Security researcher Ibrahim Balic said he has matched 17 million phone numbers to Twitter user accounts by exploiting a flaw in Twitter’s Android app. TechCrunch reports: Ibrahim Balic found that it was possible to upload entire lists of generated phone numbers through Twitter’s contacts upload feature. “If you upload your phone number, it fetches user data in return,” he told TechCrunch….
Tag: politicians
The world started to wake up to climate change in 2019 – now what?
At last, the public is calling for urgent action to tackle global warming and politicians are falling over themselves to get on board, says Adam Vaughan Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24432613-000-the-world-started-to-wake-up-to-climate-change-in-2019-now-what/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
How Fake News Is Still Fooling Facebook’s Fact-Checking Systems
Slashdot reader peterthegreat321 shared an article from Medium’s technology blog OneZero revealing the “cracks, loopholes, and limitations in Facebook’s systems that bad actors are busily exploiting.” Facebook says it’s proud of the progress it has made, though it acknowledges there’s more to be done. “Multiple independent studies have found that we’ve cut the amount of fake news on Facebook by more…
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…
Thanksgiving turkey: Light meat or dark?
Want to avoid politics at this year’s Thanksgiving dinner? Amaze your companions with your knowledge of why different cuts of turkey have different characteristics. Source: https://earthsky.org/human-world/thanksgiving-turkey-meat-light-dark…
Deepfakes are terrible for democracy, but Facebook is a bigger threat
Doctored videos are a menace, but we have more to fear from unscrupulous politicians taking advantage of Facebook’s targeted ads, writes Annalee Newitz Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24432560-100-deepfakes-are-terrible-for-democracy-but-facebook-is-a-bigger-threat/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
Mozilla Hits Google, Facebook For ‘Microtargeting’ Political Ads
Mozilla is calling on Google and Facebook to stop “microtargeting” political ads. “Political speech is critical to democratic discourse, but against the very real circumstances of organized disinformation and organic misinformation today, microtargeting keeps ideas from being debated in the open, and fiction parades as fact,” Ashley Boyd, Mozilla’s advocacy vice president, said in a statement. “Online platforms can take the…
Zuckerberg Doubles Down on Facebook Political Ads Policy After Twitter Ban
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has ardently defended Facebook’s controversial political advertising policy hours after Twitter took a shot at its rival while announcing it will ban all political ads from its platform. From a report: “Although I’ve considered whether we should not carry [political] ads in the past, and I’ll continue to do so, on balance so far I’ve thought we…
Twitter bans all political ads because they can ‘influence votes’
Highly targeted political adverts give politicians who use them an unfair advantage, says Twitter, so the social media firm is banning them on its platform Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2221935-twitter-bans-all-political-ads-because-they-can-influence-votes/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
Facebook Takes Down a False Political Ad — from a PAC
An anonymous reader quotes Reuters: Facebook Inc said on Saturday that it had removed an ad which falsely claimed that U.S. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham supported the Green New Deal, demonstrating that it will fact-check ads from political groups but not politicians. The ad, which ran on Friday, was put up as a stunt by a left-leaning Political Action Committee, or…