“Social Media and Democracy The State of the Field, Prospects for Reform”
Can’t wait to dig into this volume edited by Nate Persily and Joshua Tucker, with free access from Cambridge. Thanks Cambridge!
Category Archives: social media and social protests
“Facebook’s fact checkers have ruled claims in Trump ads are false — but no one is telling Facebook’s users”
WaPo:
Fact checkers were unanimous in their assessments when President Trump began claiming in June that Democrat Joe Biden wanted to “defund” police forces. Politifact called the allegations “false,” as did CheckYourFact. The Associated Press detailed “distortions” in Trump’s… Continue reading
“‘Outright Lies’: Voting Misinformation Flourishes on Facebook”
ProPublica:
On April 3, Terrence K. Williams, a politically conservative actor and comedian who’s been praised by President Donald Trump, assured his nearly 3 million followers on Facebook that Democrats would light ballots on fire or throw them away.… Continue reading
“Silicon Valley is losing the battle against election misinformation”
Politico:
Videos peddling false claims about voter fraud and Covid-19 cures draw millions of views on YouTube. Partisan activist groups pretending to be online news sites set up shop on Facebook. Foreign trolls masquerade as U.S. activists on Instagram to… Continue reading
“Another fake Pelosi video goes viral on Facebook”
CNN:
Facebook’s fact-checkers on Sunday labeled as “partly false” a video that it said was manipulated to make it appear as if House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was drunk or drugged. The video had been circulating on Facebook since Thursday… Continue reading
Important New Project: The Election Integrity Partnership
Announcement:
Misinformation and disinformation can be used to disenfranchise voters and erode public confidence in the legitimacy of our elections. As we observed in the United States in 2016, and in numerous other countries since, the spread of viral… Continue reading
“Twitter Takedown Targets QAnon Accounts”
NYT:
Twitter said Tuesday evening that it had removed thousands of accounts that spread messages about the conspiracy theories known as QAnon, saying their messages could lead to harm and violated Twitter policy.Twitter said it would also block trends… Continue reading
“Facebook begins labeling, but not fact-checking, posts from Trump and Biden”
CNN:
After President Donald Trump posted an unfounded claim to Facebook (FB) on Tuesday that mail-in voting could lead to a “corrupt election,” the social network slapped a label on it. But the label did not attempt… Continue reading
Facebook Posts Useless, Even Counterproductive, Notice Below Trump’s Latest False Posts About Mail In Voting Fraud
As I explained on Twitter:
This warning seems pretty useless—it might even seem that Facebook is endorsing what Trump is saying and providing a path for more information. https://t.co/yc5KVeq4f0— Rick Hasen (@rickhasen) July 21, 2020
“What the Twitter Hack Revealed: An Election System Teeming With Risks”
NYT:
Over the past year government officials have raced to help states replace voting machines that leave no paper trail, and to harden vulnerable online voter registration systems that many fear Russia, or others, could hijack to trigger chaos on… Continue reading
“‘Outright Lies’: Voting Misinformation Flourishes on Facebook”
ProPublica:
On April 3, Terrence K. Williams, a politically conservative actor and comedian who’s been praised by President Donald Trump, assured his nearly 3 million followers on Facebook that Democrats would light ballots on fire or throw them away.… Continue reading
Hackers Take Over Biden Twitter Account Among Many Others in Bitcoin Scam; Next Time Things Could Be More Dangerous
NYT:
It was about 4 in the afternoon on Wednesday on the East Coast when chaos struck online. Dozens of the biggest names in America — including Joseph R. Biden Jr., Barack Obama, Kanye West, Bill Gates and Elon… Continue reading
“Deepfake used to attack activist couple shows new disinformation frontier”
“Newsroom or PAC? Liberal group muddies online information wars”
Politico:
The articles and Facebook ad dollars look like the efforts of a run-of-the-mill political group. But they are actually from a news outlet: CourierNewsroom.com, also known as Courier, which was created and funded by the Democratic-aligned digital organization… Continue reading