The Times of London reports that “a Russian disinformation campaign designed to undermine and spread fear about the Oxford University coronavirus vaccine has been exposed by a Times investigation.” Pictures, memes and video clips depicting the British-made vaccine as dangerous have been devised in Russia and middlemen are now seeking to “seed” the images on social media networks around the world….
Tag: Disinformation
Citigroup Tech Executive Unmasked as Major QAnon ‘High Priest’
QAnon’s biggest news hub was run by a senior vice president at Citigroup, the American multinational investment bank and financial services company Citigroup. Jason Gelinas worked in the company’s technology department, where he led an AI project and oversaw a team of software developers, according to Bloomberg. [Alternate URL] He was married with kids and had a comfortable house in a…
Study Sounds Alarm on 5G Fake News, EU Needs To Promote Benefits
European Union leaders need to tackle urgently disinformation on 5G technology, which is central to the bloc’s economic recovery from COVID-19 and its plans to catch up with the United States and China, a study by telecoms lobby group ETNO showed. From a report: Conspiracy theories that tie the wireless technology to the spread of the novel coronavirus have seen mobile…
Biden Campaign Blasts Facebook for ‘Regression’
On the eve of the first presidential debate, the Biden campaign is pressing Facebook to remove posts by President Trump — and slamming the social media company as “the nation’s foremost propagator of disinformation about the voting process.” From a report: By publicly escalating the conflict, the campaign is pressing Facebook to enforce its policies against misinformation more aggressively. “Rather than…
While Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube Announce Hate Speech Action, Some Advertisers Remain Skeptical
“Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter have agreed on first steps to curb harmful content online, big advertisers announced on Wednesday, following boycotts of social media platforms accused of tolerating hate speech,” Reuters reports: Under the deal, announced by the World Federation of Advertisers, common definitions would be adopted for forms of harmful content such as hate speech and bullying, and platforms would…
Facebook Busts Russian Disinfo Networks As US Election Looms
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: Facebook announced on Thursday that it has taken down three “coordinated inauthentic behavior” networks promoting disinformation that included nearly 300 Facebook and Instagram accounts along with dozens of Facebook Pages and Groups. While the efforts were seemingly run independently, and focused primarily outside of the US, each has ties to Russian intelligence –…
With New Security and Free Internet Issues, What Did the TikTok Deal Really Achieve?
Though the U.S. government averted a shutdown of TikTok through a new Oracle/Walmart partnership, that leaves much bigger questions unresolved. The biggest issue may be that banning apps “defeats the original intent of the internet,” argues the New York TImes. “And that was to create a global communications network, unrestrained by national borders.” “The vision for a single, interconnected network around…
US Teens Are Being Paid to Spread Disinformation on Social Media
The Washington Post covered “a sprawling yet secretive campaign that experts say evades the guardrails put in place by social media companies to limit online disinformation of the sort used by Russia” during America’s last presidential campaign in 2016. According to four people with knowledge of the effort, “Teenagers, some of them minors, are being paid to pump out the messages…”…
FBI Director: It’s a Mistake To Get Election Information on Social Media
If a Facebook page or an Instagram post is offering the location of your polling place, you should double check that with your local elections office, the FBI director said Thursday at a congressional hearing. Better yet, don’t get your election information from social media at all. From a report: The House Committee on Homeland Security hosted on Thursday its annual…
Hate Speech on Facebook Is Pushing Ethiopia Dangerously Close To a Genocide
Ethnic violence set off by the assassination of a popular singer has been supercharged by hate speech and incitements shared widely on the platform. From a report: Throughout his life, Ethiopian singer Hachalu Hundessa sang about love, unity, and raising the marginalized voices of his Oromo ethnic group. He had always tried to keep his work and politics separate, saying, “Art…