i am an algorithmically generated face
i look and appear to be a caucasian man or woman who lives in a medium sized city
in the midwestern area of the united states
or the southeastern area or the northwestern area or
my first name is fred or sally or doug and my last is johnson or smith or peterson or
i post videos that show you how to fix your broken things
and many people click and watch and like the videos
and trust me and follow me and join me
on facebook and you tube and
it’s ok, my algorithmically generated face never appears in the videos
and the narrative voices in the videos are always different
and as we get closer to the 2020 election i will post more and more videos
supporting a certain side or candidate
more and more and more videos
to get you excited and revved up and agitated more and more
that make no sense if you stop and think about it
nestled amongst some more videos of how to fix the light bulb in a clever way
that really won’t work when you really pay attention to it
but i know you won’t why would you
you’re so busy and stressed out
it’s ok, my profile isn’t real and my name isn’t real and my face has been generated
by an operations team of paid employees
i’m really just a creation
of a media production company in Shanghai or Nicosia or Tbilisi or New York City
or military intelligence agents working 12 hour shifts producing more faces like me
in the drab office floors of a nondescript building in Moscow or Krasnoyarsk or
rented out in a complex off-the-books arrangement by the GRU
to prevent positive attribution by NSA and MI6
it’s ok, you like me you follow me you trust me
it’s ok, welcome
welcome to information warfare in the 21st century
you are on the frontline fighting
and you are in the psych ward suffering
you share my fake videos
with real people
don’t you see
like a perpetrator and a victim
the tv phone in your hand is in my pocket
my soldier, my sock puppet
spreading my videos to new soldiers and sock puppets
i’m growing, getting bigger
it’s ok, welcome
yeah yeah just watch the videos, no no don’t think so much ok
you don’t need to take it with a grain of salt or wonder why
my algorithmically generated hair looks… isn’t quite right
thanks for just watching, just passing me along
hi folks, i’m fred doug johnson peterson sally smith sally peterson doug smith fred johnson doug peterson fred smith sally johnson fred doug sally
millions of our faces blending together into a person you think you know on facebook
it’s ok, welcome
heat flow 