The rise of influencing is often discussed in the context of individual bloggers accumulating followers that they can exploit for advertising and marketing purposes.
But actually it's the 'hidden' influencers that lobby groups are trying to tap into for political agenda purposes that are the ones we need to be aware of.
The Dissident reports:
Exclusive: Israeli Intelligence Cutout Made Contact With 'Influential Figures' In Syria To Lay Groundwork For Normalization.
Hacked Emails Show That An Israeli Intelligence Cutout Made Contact With Syrian Officials To Lay Groundwork For Israel-Syria Normalization.
Here is the language:
“As per our plan, over the past few months, we have worked intensively to build a network of trusted contacts inside Syria and across the Syrian diaspora who are suitable for a dialogue of this nature. After mapping over 30 potential individuals, we’ve narrowed it down to 10 key influential figures who maintain direct or indirect ties to the Syrian regime—including one with direct access to A-Shara himself”, Carmit Valensi replied.
Clearly it is AI that is helping to manage the 'mapping' of influencers and create the shortlist.
Of course 'mapping' works both ways - to sponsor influencers favourable to an agenda or to shutdown/cancel those who are unfavourable to an agenda.
The EU practices 'cancellation' by sanctioning individuals like Jacques Baud who are not telling the 'truth' the EU wants people to hear.
The UK practices 'cancellation' by targeting individuals like George Galloway and Graham Linehan who don't toe various agenda lines.
Cancellations are generally pretty obvious obvious but there is little or no transparency about which influencers are being sponsored to support an agenda.
This a major distortion of in terms of what people read and hear.