An anonymous reader quotes a report from BuzzFeed News: On April 2, Twitter took down a pro-United Arab Emirates network of accounts that was pushing propaganda about the coronavirus pandemic and criticizing Turkey’s military intervention in Libya. Previously tied to marketing firms in the region, parts of this network were removed by Facebook and Twitter last year. The network was made…
Tag: Disinformation
Trump Won the Internet. Democrats Are Scrambling to Take It Back.
In the era of big data, memes and disinformation, the Democrats are trying to regain their digital edge as the president and his loyalists dictate the terms of debate. From a report: The deceptively edited video that purported to show Joseph R. Biden Jr. endorsing President Trump’s re-election bounced relentlessly around the internet, falsely painting the former vice president as too…
Russia Accused of Deploying Coronavirus Disinformation to Sow Distrust
AmiMoJo quotes Reuters: Russian media have deployed a “significant disinformation campaign” against the West to worsen the impact of the coronavirus, generate panic and sow distrust, according to a European Union document seen by Reuters… The EU document said the Russian campaign, pushing fake news online in English, Spanish, Italian, German and French, uses contradictory, confusing and malicious reports to make…
UK Police Deny Responsibility For Poster Urging Parents To Report Kids For Using Kali Linux
The UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) has publicly said it has nothing to do with a misleading poster designed to put fear into the hearts of parents and urge them to call the police if their children are using Kali Linux. From a report: The poster, made public by Twitter user @G_IW, has reportedly been distributed by local authorities on behalf…
Despite Promises, Facebook’s Instagram Is Still Spreading Anti-Vaccine Disinformation
“It’s been almost a year since Instagram pledged to reduce the spread of vaccine-related misinformation on its platform. But today, it continues to do the exact opposite,” reports the Huffington Post: When HuffPost created a new Instagram account and searched for the term “vaccines” on Saturday, almost all of the top results were anti-vax pages… At the very top was a…
Stephen King, Elon Musk Criticize Social Media Policies
CaptainDork spotted CNN’s update about best-selling author Stephen King: “I’m quitting Facebook,” the author said on Twitter Friday. “Not comfortable with the flood of false information that’s allowed in its political advertising, nor am I confident in its ability to protect its users’ privacy….” His Facebook profile has since been deleted. King encouraged his fans to follow him on Twitter. But…
Companies Are Using AI-Generated People To Appear More Diverse
AI startups are selling images of computer-generated faces that look like the real thing, offering companies a chance to create imaginary models and “increase diversity” in their ads without needing human beings. From a report: One firm is offering to sell diverse photos for marketing brochures and has already signed up clients, including a dating app that intends to use the…
How Russian Trolls Spread Propaganda Using Uplifting Tweets
Two associate professors of communication at Clemson spent two years studying online propaganda and state-affiliated disinformation campaigns on social media. This week in Rolling Stone they explain how professional trolls share uplifting “Trojan horse” tweets meant to gain hundreds of thousands of followers, and then “use that following to spread messages promoting division, distrust, and doubt.” Professional disinformation isn’t spread by…
Russian disinformation campaigns on Twitter may not actually work
One of the first major studies to look at how disinformation campaigns affect public opinion found that a Russian troll factory’s efforts did little to sway people’s views Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2224937-russian-disinformation-campaigns-on-twitter-may-not-actually-work/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
Andrew Yang Wants To Tax Digital Ads, Launch a New Algorithm Regulator
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: On Thursday, 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang put out a sweeping new tech policy proposal with a number of controversial proposals, including taxing digital ads and launching a new department to regulate algorithms on social networks. […] In his Thursday blog post, Yang argues that his opponents’ calls to break-up big…