Category «Social Media»

Americans Are Easy Marks for Russian Trolls, According to New Data

A Daily Beast analysis of Twitter data shows the Kremlin troll farm’s English-language propaganda is nine times more effective than its disinformation in Russian: “You don’t need to read the federal indictments to spot the moment Russia began targeting the United States with its army of internet trolls. Just chart the American flag emoji. Best …

Subjects: Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Internet, Social Media

Freedom on the Net 2018: The Rise of Digital Authoritarianism

Freedom House: Fake news, data collection, and the challenge to democracy – “The internet is growing less free around the world, and democracy itself is withering under its influence. Disinformation and propaganda disseminated online have poisoned the public sphere. The unbridled collection of personal data has broken down traditional notions of privacy. And a cohort …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Internet, Social Media

The Most Common Voting Scams—and How to Get Around Them

LifeHacker: “Voter suppression tactics are as old as the United States itself. Limited enfranchisement, poll taxes, gerrymandering and, more recently, voter ID restrictions and targeted polling site closures have all been used throughout our country’s history to deny the vote to targeted populations. Social media and concerted political action have made these voter scams more …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Congress, Social Media

Folksonomies: how to do things with words on social media

Oxford Dictionaries: “Folksonomy, a portmanteau word for ‘folk taxonomy’, is a term for collaborative tagging: the production of user-created ‘tags’ on social media that help readers to find and sort content. In other words, hashtags: #ThrowbackThursday, #DogLife, #MeToo. Because ordinary people create folksonomy tags, folksonomies include categories devised by small communities, subcultures, or even individuals, …

Subjects: Internet, Knowledge Management, Libraries, Social Media

2018 US congressional midterm elections: case study of third-party tracking scripts on candidate websites

The 2018 United States congressional midterm elections: a case study of third-party tracking scripts on candidate websites, Valmik Patel, October 2018. “Of the 1,008 websites we collected (House and Senate candidates for the 2018 midterm elections), we were left with 981 after removing duplicates and invalid links.  We found that trackers are present on 87% …

Subjects: Congress, Internet, Privacy, Social Media

Instagrammers Are Being Lured to ‘the World’s Most Epic Pop-Up’ on Nov. 6 (at Every Polling Place)

AdWeek – Millennials try speaking their own language to get out the vote: “If you like limited-time pop-ups that make for great Instagram fodder and seem to attract every celebrity in America, then look no further than the Museum of Voting. Happening only on Nov. 6, it has the vibe of an immersive democratic experience …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Social Media

A Legal Framework to Govern Online Political Expression by Public Servants

Clarke, Amanda and Piper, Benjamin, A Legal Framework to Govern Online Political Expression by Public Servants (May 14, 2018). Clarke, Amanda & Benjamin Piper. 2018. “A Legal Framework to Govern Online Political Expression by Public Servants”, Canadian Labour and Employment Law Journal, 21(1), 1-50. . Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3251375 “This paper considers the extent to …

Subjects: Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Social Media

Debunking 5 Viral Images of the Migrant Caravan

The New York Times: “A group of Honduran migrants traveling through Mexico toward the United States has attracted enormous amounts of attention in recent days, including a litany of false, misleading and unproven statements circulating on social media. Some of this misinformation has been fueled by statements from officials in the United States, including President …

Subjects: Internet, Knowledge Management, Social Media

8 facts about Americans and Facebook

“Facebook is one of the most popular social media platforms among adults in the United States. At the same time, it has attracted scrutiny in recent years because of concerns over its ability to keep users’ personal information private and its role in the 2016 presidential election. Here are eight facts about Americans and Facebook, …

Subjects: Social Media

Older People Are Worse Than Young People at Telling Fact from Opinion

Younger Americans are better than older Americans at telling factual news statements from opinions – “While some say wisdom comes with age, younger Americans are better than their elders at separating factual from opinion statements in the news, according to a new analysis from Pew Research Center. In a survey conducted Feb. 22 to March …

Subjects: Internet, Knowledge Management, Social Media