by admin | May 25, 2021 | Markets, Social Media, World
San Francisco : Technology giants Google, Facebook and Twitter — already facing flak for presence of false news on their platforms — failed miserably to stop publishing fake news related to Las Vegas massacre in which at least 59 people died and over 400 injured, media reported on Tuesday.
According to a report in technology website Siliconbeat, Google returned a search result from a shady online forum “4chan” that named the wrong man as killer.
“While Facebook’s ‘Safety Check’ feature confronted users with far-right blogs that spat out false information about victims and the shooter, Twitter displayed false rumours and information about ‘missing’ people who were not connected to the episode,” the report said.
In one of the deadliest mass shootings in American history, a gunman in a high-rise hotel in Las Vegas opened fire on a huge outdoor concert festival, sending thousands of terrified survivors fleeing for cover.
While authorities identified the gunman as 64-year-old Nevada resident Stephen Paddock, Google initially showed result from “4chan”, which identified the killer as Geary Danley, into its “Top Stories” section.
“4chan” is well-known as a haven for racists, misogynists and conspiracy theorists and was also the source of 2008 fake news that Apple’s then-CEO Steve Jobs suffered a heart attack — a falsity that nonetheless knocked $5 billion off of Apple’s stock value in a single morning, the report noted.
Google later acknowledged that it had been briefly surfacing an inaccurate ‘4chan’ website in its Search results for a small number of queries.
“The fake news was algorithmically replaced by relevant results within hours. This should not have appeared for any queries, and we’ll continue to make algorithmic improvements to prevent this from happening in the future,” Google was quoted as saying in the report.
Meanwhile, Facebook’s “Security Check” page — that lets people involved with disasters and accidents post messages for friends and loved ones — published a blog post from “Alt-Right News” that said “the killer may have been a Trump-hating American television host Rachel Maddow fan” in an apparent reference to the misidentified Danley’s Facebook page.
“Alt-Right News” theorised that the actual shooter, Paddock, was probably a “left-wing nutjob” associated with a woman who “may or may not be a Muslim”, the report pointed out.
Facebook said its security staff saw the post and removed it. “However, its removal was delayed by a few minutes, allowing it to be screen captured and circulated online. We are working to fix the issue that allowed this to happen in the first place and deeply regret the confusion this caused,” Fast Company quoted the social media giant as saying.
According to Buzzfeed, fake news regarding the incident may have its roots on Twitter, with false reports appearing within minutes of the shooting.
Several accounts pointed the finger at an “Islamic convert” who is actually a comedian beloved by the far right. Then the false reports of “missing” people started popping up, Buzzfeed reported.
Among those falsely stated to be missing in Las Vegas were a German pro-soccer player, a murder suspect from Mexico and a male porn star — whose pictures were taken from the Internet.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Markets, Networking, Online Marketing, Social Media, Technology
Mumbai : With youth subscribing more digital content over television, the newly-launched Facebook and Twitter Over The Top (OTT) videos may affect the market of other OTT platforms since most people spend a huge time on social media, an sector stakeholder said on Saturday.
“… Considering the fact that more and more people spend a huge time on Facebook and Twitter… I think Facebook and Twitter videos are going to be game changer in coming two years,” said Spandan Mishra, creative communication head of OTT platform Hotstar at a panel discussion during the India Film Project – Season 7.
“They have no dearth of money, a huge audience is already there, so all they need is content. So yes, it will create a different to other OTT platform,” he added.
Asked about if TV and internet TV can co-exist, TV producer J.D. Majethia, founder of Hats Off Production LTD who had brought back one of his earlier productions “Sarabhai VS Sarabhai” from television to Hotstar, said the major shift is yet to happen.
Noting that it is “true that people have started subscribing a lot to a digital platform”, he noted that “we must not forget that did not majorly happen from TV to digital. In urban India, people have various avenues of recreations including shopping malls, live gigs, online entertainment etc. but the major Indian population, especially women who are housewives, prefer to watch TV”.
“However the choice of content has changed; and I agree that the choice of medium is also changing. But the complete shift is yet to happen.”
India Film Project Season 7 is a two-day extravaganza that conducts film screening, workshop panel discussion on cinema and digital content encouraging youngsters to create new content. It ends on Sunday.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Markets, Social Media, World
Washington : Facing an intense scrutiny over the presence of Russian ads on its platform during the 2016 American presidential election, Facebook will finally hand over nearly 3,000 Russian political ads to US Congress on Monday.
According to a ReCode report, along with the Russian ads, Facebook plans to share information about the users those ads targeted and how they were paid for with the House and Senate Intelligence Committees as well as the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“All three committees are investigating the extent to which Russia may have interfered in last fall’s US presidential election,” the report added.
Facebook is facing a probe after disclosing the details about the presence of Russian political ads worth $100,000.
After an extensive legal and policy review, the social media giant recently announced that it would share 3,000 Russian ads with Congressional investigators.
Google, Facebook, and Twitter have been invited to testify to the Senate Intelligence Committee on November 1 over the Russian probe.
Facebook earlier handed over the details to Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is currently investigating claims of alleged Russian meddling in the election, included copies of the ads and details about the accounts that bought them and the targeting criteria they used.
As the probe into Moscow’s alleged meddling in the election intensifies, Twitter also announced that it has deleted over 200 fake Russian accounts and identified Russia Today of buying bought ads targeted at American users’ accounts.
In a closed-door meeting last week, Colin Crowell, Twitter’s Vice President for Public Policy, met with staff from Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence to discuss the issue.
Twitter also shared with committee staff ads that three Russia Today accounts targeted to the US market in 2016.
“Based on our findings thus far, RT spent $274,100 in US ads in 2016. In that year, the three RT accounts promoted 1,823 tweets that definitely or potentially targeted the US market,” Twitter said.
Google has also launched a probe into the role its services could have played in the Russian interference.
“Google is conducting a broad internal investigation to determine whether Russian-linked entities used its ads or services to try to manipulate voters ahead of the US election,” media reports said last week.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Markets, Social Media, World
Washington : US President Donald Trump’s lawyers have asked Facebook to provide the private account information of the social media giant’s users engaged in “anti-administration activists”.
“The warrants specifically target the accounts of three Facebook users who are described by their attorneys as anti-administration activists who have spoken out at organised events, and who are generally very critical of this administration’s policies,” CNN reported on Saturday.
The social media giant went through seven months of legal proceedings so it could make all three users aware that administration lawyers wanted their online details.
“We successfully fought in court to be able to notify the three people whose broad account information was requested by the government,” a Facebook spokesperson told CNN.
Meanwhile, on behalf of the targeted activists, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has moved to block the warrants.
The ACLU said in a filing that enforcing the warrants would “reach deeply into individuals’ private lives and protected associational and political activity”, according to Independent.co.uk.
It warns that giving the government access to such broad repositories of data would stifle future speech.
Earlier in February, warrants were issued by the Attorney for the District of Columbia that asked Facebook to furnish details about the activities of three users who spearheaded mass protests against Trump’s inauguration.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
San Francisco : Dismissing US President Donald Trump’s claim that Facebook was hostile against him like The New York Times and The Washington Post, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that Trump’s allegations were baseless.
Trump tweeted late Wednesday: “Facebook was always anti-Trump. The Networks were always anti-Trump hence, Fake News, @nytimes (apologised) and @WaPo were anti-Trump. Collusion?”
Zuckerberg responded: “Trump says Facebook is against him. Liberals say we helped Trump. Both sides are upset about ideas and content they don’t like. That’s what running a platform for all ideas looks like”.
According to Zuckerberg, the facts suggest the greatest role Facebook played in the 2016 US election was different from what most were saying.
“More people had a voice in this election than ever before. There were billions of interactions discussing the issues that may have never happened offline. Every topic was discussed, not just what the media covered,” he posted.
Facebook is facing intense fake news scrutiny after disclosing the details about the presence of Russian political ads worth $100,000 on its platform during the presidential election.
“This was the first US election where the internet was a primary way candidates communicated. Every candidate had a Facebook page to communicate directly with tens of millions of followers every day.
“Campaigns spent hundreds of millions advertising online to get their messages out even further. That’s 1000x more than any problematic ads we’ve found,” he added.
After an extensive legal and policy review, the social media giant announced that it would share 3,000 Russian ads with Congressional investigators.
Congressional leaders have sent a letter to Facebook, Google and Twitter, requesting them to provide information on whether Russia purchased any advertisements on their platforms.
Facebook earlier handed over the details to Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is currently investigating claims of alleged Russian meddling in the election, included copies of the ads and details about the accounts that bought them and the targeting criteria they used.
Facebook, Twitter and Google have also been summoned to testify before the US Senate Intelligence Committee.
According to Zuckerberg: “After the US election, I made a comment that I thought the idea misinformation on Facebook changed the outcome of the election was a crazy idea.
“Calling that crazy was dismissive and I regret it. This is too important an issue to be dismissive. But the data we have has always shown that our broader impact — from giving people a voice to enabling candidates to communicate directly to helping millions of people vote — played a far bigger role in this election,” he added.
—IANS
