#the nightmare of the social media algorithm

[valyrfia]

You know what i have kind of being afraid lately that charles and max becomes a bit more distant and cold, because of how much lestappen started to get talked. Because before it was just fans, but now even f1 media uses the lestappen thing a lot

Like that video where they asked max "it seems like you explain things to max a lot"

The RPF curse unfortunately, the more popular the thing becomes, the more it spreads to people who aren't as strict with boundaries about it as they should be (because it gets them engagement!) and the more likely it becomes that someone who should NOT know about the RPF finds out about it.

The comments underneath Max's latest instagram post left me feeling uneasy, to be honest. Far too much "omg Lestappen!" or something along those lines making jokes that I would almost believe were lifted straight from the tag on tumblr. It's disconcerting. All I can do is warn about how I've seen other popular RPF go south in my time which is that people either a. end up trying to play into that content so much that it gets noticed by the people involved or b. conspiracy theorist begin to be incredibly invasive in an attempt to 'prove' that they are into each other/the ship is real etc. etc.

The issue isn't tumblr, it's fandom culture which historically was concentrated on tumblr going mainstream and people who I'm sure ten years ago would've bullied our ilk on whatever playground suddenly using fandom terminology or speaking openly about ao3 and shipping or using ship names in spaces where it's not appropriate. I've seen the complaint with Lestappen that it's full of 'ex-larries trying to do the same shit' when in my experience, it couldn't really be further from the truth. All the people who watched Larry happen either from within the fandom or as an onlooker (as I was) know full well how south RPF can go if you don't put in place strong internal and external boundaries. As a result, we may have some ex-larries or similar among us on tumblr, but in my experience the 'trauma' (for lack of a better word) and hindsight enables us to set down boundaries quite well and keep the RPF on tumblr and ao3. The people who are pushing romantic Lestappen past boundaries are those who have NOT witnessed something like Larry in real time, and indeed may not have had any real fandom experience in their more formative years and as a result have no idea how to interact with fandom etiquette or fandom culture. This applies to fans, but also to social media and media teams as well, who come across fandom terminology, see that it gets interaction, and choose to use it. It is a massive problem, and I'm so afraid to say that at the rate we're going at it's a matter of when Max and Charles discover what we mean by Lestappen, not it.

[bloodofgrapes]

I can't believe I've been playing whack-a-mole with ui changes on this website since 2011

[vaguely-problematic]

a u.s. supreme court case for 2023 may change the internet. legal eagle (above video) explains.

Gonzalez v. Google LLC is about whether youtube can be held liable for the content that its algorithm recommends to viewers. it involves a terrorist attack by isis and the fact that youtube was recommending isis videos to its users.

[scrambleseggy]

Was watching a youtube vid and I’m completely paraphrasing here but some I think philosopher guy in the 90’s was like “oh yeah were gonna have a lot of world peace through the growth of the internet because it’s going to solve a lot religious and faith based arguments by making people a lot more interested in science (and also be more logical and empathetic bc human connectivity sorta thing.”) And it’s like sad how like completely wrong he is lol. And the youtuber was like “yeah the internet is basically mostly a cult now so no” wnbdsbbf brilliant.

[tiecladartist]

I've promo'd my book's tumblr account on like 4 different social medias (including tumblr itself through this account).

I've followed topic-related blogs big and small, and interacted with/reblogged their content.

I've used all manner of applicable tags both proper and conversational (ie talking through tags to make it less rigid and because it's the norm on here)

I've liked, reblogged, posted, changed the profile pic, the whole shebang.

Only thing I haven't done is directly message/ask folks requesting follows because that just doesn't feel right. And yet the book blog is completely dead in the water. I know that content-wise Tumblr users would be the most likely to enjoy the series, so obviously I'm sad about this, but I genuinely don't know what I'm doing wrong at this point 😓

If you like fantasy books; stories about angels, demons, and cool magic; casts with lgbt characters (the main characters are Aro/Ace and Pan, and many other characters are lgbt too); or even just wanna follow out of pity/sympathy, the blog is @divinetrialsseries

Don't know what else I could do to get it off the ground now, so all I can do is get down on my knees and beg. Pride is a price I'll pay to get this story the attention I dearly hope it deserves.

[formulatrash]

sorry to like, keep going on about this but as a (former?) media professional: seeing so many comments on @wearewatcher's video saying "I would fire people so I didn't have to charge for content" and accusing WATCHER of being capitalist about it is actually insane.

you used to have to pay for content. you had to pay like £16 to watch one whole movie on DVD. this is because it cost money to make and people were supposed to be paid for it. remember the writers' strike because streaming now only benefits executives with no equanimous income distribution model for the people who create the stuff you love?

you are meant to root for the independent creators. you are not meant to want all content to be beholden to an algorithmic nightmare that ransoms what creators can make or monetise for its own arbitrary censorship. you are not meant to root for a platform that works to silence and limit people under oppressive regimes. you are not meant to demand that you get content only on something that platforms and promotes right wing prejudice.

employing people is good!!!!!!! you are meant to want people to be fairly paid for their work even and especially when that work goes into creating things you love and get enrichment from

yes you are also meant to share your subscription with your friends. OUR login details. THAT'S fucking socialism.

[robsheridan]

One year ago, my "Meat Gala" AI body horror fashion series, imagining demons from Hell attending the MET Gala, went wildly viral on social media (here's a Buzzfeed article/interview with me about it)

My subversion of the event's elite glamour with nightmarish gore that commented on the grotesque opulence of the 1% really resonated with people, and as the first AI horror art to go viral in this way it was the first exposure many people had to the dark side of what was possible with AI imaging. It also led a lot of very angry Christians who inexplicably thought it was real (enjoy the comments here and here), and it also led to terms like "body horror," "flesh," and even "Cronenberg" getting banned from MidJourney (I didn't even use the term "Cronenberg" in my prompts), sealing the work in a liminal space in AI art history, unable to be recreated or continued. Of course it didn't slow down my AI horror journey, and the spirit of this work - both visually and in out-of-control viral impact - continued this year with my Valentine of the Flesh body horror fashion series.

This series is also special for me because of the subsequent conversations I had with MidJourney's DavidH in which I argued against their censorship of horror art, and he revealed a depressingly vanilla view of "art" and "beauty" that he sought to curate with his platform. What I had discovered, first with VIIR and then with The Meat Gala, was that the algorithmic opinion towards artistic beauty which made MidJourney at the time leagues ahead of previous AI art tech, could be subverted to make stunning and wholly unique horror art. The elegant way those early versions of the software blended elements together like surrealist paintings was meant to ensure that any prompt result gave you something that looked like beautiful art, but what I found is that if you pointed it in the right direction, it would do the same thing with blood and flesh and bones and tentacles, to spectacular uncanny horror effect. In the case of The Meat Gala, the effect was even more potent, as elements of demonic body horror gore were twisted through lenses of beauty, glamour, and opulence. To me, I was making beautiful surreal nightmares, and I was floored with the potential I saw and the ideas it gave me. But David and the other MidJourney creators saw nothing but a perversion of their software. They were, in fact, shocked by my Meat Galaseries and worried that its viral spread was giving the wrong public impression of MidJourney before it had even officially launched. They didn't know their software could make something like that, because they didn't have the type of minds that had ever even thought to try.

In that moment, when I genuinely surprised and upset the creators of the software, I was able to let go of the nagging feeling I had that "I didn't really make this, the software did" and feel true ownership over my AI work. After all, if the creators of the software didn't even know such art was possible, it went against everything they created the software for, and they rushed to try to prevent it from happening again, then I had truly made something unique to me as an artist, that would have never existed from anyone else. It was a new type of creation, but a very real and personal creation nonetheless.  As much of a bummer as it was to find out the creators of the coolest horror art tool I'd ever encountered actively hated horror art, I was empowered and inspired to see what else I could pull out of each new liminal phase of a rapidly-progressing technology.

The Meat Gala series also led to a very cool art collaboration, resulting in something new I'm very excited about that I'll be announcing Monday May 1st, the day of the 2023 MET Gala. Stay tuned!

[mariacallous]

The end of TikTok has begun. As the dust settles from a week of shockingly fast legislative action by the US Congress, it’s clear that TikTok next year will look much different from the TikTok we’re using today.

When President Joe Biden signed a $95 billion dollar foreign aid package on Wednesday, it brought to life a nightmare that has haunted TikTok for more than four years. If TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, refuses to divest its stakes in the company, the United States will ban the app nationwide. The signing started the clock, giving TikTok 270 days to find a new owner. (As The Washington Post’s Cristiano Lima-Strong noted, TikTok’s time will run out the day before Inauguration Day 2025.)

There are a few ways this could all shake out. An American company or private equity fund could buy TikTok and its powerful recommendation algorithm. Or, a buyer might have to accept just the bones of the platform without that algorithmic muscle; The Information reported on Thursday that ByteDance has already started gaming out what a sale without the algorithm would look like. Or, perhaps no buyer can be found and TikTok goes poof.

Unless TikTok or a horde of its users were to somehow win a lawsuit challenging the law signed this week—a lawsuit the company has already said it plans to file—all the potential outcomes lead to an app that is dramatically different.

If a US tech company were to, miraculously, buy out the app and algorithm from ByteDance, it’ll likely integrate the app into its own products and services. But I doubt we’ll ever see a “TikTok by Meta.” Meta and other tech giants have come under intense antitrust scrutiny in recent years. If any company with a big social platform were to gobble up one of its top competitors, that would set off alarms at the Department of Justice or Federal Trade Commission.

Microsoft has suggested that it has an interest in buying TikTok, and it might be one of the app’s only viable choices for a buyer. Microsoft’s biggest subsidiary otherwise is, well, LinkedIn—and can we even call LinkedIn a TikTok rival with a straight face?

Separately, if, say, a private equity firm like Blackstone were to purchase TikTok without its much-envied algorithm, rebuilding the heart of the app could be difficult. A company without a deep bench of algorithmic wizards on hand likely wouldn’t have the expertise to quickly reengineer a feed-based social media platform from scratch. If they tried, I doubt the results would be pretty.

And if there’s no new owner? Well, I guess we’re left with YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels. TikTok’s popularity in the US forced Google and Meta to invest in vertical video, but those platforms mostly cater to the younger “Skibidi Toilet” generation. They wouldn’t easily fill a TikTok-shaped gap on the US internet.

Still, the law passed this week may not stand for much longer. In a statement calling it unconstitutional, TikTok seemed confident that the law could be overturned. “We believe the facts and the law are clearly on our side, and we will ultimately prevail,” a TikTok spokesperson said on Wednesday. The company used a similar argument last year to win an injunction blocking a ban passed in Montana.

Regardless of how this lawsuit plays out, TikTok will be different. The question is just what kind of “different” that will be.

[wawer-dwinker]

if you're being force-fed the algorithmic nightmare that has become synonymous with social media in general while on tumblr just know that it isn't like that for everyone and shouldn't be like that for anyone

forcing the algorithm tab as the primary tab isn't very "Curate your Tumblr experience like never before! Choose what you see by selecting and reordering different tabs."

[trojanteapot]

Alrighty folks buckle up because I'm gonna rant

Just feel like some of you out here just don't really understand nuance? And it's like what was I expecting because it's social media nuance is dead.

Anyway so all three of you out there who follow me that aren't bots, or people that I know IRL, know that my favourite character in Infinity Train is Simon Laurent, the French incel bastard man. And yeah I know he's terrible but also I must ask the eternal question: Is he actually though??????

Hear me out. Because look I know dude is a murderer and a hypocrite and a whiny little bitch but also consider the facts:

he's a teenager

he got trapped on some nightmare train when he was only ten. TEN!

his denizen was THE CAT, who from his POV manipulated him and then abandoned him!

Now I know what some of you already saying at this point:

-"uh that doesn't justify all the murdering!!!" -"he's an egotistical jackass!" -"he's not a child he's 18! he would go to adult jail in real life!" -"he died in the narrative thus justifying my hatred!" Okay well consider this: it's pretty much canonical that Grace did exactly the same amount of murdering as Simon but y'all are so ready to embrace and forgive her because she had a change of heart?

And which one of you when you were 18 made completely rational not emotion-driven decisions based on pure facts and logic??? Which one of you are capable of doing this now????

And he didn't have a normal childhood to develop his brain in a normal way, again he boarded the Train at age ten!!!! And finally which one of you was a teenager who wasn't a little egotistical???

If Simon was egotistical then what does that make Grace, the leader of the Apex who made a throne for herself???? What does that make Amelia who rejected the Train's attempts to help her move on and instead tried to recreate her dead fiance to the point that there are just renegade failed clones of that person just running around????

Also, I feel like it's important to mention that Amelia probably did more crimes than both Grace and Simon combined but she just didn't get her face eaten by Ghoms just because she was an adult at the time and could outsmart the Train. You guys are willing to forgive her and all the stuff she did... as an ADULT, but not Simon, a teenager, because... reasons???!!!

And other stuff I feel like should be mentioned here:

I think it's important to consider why episode 4 of season 3, came right before episode 5, you know the one where he kills Tuba. Episode 4 was when we learn a ton of info about Simon. Notably that the Cat was his denizen and we all know how the Cat is!

I'm pretty sure we were supposed to draw several conclusions from that episode namely:

- Cat is a schemey little shit - he was a kid when he knew the Cat - he seems to claim she was fake and manipulating him - that seems believable from what we know of the cat - ep 5 hits, Tuba and Simon have heart to heart - Simon then kills Tuba

So why did Simon kill Tuba? IT'S BECAUSE SIMON THINKS TUBA IS MANIPULATING HIM LIKE THE CAT WAS

And my friend brought up a good point where if you think about it, the Train was using Tuba to manipulate him, and using Hazel to manipulate Grace.

The Train we've seen just runs on pure algorithms and doesn't give a shit about the passengers. The Train just sees them as a number that increases or decreases. It just calculated that if Hazel & Tuba met Grace & Simon then it would have the maximum likelihood that those denizen + passenger combos could get their numbers down the most efficiently. It of course did not account for the fact that the Cat went on vacation and then ran into Simon, thus reminding him to not trust denizens.

Simon had as much of a likelihood to do a change of heart like Grace did! But hey, spanner in the works and all that.

Some of you just like hating on him because he's a white guy and coded cishet and it really shows.

I'm sure y'all are gonna say I'm defending the patriarchy or whatever for defending cishet white guy colonizer man Simon Laurent as a queer femme POC but also fuck off with that bullshit and just look at the actual text of the narrative presented to us instead of reading bad takes on Twitter.

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

[whumpster-fire]

Scenes Cut From Hazbin Hotel Season 1

As we all know, Season 1 was pretty short, only 8 episodes. It's widely believed that it was planned to be longer, so a lot of scenes must have been cut to make it fit into 8 episodes, and I refuse to believe that these don't include the following.

Alastor explaining to his tailor that the tears and missing pieces in his suit are supposed to be in a very specific and precise pattern that is completely thrown off by the damage caused by Sir Pentious, only to realize halfway through that he can't remember which one is the spot Sir Pentious damaged it.

Vox staying up all night scrolling through social media for 15 consecutive hours personally deleting thousands of comments saying it looked like Alastor had Adam on the ropes.

Zestial complaining to the other overlords about getting stuck in traffic again on the way to the meeting because anywhere he drives becomes a Final Destination scene as sinners crash on purpose trying to avoid him.

Niffty "accidentally" terrorizing hung over Husk with the vacuum cleaner because somebody spilled whiskey on the couch last night and stained it (it was actually Angel's fault)

Alastor turning security cameras to look at their own screens to annoy Vox (cut to Vox lying on the couch with an ice pack over his screen and all the blinds closed)

Carmilla Carmine getting e-mail after e-mail with fake weaponry order forms that redirect to shock sites, rickrolls, and viruses, until the episode ends with a brick being thrown directly through the Vees' window (it misses hits Valentino in the face. Velvette does not apologize)

Vox falling for a CryptoSouls investment scam and losing a fortune.

The Vees' attempting to damage the other overlords' reputations by leaking fake AI-generated nudes of all of them. This fails because they have no non-glitched photos of Alastor to use for training data and the algorithm just spits out unrecognizable static, and what it generates when prompted to make Zestial nudes is so eldritch and nightmare inducing that everyone who looks at them becomes compelled to pour bleach directly on their eyeballs. The Vees don't even want to know if the algorithm knows something they don't. (This cannot backfire on them because the Vees all already have explicit material of them on the internet: two of them on purpose and Vox because he left a livestream running by accident)

Angel attempting to sneak into Alastor's radio tower while he's not around and broadcast sex noises to all of hell as a prank.

[racefortheironthrone]

What do you think about Orchis as fascism, and how it maps onto fascism. Personally I’m not sure if it maps well onto academic definitions of fascism. It’s absolutely genocidal but is it fascist?

This is an excellent question, Alfie!

I think it depends on your definition of fascism and how that works in a comics context. Certainly, it doesn't fit very well with Umberto Eco's Ur-Fascism definition, but that's a more "traditionalist" than "modernist" interpretation of fascism.

I would say that ORCHIS has been shown consistently to be a neo-fascist or alt-right organization. From the very beginning of HOXPOX, Jonathan Hickman grounded ORCHIS' ideology in the "great replacement theory" of white nationalism - unlike groups like the Purifiers or the Church of Humanity whose hatred of mutantdom comes from a religious belief in the human body as the image of God, ORCHIS hates and fears mutantkind out of a Social Darwinian fear of being out-competed.

(It's a telling sign that ORCHIS members equate the loss of dominance with complete destruction, that they cannot envision mutantkind treating humanity more kindly than humanity has treated them. Reminds me a lot of the slaveholder's nightmare of emancipation.)

Moreover, I think neo-fascist or alt-right fits better as a label because ORCHIS is a very modernist institution - if not outright post-modern. It's stacked top to bottom with scientists whose hatred of mutantkind is justified through seemingly objective race science and is ultimately motivated by envy of the superior knowledge and technology of Krakoa. (See Feilong and Arrako, for ex.) In addition to the posthuman/AI contingent of Nimrod and Omega Sentinel, ORCHIS' strike against Krakoa was mainly carried out through the use of bio/pharma technology to subvert Krakoan medicines and gates.

Speaking of post-modernism, I think one of the most distinctive aspects of ORCHIS as a mutant antagonist is that it is an outgrowth of the age of social media. The Culture/Narrative petal under Judas Traveller "floods the zone" with hateful misinformation (taking full advantage of the ways that the algorithm is set up to maximize negative engagement and radicalization) in order to make ORCHIS look good and Krakoa look bad - and one of the best aspects of the Fall of X so far is the struggle between Krakoan truth and ORCHIS propaganda.

[junebugwriter]

I'm really struggling a lot today, and a great deal of it is internalized fatphobia.

I've talked on here before that I'm a fat trans woman. Self-acceptance is hard enough when you are trans, but it's even harder for trans fat people I find. All of the media, all of the people I see on social media, all the comics, and all the images of trans people get pushed by the algorithms to revolve around the image of the "waifish twink to trans girl" pipeline. That is about as far from my experience as possible. Add on top of that the primacy of young trans women, people who have known forever that they are trans, and it leaves someone like me feeling completely inadequate.

I've never been thin, or even average weight. The last time I was less than 200 pounds was probably in middle school. I've been fat since I was little, and even when I make the effort to eat right, work out consistently, and make good choices, the lowest I've ever weighed was... 235 pounds. That was my healthiest, when I was 21. I never stopped trying to eat right, never stopped working out for years after. Still, I got fatter and gained weight. Thyroid problems were the real source of it all, sadly. My body's metabolism doesn't work right. I was the most religiously dedicated person at grad school in terms of going to the gym. I was there every day, doing cardio, and lifting weights. It never stopped my weight gain.

Currently, I am over 300 pounds. I'm going to the gym again. I'm trying to eat healthier. I realize that going by weight is not exactly the healthiest way to focus one's attention. I try to self-correct constantly and say that I'd really just rather not die of a heart attack at age 40, and that's the reason I'm exercising.

But God, what I wouldn't give to just be under 300 pounds again.

When every image I see of trans folks is young, skinny, borderline unhealthily thin bodies, it's hard not to take being an old, fat trans woman as a personal failing.

I wish I didn't feel this way. I wish I could say that I'm better than that, that it's stupid to obsess about my image, but at the same time that's the whole problem. That's why I'm transitioning: I want to look more like how I feel on the inside. But what if that's never going to happen for me, realistically?

I also wish that we could broaden the image of what it means to be a trans woman. I wish it was okay to be fat and trans. I wish people wouldn't get so hung up on size and allow people to just be. I wish we found fat people appealing. I wish norms would expand to allow people of any gender or size to simply exist without constant criticism and comparison. Being a fat, disabled trans woman who's older than 35 is a nightmare of "not fitting into the right categories."

I'm grateful for the supportive people in my life. I wish I was as accepting of myself as others were of me.

[speedofsoundsketches]

so Elon Musk isn’t incentive enough for you to bail huh?

Until the website becomes outright unusable and short of having an utterly broken means of navigating it, it’s still the most viable social media platform out there with the best opportunity to get more eyes on your work.

Instagram is an algorithmic nightmare zone and TikTok scalps your data then sends it to China so I can’t say I trust either of those options. (Not that twitter’s any better but at least it’s our mess. :/)

Everytime people cry wolf and say “JUMP SHIP”, none of the alternatives last and they always end up coming back anyway so the outrage usually is a waste of time.

Unless it actually sticks, I’ll just keep trucking along on this crazy ride. 🤷🏻‍♀️

[xenopoem]

"In the dystopian landscape of hyper-annotation #003, where the lines between reality and virtuality blur into an unsettling amalgamation, words echo through the corridors of social media horror. The relentless surge of information, a cacophony of voices amplified to a fever pitch, engulfs the digital realm. In this hyper-annotated nightmare, every post becomes a pixel in the grand tapestry of societal disintegration. Hashtags morph into haunting symbols, breeding a new form of collective consciousness that transcends the boundaries of sanity. The algorithmic overlords, thirsty for data, feast upon the fears and desires laid bare in the hyper-annotated streams. Prophecy unfolds in the relentless scroll, as the virtual membrane between the self and the collective consciousness dissolves. A torrent of likes and shares metamorphoses into a digital contagion, infecting minds with a peculiar strain of social media horror. In the twisted dance of emojis and comments, the human experience is reduced to a series of clickable reactions. As hyper-annotation #003 consumes the virtual landscape, the horror lies not only in the content but in the algorithmic puppetry orchestrating the show. The boundaries of privacy crumble, and the digital panopticon gazes into the depths of the human soul, extracting vulnerabilities for public consumption. Words resonate like a digital incantation, warning of the perilous convergence where hyper-annotation meets social media horror. In this augmented reality nightmare, the quest for connection becomes a descent into the abyss, leaving humanity ensnared in the web of its own creation." - Kenji Siratori, author of Blood Electric

[unguidedgentleman]

The Orwellian Nightmare: How Modern Media Contributes to the New World Order**

George Orwell's works, particularly "1984" and "Animal Farm," have become almost prophetic in describing the potential dangers of unchecked governmental power and the erasure of individual freedoms. Today, his cautionary tales resonate more than ever as the convergence of media, technology, and governance increasingly resembles the dystopian visions he warned us about. The pervasive influence of contemporary media may not just mirror Orwell's warnings but exacerbate a push towards a one-world totalitarian government.

In "Animal Farm," Orwell illustrates how propaganda can manipulate and control a population. The pigs on the farm, who gradually assume totalitarian control, use constant propaganda to justify their actions and maintain power. In the current era, traditional media and social platforms have a similar power. News outlets often present information in a manner designed to generate specific emotional responses, leading to polarized populations that are more easily manipulated.

The line between news and propaganda has blurred, making it challenging for individuals to discern objective truths from manipulative narratives. The omnipresent nature of media ensures that particular ideologies reach mass audiences swiftly, influencing public opinion and shaping societal norms. When critical analysis is replaced with echo chambers and bias confirmation, societies drift closer to the totalitarian control described in Orwell’s works.

Orwell's "1984" introduces us to Big Brother, the omnipresent surveillance state that monitors every facet of individual life. Today, tech giants like Google, Facebook, and Amazon collect vast amounts of data on every user. While marketed as tools for convenience and connectivity, these technologies also enable unprecedented levels of surveillance.

Every click, search, and location is logged, creating detailed profiles that can be used for targeted advertising, but also potentially for social control. Governments can and do access these troves of data, ostensibly for national security purposes. The merging of government oversight with corporate data collection creates a surveillance state far more sophisticated and intrusive than Orwell could have anticipated. This relentless monitoring facilitates control over populations, ensuring compliance and limiting dissent.

In Orwell's dystopian world, the past is constantly rewritten to serve the present narrative. This manipulation of history is complemented by stringent censorship. Today, the control of information is often more subtle but no less effective. Algorithms on social media platforms can suppress or promote content, subtly shaping what information is seen and what is hidden. Governments and corporations can collaborate to remove or censor undesirable information, often under the guise of combatting "fake news" or protecting public safety.

Moreover, the rise of "cancel culture" acts as a societal enforcement mechanism, where individuals are ostracized and silenced for expressing contrarian views. This peer-enforced censorship ensures that only a narrow range of acceptable opinions is publicly shared, pushing societies towards homogenized thought and Orwellian conformity.

Orwell’s warnings about power coalescing into an omnipotent state resonate with contemporary movements toward global governance. Organizations like the United Nations and the World Economic Forum are increasingly influential in shaping international policy, transcending national sovereignty. While global cooperation can address transnational issues like climate change and pandemics, it also risks concentrating power in unaccountable bureaucratic entities.

When media, technology, and governance intertwine at a global level, the risk of creating a one-world totalitarian government becomes palpable. Centralized control over information, coupled with global surveillance networks, could lead to a scenario where dissent is virtually impossible, echoing the most terrifying aspects of Orwell's dystopias.

Orwell's texts are not just stories but warnings. It is time we recognize and react to the signs of creeping totalitarianism in modern media and governance. The balance between security and freedom, between global cooperation and local autonomy, must be vigilantly maintained. Individuals must demand transparency, accountability, and the protection of individual liberties in the face of ever-expanding state and corporate power.

The Orwellian nightmare need not become our reality, but avoiding it requires awareness, critical thinking, and active resistance to the seductive allure of total control. By understanding the parallels between Orwell’s world and our own, we can strive to safeguard the freedoms that are easily lost but so difficult to reclaim.