This is fascinating… the 3rd largest media company, after Disney and Warner, is The Soul Publishing, and they’re pure online only. They produce dedicated content designed for Facebook and YouTube algorithms.
Why is that interesting? Well, for one, their content is lies (seriously, the debunking videos are hilarious: “wow, that cleaning solution made those sneakers perfectly white and go up a size!”) … but here’s where it gets interesting— it is owned by two Russians.
They produce in Cyprus and churn out 2700 videos a month to 65 million followers, including information topics, such as history, not just “harmless lying tutorials”. And they’re taking a pro Russian anti US editorial position.
Nothing wrong with that, of course, but if you want to talk about How To Do Disinformation these guys have solved: “ build an audience, gain credibility, have massive distribution”.
What is particularly interesting about these guys is that they can replicate their success over and over and over. They’ve got YouTube and Facebook completely sussed out. That capability is far more value than any existing reach they have right now, since they can rapidly regenerate any lost capacity at will.
Here a debunking video, and it’s excellent.
Debunking The Soul Publishing Videos
Lawfare Blog looked into them recently, here.
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