Category: misinformation

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Facebook bans thousands of pages, accounts, and groups linked to Russia and Iran for ‘inauthentic behavior’

sudshr47 March 26, 2019

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Facebook just took down multiple misinformation campaigns linked to Russia and Iran.

On Tuesday, the social network announced it had removed 2,632 Facebook Pages, Groups and accounts that “engaged in coordinated inauthentic behavior” on both Facebook and Instagram.

Most of the accounts removed by Facebook this time around were connected to Russia. But, the company says the majority of the accounts were removed for spam-related activity. In total, the social network removed 1,907 Russian-linked pages, groups and accounts. The “small portion” of accounts that were setup to spread misinformation mostly posted content related to political issues and conflicts in Ukraine. Around 1.7 million accounts were part of the 1,757 Facebook Groups that were removed. The company also took down 86 Pages and 64 Facebook accounts. Read more…

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WhatsApp continues fight against fake news with new ‘search image’ feature

sudshr47 March 13, 2019

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WhatsApp is continuing to ramp up the fight against fake news, this time setting its sight on visual misinformation.

The Facebook-owned messaging app is currently testing a new “search image” feature that allows users to easily upload an image found on its platform to Google, according to WABetaInfo. The image tool was discovered in the latest WhatsApp beta for Android.

With the tap of a button, WhatsApp will send a photo from within its application to the search giant. The messaging app will then direct users to a Google search results page that shows “similar or equal images” elsewhere on the web.  Read more…

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YouTube starts to fact-check search results

sudshr47 March 7, 2019

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YouTube is dealing another blow to conspiracy theorists and disinformation peddlers.

 The video platform has started rolling out text prompts, known as “information panels,” that provide fact checks when users search certain terms or phrases. The feature is currently being rolled out to a limited number of users in India, one country in particular where the spread of fake news has fatal consequences.

An example of YouTube's information pane feature which fact checks search results on the platform.

An example of YouTube’s information pane feature which fact checks search results on the platform.

Image: YouTube

YouTube provided the screenshot above as an example. In this case, a user searches for information regarding a well-known internet hoax about the painkiller paracetamol carrying a hemorrhagic disease called the “Machupo” virus. At the top of the search results page, the user receives a prompt with information debunking the claim. Read more…

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Facebook will downrank anti-vax content on News Feed and hide it on Instagram

sudshr47 March 7, 2019

After indicating that it was exploring its options for fighting the potentially deadly rise of anti-vaccination content on its platform last month, Facebook is making a plan of attack. Facebook’s strategy in the effort is to both minimize the spread of vaccination misinformation and to point users away from inaccurate anti-vaccination propaganda and toward “authoritative […]

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YouTube demonetizes anti-vaccination videos

sudshr47 February 23, 2019

YouTube will demonetize channels that promote anti-vaccination views, after a report by BuzzFeed News found ads, including from health companies, running before anti-vax videos. The platform will also place a new information panel that links to the Wikipedia entry on “vaccine hesitancy” before anti-vax videos. Information panels (part of YouTube’s efforts to combat misinformation) about […]

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Facebook just removed a new wave of suspicious activity linked to Iran

sudshr47 January 31, 2019

Facebook just announced its latest round of “coordinated inauthentic behavior,” this time out of Iran. The company took down 262 Pages, 356 accounts, three Facebook groups and 162 Instagram accounts that exhibited “malicious-looking indicators” and patterns that identify it as potentially state-sponsored or otherwise deceptive and coordinated activity. As Facebook Head of Cybersecurity Policy Nathaniel […]

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Facebook’s weapon amid chaos and controversy: misdirection

sudshr47 November 15, 2018

The New York Times’ bombshell report into the past three years at Facebook paint a grotesque picture of the company’s attempts to navigate a string of high profile controversies by using unsavory, unethical and dark PR tactics. The Times’ report, citing more than 50 sources, accuses the company of: employing a Republican opposition research firm […]

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Fake news ‘threat to democracy’ report gets back-burner response from UK gov’t

sudshr47 October 23, 2018

The UK government has rejected a parliamentary committee’s call for a levy on social media firms to fund digital literacy lessons to combat the impact of disinformation online. The recommendation of a levy on social media platforms was made by the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee three months ago, in a preliminary report following […]

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Ahead of midterm elections, Facebook expands ban on posts aimed at voter suppression

sudshr47 October 15, 2018

Facebook is expanding its ban on false and misleading posts that aim to deter citizens from voting in the upcoming midterm elections. The social media giant is adding two more categories of false information to its existing policy, which it introduced in 2016, in an effort to counter new types of abuse. Facebook already removes verifiably […]

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Thousands of Twitter accounts that spread fake news during the 2016 election are still active today, say researchers

sudshr47 October 4, 2018

Fake news and misinformation was a key tactic used by the Russians during the 2016 presidential election to try to sway voters against candidates and sow mistruths and mistrust. Now, with just weeks before the 2018 midterm elections, researchers say things are almost as bad. Research out Thursday by the Knight Foundation found that more […]

View More Thousands of Twitter accounts that spread fake news during the 2016 election are still active today, say researchers
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Tech and ad giants sign up to Europe’s first weak bite at ‘fake news’

sudshr47 September 26, 2018

The European Union’s executive body has signed up tech platforms and ad industry players to a voluntary  Code of Practice aimed at trying to do something about the spread of disinformation online. Something, just not anything too specifically quantifiable. According to the Commission, Facebook, Google, Twitter, Mozilla, some additional members of the EDIMA trade association, […]

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Facebook is finally making progress against fake news

sudshr47 September 17, 2018

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It looks like Facebook’s actions to stop the spread of fake news might actually be working.

A new study titled “Trends in the Diffusion of Misinformation on Social Media” from researchers at Stanford University and New York University have discovered that Facebook engagement — shares, likes, and comments from users interacting with articles on the platform — dramatically dropped 50 percent between the 2016 election and July 2018.

Researchers Hunt Allcott, Matthew Gentzkow, and Chuan Yu used data from over 570 sites classified as fake news from sources such as Poltifact, FactCheck, and Buzzfeed. Using data compiled by BuzzSumo, a marketing analytics firm that tracks “user interactions with internet content on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms,” the researchers discovered that the Facebook engagement of all the sites combined sat at 70 million as of this July. That’s a huge drop from its height in 2016 when the sites had totaled 200 million monthly engagements.  Read more…

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