New MIT study suggests that people simply prefer fake news to real news.

Courtesy of The Atlantic:  

The massive new study analyzes every major contested news story in English across the span of Twitter’s existence—some 126,000 stories, tweeted by 3 million users, over more than 10 years—and finds that the truth simply cannot compete with hoax and rumor. By every common metric, falsehood consistently dominates the truth on Twitter, the study finds: Fake news and false rumors reach more people, penetrate deeper into the social network, and spread much faster than accurate stories. 

“It seems to be pretty clear [from our study] that false information outperforms true information,” said Soroush Vosoughi, a data scientist at MIT who has studied fake news since 2013 and who led this study. “And that is not just because of bots. It might have something to do with human nature.”

.........

Though Vosoughi and his colleagues only focus on Twitter—the study was conducted using exclusive data that the company made available to MIT—their work has implications for Facebook, YouTube, and every major social network. Any platform that regularly amplifies engaging or provocative content runs the risk of amplifying fake news along with it. 

Though the study is written in the clinical language of statistics, it offers a methodical indictment of the accuracy of information that spreads on these platforms. A false story is much more likely to go viral than a real story, the authors find. A false story reaches 1,500 people six times quicker, on average, than a true story does. And while false stories outperform the truth on every subject—including business, terrorism and war, science and technology, and entertainment—fake news about politics regularly does best. 

Twitter users seem almost to prefer sharing falsehoods. Even when the researchers controlled for every difference between the accounts originating rumors—like whether that person had more followers or was verified—falsehoods were still 70 percent more likely to get retweeted than accurate news. 

And blame for this problem cannot be laid with our robotic brethren. From 2006 to 2016, Twitter bots amplified true stories as much as they amplified false ones, the study found. Fake news prospers, the authors write, “because humans, not robots, are more likely to spread it.”

Well, that's disheartening. 

How do we actually reach and educate people who are conditioned to only respond to explosive headlines and hyperbolic content?

No seriously, I'm asking.

Conservatives freakout as Twitter purges Russian bots and they suddenly lose hundreds, and even thousands of followers.

I've lost close to 1,000 followers offer the past few hours.

Major purge underway.

— Richard 🐉 Spencer (@RichardBSpencer) February 21, 2018

Courtesy of Metro: 

Today, our thoughts and prayers are with the #MAGA brigade, as they howl in despair after half their Twitter followers vanished overnight. 

The reason? Those ‘cruel leftist libs’ at Twitter just purged a load of Russian bots, it seems – leading (hilariously) to right-wing Tweeters losing their sh*t. 

They think it’s some kind of left-wing conspiracy, whereas in fact, Twitter appears to have just deleted a bunch of non-existent fascists controlled from St Petersburg. 

Not seeming to realise the irony, many are sharing their agony online with the hashtag #TwitterLockout.

Just LOST over 3500 followers in the past hour. Thanks #TwitterPurge. 🤮 pic.twitter.com/YeHJ7lYzv4

— Janna Deplorable (@JannaWilkinso69) February 21, 2018

Twitter Locked me out tonight. Lost 2,000 followers simply because I’m a conservative voice exposing Liberal hypocrisy! #TwitterLockOut

— 🇺🇸CHIZ 👌🏻 (@CHIZMAGA) February 21, 2018

It's not polite to point and laugh at the stupid, but come on this is almost too good to be true.

However as we LOL at their expense, let's also take a moment to realize just how big this Russian operation truly was.

I mean some of these are just regular idiots on Twitter, NOT celebrities or big name politicians.

If they lost hundreds and even thousands of Twitter followers, what does that tell us about just how many fake accounts the Russians actually created, not just on Twitter, but on ALL social media platforms?

Here was how one Trump supporter reacted to learning that she had been manipulated by the Russians.

A Florida woman who ran a Trump supporters page that unwittingly promoted a Russian-coordinated event on Facebook says she doesn’t believe that she was influenced by Kremlin-linked trolls https://t.co/fhcT0MyxUA pic.twitter.com/dOG3xXFpTw

— CNN (@CNN) February 21, 2018

Can you say "cognitive dissonance?"

How the take down of Al Franken was orchestrated by the Right Wing and supported by Russian Twitter bots.

Courtesy of Newsweek:

While everyone has been focused on Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election to support Donald Trump, the Franken take-down originated in—and was propelled by—a strategic online campaign with digital tentacles reaching to, of all places, Japan. Analysts have now mapped out how the initial accusation against Franken by Hooters pinup girl and lad-mag model Leeann Tweeden was turned into effective propaganda after first being hinted at by right wing black ops master Roger Stone.

A pair of Japan-based websites, created the day before Tweeden came forward, and a swarm of related Twitter bots made the Tweeden story go viral—and then weaponized a liberal writer's criticism of Franken. The bot army, in tandem with prominent real live human right-wingers with Twitter followers in the millions, such as Mike Cernovich, spewed thousands of posts, helping the #frankenfondles hashtag and the "Franken is a groper" meme effectively silence the testimonies of eight former female staffers who defended the Minnesota Democrat before he resigned last year. 

The operation commenced on November 15, when Roger Stone— who is now banned from Twitter for racism and profanity—tweeted from one of his accounts “Roger Stone says it’s Al Franken’s ‘time in the barrel.’ Franken next in long list of Democrats accused of ‘grabby’ behavior.” 

On the same day, a web domain called realusa.site was registered in Japan by a developer named Atsufumi Otsuka. A fake-news website was then established at that web address, and then a second one was created a few days later, according to research shared with the voting rights research outfit Unhack the Vote. 

Tweeden’s account of being groped by Franken was first amplified by a network of right wing media, including KABC in Los Angeles, where Tweeden has a radio show, The Hill, Infowars and Breitbart, which mobilized within hours of Stone's tweet and the release of a picture of a Tweeden and Franken clowning around at a USO performance before he was a senator.

By November 17, the trending of “Al Franken” was officially also a Russia Intelligence operation, according to the Alliance for Securing Democracy, an organization tracking Russian social media accounts, based on a sample taken that day of 600 of the fake accounts.

There is apparently a sophisticated botnet called "The Voty botnet" that was instrumental in pushing a story by a liberal writer called “Dear Al Franken, I’ll Miss You But You Can’t Matter Anymore” out to millions of people.

That article provided legitimacy for actual liberals to pile on Al Franken as well, and before you knew it Democrats like Kirsten Gillibrand were calling for his resignation. 

The rest, as they say, is history. 

And this serves as yet another reminder that it is not only the Right Wing who can be manipulated by Russian tactics online, but also seemingly intelligent liberals.

We have to examine literally every bit of information we see to discover its roots, and to determine if it is indeed accurate, before we accept it as fact.

This puts a huge burden on each of us, but right now this is essentially our only defense against allowing ourselves to be used to spread and weaponize misinformation.

Russian bots now flocking to support Sean Hannity in response to boycott of his show. Things that make you go, "Hmm."

Per @SecureDemocracy's Russian propaganda tracker (3pm):

-#BoycottKeurig is now the #1 overall hashtag & #1 trending hashtag in Russian-linked influence networks (20,300% increase in use).
-"Keurig" is the #1 topic in Russian-linked influence networks (35,600% increase in use) pic.twitter.com/f0VYzyZVhn

— Caroline O. (@RVAwonk) November 12, 2017

Courtesy of Newsweek: 

Fox News’s Sean Hannity is getting support from Russian-linked social media accounts after they began amplifying a protest by the American far right against Keurig coffee machines when the company pulled advertising from Hannity’s show. 

Keurig is among five companies that removed ads from Fox's Hannity over the weekend following his coverage of sexual misconduct allegations against Roy Moore, who is running for U.S. Senate in Alabama. 

On Twitter the hashtag #BoycottKeurig is now number one in overall hashtags promoted by 600 accounts connected to Russian influence efforts tracked by the German Marshall Fund. The hashtag #standwithannity and the variant #istandwithhannity, #boycottkeurig, and #keurig are among the top trending hashtags promoted by these accounts.

Wow, it's almost as if the Russians and the conservative media were somehow in cahoots.

Nah, that's just crazy talk.

Right?

Twitter announces that it will now clearly identify tweets supporting candidates and utilize stronger penalties for those who misuse the social media platform.

Courtesy of CNBC: 

As political pressure mounts on social media companies to say where ads are coming from, Twitter will reveal more information about political advertising on its platform. 

Twitter said in a blog post on Tuesday it would clearly label political electioneering ads, which the Federal Election Commission (FEC) defines as an ad used to promote a specific candidate for elected office or affiliated party posted within 30 days of a primary election or 60 days of a general election. Electioneering ads can also include any ad clearly promoting a political candidate at any time. 

The ads will have some sort of visual marker, likely a purple dot next to the user handle, and a purple box with the text "Promoted by" and the name of the sponsor.

In addition, the company will limit which criteria can be used to target people and will introduce a "stronger" penalty on those who do not abide by the new rules. The company did not say what the tougher standards or penalties will be.

I am not really sure how much this will help, since what really needs to happen is that Twitter identify and purge fake accounts and bots that simply promote misinformation to mislead the public.

However I guess we can view this as a good first step, and at least they are willing to do something.

Still it really needs to be up to the individual user to be vigilant and to do the legwork to research things they see on Twitter and make sure it is accurate.

Twitter suspends a number of fake accounts spreading Trump propaganda after he thanks one of them.

Looks like the fake @protrump45 account @realDonaldTrump thanked has been suspended along with a bunch of other related fake accounts pic.twitter.com/4k26boKl2j

— Eliot Higgins (@EliotHiggins) August 7, 2017

Courtesy of Raw Story:

Twitter suspended a number of fake accounts over the weekend that were using false names to spread pro-Trump propaganda. 

In a tweet on Saturday, President Donald Trump expressed thanks to Twitter user @Protrump45, an account that posted exclusively positive memes about the president. But the woman whose name was linked to the account told Heavy that her identity was stolen and that she planned to file a police report. 

The victim asserted that her identity was used to sell pro-Trump merchandise. The @Protrump45 account also linked to the website Protrump45.com which specialized in Trump propaganda. All of the articles on the website were posted by other Twitter users, which also turned out to be fakes. 

Mashable noted that the accounts were suspected of being so-called “bots” used to spread propaganda about Trump. Russia has been accused of using similar tactics with bots during the 2016 campaign.

Apparently they went ahead and deleted essentially ALL of the accounts associated with Protrump45.com website.

Well good for Twitter!

Kind of interesting that while Trump is constantly labeling legitimate news sources as "fake news," that the real fake news seems to be coming from sources that are pushing positive news about him.

Which of course falls right in line with the Republican's habit of accusing others of doing the very things of which they themselves are guilty. 

Newsweek points out that for a guy who claims not to have any ties to Russia Donald Trump sure enjoys using their dirty tricks.

Courtesy of Newsweek: 

What’s interesting to note, however, is that the Trump media-management style borrows heavily from propaganda techniques honed by the Russians. These include negativity and disdain toward institutions and the traditional media to demoralize the “enemy” and the widespread use of disinformation (false assertions or allegations), such as Trump’s unproven accusation that President Barack Obama wiretapped Trump Tower illegally.

Another technique is called “whataboutism.” This is the use of false moral equivalencies to reduce the truth to just one of many possibilities. It litters the conversation and gives equal play to ludicrous assertions. 

For instance, Fox News host Bill O’Reilly questioned Trump’s admiration for Putin and called him a “killer.” The president responded by saying, “We’ve got a lot of killers.” 

Propaganda techniques include hacking to embarrass or impair rivals, as happened during the election, but also to perpetuate “fake news” or hoaxes on social media sites. The most odious example involved Hillary Clinton and a Washington, D.C., pizzeria and pedophilia. 

The cumulative danger of these shenanigans is serious, writes Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny: “Paid trolls have made it impossible for the normal Internet user to separate truth from fiction.”

He said such efforts are paid for by Russian officials and oligarchs to gain control over media outlets they don’t own, with the added benefit of spreading lies internationally. 

Another gambit is known as “gaslighting,” named after an American suspense film about a man who drives his wife mad by accusing her of doing things that she didn’t do—but that he had done. 

An example was when Trump began labeling critics who prove his allegations to be inaccurate as “fake news” purveyors. Such memorable lines are repeated in order to become a hashtag on social media or a colloquialism.

At this point new evidence that Donald Trump and his campaign were working in collusion with the Russians to steal this election is literally popping up everywhere.

And yet he continues to deny that fact and dares the media to prove otherwise.

Trump reminds me of a toddler caught elbow deep in a chocolate cake.

The toddler will deny to his last breath that he ate the cake despite literally being covered head to toe with the evidence of his crime. 

Rachel Maddow explains the ability of Russia to sway American public opinion using bots. Everybody needs to watch this!

Look I know you are busy people but at some point today I implore you to take the time to watch his episode.

It is extremely important for all us to be as informed as possible about what happened in 2016 in order to inoculate ourselves from ever letting it happen again.

Let me just say this for the record, and yes I know it will probably offend some of you, if you were convinced not to vote for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election the chances are extremely high that your opinion was shaped by the Russian government.

If you thought that the nomination was stolen from Bernie Sanders, that was an opinion shaped by the Russian hack of the DNC and the misrepresentation of that stolen data all over the internet.

If you thought Hillary Clinton was going to jail, THAT was a meme pushed by Putin's disinformation bots.

If you thought she was a warmonger, THAT was also an opinion shaped and pushed by the Russians.

Simply put if you failed to vote for Hillary Clinton in 2016, you were quite likely played by the Russians and you helped them to achieve their agenda of putting Donald Trump into the White House.

I know that is a bitter pill to swallow, and that many of you will be in denial, but if you are still in doubt I suggest you watch that Rachel Maddow video again.

Because there is another election in two years and we ALL need to be aware of how easily we can be manipulated.