Social media mob targets wrong person
A social media mob targets the wrong person after a viral video shows a man harassing a woman at a protest. Yet another example of the dangerous and reckless characteristics of social media.
Automated detection of copyright violations on social media does not work
Source: Platform Censorship: Lessons From the Copyright Wars | Electronic Frontier Foundation I had two music publishers both claim copyright ownership of a music track in one of my videos. Obviously, both could not own the copyright. The music selection I used was written during the U.S. Civil War, decades before music was copyrightable, and the performance was by the U.S. Army with a specific license that it may be used by anyone for any purpose. I challenged the copyright…
An inside look at how political propaganda operations function
An interesting inside look at how political propaganda operations function.
“Nobel Prize-winning physicist Leon Loederman sold his medal for $765,000 to pay medical bills”
A Nobel prize recipient dies. Vox misspells his name and makes a false claim about his medical bills. This 21st century reporting stuff isn’t turning out so well…
“LikeWar: The Weaponization of Social Media”
A new book explores how social media has become weaponized and is being used to disrupt our societies, to push people in to a state of perpetual outrage and anger. This is not for the better of any of us.
Staged photos used to illustrate a “news” story
The way to respond to accusations of fictional news reporting is to double down on accuracy, objectivity and remaining calm. Unfortunately, the news industry continues to harm itself through self destructive behavior typical of middle school drama. Here, an online magazine staged their photos to accompany an interview, down to providing the clothing worn by the subject being interviewed.
Creative news writing – “First solo flight” claim is false
Numerous “news” outlets botch a new story saying a 17-year student pilot made a successful emergency landing on her “first solo flight”. In reality, her first solo flight was a year ago. However, this erroneous report was repeated by numerous news stories, nation wide. When they cannot get even the simplest of facts correct, should we trust anything in the news?
How Google’s Artificial Stupidity manipulates image search results in to propaganda messaging
The news media uses a photo to illustrate an article, but selects a photo having nothing to do with the subject. The photo is from a festival at a horse race in Great Britain on “dress up” day.
Google Image search was used to research the photo. However, Google misinterprets the photo and falsely adds “richest 1 percent of Americans”. That happened because this photo has been used, repeatedly, by U.S. media outlets to illustrate “wealth” and “richest 1%”. Google’s search algorithms then incorrectly associate “richest 1%” with this photo; Google then reinforces that incorrect conclusion by automatically adding “richest 1 percent of americans” to a search for this photo.
We learn from this that reporters and editors routinely use fake photos to illustrate “news” reports in what appears to be intentional propaganda messaging. Then we learn how Google’s artificial stupidity algorithms incorporate fake photos and textual analysis in to computational propaganda messaging.
How does a college student “intern” become a “senior adviser”?
How the New York Times turned a college student intern into a “federal analyst”, “senior adviser” and host of other titles, in a single front page news story. Title inflation makes a news report more persuasive through use of an “appeal to authority”. Citing an anonymous college student intern does not sound as good as citing an anonymous “senior adviser”. Unfortunately, the news media frequently uses both title inflation and anonymous sources to persuade you to adopt their agenda.
Is the “San Bernadino Sheriff under scrutiny” for posting a photo of a deputy praying? No.
“The San Bernadino Sheriff’s Department is under scrutiny for posting this photo of a deputy praying before his shift. If you support this Deputy and his department’s decision, share this.” appears to be a fake Internet meme created by a troll operation and designed to inflame emotions.
Reporter shocked that platform designed specifically for #propaganda was used for propaganda
Reporter appears surprised and dismayed that social media platforms designed specifically for the purpose of propaganda messaging, whose business model is dependent on their use as propaganda, are, in fact, used for propaganda.
Schools automatically scan students’ social media, every day
School districts are automatically scanning student social media, every day, looking for trouble. Students are not told about the monitoring system.
SocialPanic.org has moved to a new server
The SocialPanic.org web site has moved to this server as this server sees far more visitors, costs less, and enables more features than were available through Wordpress.com. Please adjust your RSS news feed reader, as needed.
https://socialpanic.org/feed will work for RSS readers.
Google collects everything about you, and its creepy how invasive they are
Google collects massive amounts of data about you, every day, 24 x 7, including when your phone is turned on but not in use. This post links to an academic paper on the data collected and how it is collected using Android and Chrome. Both products are designed and used to gather information about your interests and your life.