7 in 10 millennials say they would vote for a socialist: poll The Hill
The IRS Tried to Hide Emails That Show Tax Industry Influence Over Free File Program.
Misinformers pivot to (short) video
If
you build it, they will come. Trolls and misinformers, that is, will come to
any social media platform that attracts a big user base. This time we’re
talking about TikTok.
Cristina
reports this morning on Poynter’s
web site that TikTok, the short-video app popular among teenagers around
the world, has become host to a wide range of false content, much of it
political. She also found anti-vaccination posts and misinformation surrounding
climate change, including attacks on Swedish environmental activist Greta
Thunberg. Fact-checkers don't currently have a presence on TikTok.
TikTok
is only the latest example of a social platform trying to stay ahead of
misinformation. And its target demographic of teenagers who might be seen as
vulnerable to misinformation –
or worse – makes the problem even more challenging.
Much
of the concern surrounding content on social media has been focused on
U.S.-owned companies like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. TikTok is owned by the
Chinese firm ByteDance, which adds different dimensions to the debate over its
content, including censorship,
privacy
and national
security issues.
TikTok,
which says its mission is to “inspire
creativity and build joy,” has been working to deal with the problematic
content. Earlier this month it said it would not
accept political ads. Also this month, the company said it would be creating
a committee of outside experts to advise on and review content moderation
policies covering a wide range of topics, “including child safety, hate speech,
misinformation, bullying, and other potential issues.”
TechCrunch’s
Sarah Perez laid out the challenge clearly in
a recent piece.
In
the meantime, two U.S. senators who usually diverge in their political and
policy views – Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) –
have called
on the U.S. intelligence community to assess TikTok’s national security
risks. Among their concerns, according to a
recent piece in The Washington Post, is that TikTok is a “potential target
of foreign influence campaigns like those carried out during the 2016 election
on U.S.-based social media platforms.”
Misinformers
have a way of zeroing in on hot new platforms. In March, the social media and
culture writer Taylor Lorenz wrote
in The Atlantic that Instagram was where the “next great battle” over
misinformation would be fought. But Instagram, she wrote, was escaping scrutiny
partly because of the differences in the way young people use it compared with
older people.
TikTok
also has the potential to pose similar generational divides. But the new
attention suggests that it is not going to fly under lawmakers’ radar.
. . . technology
·
In
an open letter aimed at CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s employees said letting
politicians post false claims in ads was “a threat” to the company. According
to The
New York Times, the employees wrote that they “strongly object to this
policy as it stands” and presented a few recommendations,
including restricting targeting.
·
On
Tuesday, CNN
reported that a political activist from San Francisco registered himself as a
candidate in California's 2022 gubernatorial election just so he could run
false Facebook ads. Facebook responded by saying that because he is running
just to get around the company’s policies, his content, including ads, would continue
to be fact-checked. The "candidate" hit back, saying he would sue
Facebook because the company created a new policy specific to him.
·
Upping
the ante, Twitter on Wednesday said it would ban all political advertising
globally. In
a tweet thread, CEO Jack Dorsey said: “A political message earns reach when
people decide to follow an account or retweet. Paying for reach removes that
decision, forcing highly optimized and targeted political messages on people.”
. . . politics
·
Latin
American fact-checkers will meet online this afternoon to share techniques they
use to debunk falsehoods related to street protests in Ecuador, Chile, Peru and
Bolivia. Olivia Sohr, from Chequeado (in Argentina), has been leading the team
in monthly calls. Those who want to join (the conversation will be in Spanish)
can click here.
·
Brazil’s
Aos
Fatos (in Portuguese) reports that since January, President Jair Bolsonaro
has verbally attacked journalists and media outlets 162 times, or an average of
more than once every two days. In August alone, while the Amazon region was
burning and his government was being pressured by international celebrities,
Bolsonaro disparaged the press 46 times. The number is probably higher if you
include his weekly Facebook live events.
·
The
European Commission said Facebook, Twitter and Google must do more to fight
misinformation or they could face regulatory action. The threat comes
more than a year after the EU signed a voluntary code of conduct with the
platforms.
. . . the future of news
·
Conspiracy-minded
QAnon adherents have turned to UFO narratives for their conspiratorial fix, Vice
reported, mixing an old conspiracy world with a new one in a development
that worries some disinformation experts.
·
Before
voting in Sunday’s presidential election, Argentinians could literally ask
their Google Assistant for the latest fact checks from Reverso,
the collaborative project launched by more than 100 media outlets in the
country to fight misinformation. Voters needed only to use the microphone to
say “Quiero hablar con Reverso” (“I want to talk to Reverso”) to get the system
working.
·
PolitiFact’s
Josie Hollingsworth recently completed an
IFCN fellowship at Maldita.es in Spain. She
wrote for Poynter about the fact-checking group’s customer relationship
management tool, which Maldita uses to source its fact checks.
Remember
that video from a Kentucky gun range that people circulated on social media
earlier this month saying it was part of a military operation in northern
Syria? The hoax even caught
ABC News off guard, forcing the network to apologize after it aired the
video and called it a Turkish attack on Kurdish civilians.
Looking
back, it appears that the first fact-checker to catch that hoax was Turkey’s Teyit.
The video with the false caption started circulating not long after Turkey
launched a new ground offensive
in Syria that followed U.S. President Donald Trump’s indication
that U.S. troops stationed in the country would be leaving.
When
Teyit’s fact-checkers saw the video being played repeatedly on social media by
different sources, including the former mayor of Ankara, they went to work. One
technique they used was a reverse image search, which showed the video had
surfaced before. And it turned out the video was from a shooting event at the
Knob Creek Gun Range in West Point, Kentucky. Gulin Çavus, Teyit’s
editor-in-chief, said comments on the video also indicated it didn’t originate
in Syria.
What we liked: Teyit’s article was published Oct. 10 —
way ahead of others who debunked it. Agence
France-Presse, which did its own fact check the next day, credited Teyit
and also took the story a bit further, noting that the Kentucky video had been
deceptively used in other cases, too. Especially in times of armed conflict,
when rumors and hoaxes tend to proliferate, this episode is a good reminder to
journalists and others to watch fact-checkers in the region who are working in
real time and are most likely to recognize a fake when they see it.
1. Applications for Global Fact 7, the
annual worldwide gathering of fact-checkers, will be open tomorrow (Nov. 1).
More information about the event, to take place in Oslo next June, will be
available on IFCN’s website
and social
media.
2. Cristina wrote
about how a false resignation letter from a high-ranking Lebanese minister
made its way onto CNN in Arabic.
3. For the first time, the IFCN was cited
by comedians on “Saturday Night Live,” the popular American late-night variety
show. Here
is a link to the Oct. 26 show (fact-checking comes up after the sixth minute).
4. According to Factcheck.org’s quarterly
financial disclosure, support from the Annenberg Foundation is "nearly
exhausted.” (h/t Alexios)
5. MediaWise (Poynter’s media literacy project)
partnered
with beauty blogger Ingrid Nilsen to find out how much fact is actually behind
wellness trends.
6. Was that photo in the White House
Situation Room staged? There is no evidence it was, PolitiFact
reported.
7. In Maine, anonymous social media pages are
posting hyper partisan content about elections.
8. Researchers wrote
for The Washington Post about how political disinformation campaigns are
using astroturfing techniques on Twitter.
9. Susan reviewed
another book about speech on the internet.
10. And don’t forget, it’s Halloween – a day
for pranks. The
New York Times explains how some hoaxes and folk tales can also spread
misinformation.