Predicting criminal behaviours ...
By Jacob Ward at The New York Times. Do read the whole thing, here is just one small bit:
The geno-economists seem confident that human genes have a measurable influence on human outcomes. But publicizing whatever predictive power does lie in our genes runs the risk of misleading the rest of us into believing that control of our genes is control of our future. They’re adamant that their motives are in forestalling the dystopian implications of the work, in fighting off misinformation and misguided policies. “The world in which we can predict all sorts of things about the future based on saliva samples — personality traits, cognitive abilities, life outcomes — is happiening in the next five years,” Benjamin says. “Now is the time to prepare for that.”
Another anti-refugee hoax in Europe
One
of the great ironies of "anti-globalist" disinformation is how
seamlessly it travels across different countries. This is becoming increasingly
clear in Europe.
In
this newsletter, we’ve already flagged how a
hoax about a “staged drowning” video and a
photoshopped buzzer were recycled across the continent. The latest example
is a hoax that wraps in several conspiracy must-haves: the United Nations,
refugees and George Soros.
The
false claim spread with some variations in at least Austria, France, Italy, the
Netherlands and Sweden. It essentially alleges that refugees were found at the
European Union border in Croatia with Mastercards bearing the UN High
Commissioner for Refugees logo. “Further investigations” apparently discovered
that the cards had been funded by George Soros.
The
story takes several actual facts and distorts them into a toxically false
narrative. UNHCR does
use debit cards to distribute aid to refugees in Greece, though they can't
be used outside the country. Mastercard and George Soros did actually sign
an agreement for a vague charitable partnership.
The
story was debunked by Mimikama,
Check
News, Pagella
Politica, Nieuwscheckers
and others.
The
good news is that conspiracy theorists are lazy and don't adapt their hoaxes. A
fact check from one country can serve as an early warning in another. The bad
news is confirmation bias: The real stories that seem to echo elements of the
hoax are enough for true believers.
EU
fact-checkers know this is a phenomenon that needs a coordinated response and
they are working on it. More to come on that.
(AP
Photo/Karly Domb Sadof)This is new
- WhatsApp has awarded 20 research projects $50,000 each to investigate how misinformation spreads on its platform.
- The Agence France-Presse’s fact-checking project is now operating in 13 countries around the world.
- Russia and Spain are reportedly collaborating on a new cybersecurity group aimed at preventing misinformation from harming diplomatic relations. *Thinking face emoji*
Show and tell
- The BBC talked to fact-checkers around the world about why they do the work they do.
- Wired U.K. wrote about how Full Fact is leveraging automation to go after misinformation.
- Donald Trump Jr. tweeted a link to an NBC Miami story about noncitizen voters in Florida. But the story was from 2012 and has been updated since — the news outlet added an editor’s note to the top explaining that.
(AP Photo/Richard Drew)This is bad
- Donald Trump has been tweeting false claims about voter fraud. BuzzFeed News broke down how that echoes online conspiracy theories, and how Twitter’s rules allow for the president’s falsities to go unchecked.
- During the U.S. midterm elections, several repeat (or “zombie”) hoaxes went viral online — despite being debunked by fact-checkers.
- That questionable video of CNN’s Jim Acosta during a White House press briefing is one giant UGH.
A closer look
- This week, CNN sued the White House after Jim Acosta was banned from press briefings. The American Bar Association’ Legal Fact Check published a legal backgrounder on the history of case law over press credentials.
- Researchers for the BBC spent hundreds of hours with people in India, Kenya and Nigeria to research how misinformation moves Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp. They found that nationalism is a driving factor behind sharing fakes, but some think the news outlet’s sample (80 people across three countries) is too small for any conclusion to be drawn.
- There was plenty of fact-checking during the midterm elections — but very little of that work came from local news sources.
(AP Photo, File)If you read a few more things
The
BBC published
an in-depth series on misinformation around the world. Some highlights: a
deep dive about how fakery on Facebook has contributed to recent killings
in Nigeria, five
fake stories that have had a big impact across the African continent and a
look at how fact-checkers are tackling misinformation in Turkey.
Save the date
The
IFCN’s sixth Global Fact-Checking Summit will
be in Cape Town from June 19-21, 2019. Express
your interest to attend no later than Jan. 14, 2019.
10 quick fact-checking links
- The New York Times published a blockbuster investigation about how Facebook's leadership has responded to crises over the past few years. One of its findings: The company employed a Republican opposition-research firm to discredit protesters by linking them to George Soros.
- There’s a long read on deepfakes in The Guardian, but it’s kinda meh in terms of bringing anything new to the table.
- Taking over other people’s social media account is a bigger deal than you might have thought.
- In India, fact-checkers are seeing an “epidemic of fake quotes” from bogus news sources online.
- Why do people fall for fakes online? “It's just mental laziness,” MIT’s David Rand told Wired.
- That bitcoin-peddling fake Elon Musk promoted tweet was makign the rounds again this week.
- Rappler, a Filipino news site with an active fact-checking unit, is under pressure from the Duterte government.
- Who needs deepfakes when you’ve got grainy GIFs, right?
- Online groups of conspiracists behave a lot like cult members, Renee DiResta writes for Wired.
- Brazil's new Foreign Minister has some thoughts about fake news.
