Ignoring social media has been the biggest mistake of the left across the world. In my home country, an objectively better and progressive candidate was outvoted by the son of an ex-dictator by a landslide, because the said candidate is an old school progressive who still does the old-fashioned way of convincing voters, by going door to door and relying on legacy media, instead of presenting a brand of herself in social media like Mamdani does. That’s when I realised “yup, social media is now where the frontline is, whether we like it or not.”
The problem of fighting for democracy using social media, is that the ones controlling the algorithm are precisely the ones that don’t want the “left” to succeed. It is essentially fighting a battle in the enemy’s field, where they control the land itself. At small scales, it might work. But it will never work when it comes to true important positions. I’d go as far as to say that the mirage that it works in cases like Mandani is part of their plan, to keep the left locked in their platforms “because that’s what works”. Here in my country, Brazil, I could clearly see the impacts of the algorithm changes they put in place after 2011, after the pro-democracy movements that started on Facebook. Their networks started to curb engagement from the left, and massively boost fake news, right-wing content, ultra nationalism, and such. It’s naive to think that social media can be used to win the populace back to the left. They’ll never let it happen.
its the oldguard dnc that doesnt know how to reach thier voters, they stuck to the traditional MSM where everything is curated and controlled.
Ignoring social media has been the biggest mistake of the left across the world. In my home country, an objectively better and progressive candidate was outvoted by the son of an ex-dictator by a landslide, because the said candidate is an old school progressive who still does the old-fashioned way of convincing voters, by going door to door and relying on legacy media, instead of presenting a brand of herself in social media like Mamdani does. That’s when I realised “yup, social media is now where the frontline is, whether we like it or not.”
The problem of fighting for democracy using social media, is that the ones controlling the algorithm are precisely the ones that don’t want the “left” to succeed. It is essentially fighting a battle in the enemy’s field, where they control the land itself. At small scales, it might work. But it will never work when it comes to true important positions. I’d go as far as to say that the mirage that it works in cases like Mandani is part of their plan, to keep the left locked in their platforms “because that’s what works”. Here in my country, Brazil, I could clearly see the impacts of the algorithm changes they put in place after 2011, after the pro-democracy movements that started on Facebook. Their networks started to curb engagement from the left, and massively boost fake news, right-wing content, ultra nationalism, and such. It’s naive to think that social media can be used to win the populace back to the left. They’ll never let it happen.