Social Media Influencers As a Data Collection Vehicle
Content Creation May Be An Untapped Form Of Data Collection. Let me explain:
I have thoroughly enjoyed my journey as a content creator, which has seen me engage in various platforms such as writing on Substack, posting on YouTube, and crafting spontaneous TikToks. I have been a follower of the Institute for the Study of War (since approximately 2013, to be exact).
I had been reading their analysis on the situation in Niger before the coup occurred, and felt inspired to make a TikTok video on the subject. This was slightly off-brand for me, but it was a topic that piqued my interest. The video unexpectedly gained traction—receiving thousands of views and hundreds of comments.
Here's what I gathered: Grassroots citizens in Niger harbor a profound resentment towards the United States. Almost every comment labeled me as an arm of U.S. propaganda or a Western media outlet. Critics lambasted the U.S. for its foreign interventions, while offering surprisingly favorable sentiments towards Russia.
My immediate reaction was, "What a treasure trove of data!"
Therefore, to get a sense of a situation, I don't need to conduct a poll, or spend countless hours trawling through Google to find the right articles, or even scour through the CIA's World Factbook reports. All I need to do is craft a video with the correct topics, headlines, and tags, and voila.
Think of what this means for presidential candidates. After all, Twitter is where Trump developed his campaign priorities in 2015.
It took me about 30 minutes to produce the video, and I am still receiving comments on it. If you recall the Arab Spring, one of its primary catalysts was Twitter. Despite much of the hype on Twitter possibly being artificially stirred by intelligence agencies (thank you, Jack!), the end goals were still achieved: destabilization and governmental overthrows/reforms.
We now find ourselves in the Age of Influencers, where centralized discourse funnels have replaced traditional media platforms. The narrative is no longer dictated by what the New York Times reports, but rather by what an influencer communicates on the myriad platforms where they post.
Consequently, were I directing an intelligence agency, I would seriously contemplate forging relationships with social media influencers for the exact reasons stated above. And if this concept has crossed my mind, there's a high likelihood it's already being implemented.
So, put yourself in the shoes of our government (or any government): If you intended to employ an influencer as a conduit to relay a message, gather data, or influence a population, whom would you enlist?