Fake News

[Tranquility]

I am a supporter of gun rights. But, some who want to stir up trouble, have a flood of bots to hit social media after the recent shooting.

https://www.wired.com/story/pro-gun-russian-bots-flood-twitter-after-parkland-shooting/

EACH NEW BREAKING news situation is an opportunity for trolls to grab attention, provoke emotions, and spread propaganda. The Russian government knows this. Fake-news manufacturing teenagers in Macedonia know this. Twitter bot creators know this. And thanks to data-gathering operations from groups like the Alliance for Securing Democracy and RoBhat Labs, the world knows this.

In the wake of Wednesday’s Parkland, Florida school shooting, which resulted in 17 deaths, troll and bot-tracking sites reported an immediate uptick in related tweets from political propaganda bots and Russia-linked Twitter accounts. Hamilton 68, a website created by Alliance for Securing Democracy, tracks Twitter activity from accounts it has identified as linked to Russian influence campaigns. As of morning, shooting-related terms dominated the site’s trending hashtags and topics, including Parkland, guncontrolnow, Florida, guncontrol, and Nikolas Cruz, the name of the alleged shooter. Popular trending topics among the bot network include shooter, NRA, shooting, Nikolas, Florida, and teacher....
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Be careful about the news you see on the shooting. (And, most everything.) There are many who want to control the narrative for their own, unstated, ends. Just because this particular bot net seems to support my position, does not make my position more correct. Just as the bots that are assuredly on the other side don't make that position more correct.

It seems our best skill in this age of lies is to develop many sources of information from many positions on the left/right scale. Ghettoizing our sources of information by only watching/reading those we agree with is a sure way to ride the artificial waves of botinformation out there; and where a particular wave will take you depends on the puppet master behind the bot.

 

[RUDE BOY]

It's kind of odd that the bot farms only support the right-wing conservative agenda of Fake news /Conspiracy theory side of things. Now isn't it?

 

[pockets916]

That's what Putin wants you to believe lol. I'm sure the Russians never used black live matter or any other progressive group lol oh wait they did.

 

[Tranquility]

It's kind of odd that the bot farms only support the right-wing conservative agenda of Fake news /Conspiracy theory side of things. Now isn't it?

The classic (1985) interview of the former Soviet official describing disinformation techniques is at:

Some of the transcript is here:
https://mcalvanyintelligenceadvisor.com/demoralization-destabilization-insurgency-normalization

The point is destabilization, not a particular ideology.

Edit:
Of course, destabilization might encourage one candidate over the other--when desired.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/16/russians-indicted-in-special-counsel-robert-muellers-probe.html

And after the election of Trump as president in November 2016, the defendants used fake personas to organize and coordinate political rallies in support of Trump, while also doing the same to create rallies "protesting the results" of the election, the indictment said.

On one day, Nov. 12, 2016, the defendants organized a rally in New York to "show your support for President-elect Donald Trump" while at the same time organizing a "Trump is NOT my president rally" that also was held in New York.
​

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/nat...d-US-Election-Meddling-Mueller-474309733.html

"This indictment serves as a reminder that people are not always who they appear to be on the internet," Rosenstein told reporters. "The indictment alleges that the Russian conspirators want to promote discord in the United States and undermine public confidence in democracy. We must not allow them to succeed."​

 

[crawdad]

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/02/16/us/politics/russia-propaganda-election-2016.html

 

[Tranquility]

http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-fake-videos-20180219-story.html

All it takes is a single selfie.

From that static image, an algorithm can quickly create a moving, lifelike avatar: a video not recorded, but fabricated from whole cloth by software.

With more time, Pinscreen, the Los Angeles start-up behind the technology, believes its renderings will become so accurate they will defy reality.

"You won't be able to tell," said Hao Li, a leading researcher on computer-generated video at USC who founded Pinscreen in 2015. "With further deep-learning advancements, especially on mobile devices, we'll be able to produce completely photoreal avatars in real time."
​

 

[howie105]

It should come down to people bring objective consumers of the presentations they are shown, but its always been easier go with group think and set positions.

 

[Boden]

As someone who used to work as a spin doctor I can tell you this. If it is reported in the media, any media (commercials, news, etc) it is to some extent fake.

Trade groups control the matrix. Not a joke.

Example: “They want to take yer guns” nope, firearm manufacturing wants to sell more ammo.

That always causes a rush to buy ammo whenever you see that story.

“They want to take away yer right to ####!” Is always a distraction from something else.

 

[Silver420Surfer]

While I agree with a portion of what you say, I don't consume all the media in a day in the US, so I certainly can't agree with "If it is reported in the media, any media (commercials, news, etc) it is to some extent fake." Now, maybe a big percentage are, but that blanket statement, "If it is reported in the media...", just fans the flames for morons(on all sides of politics), to yell, "Fake news!!" anytime the news reports something they don't like. There are many, many good news reports out there, day in and day out, but those aren't usually what the public cares to read or what drives $$$.

I know many forget or weren't born yet, but the US had some GREAT newspapers/on-air reporters/heck even local news, but that wasn't generating the $$$/viewers that Joe Pyne, Geraldo Rivera, Sally Jesse Raphael, Morton Downey, Jr., Jerry Springer, Rikki Lake, 48 Hrs, and the rest. We have now, what we, the American people, asked for...hot fucking garbage on a stick, with a side of .

I know those commenting are not among the majority who wanted this drivel, so please don't think I meant you.

 

[Tranquility]

I suspect it would be better to call it bias rather than fake. Any information we receive will reflect the bias of both the sender and receiver. When we get to "media", we have to add in the bias of the owner.

 

[grampa_herb]

One of my favorites:

 

[Tranquility]

 

[Tranquility]

See how fakey YOU can be in the fake news game.

https://www.getbadnews.com/#next

 

[crawdad]

https://www.snopes.com/2018/02/20/right-wing-media-david-hogg/

 

[MyCollie]

I know many forget or weren't born yet, but the US had some GREAT newspapers/on-air reporters/heck even local news, but that wasn't generating the $$$/viewers that Joe Pyne, Geraldo Rivera, Sally Jesse Raphael, Morton Downey, Jr., Jerry Springer, Rikki Lake, 48 Hrs, and the rest. We have now, what we, the American people, asked for...hot fucking garbage on a stick, with a side of .

Don’t forget Wally George. Funny, in this episode he mentioned Kitty Kelley... no wonder.

 

[Tranquility]

Don’t forget Wally George. Funny, in this episode he mentioned Kitty Kelley... no wonder.

Wally George was a hoot. I have no idea how he got started in his little cable/UHF show, but, if you ever turned to it by accident, you just had to look at the train wreck happening in front of you. Even though he was angry and nuts, he didn't seem quite as mean as some of the others mentioned. Everyone knew what they were getting into when they came on.

I remember turning to the show after "Risky Business" and reading the news he was Rebecca DeMornay's dad. I was never a regular watcher because the crazy was too often turned to 11. But, when in a certain mood, it was must see TV.

 

[Tranquility]

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/national-security/article201646339.html

An organization that monitors Russian trolling has spotted a peculiar similarity between certain types of social media postings that went up immediately after the Oct. 1 Las Vegas festival shootings and again after last week’s shootings at a school in Parkland, Fla.

The pattern: A day after the tragedy, the trolls tweet on all sides of the gun control debate. A day later, they push conspiracy theories.

It’s a formula designed to stir up emotions over mass violence and gun laws, and more broadly to foment anger and exasperation over the U.S. political system.

“The purpose is to stoke tensions,” said Bret Schafer of the Alliance for Securing Democracy, which is financing researchers following 600 or so Twitter accounts suspected of being operated by Russian “trolls” — pro-Kremlin mouthpieces aiming to encourage discord in the United States....​

 

[Tranquility]

 

[Tranquility]

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2018/03/05/digital-media-manipulation/

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Forget the idea of “seeing is believing.” New technology is making digital media manipulation easier than ever.

The result? Phony videos that are popping up across the web.

One video making the rounds is of former-President Barack Obama delivering a speech that he never actually made. It’s part of a video trend circulating the internet called Deepfake, which has made it tougher to tell what’s real and what’s not.

“It’s very concerning because as people get better with this software we’re able to not just use celebrities, they’re able to use a neighbor in a video and compromise that person,” FITECH Senior Vice President Duarte Pereira said.

Pereira says in recent months, the videos started appearing on Reddit. They’re created by a program called Fake App, which superimposes videos of one person’s face on another person’s body.

“The way they do it is they identify things in your face like your eyebrows, nose as they break your face down into smaller pieces,” tech expert Ram Jayaraman said....​

 

[Tranquility]

I can't seem to edit the above, so I'll double up. At:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/cognitive-ability-and-vulnerability-to-fake-news/

Fake news can distort people’s beliefs even after being debunked. For example, repeated over and over, a story such as the one about the Pope endorsing Trump can create a glow around a political candidate that persists long after the story is exposed as fake. A study recently published in the journal Intelligence suggests that some people may have an especially difficult time rejecting misinformation. Asked to rate a fictitious person on a range of character traits, people who scored low on a test of cognitive ability continued to be influenced by damaging information about the person even after they were explicitly told the information was false. The study is significant because it identifies what may be a major risk factor for vulnerability to fake news.
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The whole article is worth the time. Sad to say, I think the ones who read and understand the article are ones who are less likely to need to--at least if the article is correct. One of those Catch-22 situations.

 

[Tranquility]

Here's some advice to combat the Fake News trick of lying with statistics. (The article explains the postcard in more depth.)

http://timharford.com/2018/03/your-handy-postcard-sized-guide-to-statistics/

 

[Tranquility]

https://nypost.com/2018/03/16/jfks-voice-delivers-speech-he-never-gave-day-of-assassination/

President John F. Kennedy can finally make the speech he never got to deliver because of his assassination — thanks to voice synthesis technology.

Kennedy was on his way to give the speech in Dallas when he was gunned down in his motorcade by Lee Harvey Oswald on Nov. 22, 1963.

His voice — with its signature Boston accent and distinctive cadence — was forever silenced, but the 2,590 words he had planned to deliver survived.

Sound engineers from Scottish company CereProc spent two months this year synthesizing 116,777 voice samples — each 0.4 seconds long — from 831 of his speeches and radio addresses to bring the speech to life.....​

 

[CarolKing]

Lt. Col. Ralph Peters has resigned from his long-held role as a Fox News analyst, telling colleagues he is done being a "propaganda machine" for President Donald Trump.

In an email obtained by BuzzFeed, Peters told colleagues he was "ashamed" of his association with Fox after it "degenerated from providing a legitimate and much-needed outlet for conservative voices to a mere propaganda machine for a destructive and ethically ruinous administration."

The retired lieutenant colonel accused Fox of "wittingly harming our system of government for profit" and "assaulting our constitutional order and the rule of law, while fostering corrosive and unjustified paranoia among viewers."

 

[Tranquility]

Lt. Col. Ralph Peters has resigned from his long-held role as a Fox News analyst, telling colleagues he is done being a "propaganda machine" for President Donald Trump.

In an email obtained by BuzzFeed, Peters told colleagues he was "ashamed" of his association with Fox after it "degenerated from providing a legitimate and much-needed outlet for conservative voices to a mere propaganda machine for a destructive and ethically ruinous administration."

The retired lieutenant colonel accused Fox of "wittingly harming our system of government for profit" and "assaulting our constitutional order and the rule of law, while fostering corrosive and unjustified paranoia among viewers."

This is NOT an example of fake news. This is an example of the bias shown by BOTH the Fox network and Buzzfeed. This is an example of different opinions based on the same facts.

If you didn't know or care who Ralph Peters was before he quit, how are the reasons for him quitting relevant? It is because it fits a pre-conceived narrative news media bias has supported.

This thread was intended to show the issue of fake news. If it devolves into news bias we don't agree with then it will die in a day.

Before one disagrees about this being bias as opposed to fake news, search for something like:
"fox news" "ralph peters"

But, put on a filter of time from forever to just last weekend BEFORE he quit. Do the #6 tip by Tim Harford and "Be Curious" and go another click. It might not convince one of bias, but it might show Peters quitting was not something out-of-the-blue for many reasons. Think he'll get a gig on CNN now?

 

[CarolKing]

Sorry if I offended. @OldNewbie if I didn’t follow the guide lines. The mod can delete if folks object. I have watched Fox News there is a lot of misinformation.