There are fixes, but they are not about banning things. To change the violent online world Facebook has created for “Trump’s Army” will require changing the algorithms themselves, the basic architecture of Facebook’s advertising – a market that is projected to bring the company nearly $100bn in the coming year. When I told my girlfriend, her perplexed response made me realize how deeply my mind had been manipulated by my pro-Trump Facebook feeds.įacebook’s account bans have dominated the news lately, but its advertising algorithm has received far less scrutiny.Īd revenue is the lifeblood of platforms like Facebook and Twitter, and ads from companies peddling military-style gear are key to creating the hateful communities we see online today. Nonetheless I was convinced I needed them. ![]() I knew it was irrational and impractical given my lack of training and urban lifestyle. A few months into maintaining my Trump online identities, I started feeling that I needed to buy guns. The effect of being trapped is psychologically intense. Like the pied piper, it leads us into a land of extremes. That may be the case with the first few clicks or friends, but very quickly the algorithm is in control. The platforms claim that their advertising algorithms give us what we want. It is the math that drives the whole system. The problem we face as a society isn’t just fake news or political advertising. Most of the paths presented lead deeper into the rabbit hole. Those who have liked and shared pro-Trump posts, or who have mostly pro-Trump friends, are being bombarded with fear- and aggression-driven advertising warning them to stockpile weapons and accessories. For Trump supporters, that universe is often paramilitary.Īccording to a 2018 Pew study, seven in 10 US adults are on Facebook, and about half of all Americans check the platform every day. Because many of us rely on a limited number of news sources that populate our social media feeds, our information universe becomes more and more niche. But soon the algorithm starts narrowing your options and deciding what further choices to present to you. When you first join Facebook you make a few choices of your own. ![]() As such, Soldier of Fortune reached and radicalized a relative few.īut today that universe seeks and surrounds you. You had to go to Soldier of Fortune it did not come to you. With some 190,000 subscribers at its peak, Soldier of Fortune was barely in the mainstream. It was just a magazine, yet it was held responsible in US courts for contract murders and injuries resulting from the magazine’s classifieds. Soldier of Fortune’s pages focused on stories of mercenary life, combat tactics and – most exciting – a classified ads section for weapons and accessories, body armor, mail-order brides, and even hitmen. (My father, who survived the Holocaust, disapproved.) I had to wait to read copies my friends acquired. ![]() I was fascinated by the magazine Soldier of Fortune, which was a window into the shady underworld of romantic mercenary fantasies. Photograph: Igor Vamosīeing on Trump-facing Facebook takes me back to my cold war-era childhood in the early 1980s. What matters is what being surrounded by those ads does to your mind.Ī screenshot of a Facebook advertisement, taken by the author on 20 January. But the fact that you can buy stuff by clicking the links doesn’t even matter. The rare ads that do not sell tactical gear and accessories for armed combat pitch survival and security products, from enhanced door locks to backup generators. My pro-Trump feeds are personalized e-commerce sites for Capitol invaders. A black T-shirt presents an image of a medieval crusader in full armor holding a contemporary handgun, accompanied by a biblical quote: “Blessed be the lord my rock who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle.” The body armor is worn by someone actively poised to shoot a semi-automatic weapon. An automatic rifle slides into the tactical backpack. Body armor.ĭespite not actually selling guns, the vast majority of the ads nevertheless display military-style weapons somewhere in their design. Tactical backpacks with integrated back scabbards that can hold weapons up to 25in long. This is not a new thing – it has been going on since I started looking at these accounts in June 2019, and it was probably going on much longer than that.Īlthough Facebook policy does not allow the direct advertisement of guns and bombs, accessories have generally been fair game. ![]() Roughly four out of five ads shown to my pro-Trump profiles sell tactical gear clearly intended for combat. A screenshot of a Facebook advertisement, taken by the author on 13 January.
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