The Conversation: Disinformation is rampant on social media – a social psychologist explains the tactics used against you

The Conversation: Disinformation is rampant on social media – a social psychologist explains the tactics used against you. “Foreign governments, internet trolls, domestic and international extremists, opportunistic profiteers and even paid disinformation agencies exploit the internet to spread questionable content. Periods of civil unrest, natural disasters, health crises and wars trigger anxiety and the hunt for information, which disinformation agents take advantage of. Certainly it’s worth watching for the warning signs for misinformation and dangerous speech, but there are additional tactics disinformation agents employ.”

New York Times: Russia’s Latest Disinformation Tactic Exploits American Celebrities

New York Times: Russia’s Latest Disinformation Tactic Exploits American Celebrities. “The video was recorded on Cameo, the popular, though now struggling, app where users can pay for personalized messages from famous people — in Mr. [Elijah] Wood’s case, starting at $340. While a genuine video, it was repurposed as part of Russia’s efforts to falsely denigrate Mr. Zelensky as a drug-addled neo-Nazi. Beginning in July, according to a report released on Thursday by Microsoft’s Threat Analysis Center, the video and others like it ricocheted through Russian social media and were ultimately featured by news organizations owned or controlled by the government.”

The political economy of social media: A new eBook (Centre for Economic Policy Research)

Centre for Economic Policy Research: The political economy of social media: A new eBook. “The emergence of social media has reshaped the way humans communicate, interact and coordinate with each other. Assessing the impact of this transformation on politics has been one of the great social science questions of the last or decade or so, and will continue to occupy researchers for a long time to come. A new CEPR eBook provides a snapshot of how economists have been trying to answer this question.”

BBC: Slick videos or more ‘authentic’ content? The Israel-Gaza battles raging on TikTok and X

BBC: Slick videos or more ‘authentic’ content? The Israel-Gaza battles raging on TikTok and X. “When I open up my TikTok feed, two videos play one after the other. The first shows four Israeli soldiers dancing with guns, set against a blue sky. The other is a young woman speaking from her bedroom, with a prominent pro-Palestinian caption. TikTok’s algorithm will determine what kind of videos I want to see and recommend similar content, based on which of the two videos I watch until the end.”

Hard Drives, YouTube, and Murder: India’s Dark History of Digital Hate (WIRED)

WIRED: Hard Drives, YouTube, and Murder: India’s Dark History of Digital Hate. “Today more than half the population of India—759 million people—are online. The country has 467 million active YouTube users—the most in the world. The users are no longer predominantly urban. Nobody has tapped into this proliferation better than right-wing groups dedicated to fostering communal disharmony, moving from hard disks filled with videos and laptops in temples to the vast reach of YouTube and WhatsApp.”

New York Times: How Bad Is Antisemitism Online? It’s Increasingly Hard to Know.

New York Times: How Bad Is Antisemitism Online? It’s Increasingly Hard to Know.. “As the Israel-Hamas war flooded social media with violent content, false information and a seemingly limitless swell of opinions, lawmakers and users have accused platforms like TikTok and Facebook of promoting biased posts…. Where the truth lies, however, is hard to glean, according to academic researchers and advocacy groups.”

Exclusive: New Zealand’s Ardern drafts AI in the fight against extremist content (Axios)

Axios: Exclusive: New Zealand’s Ardern drafts AI in the fight against extremist content. “AI companies including OpenAI and Anthropic have signed up to suppress terrorist content, joining the Christchurch Call to Action — a project started by French President Emmanuel Macron and then New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in the wake of the 2019 mass killing at a Christchurch, N.Z. mosque.”

Air & Space Forces Magazine: 16th Air Force Seeks ‘Unity of Effort’ on Information Warfare

Air & Space Forces Magazine: 16th Air Force Seeks ‘Unity of Effort’ on Information Warfare. “The 16th Air Force is working on an ‘information warfare operations center concept’ to more effectively counteract narratives pushed by China and Russia, said its commander, Lt. Gen. Kevin B. Kennedy Jr., Nov. 13. Enhanced ‘unity of effort’ across the service is the goal, Kennedy said during a livestreamed discussion with AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.”

Northeastern Global News: Most Americans are concerned about AI’s impact on the 2024 presidential election, Northeastern survey finds

Northeastern Global News: Most Americans are concerned about AI’s impact on the 2024 presidential election, Northeastern survey finds. “The majority of Americans are concerned that artificial intelligence will be used to spread falsehoods during the next presidential election, according to a recent Northeastern University survey. The survey was conducted by Northeastern’s new AI Literacy Lab to gauge the general public’s perceptions on AI. It found that 83% of respondents are worried about the proliferation of AI-generated misinformation during the 2024 presidential campaign.”

NBC News: How the GOP muzzled the quiet coalition that fought foreign propaganda

NBC News: How the GOP muzzled the quiet coalition that fought foreign propaganda. “A once-robust alliance of federal agencies, tech companies, election officials and researchers that worked together to thwart foreign propaganda and disinformation has fragmented after years of sustained Republican attacks. The GOP offensive started during the 2020 election as public critiques and has since escalated into lawsuits, governmental inquiries and public relations campaigns that have succeeded in stopping almost all coordination between the government and social media platforms.”

IN FOCUS: How fake news on Israel-Hamas stokes outrage, hatred and ‘potential for violence’ on Southeast Asian TikTok (Channel News Asia)

Channel News Asia: IN FOCUS: How fake news on Israel-Hamas stokes outrage, hatred and ‘potential for violence’ on Southeast Asian TikTok. “A week-long CNA experiment, on top of reports from TikTok users and misinformation experts in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, has identified a steady stream of inaccurate content on the Israel-Hamas war spreading on the platform. While the proliferation of fake news online during geopolitical tensions is not new – an issue which also surfaced during the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war – analysts said the Israel-Hamas conflict takes on a different, perhaps more pernicious dimension in Southeast Asia.”