Security Unfiltered
Security Unfiltered
Fighting Misinformation in a Divided Landscape
Have you ever wondered how drastically your media consumption could change just by crossing state lines? During a recent family vacation to Nashville, I experienced firsthand how my YouTube and social media feeds were manipulated to present opposing political views. This episode exposes the unnerving reality of regional media targeting, especially as we approach election season. By exploring the ease with which these platforms can alter our perspectives based on location, we uncover the potential for significant influence on public opinion.
As we navigate through today’s politically charged environment, it's more critical than ever to question the information presented to us. We discuss the alarming trend of historical facts being twisted or forgotten, drawing parallels to the propaganda tactics of the past. This episode underscores the importance of verifying sources and staying vigilant against misinformation. With election season on the horizon, our focus is on fostering awareness and preparedness to resist the unprecedented levels of targeted media influence aimed at swaying our opinions. Join us in this vital conversation about maintaining the integrity of our perspectives in the face of sophisticated propaganda techniques.
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How's it going, everyone? This is another Security Unfiltered Mentorship episode. So we haven't done this in a while and it's mostly because or well, really solely because I haven't been motivated to, I haven't found a topic that I want to discuss, and I think a part of that is probably also for planning or for investigative research. Right on my part, right, but I want to provide valuable content to all of you guys. So, as always, I really do appreciate you tuning in to. You know, hear me talk, right, but I wanted to talk about, I guess, misinformation and propaganda overall. I'll talk about the experience that I had Recently.
Speaker 1:I was in Nashville for almost a week with my family on vacation. On vacation, uh, you know, vacation. We haven't taken a vacation yet as a family. This was our first one, right, so had a fantastic time in nashville overall, and when we got there, I didn't notice it at first, right, but when we got there, right, I connected to the wi-fi, went to YouTube because I'm going to sleep, right, everything.
Speaker 1:Every single night, when I am getting ready for bed or going to sleep, you know, I'm watching YouTube as I like, kind of start dozing off, right, and just before I fall asleep I turn off the iPad, that I'm watching it on and I go to sleep, and in this case, you know, I couldn't find anything on YouTube. It was all. It was all like opposing political views to you know what I typically, what I typically watch, right? So it wasn't interesting to me, it didn't like spark any interest or anything like that, and so it was a whole lot of channels that I'm not even subscribed to, um, that I've actually never even watched before. I did not find any content in my feed. That was anything that I was even subscribed to or anything that I've watched before. You know, I watch a lot of like car videos, right, Um, or especially like car detailing videos, cause that's kind of a little bit of a passion of mine, right, and uh, like none of that was coming up and I didn't even notice it at first, right, didn't even notice it. I just figured, okay, all the content creators that I, that I watch, they're not posting any content or nothing new came up, right, which is probably weird in and of itself, but I just didn't think anything more of it, um, and then, you know, maybe the next day or the second day after that, the third day in Nashville, I realized all of the ads, literally every single ad.
Speaker 1:Most of the posts on social media were all of the opposing party, right, the opposing side to where I'm typically sitting. I'm not going to tell you which side it might be or whatnot right, because one side will take it and say, oh see, the left is weaponizing it, and the other side will say, oh, the right is weaponizing it. All this stuff, right. And I'm not trying to bring politics into my podcast. That's not what I'm trying to do.
Speaker 1:We are in an election season in america, as I'm sure everyone in the world knows, right, um, and it it's picking up, it's getting heated, right, it's been heated for a while and it's like party lines are being drawn and all the all this sort of stuff, right, so it's like party lines are being drawn and all this sort of stuff, right. So it's pretty frustrating, honestly, as someone that is not a part of it to any extent. Really, you know, it's just, it's a frustrating time, right For sure, and it's a weird time too, because it seems like there's a lot of pieces that are coming into play that is like trying to invoke, you know, another world war, another civil war, even in america, and it's not a good time, right. So to kind of circle back right when I'm, when I go, you know, on these sites, I'm seeing the complete opposite of what I actually want to look.
Speaker 1:Targeted, because that's a very precise term. That means a very precise thing of you know, let's say, a news outlet or an agency saying we are specifically going to target Joe, right, and we are going to target him with this information in hopes of getting this result. I don't think that that was the case. I think the region was targeted to gain more votes for one side, and that's kind of just like how. That's just how it comes up, right, because they're targeting an area to get more votes. They know that area may be swaying left or right, okay, know that area may be swaying left or right, okay, and they're targeting that area for the opposing side to get as many votes as they possibly can away from the incumbent party, right, is that targeting? No, but I do think that there should be a line drawn where this media is forming the opinions of people, right, either correctly or incorrectly. Maybe it's misleading information, right, just to get that one little vote right.
Speaker 1:It's a weird, weird time. It's a very weird time, that's for sure, you know. So that occurred, right. And then several days later, maybe a week or two later, I saw someone and, mind you, as soon as I came back to Chicago, right as soon as I came back, my feeds all came back Like instantly. Right as soon as I came back, my feeds all came back like instantly. All the channels I subscribe to, all the kind of videos that I tend to watch, my social media feeds all switched like it was kind of crazy to just to see that as a tech person, right, because everyone, everyone always says that's not really a thing, they don't really believe it and whatnot. But this had, this happened firsthand to me, you know, and I didn't think that that was ever. I knew that it happened. You know that they target areas, you know, in a blanket way, right, to gain more, more votes, and but I felt like the information was targeted in a very specific way. You know that would sway an opinion and that was very interesting to see.
Speaker 1:So I came back and I saw on social media that, you know, someone in my network had asked ChatGPT about the Trump assassination, the Trump assassination attempt, and you know, chatgpt denied that it ever existed and it took him a couple, you know he showed screenshots, right? It took him a couple prompts to actually get ChatGPT to admit it, to actually get ChatGPT to admit it, which is really interesting because, you know, with the advent of LLMs and ChatGPT overall, right, chatgpt is more popular, you know, than any other AI algorithm, right? As soon as someone says AI, they're immediately thinking about ChatGPT, even though it's an LLM. Everyone in the space kind of understands that.
Speaker 1:Lo and behold, right, chatgpt is a great tool to actually use to find information, I mean for my PhD, right? Rather than going to Google and trying to search through a million different documents and find the one that I need and whatnot, I'll go to ChatGPT, tell it exactly what I'm looking for and it will provide articles on exactly that thing, exactly that topic, right. And if I need it, it'll give me a summary of that article and I can then assess and say I should read this article more, summary of that article, and I can then assess and say I should read this article more or this doesn't really fit with what I'm looking to do, and so I can, you know, prioritize it like that and that's a very valuable tool. That's. That's actually extremely valuable when, when you know you're on a time crunch, right, like when you have a little kid. You're always on a time crunch, and so the time that I have to devote to doing my PhD is very minimal. So I have to use that time very wisely. That's probably why I've had a lot of trouble this year studying for different certifications and whatnot.
Speaker 1:But you know, ched GPT is being more widely used, right? I mean, millions of people use it every single day. I know I do. I use it every single day to look up various things because I don't want to have to cut through the weeds to find the stuff that I want to, you know, look at, incorporate, investigate and whatnot. And so in this case, when I saw that, I said well, you know chat, jpts and LLM. Surely if this one guy went through it it would probably learn from you know that interaction, that instance, and update its database to the proper links, the proper information, all that sort of stuff. That's how I assumed it would work. Honestly, maybe it doesn't work quite like that. Maybe it needs a certain amount of the population to be looking for this sort of thing, but at least that was my thought on it.
Speaker 1:And so I actually went to ChatGPT and I, you know, I pay the premium subscription, so I have the latest and greatest, you know, chatgpt version, whatever that means. You know I honestly don't know. That means you know I honestly don't know. And so I went to it and I just asked you know what was the date of the assassination attempt on former President Trump? And it said there was no assassination attempt. It literally said this never happened, and I may even post some of the screenshots with it, you know, on my LinkedIn or on Twitter. I think I did actually post it on Twitter, but it insisted that there was no assassination attempt, which is obviously BS.
Speaker 1:The entire world saw it right At this point. The entire world saw it right At this point. The entire world has seen that video and everyone really knows like, hey, yeah, there was an assassination attempt, whether you believe that somehow the right orchestrated it right, or the left orchestrated it, or this person was under their own fruition and will and whatnot. All of that aside, there was an attempt, right, we all watched it. And ChatGPT is telling me that there was no attempt.
Speaker 1:And this literally took me probably five minutes of arguing with ChatGPT and giving it more and more refined, precise information about the assassination attempt you know that took place for it to finally admit I was wrong. I don't even think it said I was wrong. I think it said this is what I found. You know, something like that and that was very alarming to me. You know the the whole nashville thing, like that, I I would chalk that up as expected. Right, that's what I would expect, especially in a political season. You know, that's what I would expect, right. But it was the chat gpt part that made me start thinking hey, they're trying to potentially change the narrative, they're trying to change facts, and when I say they're, I'm saying the media, I'm saying the party that's in power, because at the end of the day, it all rolls up to the top right.
Speaker 1:When you read Jocko Willink's Extreme Ownership book, he talks about how the blame always rolls to the top right. If you are a leader in any capacity, when something fails underneath you, when something is done underneath you, all of the blame goes to you and all the glory goes to you. And I think that that's absolutely true. There is no doubt about it. And it's the leader's job to accept the blame, and when the glory or the promotion is on them. They divert that to the people that actually did the real work. That's the real leadership style or leadership mentality or quality that you would want to see.
Speaker 1:It's frustrating. It's frustrating, that's for sure, because that is something that we all watch. That is something that we all watch, right? I mean, we all watched it happen, we all saw it in real time. We're close to real time, and now they're trying to convince us it never happened, right? Or they're trying to mitigate it or minimize it to some extent, which I mean that's a pretty significant event in world history, right? None of my peers have ever seen that in our lifetime, right? I was born in 91. So I didn't see JFK, I didn't see Nixon, you know? I mean not that there was an attempt on Nixon's life, but I'm just giving that perspective. Like I never even saw nixon in office, right? Um, which is interesting because it puts us into a weird dynamic. Because what is the? What are the future generations going to use to pull information? Right? Maybe it won't be google, right? Maybe it won't be Google for the first time in 30 years. Maybe it will be ChatGPT, maybe it will be an LLM. So if this is what we're experiencing now with this sort of technology, imagine the amount of power and control it would have in the future. I mean, this isn't a conspiracy theory.
Speaker 1:As a security professional, it is our job to question pretty much everything, right? I mean, you literally have to say what would the enemy do if their intent was to, you know, do something to us right, sway an opinion, whatever it might be, attack us in some way? What are they going to do? Oh well, if I was on that side, I would do this. That would be a great idea, that's actually a fantastic idea. I would do this, or I would lean away from doing this and I would do it right. In security you have to be asking questions all the time. Trust but verify is not just a security principle, it's a life principle.
Speaker 1:At this point, because if I never would have tested out that whole you know, chat, gpt interaction if I never would have tested it for myself, my thought would have been well, maybe that's just, maybe that's just him right, and surely it wouldn't happen now, because it's trained up at this point. It probably knows that information, knows the links and all that sort of stuff. But surely what happened to me? And then I go and I actually test it, right? I mean, that's probably the mentality, what I just described there. That's probably the mentality of a whole lot of people, right? Um, surely it won't happen to me. It's probably inaccurate, it's not right, it's not correct. I mean, I thought that myself, right, I was trying to make excuses for you know this llm before even going to it and testing it myself, and then it happened to me. So it's, it's really weird.
Speaker 1:We're living in a really weird time where history is trying to be rewritten right in front of us, right, and I had someone on the podcast before JB Benjamin that discussed how history could theoretically be rewritten or completely forgotten within the next 10 to 12 years Due to technology limitations and all that sort of stuff. I don't want to get into that because I don't know that as intimately or anything like that. But if someone out there that is also a security professional that is questioning things is saying that it's possible, it's probably something that you should at least look into, be a little bit knowledgeable on and I will admit I should be more knowledgeable on it. I should know that a little bit better, and I don't. I've been a little bit busy with things and whatnot. But you know, even looking at Wikipedia, recently trying to rewrite history, where Bill Clinton was never with Jeffrey Epstein, never on his plane, never on his island, trying to rewrite that history, to rewrite that history, there's a known fact that he was there. There's pictures of him there, right? There's flight logs and everything else like that, right, um? So they're trying to rewrite that to paint them in a better picture, right, um, it's a weird, weird time. You know I've, um, it's a weird, weird time. You know, I've I've always felt that the powers that are in play will do whatever they possibly can, whether it's illegal, whether it's legal, whether it's ethically right or wrong.
Speaker 1:They will do it to maintain that power, because power, power is everything in DC. If you don't have power, if you don't know the right people, if you don't have the right leverage, you get nothing done, right, you get nothing done. That's just a fact. That's what the game is, that's what the politics game is, and so I'm I'm doing this episode to remind you. Hey, as security professionals, as people, just as citizens, nowadays, we have to be checking. You know everything that we can right if, if a political point, um, a pull, even if a video is made and it's making you feel a certain way about one side or the other, it's probably a good idea to go and look it up and try and find the actual source and make your own opinion on it.
Speaker 1:I'll give you an example and I talked about this in a recent podcast episode that'll be released in a couple weeks when you know this narrative right of one side saying something that they actually never did. It sounded very wrong to me because I feel like I know that side a little bit. I feel like I know their stance on a lot of different topics and whatnot. And so, after a bit of research stance on a lot of different topics and whatnot and so, after a bit of research, I found the actual video of I mean, I'll just say it of Trump saying whatever it was that he was trying to say right, something like you know, he doesn't like the military, or whatever it is. So I found the actual video right, because that is, that's a huge, huge, huge topic for me, right? If he actually said that he doesn't support the military and you know they're cowards or whatever, whatever it is that one side is claiming that he said. That's a huge thing for me if he actually said it like that's, that's a, that's a. That's a gigantic point for me, right?
Speaker 1:Because I respect the military in every capacity. I have a lot of friends that served in the military. I tried to serve in the military myself. I couldn't because I donated my kidney and, unbeknownst to me that at the time, that that disqualifies you from military service like forever, right. Every single branch I applied to, every single branch denied me for the exact same reason. I would never even make it to the medical screening part. Because they ask you a question, you know, they remind you you cannot lie, or you shouldn't lie. At least it can cause issues for you down the line. I'm not a person that likes to lie, right? So as soon as I state that I have one kidney, they're like yep, you're done. It stops right there, the phone call ends okay. So I respect the military a lot, a significant amount. There's been a lot of people on my podcast from the military of this country and other countries. There's a lot of people that have been on this podcast from agencies in this country and in other friendly nations their agencies as well, and so I really, I really do respect that right. I put a lot of weight on that.
Speaker 1:Well, once I found the actual video, right that they're claiming that it was stated, and at least to me it looked very unedited and he said something completely different, right? Or at least it showed that in the video. I mean, at this point I have to question everything, which we're living in a really weird time where if you're not questioning everything and you're not taking the initiative to look it up, you are going to be at the whim of whatever party is in power, for the propaganda that they're pushing out. I mean at this point, it's just propaganda, because they're swaying an opinion of a population, whether the information is 100% correct or not.
Speaker 1:One of the things that I learned in my time in Germany was that the Nazi regime were masters at propaganda. Masters at propaganda Because they had to delay the rest of the world understanding what they were actually doing to its own citizens and other people and other nations that it conquered. It had to delay that battle right with the rest of the world for as long as it possibly could because it had to build up its own military and defenses and weapons and everything else it wanted to have. They wanted to have the upper hand before anyone else even knew what they were actually doing. That would cause these other countries to say, hey, this is wrong, we need to go in and do something about it. They wanted to have the upper hand. They wanted to have that war sealed in the books, already done by the time everyone else found out, by the time everyone else found out. And so they were masters at propaganda. They shaped the way that their entire population thought.
Speaker 1:Right, you're talking about shifting mentalities and how people think and what people think and what they think about a certain party or a certain people. Right? I mean, that's just not right in my opinion. I feel like at that point you're becoming a tool, you know, and a huge cog, or you're a peon in this huge cog, and that's not right. It feels abusive to me, it feels manipulative to me, and that's not okay. And so I'm saying all this because we're going into an election season and the right will say inaccuracies or just complete falsehoods about the left, and the left will do it to the right, and the middle tries to say it about everyone, right? That's the nature of the game, I guess at this point.
Speaker 1:But I'm saying I'm bringing this topic up because it is our jobs, especially as security professionals, to just question things. Right, and in this season, we have to be more mindful of what we're watching on TV. We have to be more mindful of our social media feeds. Right, because all of those things, as we have learned in the past with other elections in other countries, even in our own elections in this country, that information is being weaponized and used against us to promote a certain agenda or side or political opinion. Is that right? No, I don't believe that it's right. Is there any stopping it? I don't think that there is. There's already been. You know, there's already been provisions made with the smith month act. Right, this thing was created in like 1934 or 48, something somewhere around there in that time frame, and that prevents the government agencies from targeting american citizens with propaganda. Right, and then, fairly recently, there was an amendment made where the global news agency could interact with these agencies and then it could push down news to the American citizens and whatnot.
Speaker 1:I'm very much summarizing it from what I read in a couple different articles. You may look something up and find that I was incorrect. That's not intentional. I am literally telling you what I found when I looked it up. That is literally it.
Speaker 1:But to say that agencies can't or won't do that, I think that is a little bit far-fetched at this point, because we've seen that they will do it, that they have done it. It's a proven methodology for them, right? So if they find a loophole in the law with forming this global media agency, right, and then they filter information through that and then out, that's not like something far-fetched, that's not something out far-fetched, that's not something out of a movie or dystopian movie Like that is a realistic thing that people need to know about, that they should be on the lookout. For, at the end of the day, all that I'm saying is that when you see something on TV or in your newsfeed or whatever, about a certain party whether it's left, right, center, green party, whatever it is you should be taking the initiative to look it up for yourself. If it's making you feel a certain way about one side or the other, you should take the time, take the 30 seconds, take the minute, two minutes, and look it up. Look it up for yourself, read it for yourself, become more vigilant with your information that you're consuming, become more aware of your surroundings, right? That's the whole purpose of this podcast is really informing you of how to be better in every way right, and I really I try to only talk about things that I have experienced, that I have witnessed myself, that I've gone through, because I feel like that's where the value is. So, with that, you know, thank you for listening to this episode. You know, I really hope that someone out there found it valuable.
Speaker 1:Again, I'm not trying to sway anyone's political opinion. I truly do not care. I do not care Not one bit what you believe in or anything like that. I'm just saying be more vigilant. We have to be on our toes. Right now. We're entering the election season here. Fall. We're entering fall in the United States in an election year. It is going to be far more targeted than it ever has been before and we should be expecting that and we should be looking for that. All right, thanks everyone. Have a great one.
