like
specific responsibilities and authorities for individuals involved so they know what they should, can and cannot do
email addresses for the organisation and its individuals
a governance model with a committee or leadership and defined rules for managing it to prevent infighting
a legal structure (unincorporated, ltd co by guarantee, community interest company, charity, etc.)
a social media policy: which web sites and internet facilities to use, when, how with defined messages with defined purposes
a mailing list and the means to manage it
an online discussion forum with the supporting active moderation
an online shop with the necessary legal processes to protect people’s payment details and the staff and processes to deliver what is sold
equipment such as computers, mobile phones with cameras, franking machine, printer(s)
staff with the necessary recruitment, supervision, retention, development and appraisal processes
volunteers with the necessary recruitment, supervision, retention, development and appraisal processes
financial management, ideally with open reporting
an ethical policy regarding the law, environment, procurement, staff and anything else appropriate, with the supporting monitoring and reporting processes
the means of sharing information between staff and volunteers with appropriate backup, recovery, anti-virus and security controls
accounts with suppliers (e.g. stationery), technical services (e.g. Zoom) and so on, with the means of securely keeping passwords

I had a Facebook account. I used it for researching for my undergrad degree: war crimes, arms industry, connections between religious cults and weapons (that is scary); end-timers; the plethora of arms in the USA and its consequences; mass shootings; historical political revolutions; why people believe what they do. History, psychology, just war theory, religious extremism, politics. But when I got critical of the NRA and arms industry and using facts to counter their arguments in their own groups, my Facebook account got blocked. Weird.

I created another Facebook account for my postgrad study. Similar subject areas, but used it in particular for eco stuff. Having noticed some trends in how organised trolling is done, I started outing some trollers, in particular in Greta Thunberg’s feed. There are scores of them posting the same memes and every account has one picture, one post on the wall, a home town and a university. They may have many friends, all with the same structure. Anyway, after a couple of days of showing these accounts were all interlinked and behaving in the same way … my Facebook account was suddenly deleted. No reason given.

I created another Facebook account for personal use. Real me, real photos, real location and history. Again I noticed the trends in trolling and posting. For example, have a look at Boris Johnson’s feed and watch for a few days. As soon as he posts anything, there is an instant, fast and steady trickle of near-identical posts using the same memes over and over. These are obviously created by a script. But it gives an effective impression of genuine support and others are drawn in. Any programmer or script kiddie should be able to see how the algorithm works. And just time the rate of comments and likes – see how there is a linear degradation of the rate as would be expected as the comments increase in number. And with the next post it starts again. Almost all the posts and likes on his feed are created by one or more bots.

Anyway, I just posted something expressing my view on a social issue on a local group. The abuse started within seconds. The respondents were really nasty, and each had fakes bits to their profile so they could not be identified. Cowards. I’ve had that before but this was fast, nasty and furious. And in a page that has been very quiet for months and my post was on-topic. Very odd.

I’ve had enough of Facebook. I think it serves no good but enables an awful lot of bad. And trying to use it for good is not appreciated by Facebook. Some of what goes on is vicious, some dangerous, much deceiving and some downright sinister. It does not make me happy. I won’t be back there. I’ve seen enough.