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KQED's Forum

Social Media and AI Disrupt, Distort Iran War Coverage

KQED's Forum

KQED

News, Politics, News Commentary

4.2 • 726 Ratings

🗓️ 25 March 2026

⏱️ 55 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In 2022, the conflict in Ukraine unleashed the first TikTok war. Now, four years later with the war in Iran, AI and a souped up social media are documenting and often distorting how we view that conflict. The Trump administration is keen to ‘gameify’ war with social media clips ripped from video games and action movies, and nations on all sides of the war are pushing out disinformation that is making it hard to understand what is happening. We talk about AI, disinformation and social media as tools of war. Guests: Kyle Chayka, staff writer, The New Yorker; his recent piece on the Iran War is titled "War in the Age of the Online 'Information Bomb;'" author, "Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture" Tiffany Hsu, technology reporter, The New York Times Drew Harwell, technology reporter, The Washington Post Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:17.3

Now, are all the traitors present? Let's get started, shall we?

0:21.8

From rags to riches. I'm so sick of this. Working like a dog and being treated worse.

0:26.5

Yorkshire to New York. Poor climbers, you and me. A life dedicated to revenge.

0:31.7

Let's make this an occasion to remember. A woman of substance on Channel 4. Stream now.

0:38.5

From KQED.

0:41.6

Alexis Madrigal here.

0:42.6

We've got a pledge break going right now, so you get a bonus on the pledge-free stream podcast or on our replay at night.

0:48.3

I write these meditations on the people and places of the bay.

0:51.2

You can get some of them in newsletter form, KQED.org, slash one good thing.

0:56.5

Let me tell you about the Pralinger Library. To get there, you head down to the leather district in

1:01.5

Soma in San Francisco, hit a buzzer on a nondescript building, and take the old freight elevator

1:06.7

to the second floor. You walk down the hallway, shoes on hardwood, and then make a left through

1:11.6

double doors. Inside, you find magic. It's a repository of rare books, ephemera collections,

1:18.0

and two of the smartest observers of the Bay Area, Rick and Megan Prailinger. The library is a

1:23.3

manifestation of their quirkiness and brilliance. they're just nowhere like it. They know what the

1:29.0

standard offerings on a topic are and they're committed to delivering surprise. It's kind of the

1:34.0

library as an art form in itself. And I'm the only one who loves the Prelinger Library. A TikTokers

1:40.5

visit to the library went viral last summer and the space now has a whole new generation

1:44.4

of visitors. There are different ways to do history. I'm often looking for the texture of regular

1:51.0

life. What would it have been like to walk around San Francisco in 1938 or 1978? How did people talk?

1:58.1

What did their shoes look like? How did they answer the telephone? What would they have watched on TV on a Thursday night?

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