A Facebook bug inadvertently revealed the names of who is actually writing the content of various online personalities. What a shocker – the posts are coming from others. Take a look …
Twitter is randomly inserting tweets from people I do not follow and this seems to be increasing. That suggests fewer and fewer people may be posting content on Twitter, or at least posting less. In order to continue providing content and making it look like Twitter is being used, Twitter’s algorithm is inserting more random Tweets from people we do not follow.
Instagram “engagement” is dropping, and so too is involvement with Instagram. Some think Instagram has past its hey day and is now in decline.
An appalling sick individual sent a flashing GIF pattern to a person with epilepsy, causing an epileptic brain seizure with long term after effects. The true weaponization of social media. The perpetrator is expected to plead guilty to aggravated assault. Sadly, others have used this method to target even more victims. Absolutely disgusting, appalling and sick.
Reports of a polar bear spray painted with “T-34” on its side were greatly exaggerated. The tagging was done by scientists, not pranksters. The bear had been rummaging a garbage dump and scientists wanted to see if it was returning. They tagged it with a short duration ink; this was not graffiti by pranksters as initially reported. Typical of this type of report, the original source for the video was unknown, the back story was unknown, and the video was shared on social media by an environmental activist. Media then used social media as a primary source. What could possibly go wrong?
FakeSpot thinks about 1/3d of online reviews are fake although major online vendors dispute that allegation. However, there are numerous ways that vendors have manipulated the online review process to add good reviews for their products and bad reviews for competitors.
The claim that this is the shortest international bridge in the world is bogus because (a) both islands are in Canada, and (b) a shorter bridge between Spain and Portugal exists.
A Democratic party activist is launching a well funded fake local news operation, modeled to a degree, on the Russian Internet Research Agency, to deliver biased or news stories to targeted individuals on Facebook and other social media. The operation will collect data directly from Facebook on who is reading their fake news, and will data mine that to target more people. Do you feel like you are being manipulated yet?
Recognizing the widespread use of misinformation many are now ignoring the news because it is difficult – likely impossible – to discern facts from opinion and truth from noise. When no one believes anything – or what they believe is erroneous and based on widespread misinformation – then developing effective and efficient public policies is impossible.
A bug, of course, activates the iPhone camera while using the Facebook app.