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During the election cycle in 2016, my FB page was routinely slammed with hateful and biased ads. This made no sense at the time, as I was not affiliated with any groups online, I did not opine about the candidates, and I did not “like” or “share” posts, and I do not use apps. I …
Wired: “After the mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, in February, the top trending video on YouTube wasn’t a news clip about the tragedy, but a conspiracy theory video suggesting survivor David Hogg was an actor. The video garnered 200,000 views before YouTube removed it from its platform. Until now, the company hasn’t said much about …
The Intercept: “When Mark Zuckerber was asked if Facebook had influenced the outcome of the 2016 presidential election, the founder and CEO dismissed the notion that the site even had such power as “crazy.” It was a disingenuous remark. Facebook’s website had an entire section devoted to touting the “success stories” of political campaigns that used the social network to …
Tim Berners-Lee – It’s dangerous having a handful of companies control how ideas and opinions are shared. A regulator may be needed. “Today [March 12, 2018], the world wide web turns 29. This year marks a milestone in the web’s history: for the first time, we will cross the tipping point when more than half …
New Yorker – Reddit and the Struggle to Detoxify the Internet How do we fix life online without limiting free speech? “Which Web sites get the most traffic? According to the ranking service Alexa, the top three sites in the United States, as of this writing, are Google, YouTube, and Facebook. (Porn, somewhat hearteningly, doesn’t …
Via NYT – Benton Foundation – [Commentary] “It seems as if you are never “hard core” enough for YouTube’s recommendation algorithm. It promotes, recommends and disseminates videos in a manner that appears to constantly up the stakes. Given its billion or so users, YouTube may be one of the most powerful radicalizing instruments of the …
Via All Generalizations are False – Home of the Media Bias Chart – Version 3.0 of the Chart – “As I discussed in my post entitled “The Chart, Second Edition: What Makes a News Source Good?” the most accurate and helpful way to analyze a news source is to analyze its individual stories, and the …
Article by John Hubbard – Librarian at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee – March 9, 2017. Misinformation Overload. “We live in uncertain times. With big data and a boom in our ability to transmit ideas comes a seemingly greater amount of erroneous information, and therefore the need for everyone to be able to properly identify, discredit, and …
115TH Congress Report – House of Representatives 2d Session Report 115–512. Social Media Use in Clearance Investigations Act of 2017 “H.R. 3737, The Social Media Use in Clearance Investigations Act of 2017 requires the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to provide pertinent data on the current and potential use of social media for clearance investigation …
The spread of true and false news online. Soroush Vosoughi, Deb Roy, Sinan Aral. Science 09 Mar 2018: Vol. 359, Issue 6380, pp. 1146-1151 DOI: 10.1126/science.aap9559 “Lies spread faster than the truth – “There is worldwide concern over false news and the possibility that it can influence political, economic, and social well-being. To understand how …
European Council on Foreign Relations: “Government regulation on fake news is unlikely to prevent malicious actors from meddling in our elections or polarising our societies. With many worried about a Russian information offensive in the West, European states are in the process of developing defence mechanisms. Unfortunately, several seem to be reacting with a legalistic approach …
Wired: “For more than a year, Jonathan Albright has served as something of a one-man General Accounting Office for the tech industry. The researcher at Columbia University’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism has dug into the details on how political Twitter trolls manipulate the media, and unearthed an intricate web of conspiracy theory videos on …
