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+41 +1
Finland is winning the war on fake news. Other nations want the blueprint
Russia's neighbor has developed a plan for countering misinformation. Can it be exported to the rest of the world?
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+29 +1
Sacha Baron Cohen Links the Decline of Democracy to the Rise of Social Media, “the Greatest Propaganda Machine in History”
Presenting a keynote address at an ADL conference, comedian Sacha Baron Cohen wasn't kidding around when he painted a bleak picture of our emerging world: "Today ... demagogues appeal to our worst instincts. Conspiracy theories once confined to the fringe are going mainstream. It’s as if the Age of Reason—the era of evidential argument—is ending, and now knowledge is delegitimized and scientific consensus is dismissed.
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+16 +1
Why We Continue to Believe False Information Even After We’ve Learned It’s Not True
By Rhi Willmot. Information we later discover to be false is harder to ignore when it fills an explanatory “gap” in a story.
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+12 +1
Far right 'use Russian-style propaganda to spread misinformation'
Misinformation techniques first deployed by Russian agents are now more commonly used in Britain by the far right, as well as by politicians to convince their own voters, an audience in Oxford has been told.
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+17 +1
It is still incredibly easy to share (and see) known fake news about politics on Facebook
Plus: "Like the experts predicted back in 2016, we did end up heading down the dystopian path."
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+24 +1
Facebook should at least label lying political ads
Facebook’s refusal to even touch false political ads sends the message that it only cares about lies spread by regular users and not politicians.
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+39 +1
Trolls for hire: Russia's freelance disinformation firms offer propaganda with a professional touch
The same kinds of digital dirty tricks used to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and beyond are now up for sale on underground Russian forums for as little as a few thousand dollars, according to a new report from an internet security company.
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+28 +1
Researchers trying to prevent a repeat of 2016's election misinformation in 2020 are struggling thanks to a lack of data from Facebook
Facebook's promises of sharing detailed amounts of data with researchers and academics to enable them to study and flag disinformation on the site ahead of the 2020 campaign seem to have fallen short, according to a new report from The New York Times. In April 2018, the social networking giant outlined its plans to provide data to academics to "help people better understand the broader impact of social media on democracy — as well as improve our work to protect the integrity of elections."
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+13 +1
Here's How Google Sends Advertising Dollars to Fake News Sites
New research shows Google's online ad technologies provide an estimated 70% of ad revenue to 1,700 websites purveying misinformation.
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+11 +1
When False Claims Are Repeated, We Start To Believe They Are True — Here’s How Behaving Like A Fact-Checker Can Help
If you hear an unfounded statement often enough, you might just start believing that it’s true. This phenomenon, known as the “illusory truth effect”, is exploited by politicians and advertisers — and if you think you are immune to it, you’re probably wrong. In fact, earlier this year we reported on a study that found people are prone to the effect regardless of their particular cognitive profile.
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+4 +1
Amazon rainforest fires called a 'very serious threat' but misinformation is going viral
The wildfires burning in Brazil's Amazon rainforest have prompted a public outcry on social media. But interest in the crisis has also led to the spread of misinformation and raised questions about whether the situation is as bad as it may seem. CBC News explains.
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+3 +1
Fake News Can Lead to False Memories
Voters may form false memories after seeing fabricated news stories, especially if those stories align with their political beliefs, according to research in Psychological Science. The research was conducted in the week preceding the 2018 referendum on legalizing abortion in Ireland, but the researchers suggest that fake news is likely to have similar effects in other political contexts, including the US presidential race in 2020.
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+12 +1
Finally, Instagram is getting fact-checked (in a limited way and just in the U.S., for now)
"The potential to prevent harm is high here, particularly with the widespread existence of health misinformation on the platform."
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+36 +1
How an Online Mob Created a Playbook for a Culture War
The powerful lesson of a 5-year-old harassment campaign: How to wage a post-truth information war.
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+29 +1
China Is Waging a Disinformation War Against Hong Kong Protesters
In recent days, China has unleashed a barrage of manipulated news meant to undermine the demonstrators and stir up nationalist sentiment.
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+7 +1
Fact vs. Opinion: How to Define Reality in the Era of Fake News
“The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality.” — Max DePree
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+3 +1
Schools to teach children about fake news and ‘confirmation bias’, government announces
School teachers need to better prepare pupils of the risks posed by “fake news” and disinformation online, the education secretary Damian Hinds has warned. Every child will learn about confirmation bias and online risks as a compulsory part of the curriculum as the government publishes new safety guidance for schools.
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+4 +1
Is that news really “fake,” or is it just biased?
In an era of concern over “fake news,” a new study finds that people draw a distinction between information sources that are dishonest and those that are biased.
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+4 +1
Fake news ‘vaccine’ works: ‘pre-bunk’ game reduces susceptibility to disinformation
Study of thousands of players shows a simple online game works like a “vaccine”, increasing skepticism of fake news by giving people a “weak dose” of the methods behind disinformation.
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+36 +1
Finland is winning the war on fake news. Other nations want the blueprint
On a recent afternoon in Helsinki, a group of students gathered to hear a lecture on a subject that is far from a staple in most community college curriculums. Standing in front of the classroom at Espoo Adult Education Centre, Jussi Toivanen worked his way through his PowerPoint presentation. A slide titled “Have you been hit by the Russian troll army?” included a checklist of methods used to deceive readers on social media: image and video manipulations, half-truths, intimidation and false profiles.
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