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Carlos Diaz Ruiz

@carlosdiazruiz.com

5K followers 370 following 520 posts

Associate Professor at Hanken in Finland. I write about the consumer culture and advertising markets that allow disinformation to thrive on social media. Author of the book "Market-Oriented Disinformation Research." https://www.carlosdiazruiz.com

www.carlosdiazruiz.com

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Carlos Diaz Ruiz @carlosdiazruiz.com · Aug 19

Do you want to strengthen social resilience against the spread of disinformation online? We have the most incredible gig: a 4-year postdoctoral research position focusing on topics like digital literacy, fact-checking, and hybrid threats. Apply! (also repost)

hanken.rekrytointi.com/paikat/index...

Postdoctoral Researcher in Social Resilience to Disinformation / Postdoktoral forskare inom social resiliens mot desinformation

hanken.rekrytointi.com

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Carlos Diaz Ruiz @carlosdiazruiz.com · 5d

Follow the money

"Most brands do not want to be associated with hate speech and bot farms, but they are. It is easy to look the other way in such a technically complicated market, but marketers have a responsibility. Brands become complicit by remaining silent."

theconversation.com/disinformati...

Disinformation is part and parcel of social media’s business model, new research shows

Deceptive content on social media is being monetised by digital platforms, advertisers, and influencers

theconversation.com

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Carlos Diaz Ruiz @carlosdiazruiz.com · 5d

I have documented the issue in my own research, explaining how advertisers justify not knowing how their brand budgets are helping fund fake news.

Hint: Programmatic advertising creates a black hole that marketers are not keen to open.

doi.org/10.1080/0267...

doi.org

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Carlos Diaz Ruiz @carlosdiazruiz.com · 5d

Back in February, the BBC reported how Google and Amazon are placing ads on the most horrible content.

Did digital marketers know? Apparently, no. How is it possible?

Advertisers give money to AdTech vendors, and in return, they receive a "trust me, bro" graph.

www.bbc.com/future/artic...

How big tech's ad systems helped fund child abuse online

Some of the biggest tech companies in the world served ads on a website featuring images of child abuse, helping to fund its operations.

www.bbc.com

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Carlos Diaz Ruiz @carlosdiazruiz.com · 5d

A while ago, a report by Adalytics demonstrated that Adtech vendors are profiting from child sexual abuse material by placing ads there... brands were not aware.

How is it possible that brands did not know they are helping fund this horrible content? Good question.

adalytics.io/blog/adtech-...

Full Report - Are ad tech vendors facilitating or monitoring ads on a website that hosts Child Sexual Abuse Material ?

Ad tech vendors were seen serving ads on a website known to host child sexual abuse material

adalytics.io

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Carlos Diaz Ruiz @carlosdiazruiz.com · 5d

Your ads are funding this.

Dear marketers and advertisers, every time you use your budgets to Google, Meta, TikTok, et al., you do not know and cannot know if your ads are funding this horrific content.

It is not just TikTok. See below

www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

TikTok ‘directs child accounts to pornographic content within a few clicks’

Despite platform’s limits on adult content, study finds it not only accessible but often suggested

www.theguardian.com

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Carlos Diaz Ruiz @carlosdiazruiz.com · 5d

Hannah Arendt: On the Banality of Evil.

Carlos Diaz Ruiz @carlosdiazruiz.com · 5d

You have armed soldiers in your streets, kidnapping people with face coverings. And yet, the people seem more inclined to follow the outrage of the week, because, apparently, an AI video is more exciting.

Organizing is hard work, and work seems less exciting than the latest rant.

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Carlos Diaz Ruiz @carlosdiazruiz.com · 5d

Is it? If you had told me 15 years ago that armed and masked troops would be kidnapping people on the streets of American cities, I would have expected Americans to resist like hell nonstop.

Now, they get easily distracted by whatever new rant or AI video. Many seem to be already bored.

Carlos Diaz Ruiz @carlosdiazruiz.com · 5d

You are right.

It is boring to focus on what is important: it requires dedication. It is easier to go with whatever is the outrage of the week: maybe some silly AI video or another rant.

Doing the hard work is not exciting; it is mostly boring. But that is precisely what needs to be done.

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Carlos Diaz Ruiz @carlosdiazruiz.com · 5d

I sincerely hope you are right.

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Carlos Diaz Ruiz @carlosdiazruiz.com · 5d

You wrote it much better than I did. Americans appear to be easily distracted by the outrage of the week. It seems that it is impossible to keep attention on what is important, because an AI video is more exciting.

Carlos Diaz Ruiz @carlosdiazruiz.com · 5d

You have the wrong version of South America. I think it is closer to the dictatorships of Chile and Argentina in the 1970s-80s (courtesy of the US, by the way). No gangs there.

Carlos Diaz Ruiz @carlosdiazruiz.com · 5d

Of course, it is appalling. It is monstrous. You have armed soldiers in your streets, kidnapping people with face coverings. And yet, they seem normal now. Instead of nonstop protests, lots of people (not all) talk about the outrage of the week: because, apparently, an AI video is more exciting.

Carlos Diaz Ruiz @carlosdiazruiz.com · 5d

The family of my friend were disappeared during the dictatorship in Chile. Hundreds of thousands were disappeared, never to be seen again. It was a tragedy; a massacre. But for most people there, the disappearances became normal, even dull.

People are now used to armed soldiers in your streets.

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Carlos Diaz Ruiz @carlosdiazruiz.com · 5d

Your metaphor is much better than mine. This is exactly what I meant.

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Carlos Diaz Ruiz @carlosdiazruiz.com · 6d

Now that would be an actually good solution for a change. Will Meta quit the Netherlands?

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Carlos Diaz Ruiz @carlosdiazruiz.com · 6d

When I was a child, I was torn between becoming a pirate or a protector of wildlife. Pirates had ships, but animal protectors had Jane Goodall. I learned about her work after watching "Gorillas in the Mist," which blew my mind.

Today, I learned that the legend Jane Goodall passed away. RIP

Carlos Diaz Ruiz @carlosdiazruiz.com · 6d

surprised Pikachu face

a close up of a pikachu with a surprised look on its face .

ALT: a close up of a pikachu with a surprised look on its face .

media.tenor.com

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Carlos Diaz Ruiz @carlosdiazruiz.com · 6d

The comparison is often Germany in the 1930s, but I think a more apt comparison is Chile or Argentina in the 1970s. They lived under an oppressive military dictatorship (courtesy of the US, by the way), and thousands of people disappeared from the streets. However, for most people, it was boring.

Carlos Diaz Ruiz @carlosdiazruiz.com · 6d

You are misreading my statement. I mean that implementing a dictatorship is rarely a dramatic event. Instead, it is like the metaphor of slowly boiling a frog; obviously, for the frog, it is an existential catastrophe. However, you could say it was also boring for the frog, until it was deadly.

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Carlos Diaz Ruiz @carlosdiazruiz.com · 6d

Authoritarianism is boring.

My American friends believe that dictatorships are dramatic with public executions and whatnot. Unlike the movies, dictatorships are unexciting. Life goes on: people get groceries and struggle with bills, as usual.

Losing agency in your own society is mostly boring.

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Carlos Diaz Ruiz @carlosdiazruiz.com · 7d

That is a great idea: Vaccines are heavily regulated, and most people cannot simply buy them. We require years of clinical testing to ensure they do not harm the population, and experts decide on a panel, using peer-reviewed evidence, which ones are deemed safe to use. We should totally do that.

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Carlos Diaz Ruiz @carlosdiazruiz.com · 7d

The "gay frogs" are an invention by Alex Jones about a conspiracy in which everyone is turning gay, even frogs

"Chemicals in the water are turning frogs gay." According to Jones, the government is using chemicals to turn people gay.

www.cnbc.com/2018/09/14/a...

Alex Jones' 5 most disturbing and ridiculous conspiracy theories

After years of public pressure, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was largely barred from the world's largest social media platforms.

www.cnbc.com

Carlos Diaz Ruiz @carlosdiazruiz.com · 8d

Aren't they supposed to turn the frogs gay?

Carlos Diaz Ruiz @carlosdiazruiz.com · 8d

They claim that non-human objects have agency (when convenient).

✔️Vaccines cause autism
✔️Tylenol causes damage to pregnant women
✔️Video games radicalize children

But do guns harm people and cause mass shootings?

❌ No, of course not, silly. People kill people; guns are objects and cannot act.

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