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Category: Social media

Pentagon ran secret anti-vax campaign to undermine China during pandemic

Pentagon ran secret anti-vax campaign to undermine China during pandemic

Reuters reports: At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. military launched a secret campaign to counter what it perceived as China’s growing influence in the Philippines, a nation hit especially hard by the deadly virus. The clandestine operation has not been previously reported. It aimed to sow doubt about the safety and efficacy of vaccines and other life-saving aid that was being supplied by China, a Reuters investigation found. Through phony internet accounts meant to impersonate Filipinos, the…

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Secret Israeli propaganda campaign targets U.S. Congress and public using fake accounts with AI content

Secret Israeli propaganda campaign targets U.S. Congress and public using fake accounts with AI content

The New York Times reports: Israel organized and paid for an influence campaign last year targeting U.S. lawmakers and the American public with pro-Israel messaging, as it aimed to foster support for its actions in the war with Gaza, according to officials involved in the effort and documents related to the operation. The covert campaign was commissioned by Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, a government body that connects Jews around the world with the State of Israel, four Israeli officials…

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Former Meta engineer sues company saying he was fired over handling of Gaza content

Former Meta engineer sues company saying he was fired over handling of Gaza content

Reuters reports: A former Meta engineer on Tuesday accused the company of bias in its handling of content related to the war in Gaza, claiming in a lawsuit that Meta fired him for trying to help fix bugs causing the suppression of Palestinian Instagram posts. Ferras Hamad, a Palestinian-American engineer who had been on Meta’s machine learning team since 2021, sued the social media giant in a California state court for discrimination, wrongful termination and other wrongdoing over his February…

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Tiny number of ‘supersharers’ spread the vast majority of fake news

Tiny number of ‘supersharers’ spread the vast majority of fake news

Science reports: Did you see the article claiming Kamala Harris joked about killing Mike Pence and Donald Trump? Or the one about large numbers of Trump votes being secretly switched to Joe Biden? If stories like this, run by fake news sites such as Infowars or Gatewaypundit, popped up in your social media feed about the 2020 U.S. presidential election, they probably came from a tiny group of people with a massive impact. A mere 2000 or so “supersharers” spread…

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Trump and social media have normalized public expressions of anger

Trump and social media have normalized public expressions of anger

The Observer reports: Last week a video showing 60-year-old Peter Abbott screaming abuse at TV producer Samantha Isaacs gained a viral audience, after Abbott was found guilty at Poole magistrates court of “using threatening words or behaviour to cause alarm, distress or fear of violence”. In the phone-filmed video, Abbott is seen snarling and shouting as he presses his face up against Isaacs’ car window. He looks as if he’s channelling the Harry Enfield character Angry Frank, so cartoonishly aggressive…

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SEC charges Trump Media auditor with ‘massive fraud’ on hundreds of companies, imposes lifetime ban

SEC charges Trump Media auditor with ‘massive fraud’ on hundreds of companies, imposes lifetime ban

CNBC reports: The auditing firm for Trump Media and the auditor’s owner were charged Friday with “massive fraud” by the Securities and Exchange Commission for accounting work that affected more than 1,500 SEC filings, the federal regulator announced. The auditor, BF Borgers CPA, and its owner, Benjamin Borgers, have agreed to be permanently suspended from practicing as accountants before the SEC, and also agreed to pay a combined $14 million in civil penalties, without admitting or denying the allegations, the…

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Extremist militias are coordinating in more than 100 Facebook groups

Extremist militias are coordinating in more than 100 Facebook groups

Wired reports: “Join your local Militia or III% Patriot Group,” a post urged the more than 650 members of a Facebook group called the Free American Army. Accompanied by the logo for the Three Percenters militia network and an image of a man in tactical gear holding a long rifle, the post continues: “Now more than ever. Support the American militia page.” Other content and messaging in the group is similar. And despite the fact that Facebook bans paramilitary organizing…

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Russian trolls target U.S. support for Ukraine, Kremlin documents show

Russian trolls target U.S. support for Ukraine, Kremlin documents show

The Washington Post reports: When President Biden proposed an additional $24 billion in supplemental funding for Ukraine in August, Moscow spin doctors working for the Kremlin were ready to try to undermine public support for the bill, internal Kremlin documents show. In an ongoing campaign that seeks to influence congressional and other political debates to stoke anti-Ukraine sentiment, Kremlin-linked political strategists and trolls have written thousands of fabricated news articles, social media posts and comments that promote American isolationism, stir…

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Trump tries to boost support for Truth Social as DJT stock tanks

Trump tries to boost support for Truth Social as DJT stock tanks

CNBC reports: Donald Trump on Friday urged his followers to support his social media app Truth Social, as its parent company’s stock continues to sink lower. Trump in a post on that app said he believes Truth Social embodies the political “movement” behind his “Make America Great Again” presidential campaign slogan, adding that “it shows the Spirit and Love of our Country.” “If people who believe in putting America First and want to Make America Great Again, support TRUTH,” Trump…

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Yes, social media really is a cause of the epidemic of teenage mental illness

Yes, social media really is a cause of the epidemic of teenage mental illness

Jon Haidt writes: For centuries, adults have worried about whatever “kids these days” are doing. From novels in the 18th century to the bicycle in the 19th and through comic books, rock and roll, marijuana, and violent video games in the 20th century, there are always those who ring alarms, and there are always those who are skeptics of those alarms. So far, the skeptics have been right more often than not, and when they are right, they earn the…

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Anonymous users are dominating right-wing discussions online. They also spread false information

Anonymous users are dominating right-wing discussions online. They also spread false information

The Associated Press reports: The reposts and expressions of shock from public figures followed quickly after a user on the social platform X who uses a pseudonym claimed that a government website had revealed “skyrocketing” rates of voters registering without a photo ID in three states this year — two of them crucial to the presidential contest. “Extremely concerning,” X owner Elon Musk replied twice to the post this past week. “Are migrants registering to vote using SSN?” Georgia Rep….

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Trump Media saved in 2022 by Russian-American under criminal investigation

Trump Media saved in 2022 by Russian-American under criminal investigation

The Guardian reports: Donald Trump’s social media company Trump Media managed to go public last week only after it had been kept afloat in 2022 by emergency loans provided in part by a Russian-American businessman under scrutiny in a federal insider-trading and money-laundering investigation. The former US president stands to gain billions of dollars – his stake is currently valued at about $4bn – from the merger between Trump Media and Technology Group and the blank-check company Digital World Acquisition…

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Trump’s unbearable temptation to dump his Truth Social stock

Trump’s unbearable temptation to dump his Truth Social stock

Timothy Noah writes: Remember in Godfather II when the mobster Hyman Roth tells Michael Corleone, his co-investor in President Fulgencio Batista’s Cuba, “Michael, we’re bigger than U.S. Steel”? U.S. Steel is no longer the colossus it was in 1958, when that scene takes place. But it still caught my attention when The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that the valuation of Donald Trump’s Truth Social was almost as big as U.S. Steel’s. This was the very first day of trading for the app’s parent company,…

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Jeff Yass just bought Trump. Here’s what he stands to gain

Jeff Yass just bought Trump. Here’s what he stands to gain

Ja’han Jones writes: Billionaire investor Jeff Yass is playing his Trump card. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Friday that the right-wing megadonor and major TikTok investor is a part owner of the company that merged with Donald Trump’s media company, which owns Truth Social, the former president’s struggling social media platform. The head-scratching deal stands to add billions of dollars to Trump’s net worth. Yass’ name recently started popping up in news reports after Trump denounced legislation in Congress that could…

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Trump’s Truth Social is now a public company. Experts warn its multibillion-dollar valuation defies logic

Trump’s Truth Social is now a public company. Experts warn its multibillion-dollar valuation defies logic

CNN reports: For the first time in almost 30 years, part of Donald Trump’s business empire has gone public. Trading started with a bang, but the frenzy eased considerably by the closing bell, with shares ending well off their highs of the day. Trump Media & Technology Group, the owner of struggling social media platform Truth Social, began its long-delayed journey as a public company at Tuesday’s opening bell under the ticker symbol “DJT.” The stock surged about 56% at…

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How Trump’s allies are winning the war over disinformation

How Trump’s allies are winning the war over disinformation

The New York Times reports: In the wake of the riot on Capitol Hill on Jan. 6, 2021, a groundswell built in Washington to rein in the onslaught of lies that had fueled the assault on the peaceful transfer of power. Social media companies suspended Donald J. Trump, then the president, and many of his allies from the platforms they had used to spread misinformation about his defeat and whip up the attempt to overturn it. The Biden administration, Democrats…

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