Resist Misinformation This Election Season!

ElaineA

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The bots and trolls will be coming for Harris from every side. The "she's not black enough" side and the "she's a traitor to black people" side, based on her work as a prosecutor (multi-tracked with the "birtherism-2019" and Candace Owens's #BLEXIT movement). I understand people from CA have been skeptical about her background as a prosecutor for a long time, and I'm sure a legitimate conversation will take place during the primary process. I'm only talking narrowly here, about the deluge of coordinated social media attacks.

I strongly recommend people follow Caroline Orr on Twitter @RVAwonk for the campaign season, or at least bookmark her profile for fact-checking backup. She's really on top of this stuff when it's happening, and in real time. Her posting of the copy/paste tweets during the debate was amazing.

Also be aware that a Trump reelection operative is in on the disinformation act (with Team Trump's explicit thumbs-up) by running a fake Biden website (link goes to a Daily Beast quick-headline page that points to a NYT article). The phony site is near the top of Joe Biden search results online. The operative has them for Bernie & Harris, as well, they're just not as high in the search results. Yet.

Everyone needs to squint hard at what they see and read this election cycle, even if it seems like it's saying something we like. 493 days until election day. It's going to be a brutal slog.
 

Auteur

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That's like telling low-information voters to get informed. It ain't gonna happen.
 

ElaineA

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I am not what anyone would call a "low information" voter, but I still got sucked into some misinformation in 2016, as well as in the early days of the Trump administration. I needed to read other people pointing out the fallacies, the troll-farm stuff, particular people trying to be social-media famous by spouting straight-up BS. I had to learn how to look for bots on my Twitter feed and pseudo-"news" at the top of my Google news feed, and I was grateful for the people who took the time to educate those of us who wanted that education.

So if the desire to try to avoid that stuff, even if it's only one resource, doesn't apply to you, this thread might not be for you. But for people who would like information others might have to share, I'm glad we have a place to aggregate resources. From the left and the right, both.

Thanks Mac and Lisa for sticky-ing it.
 

MacAllister

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Please feel free to share links, sources, and information as you find it. More heads are better than one. I know a pretty good handful of quite intelligent folks who got hoodwinked by the Russian troll farms, bots, and clickbait sites like Inf*wars outright fabrications.
 
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Auteur

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I just saw an anti-socialism commercial on TV with people trying to look sad because they had to wait a long time for operations such as for brain-surgery. People will no doubt believe crap like that: people whose only source for information is TV.
 

ElaineA

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And then there's this.

Cambridge Analytica's key staffers formed a new company that's working on Trump 2020
Cambridge Analytica declared bankruptcy last month, but it's not like all its evil masterminds joined a Buddhist monastery -- they've started a new company Data Propria, helmed by Cambridge Analytica alum Matt Oczkowski, who bragged in public that he and Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale were "doing the president’s work for 2020."

Original story from AP

Follow up from Ars Technica
 

Introversion

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I'm just waiting to vote for the "Not Trump", which I'm 99.99% certain will be a Democrat this year. But I'll be posting some of these links around the tiny corners of Teh Internets I frequent, on the off chance it helps get the NT elected.
 

ap123

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I'm just waiting to vote for the "Not Trump", which I'm 99.99% certain will be a Democrat this year. But I'll be posting some of these links around the tiny corners of Teh Internets I frequent, on the off chance it helps get the NT elected.

+ eleventy billion.

I already posted the Medium link about Kamala Harris, I have a some Dem friends who are strongly anti Harris bc of her history as a prosecutor. Some won't change their minds no matter what, but I think some are open to learning more.
 

nighttimer

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I strongly recommend people follow Caroline Orr on Twitter @RVAwonk for the campaign season, or at least bookmark her profile for fact-checking backup. She's really on top of this stuff when it's happening, and in real time. Her posting of the copy/paste tweets during the debate was amazing.

I started following Caroline Orr last Friday. She is on point and I retweeted her post.

That's like telling low-information voters to get informed. It ain't gonna happen.

Well, it definitely won't if we don't even make an effort to inform them.

Facebook is so arrogant in its lack of concern about fake news and sketchy posts that I have all but given it up for dead. I'm over Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg's laissez-faire response to how they allowed foreign actors to weaponize their site. Black Americans were marked for disinfomation and along with vigorous actions by Republicans to disenfranchise, depress and discourage voting, it made for a one-two punch the Democrats never effectively countered.

The federal government needs to step in to provide some regulation and oversight of the social media giants, but Trump and McConnell have no interest in protecting the security of the U.S. voting system. Instead they're all hyped over drooling idiots like Diamond and Silk being denied an outlet for their cooning and grinning minstrel show.

So you have to be the change you want to see in this world.

Here's a short list:

Mother Jones

The Russian government and other malicious actors continue to spread false information and divisive political content on Twitter, Facebook, and other platforms—efforts that rely in no small part on the unwitting participation of everyday people, according to Bret Schafer, an analyst at the Alliance for Securing Democracy.

“Social-media users need to be aware of their role in information laundering. If a user retweets, emails, or posts information taken from a less-than-credible point of origin, they now have become the new ‘source’ of that information for friends, family, [and] followers,” Schafer told Mother Jones. “This is how false information really spreads.”

The Russian government and other malicious actors continue to spread false information and divisive political content on Twitter, Facebook, and other platforms—efforts that rely in no small part on the unwitting participation of everyday people, according to Bret Schafer, an analyst at the Alliance for Securing Democracy. “Social-media users need to be aware of their role in information laundering. If a user retweets, emails, or posts information taken from a less-than-credible point of origin, they now have become the new ‘source’ of that information for friends, family, [and] followers,” Schafer told Mother Jones. “This is how false information really spreads.”

https://mashable.com/2018/02/20/how-to-spot-a-bot/

https://www.symantec.com/blogs/election-security/spot-twitter-bot
Some typical characteristics of bots on Twitter include:


  • Many Twitter bots have a relatively recent creation date.
  • Many bot user names contain numbers, which can indicate automatic name generation.
  • The account primarily retweets content, rather than tweeting original content.
  • The account’s tweet frequency is higher than a human user could feasibly achieve.
  • The account may have a high number of followers and also be following a lot of accounts; conversely, some bot accounts are identifiable because they send a lot of tweets but only have a few followers.
  • Many bots tweet the same content as other users at roughly the same time.
  • Short replies to other tweets can also indicate automated behavior.
  • There is often no biography, or indeed a photo, associated with bot Twitter accounts.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbes...en-ways-to-detect-an-online-bot/#1dcff2ae7fba

This is an area of grave concern, and if our so-called "leaders" won't do their due diligence, we'll have to do ours.
 

mrsmig

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That list of Twitter 'bot traits is particularly enlightening. Thank you.
 

ElaineA

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A quick heads-up for those interested. Netflix is airing the documentary The Great Hack beginning July 24. It traces the Netflix/Cambridge Analytica scandal back to its roots, and should give everyone who watches it a clear picture on how we are being manipulated by those who sought to become billionaires by using the most personal aspects of "who we are."

Trailer here
 

MaeZe

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For those that don't have Netflix, Cyberwar: How Russian Hackers and Trolls Helped Elect a President - What We Don't, Can't, and Do Know by Kathleen hall Jamieson also traces the social media events, bots and trolls leading up to and including the 2016 election campaign.


Here are a list of names to be wary of: Trump invites right-wing extremists to White House 'social media summit'
In addition to inviting leaders from traditional conservative think tanks, such as the Heritage Foundation and Claremont Institute, the White House has requested the presence of far-right internet personalities and trolls, some of whom have pushed conspiracy theories, lies and misinformation.

It's perhaps the clearest example yet of President Trump legitimizing fringe political allies.

The White House has repeatedly declined to release a list people it expects to attend, but some of the recipients have turned to social media to boast about being invited.

Among them are Bill Mitchell, a radio host who has promoted the extremist QAnon conspiracy theory on Twitter; Carpe Donktum, an anonymous troll who won a contest put on by the fringe media organization InfoWars for an anti-media meme; and Ali Alexander, an activist who attempted to smear Sen. Kamala Harris by saying she is not an "American black" following the first Democratic presidential debates.

Other eyebrow raising attendees include James O'Keefe, the guerrilla journalist whose group Project Veritas tried to trick reporters at the Washington Post by planting a source who told the paper that she had been impregnated as a teenager by failed Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore; Charlie Kirk, the founder of the right-wing student group Turning Point USA who sometimes posts misleading information on social media; and Benny Johnson, the journalist-turned-activist who was fired for plagiarism by BuzzFeed and demoted at the Independent Journal Review for violating company standards.
 

ElaineA

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I'd love to see some Indivisible groups host watch parties. It seems like that would be preaching to the choir, but I see a lot of people with "resister" proudly proclaimed in their banners and bios getting suckered by lefty propaganda, too.
 

ElaineA

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Another Twitter thread about the way botnets are gaming Twitter's algorithm. I'm posting this because just this morning I think I might have done exactly what she advises against.

Her thread has good general information about how the networks are operating and succeeding, but combating it requires a lot of self-restraint. I replied to a tweet after checking the profile of the user, but now I regret engaging. The networks have gotten sophisticated enough to have profiles with large enough follower-numbers as to make them look more real. I'm still not sure if I replied to a human or a bot.

Sometimes I want to engage with information for *other* people, not the troll, but I guess that's not a great idea, either. *sigh* We're stuck in a disinformation loop with seemingly no way to combat it as long as the Jacks and Zuckerbergs of the internet world DGAF about fixing it...
 

MaeZe

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Here come the bots, here come the bots.

An anonymous Democratic group leaked a poll that shows swing voters deeply dislike Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the left wing, widening the party's rift

Riiight.:rolleyes: No red flags there. "anonymous Democratic group leaked a poll"

I'm not sure if the reporters vetted this or not but just given this information, it looks completely fabricated to me.

And it's possible the fraud went further back than whoever "leaked it". Even if all that was on the up and up, who are these people that conducted the poll?

I'll stop ranting. If more information comes out, I'll post it.
 

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CNN interviews Trump superfans, calls them ‘eight Republican women from Dallas’

Washington Post said:
CNN had the smart idea of bringing together supporters of President Trump and quizzing them about the controversy of the week. Did they believe that his tweets instructing four Democratic congresswomen of color to “go back” to their home countries — when three of the four were born in the United States — were in any way racist, as many others had concluded? Did they stick with the president?

No — and oh, yes.

Dena Miller was among the eight Dallas Republicans in the CNN focus group who were interviewed by network correspondent Randi Kaye. “First, the black billionaire is endorsing President Trump,” said Miller. “How can you call him racist?” And so it went. Kathleen Lieberman told Kaye, “Because when you say, you know, don’t you think he’s racist? You’re accusing us. You’re accusing him.”

On Anderson Cooper’s show Tuesday night, the focus-group participants were identified as being members of Trump’s “base.” Kaye herself said they were “eight Republican women from Dallas.” In a segment on Wednesday morning, CNN host Kate Bolduan used the same formulation, saying, “My colleague Randi Kaye sat down with eight Republican women in Dallas.”

True, but incomplete, as critics later pointed out.

Miller was profiled in the Dallas Observer in her role as national director for Trumpettes of America. At least two other women in the CNN group, Gina O’Briant and Lieberman, were featured as members of the Texas Women for Trump Coalition in a 2016 story.

...

Gee, what a surprise, their answers. Shocking! :tongue
 

MaeZe

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Trump is going on today about 22 MS13 gang members being arrested, of which most were undocumented immigrants, teenagers. They are charged with some gruesome murders and that is easily confirmed. So let's get down to the finer points.

Trump Tweets (multiple sources)

Most of the MS-13 Gang members indicted & arrested in L.A. were illegal aliens, 19 of 22. They are said to have killed many people in the most brutal fashion. They should never have been allowed in our Country for so long, 10 years. We have arrested and deported thousands....

....of gang members, in particular MS-13. ICE and Border Patrol are doing a great job!
Wow, a whole 22 of these vicious gang members arrested. Gee, that's frightening. :rolleyes:

Investigating Trump's claims:

22 MS-13 Gang Members Charged With Machete Murders In Angeles National Forest

It might be one machete murder. MSNBC says 4 were machete murders and confirms Trump's numbers of undocumented teens.
The 22 suspects were indicted by a grand jury last week on charges of committing and/or coordinating the murders of seven people over the past two years, according to a federal RICO indictment unsealed Monday. ...
Seven murders over two years?

The suspects murdered rival gang members and those were they believed were informers, the Justice Department reports. One of the victims was 15-years-old, the indictment reads. Another was a homeless man who was shot and killed in January while he slept at a rec center in North Hollywood, an area controlled by MS-13. ...

In total, MS-13 is believed to have murdered 24 people in the L.A. metro area over the past two years, federal prosecutors say.

Without being tedious looking for 2019 or 18 data (others are welcome to pursue the data): Fast-forward to 2015's year-end stats: 649 people perished as a result of homicide in [LA] county. ... In 2014, 587 people were murdered.

So taking those 2 years, 24 out of ~1200 murders were committed by MS13 gang members. Whoa! That's so scary. :rolleyes:

Trump is such an ass.

But we all know that. If you need to answer anyone about these 22 dangerous brown people, please let them know how tiny the actual risk is.
 

MaeZe

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Warning, don't read this if it will depress you, because it probably will.

Here's another 'right in your face' problem the Democrats are going to have to address in 2020. The news media, be it on TV or headlines have been repeating Trump's racism story incessantly over the last couple days.

I do a lot of channel surfing so I get snippets of news channels. First it was the Tweet itself. That was read (with visuals) over and over for a day. It morphed into reaction interviews. The Tweet had to be repeated again lest someone not know what the reporters were talking about.

We get Kellyanne Conway's gaslighting and a few GOP legislators downplaying it.

There were a couple minutes of the Congresswomen responding. They were often called 'the Squad, minorities, persons of color, or a half dozen other names for their ethnicity. Their names were rarely mentioned. Omar was show arriving to cheering constituents a few times, sometimes matched to Trump's chanting mob.

Try to find how often these names, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib, are mentioned if/when you read about Trump's racism.

Then we got every news station once again showing Trump's follow-up Tweet, his press photo-op, discussions about is it racist or not, saturating the media all day and all night, and for the TV, every hour, every new newscast.

The women's political opinions are called radical, extremist, fighting with Nancy Pelosi and they are citizens.

And now PBS news has the play by play follow-up about how this affected Trump's ratings.


If you have a chance to give your local news feedback, tell them all this free advertising for Trump slants the election outcome.
 

MaeZe

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Listen carefully to the news media framing the Mueller hearing. It's very clever of the GOP to inject that narrative into the media.

For example, in news reports and press conferences, they state a lie, "Mueller disappointed the Democrats, didn't direct Congress to impeach like the Democrats were hoping for... yada yada."

That's bullshit. Mueller gave a voice to the report few people have taken the time to read. And now it's up to the Democrats to ignore the press narrative and present their own, which today they are.
 
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MaeZe

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