Fake News

[Bill Moore]

http://www.defenseone.com/technology...nation/136417/

Why Fake News Spreads: A Neurological Explanation

Recent research into the roots of persuasion in the brain yields some important clues about how people are convinced to propagate news that is not true or poorly sourced. Bottom line: fake news appeals directly to the portions of the brain associated with social acceptance. Activity from those regions has a bigger effect on decision-making than logical argument — like some snobby East Coast news outlet trying to tell you “true” things.

[Bill Moore]

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/whats-fa...s-investigate/

What's "fake news"? 60 Minutes producers investigate

What does the phrase “fake news” mean? It depends who you ask. The term has become so loaded that when a team of 60 Minutes producers began to investigate fake news, the producers first had to agree on a definition.

“We weren’t interested in doing a story about the ‘fake news’ that is invoked by politicians against the media for stories that they don’t like or for comments that they don’t like,” explains producer Michael Radutzky in the 60 Minutes Overtime video above. “We’re using the term ‘fake news’ to describe stories that are provably false, have enormous traction in the culture, and are consumed by millions of people.”

[Bill Moore]

The following article acknowledged that propaganda, supported by fake news, has always existed, but clearly not the scale it does today. The other difference is non-state actors can compete on equal footing with state actors (perhaps superior footing than most democracies due to their limitations to compete imposed by the law).

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technolog...ins-grew-2016/

But this gate of information exchange was unlocked around 2007, with the beginnings of the social media revolution. The creation of social networks like Facebook and Twitter allowed people to exchange information on a much greater scale than ever before, while publishing platforms like WordPress allowed anyone to create a dynamic website with ease. In short, the above barriers to creating fake news were undone:

1. Distribution and cost: The costs of publishing (via WordPress) and distributing (via social networks) approached zero.

2. Audiences and trust: Given these much lower costs, reputations are far more expendable.

3. Law and regulation: With much lower costs, far more operators were involved in exchanging information. The trickle of regulated (at least by law) information exchange through the gate became a tidal wave - and one that is impossible to regulate in full.

[Bill Moore]

An article from the trusted Pew Research Center, or is it?

http://www.pewinternet.org/2017/03/2...e-news-online/

The Future of Free Speech, Trolls, Anonymity and Fake News Online

Many experts fear uncivil and manipulative behaviors on the internet will persist – and may get worse. This will lead to a splintering of social media into AI-patrolled and regulated ‘safe spaces’ separated from free-for-all zones. Some worry this will hurt the open exchange of ideas and compromise privacy

◾ Respected internet pundit John Naughton asked in The Guardian, “Has the internet become a failed state?” and mostly answered in the affirmative.

This comment is thought provoking, what does a failed state in the cyber domain mean? That is under controlled by government or international regulatory body? What are the implications of a failed state in the cyber domain? It seems to parallel the risks associated with failed physical states (minus mass migration), with an increase of crime, fracturing of identities, new sub-state groups increasing radical due to listening to their own echo chambers without any balancing views? Furthermore, the cyber domain/state has influence on all traditional states defined by their geographical boundaries, and their populations? Does the failed cyber state enable actors to act outside government control in a way that threatens governments via the promotion of fake news (and other means)? BREXIT, back lash against globalization (without really understanding why), deepening divides between left and right, the perception of chaos, etc. Can states control the impact of this failed state by increasingly regulating it? How does that impact the economy, that is increasingly web based? California is proposing a law to make it illegal to deliberately spread false news. That will prove interesting enough to pass, much less enforce.

Their research resulted in four themes (there are sub themes under each of these worth reading):

Theme 1: Things will stay bad because to troll is human; anonymity abets anti-social behavior; inequities drive at least some of the inflammatory dialogue; and the growing scale and complexity of internet discourse makes this difficult to defeat.

Theme 2: Things will stay bad because tangible and intangible economic and political incentives support trolling. Participation = power and profits

Theme 3: Things will get better because technical and human solutions will arise as the online world splinters into segmented, controlled social zones with the help of artificial intelligence (AI)

Theme 4: Oversight and community moderation come with a cost. Some solutions could further change the nature of the internet because surveillance will rise; the state may regulate debate; and these changes will polarize people and limit access to information and free speech

[OUTLAW 09]

An article from the trusted Pew Research Center, or is it?

http://www.pewinternet.org/2017/03/2...e-news-online/

The Future of Free Speech, Trolls, Anonymity and Fake News Online

This comment is thought provoking, what does a failed state in the cyber domain mean? That is under controlled by government or international regulatory body? What are the implications of a failed state in the cyber domain? It seems to parallel the risks associated with failed physical states (minus mass migration), with an increase of crime, fracturing of identities, new sub-state groups increasing radical due to listening to their own echo chambers without any balancing views? Furthermore, the cyber domain/state has influence on all traditional states defined by their geographical boundaries, and their populations? Does the failed cyber state enable actors to act outside government control in a way that threatens governments via the promotion of fake news (and other means)? BREXIT, back lash against globalization (without really understanding why), deepening divides between left and right, the perception of chaos, etc. Can states control the impact of this failed state by increasingly regulating it? How does that impact the economy, that is increasingly web based? California is proposing a law to make it illegal to deliberately spread false news. That will prove interesting enough to pass, much less enforce.

Their research resulted in four themes (there are sub themes under each of these worth reading):

Has someone who has 87 employees and adding another 60 totally focused on this battlespace and it is a true battlespace.... it pales in comparison to the ongoing activities on the darknet side of the internet....

What makes it so hard is the limitation in tools necessary to collect and assess because take twitter bots...they can multiple by a factor of five overnight....and to work the darkside tends to place one on the darkside sometimes as well...

There is now a far more serious question...what is defined as "legal and non legal"??

Right now there was an recent estimate of 43M twitter bots out on the net and know one knows who controls them....

Far more interesting is who controls these botnets and for what purposes....

I would though TTALLY agree the current internet as it stands today 3/4/2017 is in fact a "failed state"...for every single "legal" business model...you will find a "illegal business model of the legal version"...that was not the case five years....

[OUTLAW 09]

Has someone who has 87 employees and adding another 60 totally focused on this battlespace and it is a true battlespace.... it pales in comparison to the ongoing activities on the darknet side of the internet....

What makes it so hard is the limitation in tools necessary to collect and assess because take twitter bots...they can multiple by a factor of five overnight....and to work the darkside tends to place one on the darkside sometimes as well...

There is now a far more serious question...what is defined as "legal and non legal"??

Right now there was an recent estimate of 43M twitter bots out on the net and know one knows who controls them....

Far more interesting is who controls these botnets and for what purposes....

I would though TTALLY agree the current internet as it stands today 3/4/2017 is in fact a "failed state"...for every single "legal" business model...you will find a "illegal business model of the legal version"...that was not the case five years....

If we accept the premise that information can be "weaponized"...THEN we must accept the premise that the internet of 2017 is in fact the "weapons system delivery mechanism" of choice for 2017...

[OUTLAW 09]

http://www.defenseone.com/technology...nation/136417/

Why Fake News Spreads: A Neurological Explanation

The explanation of why "fake news....conspiracy blogsites" and "trolls" working the social media side works so effectively.....is actually simple and straight forward but many tend to overlook it...

It appeals to our very own personal biases....the core problem is we Americans do not even know nor would admit our own biases as being the problem....

I was with a group of multiple different nationalities yesterday on a picnic along one of the many Berlin side canals and the conversation naturally got to Trump and his lies and twitter antics.....

A German turned to me and stated the following..."we accepted the many refugees even if concerned about their numbers simply because we understand what drove them to Berlin coupled with our own history"....you Americans when to comes to Muslims...Blacks...other minorities "simply voice your hate" ....and Americans are good at being vocal....

He used the word hate to mean your biases.........

BTW...years ago I was taught by one of the best interrogators in the world...a German intel officer out of WW2 who had fought mainly on the eastern Front and survived the war....who constantly stated....you must fully and completely understand your own biases before you can do this line of work and be able to sideline those biases when talking with people....

It is actually far harder at first but then one can in fact push them aside and view things in a neutral fashion...asking all the time the core question..."Why"????

[OUTLAW 09]

Russian Disinformation 2.0: Sowing chaos, confusion, and anger in the west
http://internetfreedom.io/rferl__rus...formation.php#

Excellent work: “Russian Narratives on NATO’s Deployment” by @DFRLab
https://medium.com/dfrlab/russian-na...-616e19c3d194#

HOW #PUTIN USES FAKE NEWS TO WAGE WAR ON #UKRAINE
By Nolan Peterson
http://www.newsweek.com/how-putin-us...kraine-577430#

NOTE: The writer was former USAF SOF....

[Bill Moore]

A response in the Pew article I posted above is germane, it illustrates why the problem will get worse, long before, it gets better, assuming it will. The reason is simple, disinformation/fake news works.

Laurent Schpbach, a neuropsychologist at University Hospital in Zurich, focused his entire response about negative tone online on burgeoning acts of economic and political manipulation, writing, The reason it will probably get worse is that companies and governments are starting to realise that they can influence peoples opinions that way. And these entities sure know how to circumvent any protection in place. Russian troll armies are a good example of something that will become more and more common in the future.

[OUTLAW 09]

Network Analysis by @d1gi of top hashtags and account activity leading up to Nov 8 for detecting signs of automation

Can Elections Be — Bot?

https://medium.com/@d1gi/can-electio...t-970d4b4ae430

Really well worth reading.....

[OUTLAW 09]

“He targets the darkness, anger and insecurity that hide in each of us and harnesses them for his own purposes. ”

Our civilization is defined in part by the disciplines — science, law, journalism — that have developed systematic methods to arrive at the truth. Citizenship brings with it the obligation to engage in a similar process. Good citizens test assumptions, question leaders, argue details, research claims.

Investigate. Read. Write. Listen. Speak. Think. Be wary of those who disparage the investigators, the readers, the writers, the listeners, the speakers and the thinkers. Be suspicious of those who confuse reality with reality TV, and those who repeat falsehoods while insisting, against all evidence, that they are true.


To defend freedom, demand fact.