Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies into Reality

The viral nature of social media has made right-wing influencers the “invisible rulers” of public discourse, according to this fiery debut investigation. DiResta, a researcher at the Stanford Internet Observatory (SIO), starts with an insightful account of how social media’s mechanics promote sensationalism, with charismatic personalities tailoring their output toward stimulating content, which gets boosted by algorithms designed to maximize engagement. The result, she contends, is a crisis of social consensus as users get isolated in delusional ideological bubbles. DiResta applies this framework to several social media controversies and campaigns, especially Trump supporters’ 2020 election denialism and Covid-19 vaccine conspiracies. She also rebuts right-wing critics of social media platforms, arguing that their complaints of being censored are overblown and mainly an attempt to “work the refs.” She particularly takes to task Twitter Files journalist Matt Taibbi, who in reporting and congressional testimony accused her and SIO of pressuring Twitter (now X) to censor millions of tweets; she calls these allegations “lies.” Her small-bore recommendations—disclosure requirements for paid political speech by influencers and tweaking algorithms to boost civility over vitriol— do indeed fall short of censorship, though her call for “freedom of speech, not freedom of reach” will likely still come off as shadow-banning to her accusers. Nevertheless, it’s a well-informed take on what ails social media, and a vigorous riposte to conservative narratives of persecution by Big Tech. (June)