Last month, the venture capitalist Roger McNamee drew parallels between the persuasive powers of Facebook and those of Joseph Goebbels. McNamee made a mint from early investment in the social media site but he believes Facebook has since adopted the techniques of Hitler’s spin doctor to create a climate of ‘fear and anger’. It’s not just Facebook, of course, it’s the internet in general that has contributed to this new golden age of intolerance.
In a recent interview with the Times, Silicon Valley guru Jaron Lanier, the man who coined the phrase ‘virtual reality’, said the way internet companies monitor our behaviour gives them the power to:
‘…change people’s character…to corral people into a peer group, political or business or whatever. This technique tears society apart’.
This was the strategy deployed by Goebbels when he was appointed Minister of Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda in March 1933.
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