#misinformation superhighway

[newsofthenight]

Government Introduces Speed Bumps to Slow Down the Spread of Fake News

In a surprising move to tackle the rampant issue of misinformation on the information superhighway, the government has announced plans to install digital speed bumps to curb the reckless acceleration of fake news. The initiative, named “Project Slower,” aims to make navigating the internet a safer and more deliberate journey for users bombarded by sensational headlines and dubious claims. The…

[chaoticpkk]

Misinformation superhighway

[feuilletoniste]

It is. It is a dumb comparison.

[theivorybilledwoodpecker]

“This really should be a call to action for parents,” Ashwin Vasan, New York City’s health commissioner, told me. “We’re trying to raise the alarm here.” Vasan, whose uncle was paralyzed by polio and whose aunt died of it, in India, said that “there’s no doubt anti-science and anti-vaccine movements have gained power and visibility in recent years. And now, in social media, they have a misinformation superhighway through which they can disseminate their message.”

Antivaxxers, you know that not vaccinating your children is wrong. They deserve the best chance to avoid polio. Your job as a parent is to protect them. Please do your job.

[migleefulmoments]

They said the staff of TSG said TSG was family friendly then they posted a screen shot of the staffer saying . "we are a family environment and we strive to be you home away from home". Not even the same thing. I guess they have no concept of making friends you pseudo family especially in the LGBTQ community when bio families often shun them and so the had to make make-shift families. A family environment is more about a sense of belonging then being rated PG.

Dear CC Fandom:  IT’S A BAR. OF COURSE IT ISN’T “FAMILY FRIENDLY” in the context of taking your children. This is one of your most asinine claims yet. 

Love, Me.

First of all, all bars have the right to whatever theme they want. This is America and we are capitalists. Every business has the right to present themselves and whatever product or service they wish to sell and the market will either support that or it won’t and they will go out of business. Mia, Darren and Danny get to decide what drinks and entertainment they will offer and if customers want to spend money one those offerings, they will come and if they don’t, the business either adjusts or closes.  

Non-customers like Abby and the other ccers who are watching it like a hawk over social media and misinterpreting and misrepresenting situations should be not feel entitled to then post their misinformation campaign on TSG’s social media and Yelp. Abby and the other ccers don’t understand the social boundaries that we are supposed to keep non-customers from interfering simply because they saw something on social media. The other day the person commenting on the appropriateness of Open Dyke Night was a self-described underage kid from across the world. She had no business taking them to task. 

Abby truly believes she is saving innocent Americans from the horror of taking their children out for a nice drink and a few Disney songs at a bar called Tramp Stamp Granny’s. I mean WTF people...use the logic the universe gave you. I believe in CA you can’t even enter a bar if you are under 18.  

Abby is also fighting for all of the poor chaps who accidentally take their old mother and father or a business client out for a nice glass of Boob Soup and some Disney show tunes but find themselves face-to-face with Gurlesque or Queer Cabaret. Oh the HORROR. Her concern are valid because OMG It isn’t as if there is any way to know what the bar is doing night to night. It isn’t like there is any sort of information superhighway or MaBell. That kind of Information is completely inaccessible. If only there was some way for people to leave comments about the experience and rate the bar or even a way for the bar to advertise what their featured entertainment is or a sample menu so you can choose the right bar. It’s diabolical. Everyone is left to the mercy of chance as to whether they have a nice evening with Disney tunes and covers of Shallow and Your Song or end up a night when TSG hosts queer events. Oh, what does a good daughter or business person do? Once you walk in you are locked in for the night- whether you wanted to visit a family friendly piano bar or see men in wigs. 

Finally, your point is exactly it. They have created a friendly environment where everyone on the LGBTQ spectrum is safe. 

Protip: If you don’t like a bar, you don’t have to go. TSG is in LA, where there are thousands of bars from which to choose.  I know there is one that is perfect for everyone. Stop trying to make TSG the be all, perfect-for-all-occasions bar. It was never meant to be that kind of place. It was meant to be a safe place for all people to enjoy an ADULT piano bar and for Darren to connect through music. It is purposefully elegance meets debauchery. I suspect they purposefully opened a bar that was neither a straight-bar nor a gay-bar but a combination to bring everyone together but that is just my speculation 

[rjzimmerman]

I’ve posted links to several articles and stories telling us why this fire, why that fire, what’s the science, what are the causes, etc. This is a link to a Greenpeace analysis published by EcoWatch. A lot of the information is not new, but some is, but Greenpeace writings tend to be direct, to-the-point and sometimes a little radical. Worth a read.

Excerpt:

Dramatic media stories tend to highlight what's currently happening with firefighting efforts, but little attention is spent looking at the suite of issues that can make wildfires bigger, faster and more dangerous to people and our nation's treasured wildlands.

Worse, some politicians and corporations spread misinformation and false solutions when fires burn in an attempt to use these emergency situations to push an anti-environmental agenda. Trump and his Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke are parroting talking points of a logging industry that is trying to gut environmental safeguards and increase taxpayer subsidized logging on public lands.

The following list is not a specific analysis of the current disasters, but rather a wider look at trends impacting the occurrence of forest and wildland fires today.

1. Industrial Logging has Increased Fire Risk

Industrial logging has dramatically increased fires and fire risk by removing large commercially-valuable trees—the very trees which are the most resistant to fire, and which create shade. Logging older trees and opening up the forest canopy makes things hotter and drier, and more prone to fire. The sticks and wood left over from logging, called "slash," often remain behind for years on the ground like kindling.

Industrial logging also requires roads. Many thousands of old, unused logging roads riddle the U.S. National Forests, serving as superhighways for flammable, invasive weeds. In addition, these roads increase accidental and intentional human fires in our forests. The legacy of taxpayer subsidized logging on our public lands and industrial logging on private lands has left us with a mess that will take many generations to fix.

Solution: Refocus the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management away from subsidized industrial logging to jobs focused on ecological restoration and preventative fire safety.

[thecoroutfitters]

Written by Wild Bill on The Prepper Journal.

Preppers are planners and the basis for our planning is information. We collect it through the methods we have learned through the normal processes of education, life experience, observation, analysis, and my favorite, trial and error. And as soon as man discovered how to record information, in crude cave drawings, etched into stone, or clay there, I believe mis-information was invented as well. There is an old joke about two cavemen talking, the first says “Ugh!” and the second says “Ugh! and then the first responds “Ugh, Ugh!” and the second replies “Don’t change the subject!” I know somewhere during the stone age Gork was rejected by Petunia and he etched some insults in a cave wall about her. Funny thing is someone college professor probably used those etchings to do his or her PHD thesis.

Fast forward a few eons and now information, and its counterpart misinformation, travel at speeds approaching the speed of light. For example in the financial world if you are reading about some investment opportunity in the Wall Street Journal you have already missed the boat because it reports what already happened. Others closer to the origins of the data have already seized the opportunity, set the base price and you will be paying their dividends should you bite.

The information super highway has so changed the world that while we attempt to catch up and think we are keeping up we are like the racing greyhounds forever hoping to catch that mechanical rabbit.

And, as preppers, seeking information upon which to base real economic decisions on (do I build out that greenhouse to increase my sustainable food production? More ammo or more MRE’s?) is challenging as we now live in a world where we are bombarded with information and misinformation – “thousands WILL DIE as a result of (fill-in-the-blank)!!!!!” has lead to a new equation of skewed TRUTH:

Where E = Establishment source, a = Agenda, F = Fake, and T = Truth, and the only solution is null; one must be prepared for increasing accidents across the information superhighway as a result of skewed information. I have used this example before: a horse race between an American horse and a Russian horse. The American horse wins. Headline in America: “American Horse Wins!” Headline in Russia: “Russian Horse Finishes Second, American Horse Finishes Next to Last!” – both true statement.

So, in  a recent post on finding information when the grid is down I thought it appropriate to followup with a post  on the challenges of finding information before the grid goes down, something that has become a labyrinth. And since the Internet is becoming more the source for information I want to focus on that medium. For instance I question the following map presented by Oxford University claiming to show internet usage worldwide:

Really, the world’s second most populated country and the home of call centers and outsourcing IT services, India, is less “connected” than some Central African Republics??!! Really? (And I would feel slighted if I were Canadian though it does depict where most Canadians live.)

Okay, so where does the internet stack up against print media and television in the delivery of news.

The internet surpassed print media several years ago and it is now challenging television, and that passes my smell test. Everywhere we go we see people heads-down focused on their electronic devices. Even if only 15% of that time is watching the news it makes sense AND so many people get their news feeds through social media outlets, Facebook in particular.

This has become so prevalent that there are college degrees now in optimizing web content (SEO.) I have taken a couple of on-line courses through the University of California in the past year to learn how to increase market penetration, to place keywords and phrases strategically to get better results from searches, to mimic the searching patterns that most people use. I use it everyday, all day in adding pictures as well as key phrases that are relevant to the posts you see on TPJ.

Really, What Are They Selling?

“Every time I Google a current news story it give me the related articles from CNN, The New York Times, Vox, NBC, Express.co.uk, Salon, and the BBC”…..TPJ – all impeachable sources. All sources that even Wikipedia lists as “leftist, or left-leaning, or skewed to liberal politics.”  Why? Because Google is also left-leaning. Few secrets in this world are as guarded as the specifics of Googles search algorithms. 

The news media is a business, and like every business it sells a product or service in exchange for monies (advertising). The product is content and their business used to be information as content. But dry factual information does not sell itself or well in our faster and faster paced society. Information needs to be “embellished”, that is spun, dressed up, and packaged for the target audience. This has lead to specialization which, in some things is very good (medicine, for example) but alas in the media it brings with it agenda, spin and secondary goals.

There is an upside to this – we don’t have to sit and watch all the fluff news stories to get financial information we might be interested in, we can go to those sources directly and thus attempt to keep up with the ever increasing flow of information. We can also go directly to sources for weather information as opposed to again, sitting through the story on the truck load of live chickens that were loosed on the interstate as the result of an accident. Specialization I believe is the result of so much information being available. If one were to attempt to get a degree from a university in Physics these days, 4 years is not enough cover all the specialties. The same with medicine, the law (legislators just have no discipline) and many other technical degree programs.

But really, What Exactly Are They Selling?

The news media is selling Google Analytics, period. Bold statement, let me make my case.

Google Analytics are used to sell advertising. The higher their rating the more they can charge for ads. Google provides the web best audience analytics on the planet and is the go-to source for all media outlets when it comes to the details on their audience. And the more the “news” is skewed to their demographic, the higher their score, the more they can demand for advertising, the more they can narrow in on a demographic (female voters between the ages of…., professionals….., etc.) This circle is indeed vicious as it is self-perpetuating, it feeds upon itself and spirals inward faster and faster – in that sense it is an amazing thing to watch. By this I mean that the analytics received are the result of the SEO and the manipulation of the data presented to generate better scores in the analytics. There are rules in place to stop the obvious ways to skew the results (excessive use of key phrases, use of unrelated keywords to increase traffic, etc.) but where there is a way, there is always a way around.

TV vs The Internet

I know I don’t have to convince anyone that when Frank Loyd Right said “Television is just chewing gum for the eyes” (or did he?) some 60 years ago he was speaking to what has become a universal truth. Bruce Springsteen released a song titled “57 Channels and Nothing On” in 1992 and now cable TV services have 300+ channel of nothing on. I counted my Direct TV channels once and it was 336 at the time, with 157 being 24/7 infomercials. Dish and all the cable companies have the same business model. They sell content masked (poorly) as infomercial channels that are pure advertising.

The internet has clearly disproved the age-old theory that if you put enough monkeys at enough typewriters (keyboards) for long enough they will eventually produce – the works of Shakespeare, the Bible, or some other established literary accomplishment. Mythbusters would declare this “Busted!”

While the world of information it has opened is impressive and pervasive the information superhighway is now blurred it its reporting of news, in a fog generated by Google, FaceBook and the other social media platforms. I have seen videos on YouTube related to chemicals and weapons that are downright dangerous in the misinformation they provide, more a case of lack of knowledge as opposed to some sinister agenda in my opinion. I do not cut the news media the same slack, which is my whole point.

On social media every political statement by a celebrity, one currently working, or one from a sit-com cancelled in the 1970’s “gets the pulpit” as long as they have said something negative and political. Fox News and Breitbart promote these just as much as all the sources I mentioned above. Why? Because they draw endless comments and the more comments they get the better the Google Analytics they receive, the more that can make the case for larger audience penetration and ask for increased fees for advertising. But that is only the first layer for social media. The next layer is the fake-comments. In almost every post on any subject, be it politics, or a cat video, or a swift water rescue, there will be a comment about politics. They will state an outrages position. These are usually done by the news producer who posted the article in the first place in order to generate comments which generate higher Google Analytics which…you see the agenda. They are usually in the first three comments posted and if you look at the poster of the comments most are fake, made up, just a few pictures, no real data on the individual. Tools of the new advertising trade. THIS is how the internet news business is now run on the information superhighway. It was not taught in the courses I took but anyone looking for “a way” to increase traffic will think of it when they see the Google Analytics Case Studies.

As preppers making financial and lifestyle decisions on an almost daily basis by processing the information at hand and our understanding of it I think most of us knew already that the “news business” is first and foremost a for-profit business, and that the news presented is merely content to produce their product, increased Google Analytics . All the old cliche’s apply: follow the money, Caveat-emptor, believe 50% of what you hear and 90% of what you see.

We prepare as a result of the information we get and the information we get is highly suspect from the news media. Proceed accordingly.

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              The post Accidents are Increasing on the Information Superhighway appeared first on The Prepper Journal.

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[randomrainman]

full-circle (social media and the internet)

Ah, the good ol’ information superhighway.  Part of me misses when you were a mystery and not a monstrosity.

One might be led to think, what with the ubiquity of social media and the access to information at one’s literal fingertips, that we had evolved beyond the idiosyncrasies of Homo habilis. Against all things sane, I often enter the internet cesspools of YouTube and Instagram comment threads.  Every once in a while, I see a neutral and wholesome interaction going on between these digital representations of human beings.

“Ah, so there is hope for our species,” I muse naïvely. 

A much more virulent comment thread then figuratively uppercuts me in the dick and provides me with a stark reminder that we really haven’t changed much since our days of grunting unintelligibly and bludgeoning the ever-loving shit out of our mates with blunt objects for no apparent reason.

We’re basically the same, only even more useless physically. (Image: Le Moustier Neanderthals, Charles R. Knight, 1920)

2020 has entered the chat.

Ignorance of this magnitude doesn’t occur instantaneously: much of it was excavated from the coffers of the internet and social media and given further credibility by the soon-to-not-be-president of the United States of America (which, in turn, caused a further spread of misinformation). In addition to the well documented laissez-faire American attitude toward the now-out-of-control SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, the Trump-sanctioned batshit-crazy QAnon conspiracy theory and its myriad and equally nonsensical tributaries have taken the internet by, erm, storm. They have done the Fusion Dance with existing conspiracy theories such as Pizzagate and the anti-vaccine movement to create an Independence Day-esque firestorm of bullshit, and the gasoline for it is social media platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram.

In theory, such a surplus of accessible platforms, in combination with the amount of readily available verifiable information, should have yielded more positive results for us.  Instead, I am greeted with an avalanche of Facebook memes composed entirely of bollocks.  Since I see so damn much of it, I sail through the waves of bullshit until I reach the web version of dry land.  Eventually, however, I encounter a 40-metre-tall tsunami of unverified diarrhoea and I can no longer ignore it.

Typically, virtually every comment on said rubbish is largely in agreeance with the sentiment expressed within the meme, with the odd statement expressing disagreement.  I, of course, chime in, usually with an article or a link to something factual, and am immediately burned at the stake.  The original poster, in keeping with whatever it is they posted, then either cites even more bullshit, tells me that I can’t trust the media, or calls me a sheep, all while ironically not acknowledging both the entirely sheep-like behaviour of believing every conspiracy in existence and the existence of actual fact-based journalism.  In their corner of the universe, up is down, left is right, and the Konami Code makes no goddamn sense and grants you infinite deaths.

Damn, I miss when memes were only funny and not trying to kill you.

What is it good for? Absolutely ... something?

Social media isn’t entirely useless; after all, it is a method for sharing information, networking, keeping in touch with friends, watching informative videos, and obviously porn.  Speaking of porn:

Literally my entire Explore page on Instagram. Every. Single. Mother. Fucking. Time.  I’m not exaggerating in the slightest.

Look, women are extraordinarily beautiful and intelligent creatures, possibly more so than men.  I also greatly enjoy large posteriors, and am guilty of having slid into a DM or 26, but ... man, as much I admire the ladies, I don’t need that to be everything I see on my feed.  And that leads me to yet another thought...

WHY?!

For the record, before everyone tries to murder me, I’m a feminist.  That is to say, women should be equal to men in every facet of society and should never be subjugated in any way.  I also believe that women should have bodily autonomy, and should not be objectified simply by existing. There are also numerous issues within contemporary society, such as the gender wage gap, that still need to be resolved, and a mountain of others in plenty of foreign nations, but...

Social media seems to have reverse-engineered the concept of feminism, turned that sumbitch sideways, and shoved it straight up our candy asses.

If there is any thing I have learned from image-based media platforms, namely OnlyFans or Ass-sta -- erm, Instagram, is that all women need to be successful is to objectify themselves and show their goodies on the ‘gram, which effectively devalues some of the other things for which women of previous generations have fought. I recognise that those in sex-based professions should not be denigrated, and sex work should be 100% legal. While I also realise that we have the freedom of choice, sex work or anything resembling it (in my opinion) shouldn’t be a thing to which scores of women flock as a primary source of income or for a sense of power.  

Social media also has the possibly unintended consequence of exacerbating body-image issues, primarily among women. A thing that almost certainly makes this worse this is the superfluity of so-called “fit” channels. There are a handful among them who are legitimate fitness experts and know what they’re doing, but the rest of them are just women who have hit the genetic lottery and do only booty exercises so that they can jiggle their substantial hindquarters on camera for likes (while also giving bad advice).  The majority of them have little to no interest in promoting a healthy lifestyle.  I can’t really knock the hustle if you decide to do this -- after all, you do get the attention (and possibly money) you seek.  But don’t conduct e-thottery and promote your e-thot friends and call it “female empowerment”.  I feel strange saying this, if only because I am a dude with a penis, but femininity should not be relegated to physical appearance.

Everything comes full-circle, and I suppose we’re doomed to this cycle of self-sabotage until we cease to exist as a species.

|the kid|

[accio-hqpromo]

YOU ARE C O N N E C T E D  ⇒

Your information is whirring through the air. It buzzes around your head. It finds its way into the pockets of others. It wanders - it doesn’t always end up where you want it.

Your soul wanders with it, tethered, a window into your being. Electricity pulses through your fingers with every letter you type. Your body emits magnetic energy ; your body draws the charges closer.

They always told you to be careful what you post on the internet. Are you one of the few who  ｌｉｓｔｅｎｅｄ ? Your phone is a portal to another world, your laptop a vortex into the   ｕｎｋｎｏｗｎ.

Every picture you take is meticulously edited, preened and primped for the online world before you post it. You craft a caption, you wait. They observe. Their eyes feast on your content ; do they feast on you? Do they feast on your ｓｏｕｌ?

You aren’t scared of the superhighway. It only knows what you ｔｅｌｌ it. It only knows your username, it only knows when you press enter. A screen is only a screen, and even a hammer cannot expose what is ｉｎｓｉｄｅ.

But where there are boundaries, there are people finding ways to overstep them. A genius mind can hitch a ride on the highway and leech off of the ｕｎｓｅｅｎ. It worms its way into the mainframes, the harddrives that were until then ｓｅｃｒｅｔ. Information can be used against you, and when there are no barriers between ｅｖｉｌ and the parts of you that you keep closest to yourself, there is no telling what ｄａｒｋｎｅｓｓ can be used against you.

Summary: We are a sci-fi-inspired Modern-Marauders’ HP AU roleplay centered around the idea of technology as a means for corruption. Rumors, lies, manipulation, and misinformation play key roles in plots and relationship development.

             Home || About || Characters || Rules || Application

[feuilletoniste]

I love, and by love I mean hate, whenever someone who clearly hasn’t bothered to read anything other than socmed posts is like “why doesn’t [elected official] just do [something that is not in said official’s position’s power]?!” like it’s a gotcha. why doesn’t biden ban fracking? because the u.s. president can’t do that. why didn’t kamala harris subpoena mnuchin? because the california attorney general can’t do that. why didn’t the democrats force the republicans to do something? because a senate minority can’t do that. why doesn’t carl marks himself come down from the sky and stop fascism

[unclesamsmisguidedclub]

Warped News, Fake News Pave the Misinformation Superhighway

Warped News, Fake News Pave the Misinformation Superhighway

As if “fake news” wasn’t creating enough negativity and false “facts,” the mainstream media is also using “Warped News” to misinform and mislead. Both of these tactics have become staples of mainstream media reporting as it continues to fuel travel on the Misinformation Superhighway. Not a new thing In light of the furor that has recently erupted, it may come as a surprise that “fake news” is…

[nl37tgt]

Multiverse (1-22-17)

What is reality?  Do we each have our own version or is there one that’s shared between all?  I’m starting to lean towards individual realities, separate and alien to anyone else.  I’m coming to this just by observation.  The individual biases displayed show the weaknesses in divining fact from fiction.  Anyone will find it easier to align with anything that falls into their own mode of thinking, and easier to denounce anything that is contrary to their ideals.  At this point facts don’t matter as much and belief takes over.  Add in some ego and you have a nasty combination.  I see it all the time, especially on social media.  Anyone who disagrees is an idiot, or needs to wake up... despite the opposition presenting a thoughtful and neutral counterpoint. Sorry to say, but if you cannot entertain the thought of something different or contrary to what you have cemented between your ears, you’re the idiot and you’re taking the nap.  Park your ego in the corner and pay attention, you might actually learn something of value. Unfortunately we live in a time where the integrity of the news is nearly non-existent.  We know Fox and CNN have an agenda, a bias, but we subscribe to it anyway.  They also have the bad habit of injecting opinions into the populace.  Journalistic integrity is second to ratings and ad revenue.  When is the last time you’ve seen a news outlet retract something they reported after it was found that they were mistaken? The internet is worse.  Due to a deeper lack of integrity and a promise of ad revenue, anyone can make a site claiming whatever they want without sources and without penalty.  The more bombastic and inflammatory the better, because that generates more clicks, which means more money. All of these things change that individual reality and steer reactions, opinions and personal bias.  Assumption is the mother of all fuck-ups folks. And since there’s not much accountability or integrity in popular media, the populace has started to mirror that.  At one time we aspired to be intelligent and demanded to be well informed, but now I see a trend in the opposite direction where people will chase down and spread misinformation merely because it aligns with their own bias, truthful or not, and “I didn’t know” is a valid excuse to act like an asshole. That is a problem.  When incorrect, dishonest and bias-altered bits of information are spread, that changes the individual reality of anyone it reaches.  In a world where everyone is connected to a network, that kind of thing reaches a lot of eyes and ears in milliseconds.  Which leads to a large number of people being poorly informed or misinformed, because it’s too much trouble to fact check and nobody is keeping a list of who is spreading bullshit. So what is the fix?  I don’t know.  In a world where memes get more attention than long winded articles delivering facts and reason, it’s not a simple solution.  Perhaps the starting point is to not take anything at face value and look beyond the single article.  The noise to signal ratio between actual information and brain rotting fluff is getting worse than trying to find a cell phone signal in the middle of no where.  There are a lot of fly by night “news” sites luring people in with clickbait headlines that try real hard to seem legitimate but quickly fall apart when you start chasing citations and sources.  There is a lot of opinions slung by even the major news outlets.  Form your own opinions, make yourself informed.  Nobody is going hold your hand unless they want to guide you one way or another.  You have access to the information superhighway in your pocket, why carpool?

[bentonpena]

Was COVID-19 made in a lab? Will a vaccine protect you forever? Does the sun help? Coronavirus myths are spreading in 25 languages — here are the most popular

Was COVID-19 made in a lab? Will a vaccine protect you forever? Does the sun help? Coronavirus myths are spreading in 25 languages — here are the most popular https://on.mktw.net/3iwBjbb

Six months into the coronavirus pandemic, people are on edge and some folks are also confused. Adding to the increasingly chaotic nature of the information superhighway in 2020, others are sharing misleading information and outright falsehoods across the internet, and on television.

Some outlandish rumors persist. To adherents of such beliefs, it’s a dastardly bioweapon designed to wreak economic armageddon on the West; a left-wing conspiracy to damage the re-election prospects of President Donald Trump; a virus that leaked from a laboratory in Wuhan, China.

A new study in the latest edition of the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene identified 2,311 reports of rumors, stigma, and conspiracy theories in 25 languages from 87 countries related to COVID-19 across social media and, yes, online news media sites.

“ Do you have to wear a mask outdoors? Only medical-grade N95 surgical masks with goggles work, right, so why bother wearing a homemade face covering? ”

Paranoia politicizes a public-health emergency and distracts from potentially life-saving measures. “Misinformation fueled by rumors, stigma, and conspiracy theories can have potentially serious implications on the individual and community if prioritized over evidence-based guidelines,” it said.

The most oft-shared claims were related to the seriousness of the illness, transmission and mortality rate (24%), the effectiveness of control measures (21%), treatments and cures touted online (19%), and the origins of pandemic (15%).

Of the 2,276 reports for which text ratings were available, 1,856 claims were false (82%). “Health agencies must track misinformation associated with the COVID-19 in real time, and engage local communities and government stakeholders to debunk misinformation,” the report found.

There are, of course, many nuances and truths mixed in with some rumors. Among the evidence-supported statements by members of the scientific community: Like the influenza vaccines, any future vaccine will likely only last a number of years, and not give everyone 100% immunity.

Do you have to wear a mask outdoors? Only medical-grade N95 surgical masks with goggles work can help guarantee protection against the virus, so why bother wearing a homemade face covering? Health professionals and studies support the idea that face coverings can help stop the spread.

“ Exposure to the sun or to temperatures higher than 77 Fahrenheit (25 Celsius) doesn’t prevent the COVID-19 virus or cure the disease, the Mayo Clinic says. ”

They have helped reduce contagion by reducing droplets being sprayed into the air during flu season, and scientists say they can similarly help now, particularly with the high number of asymptomatic carriers. Maskless joggers can leave a droplet slipstream of 30 feet outdoors.

What’s more, Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, earlier this month recommended wearing goggles as a “complete” method to help prevent catching the coronavirus.

It only affects older people, correct? And it’s a few bad days or weeks in bed, and you’re back to normal? Incorrect and no. Lung scarring, heart and kidney damage may result from COVID-19, and some younger COVID-19 patients who were otherwise healthy are suffering blood clots and strokes.

A study of 60 COVID-19 patients published in Lancet this month found that 55% of them were still displaying neurological symptoms during follow-up visits three months later, including confusion and difficulty concentrating, as well as headaches, lack of taste/smell, mood changes and insomnia.

The summer arrived just in time! Won’t the sun and heat help? “Exposure to the sun or to temperatures higher than 77 Fahrenheit (25 Celsius) doesn’t prevent the COVID-19 virus or cure COVID-19,” according to these myth-busting guidelines from the Mayo Clinic.

“You can get the COVID-19 virus in sunny, hot and humid weather. Taking a hot bath also can’t prevent you from catching the COVID-19 virus,” the guidelines warn. “Your normal body temperature remains the same, regardless of the temperature of your bath or shower.

Related:COVID-19 infections just hit 20 million worldwide — why the actual number of cases is likely much higher

Here are some other popular misconceptions derailed by the Mayo Clinic: Cold weather and snow does not kill COVID-19. Antibiotics kill bacteria, not viruses. Drinking alcohol doesn’t protect you from the virus. And spraying it on your body doesn’t help if you are infected.

The supplement colloidal silver, which has been marketed as a treatment, is not considered safe or effective for treating any disease. “There’s no evidence that eating garlic protects against infection with the COVID-19 virus,” it added. (It doesn’t help with vampires either, because they don’t exist.)

Another outlandish theory: “Avoiding exposure to or use of 5G networks doesn’t prevent infection with the COVID-19 virus. Viruses can’t travel on radio waves and mobile networks. The COVID-19 virus is spreading in many countries that lack 5G mobile networks,” the hospital said.

“ Cold weather and snow does not kill COVID-19. Radio waves and mobile networks don’t cure or spread the virus. Antibiotics only kill bacteria. ”

Ultraviolet light and disinfectants can be used on surfaces. But don’t use a UV lamp to sterilize your hands or other areas of your body. UV radiation can cause skin irritation and bleach can burn you, it added.

Who tends to believe falsehoods? People who get their news from social-media platforms like Facebook FB, +0.33% and Twitter TWTR, -0.42% are more likely to have misperceptions about COVID-19, according to recent study led by researchers at McGill University in Montreal.

“Those that consume more traditional news media have fewer misperceptions and are more likely to follow public health recommendations like social distancing,” the paper published in the latest issue of Misinformation Review concluded.

“In the context of a crisis like COVID-19, however, there is good reason to be concerned about the role that the consumption of social media is playing in boosting misperceptions,” says co-author Aengus Bridgman, a Ph.D. candidate in political science at McGill University.

The social-media platforms have been criticized for their failures to stop the spread of misinformation, especially concerning elections and the coronavirus pandemic, despite a number of new policies enacted since Russia used the platforms to interfere in the 2016 elections.

In May, Twitter marked tweets by President Donald Trump with a fact-check warning label for the first time, after the president falsely claimed mail-in ballots are “substantially fraudulent.” (He has continued to make such claims on social media and elsewhere.)

“ Paranoia politicizes a public-health emergency and distracts from science-based life-saving measures and, as a result, can have serious consequences. ”

Earlier this month, social-media sites attempted to quash a video pushing misleading information about hydroxychloroquine as a COVID-19 treatment — which led to Twitter’s partially suspending Donald Trump Jr.’s account.

The video featured doctors calling hydroxychloroquine — a drug used to treat malaria, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis for decades — “a cure for COVID,” despite a growing body of scientific evidence that has not shown this to be true.

In April, the president floated the idea of using ultraviolet light inside the body or a disinfectant by “injection” as a treatment for coronavirus — “I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. (The next day, Trump claimed he was not being serious.)

As of Tuesday, COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus SARS-CoV-2, had infected 20 million people globally and 5 million in the U.S. It had killed over 737,394 people worldwide and at least 163,533 in the U.S. The disease is experiencing a resurgence in southern and western states.

The stock market has been on a wild ride in recent months. The Dow Jones Industrial Index DJIA, +0.94% and the S&P 500 SPX, +0.34% were trading higher Tuesday, while the Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, -0.21% was lower as investors await round two of a fiscal stimulus.

Trading via MarketWatch.com - Top Stories https://on.mktw.net/2Z0dB0v August 11, 2020 at 12:07PM

[paulbenedictblog]

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Bbc news Trump firma una orden ejecutiva dirigida a Twitter después de una fila de verificación de hechos

Bbc news

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US President Donald Trump has signed an executive uncover aimed at laying aside about a of the honest protections given to social media platforms.

He acknowledged the companies had "unchecked power" to censure and edit the views of customers.

President Trump has in most cases accused platforms corresponding to Twitter and Fb of stifling conservative voices.

The uncover, which is predicted to face honest challenges, comes after Twitter made up our minds to append truth-check labels to two of his tweets this week.

On Wednesday Mr Trump accused the firm of election interference after it added a warning designate to the tweets about claims of standard fraud in mail-in balloting - in overall identified as postal votes.

Twitter and totally different social media platforms strongly condemned the chief uncover.

And early on Friday, Twitterhid one in all President Trump's tweets from his profile, announcing it violates pointers on glorifying violence.

Bbc news What does the chief uncover convey?

Underneath a 1996 regulations, online page operators, unlike faded publishers, cannot every so continuously be held to blame for impart material posted by customers.

The sites are also actual from lawsuits if they block posts deemed extreme, violent "or otherwise objectionable, whether or now not or now not such fabric is constitutionally actual".

The chief uncover argues that this immunity might presumably perchance presumably peaceable no longer observe if a social network edits posts, corresponding to by collectively with a warning or a designate.

It also says "spurious" blocking, collectively with laying aside a put up for causes totally different than these described in a area's terms of provider, might presumably perchance presumably peaceable now not be actual.

Republican Senator Marco Rubio is among these arguing that the platforms gather on the position of a "publisher" when they add truth-check labels to posts.

"The regulations peaceable protects social media companies love Twitter as a result of they are belief of forums now not publishers," Mr Rubio acknowledged.

"However if they've now made up our minds to exercise an editorial position love a publisher, then they might per chance presumably perchance presumably peaceable no longer be shielded from liability."

The chief uncover also requires the Federal Communications Rate (FCC) to spell out what type of impart material blocking will be belief of spurious or inconsistent with a provider provider's terms and instances.

Bbc news What perform will the uncover non-public?

Donald Trump promised "immense tear" in step with Twitter's decision to append a truth-check message to two of his posts. Whereas his announcement of an executive uncover modified into heavy on rhetoric - accusing social media companies of being monopolies that threaten free speech - this will likely likely presumably perchance moreover be a long course of earlier than the discuss turns into valid tear, immense or otherwise.

Honest executive agencies will wish to analysis federal regulations, promulgate contemporary regulations, vote on them and then - in all likelihood - protect them in court docket. By the point it's all the device in which by device of, the November presidential election might presumably perchance presumably non-public attain and gone.

That explains why Trump can also be pushing for contemporary congressional regulations - a more easy formulation of altering US policy toward social media companies.

The valid reason of the president's uncover, on the different hand, might presumably perchance very successfully be symbolic. As a minimum, the tear will reason Twitter to take into accout carefully about attempting to common or truth-check his posts on their provider.

The president relies on Twitter to web his message out without filtering from the mainstream media. If Twitter itself originate blunting one in all his well-liked communication instruments, he is sending a message that he'll place at bay - and compose things, at a minimum, dejected for the firm.

Bbc news How non-public the social networks answered?

Twitter known as the uncover"a reactionary and politicized capability to a landmark regulations,"collectively with that Section 230 "protects American innovation and freedom of expression, and it's underpinned by democratic values".

Google, which owns YouTube, acknowledged altering Section 230 would "ache The United States's economy and its global leadership on files superhighway freedom."

"Our platforms non-public empowered a immense series of of us and organizations from across the political spectrum, giving them a train and contemporary programs to attain their audiences," the company acknowledged in a assertion to the BBC.

In an interview with Fox Recordsdata on Wednesday, Fb's chief executive, Price Zuckerberg, acknowledged censoring a social media platform would now not be the "factual reflex" for a executive focused on censorship.

"I factual deem strongly that Fb mustn't be the arbiter of truth of the whole lot that participants convey on-line," acknowledged Mr Zuckerberg.

Bbc news What sparked the latest row?

The long-operating dispute between Mr Trump and social media companies flared up again on Tuesday, when two of his posts got a truth-check designate by Twitter for the first time.

He had tweeted, without providing proof: "There will not be any formulation (zero) that mail-in ballots might be the leisure lower than substantially incorrect."

Twitter added a warning designate to the put up and linked to a page describing the claims as "unsubstantiated".

Then on Wednesday, Mr Trump threatened to "strongly alter" social-media platforms.

He tweeted to his more than 80 million followers that Republicans felt the platforms "totally silence conservatives", and that he would now not allow this to happen.

In an earlier tweet, he acknowledged Twitter modified into "totally stifling free speech".

Twitter's chief executive, Jack Dorsey, answered to criticism of the platform's truth-checking insurance policies in a series of posts, announcing: "We will continue to characterize fallacious or disputed data about elections globally."

Twitter has tightened its insurance policies in latest years, as it confronted criticism that its hands-off capability allowed deceptive accounts and misinformation to thrive.

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[nezmar]

In 1998, the velocity of information was slow and the cost of publishing it was high (even on the web). Google leveraged those realities to make the best information retrieval system in the world. Today, information is free, plentiful and fast moving; somewhat by design, Google has become a card catalog that is constantly being reordered by an angry, misinformed mob.

How Google Ruined the Internet — Superhighway 98

[digitalsocietyblog-blog]

Misinformation Madness

Misinformation, often coined as fake news, has been amplified in our digital society. Often used to fearmonger, create rumours and boost political opinion and propaganda, social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter are attempting to take action. So what exactly counts as misinformation, how do people spot it, and why does it occur?

Wu et al. (2017) define misinformation as ‘false or inaccurate information that is deliberately created and is intentionally or unintentionally propagated…  an umbrella term to include all false or inaccurate information that is spread in social media’. By using this definition, misinformation can include concepts such as spam, rumour and fake news. In this digital society, many social media users became aware of the concept of misinformation during the 2016 US presidential election. An analysis conducted by Buzzfeed found that ‘38% of ‘posts shared from three large right-wing politics pages on Facebook included “false or misleading information” and that three large left-wing pages did the same 19% of the time’ (Solon, 2016). Research also highlights that there is 13 hours between the publication of misinformation and the debunking (Menczer quoted by Silverman, 2016). This is a problem as it means hundreds of internet users have liked and shared this information believing it as true.

But how do social media users know when what they are seeing is accurate information or not? Mintz (2013), editor of the Web of Deception: Misinformation on the Internet, argues that the best way to determine if information is true is to use common sense. She further advises that users need to check if the information makes sense and if those who are reporting this information are doing so from a biased perspective. Libicki also notes that users cannot be ‘gullible but also should not be paranoid that all information is incorrect’ (Libicki, 2007). Through posts shared on social media, many users just view the headline or a small portion of information. This could mean that users are often witnesses to misinformation without realising. If social media users are unsure about the reliability of the posts, they should follow the advice of Mintz and Libicki; have common sense, research further and not be gullible. 

The spread of misinformation is caused through a multitude of reasons. Social media has a lack of internet gatekeeps, meaning anyone can post information to their followers and friends. These friends will often have similar viewpoints to the user sharing information and so they then take on this information and share it with their own followers-reaching hundreds or more social media users. Through this engagement, this information will fit the algorithmic bias of social media platforms and be more prominent on users’ feeds (Meserole, 2018).  Due to a lack of gatekeepers, social media posts no longer require peer review, users do not need a journalistic qualification and information can be published immediately.

It is important to remember that the internet allows for free speech and enables anyone to have a voice. However, when viewing information on digital platforms such as social media, users should be wary that what they are viewing may not be entirely accurate and instead educate themselves on how to spot misinformation.

………………………………………………………………………………………….

Libicki, M. (2007). Conquest in Cyberspace: National Security and Information Warfare. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Meserole, C. (May 2018). How misinformation spreads on social media-And what to do about it. Retrieved from: https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2018/05/09/how-misinformation-spreads-on-social-media-and-what-to-do-about-it/ [accessed 16/03/20].

Mintz, A. (April, 2013). The Misinformation Superhighway?. Retrieved from: https://www.pbs.org/now/shows/401/internet-politics.html [accessed 16/03/20].

Silverman, C. (May 2016). Recent research reveals false rumours really do travel faster and further than the truth. Retrieved from: https://firstdraftnews.org/latest/recent-research-reveals-false-rumours-really-do-travel-faster-and-further-than-the-truth/ [accessed 16/03/20].

Solon, O. (November 2016). Facebook’s failure: did fake news and polarized politics get Trump elected?. Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/nov/10/facebook-fake-news-election-conspiracy-theories [accessed 16/03/20].

Wu, L., Hu, X., Morstatter, F., & Liu, H. (2017). Detecting camouflaged content polluters. ICWSM, pp. 696– 699.