The Verge: “Meta (the company formerly known as Facebook) has announced a new version of its Privacy Center, which it says you can use to learn about how it collects and uses data and figure out how to navigate the myriad privacy and security controls available. It says the current version of the tool will… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Social Media
LOCO: The 88-million-word language of conspiracy corpus
Miani, A., Hills, T. & Bangerter, A. LOCO: The 88-million-word language of conspiracy corpus. [free full text PDF] Behav Res (2021). https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-021-01698-z “The spread of online conspiracy theories represents a serious threat to society. To understand the content of conspiracies, here we present the language of conspiracy (LOCO) corpus. LOCO is an 88-million-token corpus composed… Continue Reading
The 1/6 question: Not what, but when
Politico, Kyle Cheney: “DELIVERED — It’s the timestamps, stupid. Investigators, prosecutors and journalists have spent a year reconstructing the horror of Jan. 6 in granular, painstaking detail — unearthing eye-popping vignettes about a president obsessed with subverting his own defeat, and a mob willing to do his bidding at nearly any cost. The evidence has… Continue Reading
Pelosi – Activities to Mark One Year Since January Sixth
“Dear Democratic Colleague, As we enjoy the Holiday Season with loved ones, we are preparing to mark one year since the January 6th assault on the Capitol. I write to make you aware of the activities that will be held that day. The House will not be in session, but a full program of events… Continue Reading
After the insurrection: How domestic extremists adapted and evolved after the January 6 US Capitol attack
This report by the Atlantic Council Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab) provides an overview and analysis of the shifts observed in domestic extremist movements since the 2021 Capitol attack. “Domestic extremist movements have evolved and adapted their strategies, infrastructure, and messaging in the year since the insurrection at the US Capitol Building on January 6, 2021. Such movements were initially jubilant at the sight… Continue Reading
NewsGuard Misinformation Monitor January 2022
NewsGuard: “…Of the 113 U.S. websites that NewsGuard found were spreading election misinformation in the immediate aftermath of the 2020 presidential vote and that are still active, 81 percent have continued to spread false claims about the election, including about the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, a NewsGuard analysis has found. The problem… Continue Reading
Parler and the Road to the Capitol Attack Investigating Alt-Tech Ties to January 6
New America: “The January 6, 2021 mob assault on the U.S. Capitol exposed deep fissures between Americans and shook the very foundations of the country. The violence that day and the tech industry’s response to the tsunami of polarizing content triggered a major public debate over how social media and tech companies manage their platforms… Continue Reading
A Year After Capitol Riot, Facebook Remains an Extremist Breeding Ground
Technology Transparency Project: “A year ago, Facebook tried to wash its hands of responsibility for the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, despite the fact that, as the Tech Transparency Project (TTP) documented, its platform was a prime tool for organizing the rally and spreading the conspiracy theories and militant extremism that drove the rioters. Now, as… Continue Reading
Facebook Hosted Surge of Misinformation and Insurrection Threats in Months Leading Up to Jan. 6 Attack
“A ProPublica/Washington Post analysis of Facebook posts, internal company documents and interviews, provides the clearest evidence yet that the social media giant played a critical role in spreading lies that fomented the violence of Jan. 6… Facebook groups swelled with at least 650,000 posts attacking the legitimacy of Joe Biden’s victory between Election Day and… Continue Reading
Researchers Find Election Falsehoods Surged on Podcasts Before Capitol Riots
The New York Times: “A new study analyzed nearly 1,500 episodes, showing the extent to which podcasts pushed misinformation about voter fraud….Researchers at the Brookings Institution reviewed transcripts of nearly 1,500 episodes from 20 of the most popular political podcasts. Among episodes released between the election and the Jan. 6 riot, about half contained election… Continue Reading
Skeptics Say, ‘Do Your Own Research.’ It’s Not That Simple.
The New York Times: “A new slogan has emerged in the culture: “Do your own research.” On internet forums and social media platforms, people arguing about hotly contested topics like vaccines, climate change and voter fraud sometimes bolster their point or challenge their interlocutors by slipping in the acronym “D.Y.O.R.” “Two days after getting the… Continue Reading
Your attention didn’t collapse. It was stolen
The Guardian – Johann Hari: “Social media and many other facets of modern life are destroying our ability to concentrate. We need to reclaim our minds while we still can… I travelled all over the world in the next three years, from Miami to Moscow to Melbourne, interviewing the leading experts in the world about… Continue Reading
