Foreign Manipulators, Social Media and Elections

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Article By Filippo Menczer, Indiana University in UPI 10/8/24

Headline: “Foreign operations manipulate social media to influence your views”

“. . . we found accounts that flood the network with tens or hundreds of thousands of posts in a single day. The same campaign can post a message with one account and then have other accounts that its organizers also control “like” and “unlike” it hundreds of times in a short time span. Once the campaign achieves its objective, all these messages can be deleted to evade detection. Using these tricks, foreign governments and their agents can manipulate social media algorithms that determine what is trending and what is engaging to decide what users see in their feeds.

“. . . The consequences of such operations are difficult to evaluate due to the challenges posed by collecting data and carrying out ethical experiments that would influence online communities. Therefore it is unclear, for example, whether online influence campaigns can sway election outcomes. Yet, it is vital to understand society’s vulnerability to different manipulation tactics.”

https://www.upi.com/Voices/2024/10/08/foreign-operations-manipulate-social-media-influence-views/7961728392145/

Pink Slime Newspaper Fights Solar

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Article in ProPublica by Miranda Green, 10/8/24

Headline: “Fossil Fuel Interests Are Working to Kill Solar in One Ohio County. The Hometown Newspaper Is Helping.”

“The first article in the Mount Vernon News last fall about a planned solar farm simply noted that residents were “expressing their concern.” But soon the county’s only newspaper was packed with stories about solar energy that almost uniformly criticized the project and quoted its opponents.

“Then a new ‘grassroots’ organization materialized and invited locals to an elaborate event billed as a town hall, with a keynote speaker who denied that humans cause climate change.”

The Paper was bought by Metric .  “. . . Both conservative and liberal pink slime sites exist. But Metric is run by Brian Timpone, an Illinois-based former broadcast reporter who has contributed tens of thousands of dollars to conservative campaigns and causes. Timpone’s ventures have been criticized for using foreign-based writers to produce material.”

https://www.propublica.org/article/ohio-mount-vernon-frasier-solar-fossil-fuel-metric-media

Media Hate Speech Stopped in Brazil

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Article by Allen Cone on UPI, 9/21/24

Headline: “Elon Musk to comply with Brazilian court’s orders to restore X in nation”

“Billionaire Elon Musk has decided to comply with court orders in Brazil in an effort to end the ban on his his social platform X in the Latin American nation.

. . . “The company formerly known as Twitter also informed the court that it blocked accounts allegedly responsible for disseminating hate speech and fake news, two sources told Bloomberg.”

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2024/09/21/Brazil-X-Musk-comply-orders/5741726963376/

Article update from the Electronic Freedom Foundation  by  Corynned McSherry, 10/8/24

Headline:  “The X Corp. Shoutdown in Brazil:  What We Can Learn”

“Update (10/8/2024): Brazil lifted a ban on the X Corp. social media platform today after the country’s Supreme Court said the company had complied with all of its orders. Regulators have 24 hours to reinstate the platform, though it could take longer for it to come back online.”

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/10/x-corp-shutdown-brazil-what-we-can-learn

Google May Cut-Off New Zealand News Media

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Article in TechXplore by Charlotte Grahamm-McLay-McLAY, 10/4/24

Headline: “Google says it will stop linking to New Zealand news if a law passes forcing it to pay for content”

“Google said Friday it will stop linking to New Zealand news content and will reverse its support of local media outlets if the government passes a law forcing tech companies to pay for articles displayed on their platforms.

The vow to sever Google traffic to New Zealand news sites—made in a blog post by the search giant on Friday—echoes strategies the firm deployed as Australia and Canada prepared to enact similar laws in recent years.

It followed a surprise announcement by New Zealand’s government in July that lawmakers would advance a bill forcing tech platforms to strike deals for sharing revenue generated from news content with the media outlets producing it”

https://techxplore.com/news/2024-10-google-linking-zealand-news-law.html

Where People Get News Right!

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Article in The Guardian by Rachel Leingang, 10/7/24

Headline: ” ‘Every day is a new conspiracy’: behind Trump’s ironclad grip on rightwing media”

Subhead: “What rightwing outlets cover increasingly differs from the mainstream, furthering the bubbles a divided US lives in”

“Trump’s grip on rightwing media is ironclad, said Julie Millican, the vice-president of Media Matters, a progressive center that tracks conservative media. In the past, the Republican party and its candidates would follow what rightwing media did and align its policies that way – but now, the media follows Trump, she said.”

“. . . As rightwing outlets rise, the stories they cover differ more from what’s on mainstream news, furthering the bubbles a divided United States lives within. While in years past, you’d find different takes on the day’s news in left- and right-leaning outlets, you’ll now find stories that exist solely on rightwing media, Millican said.

“It’s like every day is a new conspiracy or a new attack, and it’s just hard to even keep up on it anymore,” she said. “Half the time, when you listen to somebody who consumes nothing but rightwing media, you have no idea what they’re talking about.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/07/trump-rightwing-media-tv-podcasts-sites

Media Giants Care More for Kids Than Money, Right?

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Article by April Rubin in Axios, 10/5/24

Headline: “States target social media companies over kids’ health, safety as Congress hesitates”

“Attorneys general of three states in less than a week revealed separate lawsuits against social media giants for their platforms’ alleged harmful effects on children, including sextortion, addiction and privacy violations.”

“. . . State attorneys general, most recently, sued TikTok, Snap and YouTube, alleging culpability in risks to children’s safety or wellbeing.”

https://www.axios.com/2024/10/05/state-lawsuits-social-media-children-harm-addiction

All the News That’s Fit to Control!

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Article in AP By Justin Spike, 10/25’24

Headline: “Hungarians protest state media ‘propaganda factory’ and demand unbiased press”

“Thousands of protesters gathered outside the headquarters of Hungary’s public media corporation on Saturday to demonstrate against what they say is an entrenched propaganda network operated by the nationalist government at taxpayer expense.”

” . . . Both Hungarian and international observers have long warned that press freedom in the Central European country was under threat, and that Orbán’s party has used media buyouts by government-connected business tycoons to build a pro-government media empire.”

https://apnews.com/article/hungarians-protest-media-propaganda-ef0f419ea38ea8d2beb4f0dd56d82d57

Time to Abandon Media-Ship?

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World of Cruising photo

Article in ProPublica by Robert Faturechi, Justin Elliott and Alex Mierjeski, 10/3/24

Headline: “Top Execs Exit Trump Media Amid Allegations of CEO’s Mismanagement and Retaliation”

Subhead: “Several people involved with the former president’s company, operator of Truth Social, believe the departures were retaliation following internal complaints about CEO Devin Nunes to the company board. “

“Former President Donald Trump’s media company has forced out executives in recent days after internal allegations that its CEO, former Rep. Devin Nunes, is mismanaging the company, according to interviews and records of communications among former employees.”

“The chief operating officer and chief product officer have left the company, along with at least two lower-level staffers, according to interviews, social media posts and communications between former staffers reviewed by ProPublica. The company, which runs the social media platform Truth Social, disclosed the departure of the chief operating officer in a securities filing Thursday afternoon.”

https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-media-truth-social-executives-ousted-devin-nunes

 

Do Media Prop-up Corrupt Politicians?

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Article in Huffington Post by By Michael Arceneaux, 10/4/24

Headline: “Like Foreign Governments, The Media Helps Prop Up NYC Mayor Eric Adams”

Subhead: “One writer claimed Adams would “save New York,” another said he was in their top 5 for the next democratic nominee for president — both ignoring the trail of corruption investigations that followed the New York mayor.”

“. . . According to Shachtman’s reporting, “The coverage was so slanted that the City Hall bureau chief left in part over disagreements with management over the fawning coverage of Adams.”

“It can’t be overstated how much-alleged straw donations from a foreign government used to gain eight figures in matching public funds undoubtedly played a role in Adams’ win in that hotly contested NYC mayoral race.

“Similarly, ridiculous headlines and conservative political tones aside, the New York Post remains an important paper in the city, so it also can’t be overlooked how much the paper’s endorsement and slanted coverage influenced the results of an election determined by less than 7,000 votes. ”

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/opinion-media-new-york-eric-adams_n_66ff08dee4b03185708eb118

 

Blowing up the Press in Mexico

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Article in Reuters by Angerlica Medina, 10/4/24

Headline: “Chivas player firework joke backfires, outrages Mexican media”

“Chivas winger Roberto Alvarado’s firecracker prank at the club’s press conference backfired, with Mexican media deeming the action inappropriate and walking out in protest.

” . . . Alvarado threw [a firecracker] into the press room as part of an alleged prank ahead of Thursday’s conference in Verde Valle, Guadalajara, leading to claims of aggression from reporters.

“Unbelievable what happened at Chivas today … In almost 15 years of covering the team, this has NEVER happened. It was NOT a joke as they claim. They smashed an ‘explosive’ into the door of the press room with everyone inside,” journalist Karina Herrera wrote on social media platform X.”

https://www.reuters.com/sports/soccer/chivas-player-firework-joke-backfires-outrages-mexican-media-2024-10-04/