Social media’s misinformation battle: No winners, so far
6 years, 2 months ago

Social media’s misinformation battle: No winners, so far

Associated Press  

NEW YORK — Facebook and other social platforms have been fighting online misinformation and hate speech for two years. Facebook, in particular, has pulled a major reversal since late 2016, when CEO Mark Zuckerberg infamously dismissed the idea that fake news on his service could have swayed the election as “pretty crazy.” In July, for instance, the company announced that heavy spending on security and content moderation, coupled with other business shifts, would hold down growth and profitability. A similar measure from the University of Michigan’s Center for Social Media Responsibility dubbed the “Iffy Quotient " — which gauges the prevalence of “iffy” material on social networks — also shows that Facebook’s “iffiness” has fallen from a high of 8.1 percent 1n March 2017 to 3.2 percent on Monday. A team led by Philip Howard, the lead researcher on Oxford’s Computational Propaganda effort, looked at stories shared on Twitter during the last 10 days of September 2018 and found that what it called “junk news” accounted for a full quarter of all links shared during that time — greater than the number of professional news stories shared during that time. While the Oxford analysis didn’t produce similar figures for Facebook, the researchers did map out how junk news circulates on the social network and found that conspiracy theories and other misinformation once confined to a “hard right” audience are now shared more freely among mainstream conservatives as well.

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History of this topic

DC Edit | Meta wrong to end fact checks
Trending News
2 days, 6 hours ago

DC Edit | Meta wrong to end fact checks

Deccan Chronicle  

At the core of this restructuring lies Zuckerberg’s decision to relax content moderation rules and phase out the third-party fact-checking platforms, which he claimed were stifling free speech and promoting bias. The company, which owns Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads, will use the community notes system, which is similar to the one used by Trump’s ally Elon Musk-led social media …

Fake news is driving us apart amid disaster — but slanted news is slowly drowning our democracy
4 days ago

Fake news is driving us apart amid disaster — but slanted news is slowly drowning our democracy

Salon  

The upcoming inauguration of Donald Trump as the 47th president of the United States — and the four years of his presidency to follow — will put American democracy to the test. Just a few weeks ago, the U.S. Department of Justice struck down a Russian-led effort to distribute fake news about the upcoming election which according to FBI Director …

No more fact-checking for Meta. How will this change media — and the pursuit of truth?
Trending News
6 days, 18 hours ago

No more fact-checking for Meta. How will this change media — and the pursuit of truth?

Associated Press  

“Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts,” the late New York Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan memorably wrote four decades ago. Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement this week was widely seen in news verification circles as a genuflection to president-elect Donald Trump, whose first term in office popularized the phrase “alternative facts.” Meta is replacing its …

No more fact-checking for Meta. How will this change media — and the pursuit of truth?
1 week ago

No more fact-checking for Meta. How will this change media — and the pursuit of truth?

New Indian Express  

“Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts,” the late New York Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan memorably wrote four decades ago. That seems like a simpler time — especially when you consider Meta’s decision to end a fact-checking program on social media apps Facebook, Instagram and Threads and what the ramifications might be for an industry …

Zuckerberg’s Meta risks becoming an engine for Trumpian propaganda
1 week ago

Zuckerberg’s Meta risks becoming an engine for Trumpian propaganda

The Independent  

During his pre-inauguration press conference, president-elect Donald Trump was asked whether he thought Mark Zuckerberg’s decision to scrap fact-checking on Facebook was “because of your threats to him”. Mr Trump replied: “Probably.” At least Mr Trump’s judgement is sound on that – and corroborated by Mr Zuckerberg himself. In a social media clip, the Meta boss freely admitted that “the …

Manu Joseph: Trump’s victory has exposed the worst argument of the West
1 month, 1 week ago

Manu Joseph: Trump’s victory has exposed the worst argument of the West

Live Mint  

The worst argument of the West that I have encountered is that fake news changed public opinion and gave the world Donald Trump, and that this sort of propaganda creates the myth of other strongmen across the world. Even if you do not follow Western media, you couldn’t have escaped the view that fake news had an outsized role in …

Majority of social media influencers don’t verify information before sharing it, study finds
1 month, 3 weeks ago

Majority of social media influencers don’t verify information before sharing it, study finds

CNN  

New York CNN — A majority of social media influencers don’t verify information before sharing it with their audiences, a study published Tuesday by the UN’s scientific and cultural arm found, underscoring concerns that some of the biggest online figures can uncritically spread misleading claims. While only 12% of the surveyed influencers said they produced content about “current affairs/politics and …

Growing social media app vows to shake up ‘toxic’ status quo
1 month, 3 weeks ago

Growing social media app vows to shake up ‘toxic’ status quo

The Independent  

Sign up to our free weekly IndyTech newsletter delivered straight to your inbox Sign up to our free IndyTech newsletter Sign up to our free IndyTech newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. They've cleverly addicted us to our own egos Zoe Kalar, WeAre8 founder Zoe Kalar, the app’s founder, …

About 20% of Americans regularly get their news from influencers on social media, report says
1 month, 4 weeks ago

About 20% of Americans regularly get their news from influencers on social media, report says

Associated Press  

About one in five Americans – and a virtually identical share of Republicans and Democrats – regularly get their news from digital influencers who are more likely to be found on the social media platform X, according to a report released Monday by the Pew Research Center. “These influencers have really reached new levels of attention and prominence this year …

Nearly 40% of young Americans get their news from influencers. Many of them lean to the right, study finds
1 month, 4 weeks ago

Nearly 40% of young Americans get their news from influencers. Many of them lean to the right, study finds

CNN  

New York CNN — Young American adults are increasingly getting their news from social media influencers, a majority of whom are men and lean to the right, according to a new study from the Pew Research Center. While one-fifth of US adults reported “regularly” receiving their news from online “news influencers” who post about current events, that number climbed to …

Nearly 40% of young Americans get their news from influencers. Many of them lean to the right, study finds
1 month, 4 weeks ago

Nearly 40% of young Americans get their news from influencers. Many of them lean to the right, study finds

CNN  

New York CNN — Young American adults are increasingly getting their news from social media influencers, a majority of whom are men and lean to the right, according to a new study from the Pew Research Center. While one-fifth of US adults reported “regularly” receiving their news from online “news influencers” who post about current events, that number climbed to …

After Trump's victory, U.S. election falsehoods shift left
2 months ago

After Trump's victory, U.S. election falsehoods shift left

Raw Story  

Right-wing falsehoods about voter fraud fell off a cliff after Donald Trump's victory in the U.S. election, but American liberals took a page from their playbook to push wild conspiracy theories that have fueled doubt about the democratic process. "What we're seeing now is an uptick in election fraud claims from the left, particularly in the days following Election Day …

Misinformation fears mount over second Trump term
2 months ago

Misinformation fears mount over second Trump term

Raw Story  

Donald Trump's election victory paves the way for a fresh wave of misinformation, not only around politics but also on vaccines and climate, with his expected cabinet picks ready to challenge the scientific community. "The problem of misinformation and disinformation is the worst it's ever been," said Bill Adair, a Duke University professor who founded the fact-checking site PolitiFact and …

An Overlooked — and Increasingly Important — Clue to How People Vote
2 months, 1 week ago

An Overlooked — and Increasingly Important — Clue to How People Vote

Politico  

The exit polls this week did show that some of the biggest shifts in voting patterns came among young people and Latinos, two groups whose media consumption differs from the national average. Trump won 45 percent of Latinos in 2024 compared with 32 percent in 2020 — and Hispanic people are more likely to use social media than white people, …

'Truth Social is dead in the crib' after election win: analyst
Trending News
2 months, 1 week ago

'Truth Social is dead in the crib' after election win: analyst

Raw Story  

Donald Trump's Truth Social platform may have its future as a viable — yet money-losing — site impacted now that the former president is headed back to the Oval Office, according to an analyst. He added that the Trump win could end up being his Truth Social investor's loss – particularly if he sells off a substantial amount of stock …

Expect This Election to Play Differently than 2020 on Social Media
2 months, 1 week ago

Expect This Election to Play Differently than 2020 on Social Media

Bloomberg  

Heading into the US presidential election four years ago, Facebook and Twitter instituted substantial policies to combat misleading political content, touted their investments into content moderation and promised to do all they could to avoid a free-for-all on their platforms. Just before Election Day in 2020, Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg told investors the election would be a test …

Are we misinformed about misinformation?
2 months, 3 weeks ago

Are we misinformed about misinformation?

Salon  

In June, the journal Nature published a perspective suggesting that the harms of online misinformation have been misunderstood. The paper’s authors, representing four universities and Microsoft, conducted a review of the behavioral science literature and identified what they characterize as three common misperceptions: That the average person’s exposure to false and inflammatory content is high, that algorithms are driving this …

U.S. accuses Russia of using state media to spread disinformation before Nov. 5 election
4 months, 1 week ago

U.S. accuses Russia of using state media to spread disinformation before Nov. 5 election

LA Times  

Gen. Merrick Garland speaks during a meeting of the Election Threats Task Force at the Department of Justice on Wednesday. The Biden administration announced wide-ranging actions Wednesday meant to call out Russian influence in the upcoming U.S. presidential election, unsealing criminal charges against two employees of a Russian state-run media company and seizing internet domains used by the Kremlin to …

Truth Social tanks as Donald Trump returns to X
5 months ago

Truth Social tanks as Donald Trump returns to X

Salon  

Donald Trump’s social media network Truth Social is rapidly declining in value as the former president has started posting on X for the first time in over a year. Over a three month period that ended June 30, Truth Social’s parent company, Trump Media & Technology, lost more than $16 million. Many investors hoped the 2024 election would be a …

Swinney: Social media giants must crack down on ‘dangerous’ disinformation
5 months, 1 week ago

Swinney: Social media giants must crack down on ‘dangerous’ disinformation

The Independent  

Get Nadine White's Race Report newsletter for a fresh perspective on the week's news Get our free newsletter from The Independent's Race Correspondent Get our free newsletter from The Independent's Race Correspondent SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy John Swinney has urged social media giants to …

Russia is relying on unwitting Americans to spread election disinformation, US officials say
5 months, 2 weeks ago

Russia is relying on unwitting Americans to spread election disinformation, US officials say

The Hindu  

The Kremlin is turning to unwitting Americans and commercial public relations firms in Russia to spread disinformation about the U.S. presidential race, top intelligence officials said Monday, detailing the latest efforts by America's adversaries to shape public opinion ahead of the 2024 election. “The American public should know that content that they read online — especially on social media — …

Russia is relying on unwitting Americans to spread election disinformation, US officials say
5 months, 2 weeks ago

Russia is relying on unwitting Americans to spread election disinformation, US officials say

Associated Press  

WASHINGTON — The Kremlin is turning to unwitting Americans and commercial public relations firms in Russia to spread disinformation about the U.S. presidential race, top intelligence officials said Monday, detailing the latest efforts by America’s adversaries to shape public opinion ahead of the 2024 election. What hasn’t changed, intelligence officials said, is the determination of these nations to seed the …

Conspiracy theories spread wildly after the first assassination attempt on a US president in the social media age
6 months ago

Conspiracy theories spread wildly after the first assassination attempt on a US president in the social media age

CNN  

CNN — Saturday’s shooting at a Donald Trump rally was the first assassination attempt of a US presidential candidate in the age of social media – and the former president had barely been hit before the internet was abuzz with all sorts of unsubstantiated explanations for what had, or had not, occurred. Conspiracy theories spread wildly Almost immediately after Trump …

Many California voters get their info from social media, even if they don’t trust it, poll shows
6 months, 4 weeks ago

Many California voters get their info from social media, even if they don’t trust it, poll shows

LA Times  

In California, where a ballot often contains pages of candidates and initiatives, most voters rely on the state-provided guide for election information, a new poll has found. But with so much at stake, Californians UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies found that 58% of voters turn to the official voter guides, 40% to newspapers or magazines, 39% to search engines …

Collaboration key in fight against disinformation: Bertelsmann Foundation report
7 months ago

Collaboration key in fight against disinformation: Bertelsmann Foundation report

The Hindu  

Published : Jun 14, 2024 15:44 IST - 4 MINS READ Transnational cooperation between civil society organisations, media outlets, and the world’s largest technology companies is needed to effectively combat disinformation, according to a new analysis by the non-profit think-tank Bertelsmann Foundation. “We also need pre-bunking,” she said, referring to a strategy of alerting people to fake content before they …

Fake news on social media is the problem we’re all ignoring – trust me, I worked for Twitter
7 months ago

Fake news on social media is the problem we’re all ignoring – trust me, I worked for Twitter

The Independent  

The best of Voices delivered to your inbox every week - from controversial columns to expert analysis Sign up for our free weekly Voices newsletter for expert opinion and columns Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Back when I worked at Twitter, …

European Union braces for foreign disinformation as voters head to polls
7 months, 1 week ago

European Union braces for foreign disinformation as voters head to polls

Hindustan Times  

BRUSSELS — Voters in the European Union are set to elect lawmakers starting Thursday for the bloc's parliament, in a major democratic exercise that's also likely to be overshadowed by online disinformation. Tusk, meanwhile, called out Russia's “destabilization strategy on the eve of the European elections.” On a broader level, the goal of “disinformation campaigns is often not to disrupt …

Politics served with concise social media content
7 months, 4 weeks ago

Politics served with concise social media content

The Hindu  

The nature of information dissemination is changing rapidly and India is not immune to these sweeping changes. In India, growing social media use in the vernacular languages, combined with a largely unregulated digital space and a highly competitive, polarised political environment, necessitates vigilance to manage disruptive misinformation. This decline is mirrored in the popularity of concise social media content, i.e., …

The 'Sift' strategy: A four-step method for spotting misinformation
8 months, 1 week ago

The 'Sift' strategy: A four-step method for spotting misinformation

BBC  

The 'Sift' strategy: A four-step method for spotting misinformation Javier Hirschfeld/Getty Images The Sift method is a way to spot misinformation Pioneered by digital literacy experts, the "Sift" strategy is a technique for spotting fake news and misleading social media posts, says Amanda Ruggeri. What you're looking for is whether a more trustworthy source, like a reputable news outlet or …

As India votes, misinformation surges on social media: ‘The whole country is paying the price’
8 months, 1 week ago

As India votes, misinformation surges on social media: ‘The whole country is paying the price’

Associated Press  

NEW DELHI — Bollywood stars seldom weigh in on politics, so videos showing two celebrities criticizing Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi — and endorsing his main opposition, the Congress party — were bound to go viral. But the clips of A-list actors Aamir Khan and Ranveer Singh were fake, AI-generated videos that were yet another example of the false or …

Anonymous users dominate right-wing discussions online and spread false information
9 months, 1 week ago

Anonymous users dominate right-wing discussions online and spread false information

LA Times  

The X logo is shown on a computer screen in Belgrade, Serbia. The reposts and expressions of shock from public figures followed quickly after a user on the social platform X who uses a pseudonym falsely claimed that a government website had revealed “skyrocketing” rates of voters registering without a photo ID in three states this year — two of …

'Hemorrhaging users': Trump's Truth Social's longtime 'viability' questioned after merger
9 months, 3 weeks ago

'Hemorrhaging users': Trump's Truth Social's longtime 'viability' questioned after merger

Raw Story  

The merger on Friday between Digital World Acquisition Corp. and the Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company of Donald Trump's Truth Social, may have resulted in a temporary $3 billion windfall for the former president, but technology experts are more than skeptical that the merged company will survive in the long term. The report notes that after three …

New era of AI deepfakes complicates 2024 elections
11 months ago

New era of AI deepfakes complicates 2024 elections

Live Mint  

The explosion of artificial-intelligence technology makes it easier than ever to deceive people on the internet, and is turning the 2024 U.S. presidential election into an unprecedented test on how to police deceptive content. Two weeks later, the New Hampshire attorney general’s office said it identified a Texas-based company named Life Corp.as the source of the calls and that it …

How bad is social-media misinformation going to get?
11 months ago

How bad is social-media misinformation going to get?

Live Mint  

Get Offline Mass propaganda has infected the world for generations. —Evan Carlisle, Ohio University, mathematics Government Should Provide a Framework Misinformation poses an escalating problem that government officials and tech companies must face. —HeavenLee Vasquez, Baylor University, finance and management Do Your Research We take much of what we see on social media at face value, especially if it’s something …

Fake news, AI, and the worries ahead
1 year ago

Fake news, AI, and the worries ahead

Hindustan Times  

“What no one knows is how misinformation will spread during the election season this year,” says Jency Jacob, Managing Editor of BoomLive. Artificial Intelligence “The biggest challenge this election season apart from usual narrative misinformation that cuts across parties, is going to be how new technologies like AI will be used by them. “In India, we had cheap fakes, but …

Thousands of fake Facebook accounts shut down by Meta were primed to polarize voters ahead of 2024
1 year, 1 month ago

Thousands of fake Facebook accounts shut down by Meta were primed to polarize voters ahead of 2024

Associated Press  

WASHINGTON — Someone in China created thousands of fake social media accounts designed to appear to be from Americans and used them to spread polarizing political content in an apparent effort to divide the U.S. ahead of next year’s elections, Meta said Thursday. “Foreign threat actors are attempting to reach people across the internet ahead of next year’s elections, and …

4 Tips to Spot Misinformation on the Web
1 year, 1 month ago

4 Tips to Spot Misinformation on the Web

Wired  

We've already discussed how the Israel-Hamas war is the latest conflict where people are poring over social media and news channels looking for updates on what, exactly, is happening. And it’s another reminder that misinformation is often big business, and it’s everywhere: fake news and fabrications, half-truths and obfuscations, and flat-out lies and propaganda. WIRED via David Nield Some online …

Why the fight to counter false election claims may be harder in 2024
1 year, 2 months ago

Why the fight to counter false election claims may be harder in 2024

NPR  

Why the fight to counter false election claims may be harder in 2024 Enlarge this image toggle caption Brandon Bell/Getty Images Brandon Bell/Getty Images In Marion County, Fla., elections supervisor Wesley Wilcox has stopped using the word "misinformation." Sponsor Message Another feature of DHS's election security work that seems to be fading into the background is a website called "Rumor …

Column: On social media, the ‘fog of war’ is a feature, not a bug
1 year, 2 months ago

Column: On social media, the ‘fog of war’ is a feature, not a bug

LA Times  

The exact size and location of the crater outside the Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza was among the factors that internet sleuths seized on to make the case for who was responsible — Israel or Hamas. If you’ve logged on to any given social media platform in the last two weeks, you’ll know what I’m talking about: Ever since Hamas …

The Israel-Palestine conflict and ‘mainstream media’
1 year, 2 months ago

The Israel-Palestine conflict and ‘mainstream media’

The Hindu  

Large, established journalistic publications, amorphously clubbed together as “mainstream media”, are often portrayed as villains online. The BBC in the U.K., too, faced such a predicament when one of its initial social media posts on the current violence spoke of many Israelis having been “killed” while many Palestinians had “died”. This reminds one of many a veteran journalist’s adage that …

The Israel-Hamas war reveals how social media sells you the illusion of reality
1 year, 3 months ago

The Israel-Hamas war reveals how social media sells you the illusion of reality

CNN  

New York CNN — As the Israel-Hamas war reaches the end of its first week, millions have turned to platforms including TikTok and Instagram in hopes of comprehending the brutal conflict in real time. This week, European Union officials sent warnings to TikTok, Facebook and Instagram-parent Meta, YouTube and X, highlighting reports of misleading or illegal content about the war …

Social media is awash in misinformation about Israel-Gaza war, but Musk’s X is the most egregious
1 year, 3 months ago

Social media is awash in misinformation about Israel-Gaza war, but Musk’s X is the most egregious

Associated Press  

While Twitter has always struggled with combating misinformation about major news events, it was still the go-to place to find out what’s happening in the world. Ian Bremmer, a prominent foreign policy expert, posted on X that the level of disinformation on the Israel-Hamas war “being algorithmically promoted” on the platform “is unlike anything I’ve ever been exposed to in …

Commentary: Elon Musk bought Twitter just to break it. With a new war, we’re paying the price
1 year, 3 months ago

Commentary: Elon Musk bought Twitter just to break it. With a new war, we’re paying the price

LA Times  

It’s been nearly a year since Elon Musk acquired Twitter, and more than the average landlord, he’s made some changes to the storefront: replacing the social media platform’s cheerful winged mascot with an ominous “X,” stripping all but paying subscribers of verified status, and turning it from a frenetic crossroads of breaking news and opinion to a playground for falsehoods …

Opinion: When is it wrong to urge social media platforms to take down false information?
1 year, 4 months ago

Opinion: When is it wrong to urge social media platforms to take down false information?

LA Times  

A decision on Friday by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit puts in jeopardy one of the few tools that exist to deal with false speech on the internet. The court ruled that the White House, the FBI, the surgeon general’s office and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cannot communicate with …

Opinion: Lies, damn lies and social media — there's a reason this country is so deeply polarized.
1 year, 4 months ago

Opinion: Lies, damn lies and social media — there's a reason this country is so deeply polarized.

LA Times  

A Trump supporter, left, and an anti-Trump protester exemplify American divisions outside the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse, where former President Trump would be arraigned on New York charges in April. We also encounter MIT management professor Sinan Aral, who wrote “The Hype Machine,” a 2020 book about the “perils and promise” of social media. “Social media is rewriting the central nervous …

Facebook's algorithm doesn't alter people's beliefs: Research
1 year, 5 months ago

Facebook's algorithm doesn't alter people's beliefs: Research

The Hindu  

Do social media echo chambers deepen political polarisation, or simply reflect existing social divisions? A landmark research project that investigated Facebook around the 2020 U.S. presidential election published its first results Thursday, finding that, contrary to assumption, the platform's often criticised content-ranking algorithm doesn't shape users' beliefs. "But we also know that changing the algorithm for even a few months …

Deep divides on social media, but algorithm tweaks may not help: Study on FB, Insta
1 year, 5 months ago

Deep divides on social media, but algorithm tweaks may not help: Study on FB, Insta

Hindustan Times  

There is significant ideological divide in the political information Facebook and Instagram users are exposed to, and they spend less time on these services when specially curated feeds are switched off, a set of new studies from what is the largest under-the-hood analysis of social media platforms has found, including clues that many problems that exist on these technologies may …

Deep dive into Meta’s algorithms shows that America’s political polarization has no easy fix
1 year, 5 months ago

Deep dive into Meta’s algorithms shows that America’s political polarization has no easy fix

Associated Press  

WASHINGTON — The powerful algorithms used by Facebook and Instagram to deliver content to users have increasingly been blamed for amplifying misinformation and political polarization. In response to the papers, Meta’s president for global affairs, Nick Clegg, said the findings showed “there is little evidence that key features of Meta’s platforms alone cause harmful ‘affective’ polarization or has any meaningful …

Deep dive into Meta’s algorithms shows that America’s political polarization has no easy fix
1 year, 5 months ago

Deep dive into Meta’s algorithms shows that America’s political polarization has no easy fix

LA Times  

The powerful algorithms used by Facebook and Instagram to deliver content to users have increasingly been blamed for amplifying misinformation and political polarization. “We find that algorithms are extremely influential in people’s on-platform experiences and there is significant ideological segregation in political news exposure,” said Talia Jomini Stroud, director of the Center for Media Engagement at the University of Texas …

Trump rages about election cheaters as Georgia charges loom
1 year, 6 months ago

Trump rages about election cheaters as Georgia charges loom

Raw Story  

Donald Trump's Truth Social platform may have its future as a viable — yet money-losing — site impacted now that the former president is headed back to the Oval Office, according to an analyst. He added that the Trump win could end up being his Truth Social investor's loss – particularly if he sells off a substantial amount of stock …

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