Teens earn $1000s from producing fake news distributed on social media
“A 16-year-old who runs a site called BVAnews.com told him it’s averaging 1 million page views per month. “
Strawman argument: False quote asserts candidate is an idiot
Goal: Dr. Ben Carson is an idiot Method: Assertion, Strawman Argument: Fabricate a statement about your opponent and then use that fabrication to argue your opponent is an idiot. Scorecard: Over 36,000 shares within a month of this propaganda item posted online. Snopes.com notes the headline is fiction; Dr. Carson never said what is claimed. Here is the original headline: A political report claimed Dr. Ben Carson said he had no idea how gravity works but asserted climate change is a hoax….
Social media sucks – pink and red iceberg photos are fakes
Studying geology is a hobby for me. I subscribe to some FB groups that feature items about geology. However, this post from Geology of the world and the Environment is fake. I fell for it and stupidly shared it into my timeline, tagging my youngest daughter, who is a geologist and microbiologist, seeking her input (she was out of town at the time so I did not get a reply). When I first saw it, I read up on “Watermelon…
How can we know if the #Wikileaks emails are authentic?
Many years ago, email spam and phishing attacks via email became a big problem. Most such attacks originate from email servers other than the one they pretend to be from. For example, you receive an email that purports to be from the IRS (irs.gov) but in reality, came from a server named irs.gov.uk, located in another country. To detect this, the industry adopted a method to detect fraudulent or altered emails using a concept somewhat like a “digital signature” stamped…
Social media hoax posts more popular than those with correct information
Researchers examined a selection of social media posts about the Zika virus, looking at posts placed on Facebook for one week in late June. About 12 percent of the posts were classified as misleading. Most of those posts suggested that Zika virus was a way to depopulate developing nations or called the entire disease a hoax. While most of the 200 posts contained useful and credible information, the researchers found that those spreading conspiracy theories or misinformation were most popular….