President Trump is willing, under duress, to briefly and begrudgingly admit that Russian “meddling” took place in 2016 before reverting to calling it a “big hoax.” But he always maintains that the plot against America had no impact; he describes it as a “Democrat excuse for losing the ’16 Election.” […] Read more »
Misinformation and biases infect social media, both intentionally and accidentally
People who share potential misinformation on Twitter (in purple) rarely get to see corrections or fact-checking (in orange). Shao et al., CC BY-ND Giovanni Luca Ciampaglia, University of South Florida and Filippo Menczer, Indiana University Social media are among the primary sources of news in the U.S. and across the […] Read more »
Instead of Trump’s propaganda, how about a nice ‘truth sandwich’?
Last week was a particularly rough one for journalists and truth-seeking citizens. President Trump declared the news media the nation’s worst enemy. And time after shocking time, his acolytes demeaned or threatened reporters for doing one of their most basic jobs: asking questions of those in power. … It was […] Read more »
Facebook and Cambridge Analytica: let this be the high-water mark for impunity
The last few days represent more than just the most recent and inevitable controversy emanating from Facebook’s beleaguered offices. The scandal over Cambridge Analytica’s participation in electoral manipulation and gross breaches of privacy have resonated more widely with users than the earlier allegations about fake news and Russian connections. On […] Read more »
Trump may owe his 2016 victory to ‘fake news,’ new study suggests
Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton concedes the 2016 presidential election. AP Photo/Matt Rourke Richard Gunther, The Ohio State University; Erik C. Nisbet, The Ohio State University, and Paul Beck, The Ohio State University Could “fake news” have helped determine the outcome of the 2016 presidential election? Social media users and intensely […] Read more »
Infocalypse Now
In mid-2016, Aviv Ovadya realized there was something fundamentally wrong with the internet — so wrong that he abandoned his work and sounded an alarm. A few weeks before the 2016 election, he presented his concerns to technologists in San Francisco’s Bay Area and warned of an impending crisis of […] Read more »