… On Monday morning, he offered some thoughts about polling on impeachment. Support for Impeachment is dropping like a rock, down into the 20’s in some Polls. Dems should now get down to work and finally approve USMCA, and much more! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 25, 2019 That […] Read more »
Close Election in Kentucky Was Ripe for Twitter, and an Omen for 2020
A few hours after polls closed in Kentucky last Tuesday, a Twitter user writing under the handle @Overlordkraken1 posted a message to his 19 followers saying he had “just shredded a box of Republican mail-in ballots.” … Within hours of @Overlordkraken1’s tweet, as it became apparent that Mr. Bevin was […] Read more »
A short history of campaign dirty tricks before Twitter and Facebook
In America today, outrageous lies, doctored videos, and impostors try to influence elections alongside legitimate news and direct campaign communications from would-be leaders. But dirty tricks are nothing new. While the medium may be different, the goals are as old as elections themselves. Thus it is fitting to begin working […] Read more »
Fake news: source ratings and better user interface design help us see deception
Deception has been a long-running problem on the Internet, and it rose to global attention in 2016 with the Brexit referendum and the U.S. presidential election, when “fake news” was deliberately created and spread through social media as part of a disinformation campaign to influence voting. More than 50 per […] Read more »
About three-quarters of Americans favor steps to restrict altered videos and images
The proliferation of altered videos – some of which are known as “deepfakes” – has sparked concern in recent years, particularly as a growing share of Americans now get news from online video-sharing sites such as YouTube. Overall, the U.S. public sees altered videos and images as a major problem […] Read more »
Deepfakes Are Coming. We Can No Longer Believe What We See.
… We ordinarily tend to think that perception — the evidence of your eyes and ears — provides pretty strong justification. If you see something with your own eyes, you should probably believe it. By comparison, the claims that other people make — which philosophers call “testimony” — provide some […] Read more »