Der Spiegel: AfD Accuses Google of Sabotaging Campaign. “DER SPIEGEL has learned that Google has refused for more than a week to place certain ads for a controversial anti-Merkel website created by the Alternative for Germany. The right-wing populist party says it will respond by spending its budget for the project on Facebook instead.”
politics
Texas secession movement: Russia-linked Facebook group asked us to participate in anti-Clinton rallies (Business Insider)
Business Insider: Texas secession movement: Russia-linked Facebook group asked us to participate in anti-Clinton rallies. “A Russia-linked Facebook group asked a Texas secessionist movement if it would participate in a series of anti-immigrant, anti-Hillary Clinton rallies it was planning to hold across the state last November, the group’s president told Business Insider on Thursday.”
CNET: Facebook gives investigators new details on Russian ads
CNET: Facebook gives investigators new details on Russian ads. “Facebook has sent government investigators new records about Russian-linked ads placed on its service during the 2016, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.”
Exclusive: Facebook Won’t Reveal if Russia Targeted You During the Election (The Daily Beast)
The Daily Beast: Exclusive: Facebook Won’t Reveal if Russia Targeted You During the Election. “The social media giant … declined to commit to releasing information about Russian government-backed Facebook posts, groups, and paid advertisements to the users who encountered them. That means Facebook users may never know if they were targeted by foreign propaganda campaigns during the 2016 election, or if those campaigns are still filling up their newsfeeds today.”
StateScoop: ‘World’s first’ civic change network targets Twitter, Facebook users
StateScoop: ‘World’s first’ civic change network targets Twitter, Facebook users. “There have been dozens of attempts to create websites and apps that more closely connect the public with lawmakers, but none have achieved the widespread popularity needed to fortify democracy the way their founders imagined. Another such platform launched a crowdfunding campaign Tuesday, but the minds behind it intend to do a few things differently.”
George Washington University: GW Launches New Tip Sheet on Political Twitter Activity
George Washington University: GW Launches New Tip Sheet on Political Twitter Activity . “Researchers at the George Washington University launched on Friday a new weekly recap of political activity on Twitter. The publication, called The ECHO, will quantify which politicians, issues, campaigns and political institutions are garnering the most traction on the social media platform…. The inaugural edition of The ECHO found a dramatic increase in social media activity surrounding the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, with 5.3 million related tweets during the Aug. 31-Sept. 6 report period. That represented a 3,638 percent increase from the previous week. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the end of the program on Sept. 5.”
Science Magazine: Social media ‘bots’ tried to influence the U.S. election. Germany may be next
Science Magazine: Social media ‘bots’ tried to influence the U.S. election. Germany may be next. “On 3 September, as German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her main opponent Martin Schulz faced off in an election debate that many viewers panned as more of a duet than a duel, a far livelier effort was underway on social media. People on Twitter started using the hashtag #verräterduell, which translates as ‘duel of traitors’ and mirrors the claim by the right-wing Alternative für Deutschland party that both Merkel’s mainstream Christian Democrats and Schulz’s Social Democrats have ‘betrayed’ the country. Yet much of the venom may not have been fueled by angry voters, researchers say. Instead it looks like the work of bots, or fake social media profiles that appear to be connected to human users, but are really driven by algorithms.”
