Is that today’s major platforms like X and TikTok/Douyin can be used as “thought weapons”.
People/organizations can push a post (twit or video) to millions of people if it fits their interest, regardless of who creates the post in the first place.
At certain scale and with enough repetitiveness, this action can alter a person’s or a group of people’s thoughts.
This influence is sold.
People/organizations can buy the influence without disclosing the intention.
Common folks are blindfolded.
It’s not like an influencer wants more people to see his/her posts to grow impact.
It’s paying for “thought weapons” to achieve certain goals inexplicitly.
And sometimes, these goals could be evil, or self-interested.
Meanwhile, users who “owns” the attention “sell” their attention for nothing; payers pay to the platforms – they are not even bribing the ones that have original ownership.