Pinboard (jm)
https://pinboard.in/u:jm/public/
recent bookmarks from jmGoogle and Microsoft’s chatbots are already citing one another in a misinformation shitshow2023-03-24T11:25:15+00:00
https://www.theverge.com/2023/3/22/23651564/google-microsoft-bard-bing-chatbots-misinformation
jmWhat we have here is an early sign we’re stumbling into a massive game of AI misinformation telephone, in which chatbots are unable to gauge reliable news sources, misread stories about themselves, and misreport on their own capabilities. In this case, the whole thing started because of a single joke comment on Hacker News. Imagine what you could do if you wanted these systems to fail. It’s a laughable situation but one with potentially serious consequences. Given the inability of AI language models to reliably sort fact from fiction, their launch online threatens to unleash a rotten trail of misinformation and mistrust across the web, a miasma that is impossible to map completely or debunk authoritatively. All because Microsoft, Google, and OpenAI have decided that market share is more important than safety.
]]>google ai ml microsoft openai chatgpt trust spam misinformation disinformationhttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:1f5b64825f87/‘Immunity debt’2022-11-14T18:04:08+00:00
https://globalnews.ca/news/9272293/immunity-debt-covid-19-misinformation/
jmThe term “immunity debt” is circulating widely online as an explanation for a significant surge in respiratory illness in Canada [... This] hypothesis suggests people’s immune systems are weaker now, due to a lack of exposure to viruses while observing COVID-19 public health measures over the last two-and-a-half years.
But this notion [...] is simply not true, says Colin Furness, an infection control epidemiologist and assistant professor in the faculty of information at the University of Toronto. “That is, in my estimation, and any immunologist will tell you this, nonsense,” he said.
Dr. Samira Jeimy, an allergist and clinical immunologist at St Joseph’s Health Care London, agrees, saying the idea that one’s immune system can be weakened due to lack of exposure to illness “shows a basic lack of understanding of how the immune system works.”
“There’s almost like an old wives tale, that you need to get sick to develop a healthy immune system. That’s actually not true.”]]>immunity immunology covid-19 rsv viruses health medicine immunity-debt misinformationhttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:841a2cc1d747/‘Bot holiday’: Covid disinformation down as social media pivot to Ukraine2022-04-01T11:39:06+00:00
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/mar/04/bot-holiday-covid-misinformation-ukraine-social-media
jminternet bots russia propaganda misinformation disinformation covid-19 ukraine-invasionhttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:fd727f6fce37/a short story about pandemic misinformation & biased reporting2022-02-14T11:28:16+00:00
https://twitter.com/Orla_Hegarty/status/1492586980735082497
jmmisinformation irish-times fail health covid-19 safety hpsc new-york-times npr bmjhttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:74e14604d9c0/Why indoor spaces are still prime COVID hotspots2021-03-31T09:47:11+00:00
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00810-9
jmOn 28 March 2020, two months after the WHO had declared COVID-19 a global health emergency, the agency broadcast a public-health message on Twitter and Facebook. “FACT: #COVID19 is NOT airborne,” it said, labelling claims to the contrary as misinformation. But evidence quickly established that the virus is transmitted by air, and researchers roundly criticized the agency.
The WHO updated its advice on SARS-CoV-2 transmission three months later, acknowledging the possibility that airborne transmission might occur in some community settings. Airborne transmission in “crowded and inadequately ventilated spaces over a prolonged period of time with infected persons cannot be ruled out”, the updated advice says.
Yuguo Li, a building environment engineer at the University of Hong Kong, says that he is disappointed it took the WHO and other health authorities so long. “We would have saved a lot of people” if airborne transmission was recognized earlier, he says.
]]>aerosols transmission airborne who covid-19 misinformation air-quality airhttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:bdad19a5f619/The Plot Against George Soros2020-09-16T23:16:45+00:00
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/hnsgrassegger/george-soros-conspiracy-finkelstein-birnbaum-orban-netanyahu
jmpolitics hungary george-soros lies antisemitism propaganda misinformationhttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:8074edfdab37/'To the four nurses in Ireland...RIP': The Covid-19 Twitter claim that made it to the national airwaves2020-08-17T21:13:47+00:00
https://www.thejournal.ie/four-nurses-paddy-cosgrave-covid-19-twitter-timeline-5155876-Aug2020/
jmcovid-19 paddy-cosgrave twitter misinformation tweetshttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:9d9ce13a62e8/Carl T. Bergstrom on Twitter2020-03-26T21:52:46+00:00
https://twitter.com/CT_Bergstrom/status/1243252341756669953
jmthe fight against misinformation is not merely a scientific communication issue. It's a vital public health necessity. [...] In all the years of studying infectious disease and planning for this day, I never dreamed that when it came I'd be opposed by my own federal government, a non-trivial fraction of my fellow citizens, and as yet undetermined fraction of hostile foreign actors.
]]>disinformation misinformation propaganda trump covid-19 scicomm science public-health social-media twitter pandemicshttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:5e4c198d44e7/The Heartland Lobby2020-02-18T16:31:59+00:00
https://correctiv.org/en/top-stories-en/2020/02/11/the-heartland-lobby/
jmThroughout the next half hour, Taylor shares the inner workings of his disinformation toolbox. He believes that Mathias, the PR agent sitting opposite him, wants to help his clients funnel cash into the intricate network of climate change deniers.
Taylor explains how he is able to raise awareness of topics in exchange for money, how people can make tax-deductible donations anonymously through a U.S. foundation, and how the Institute’s publications mimic the tone of the New York Times so obscure ideas are taken more seriously. He detailed how he intends to make a young YouTuber from Germany the star of climate denier, and how he works closely with German partners whose ideas are consistently cited by the AfD in the Bundestag.
Then a few weeks later, Taylor will send an offer in writing. It is something like a strategy document for a PR campaign in Germany: A campaign that the public will not recognize for what it really is, making it even more effective. The goal: No more prohibitive climate laws. Diesel instead of electric cars, energy from coal instead of wind turbines, industry growth instead of environmental protection.
]]>heartland-institute germany lobbying astroturfing misinformation disinformation climate-change climate-denialhttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:9c1a15179381/the CO2 footprint of email is greatly exaggerated2020-02-10T11:46:55+00:00
https://blog.chrisadams.me.uk/2020/02/08/getting-the-bottom-of-that-asinine-article-about-the-co2-footprint-of-email/
jmIf you care about the environmental impact of tech, worrying about email is not the place to spend your time and energy.
Worry instead about the big tech companies accelerating the extraction of fossil fuels, when we need to keep them in the ground. [....] Worry instead about consulting companies you admire doing the same, and helping the same oil and gas companies, but keeping quiet about doing so. Worry about how blase we are about flying when it makes up a significant chunk of company emissions in many tech consultancies and enterprise sales teams.
]]>climate-change email factoids misinformation carbonhttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:f68df6efacd5/The sustainable fashion conversation is based on bad statistics and misinformation - Vox2020-02-10T11:45:11+00:00
https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/the-goods/2020/1/27/21080107/fashion-environment-facts-statistics-impact
jmI pulled all of these statistics and other common "facts" from reputable sources. McKinsey. The United Nations. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation. The World Bank. International labor unions. Advocacy organizations. And these facts have been cited by publications like the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.
Not all of these highly respected experts could be wrong. Could they?
It turns out they could. Because only one out of the dozen or so most commonly cited facts about the fashion industry’s huge footprint is based on any sort of science, data collection, or peer-reviewed research. The rest are based on gut feelings, broken links, marketing, and something someone said in 2003.
]]>bad-data data facts factoids misinformation fashion fast-fashion climate-changehttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:7f65d4c2f537/Steve Bannon on shitposting2020-01-24T22:44:09+00:00
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-02-09/has-anyone-seen-the-president
jmshitposting distraction tactics steve-bannon trump tories politics misinformation disinformationhttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:9c7b4406cd90/Pinterest blocks vaccine-related searches in bid to fight anti-vaxx propaganda | Technology | The Guardian2019-02-21T17:30:25+00:00
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/feb/20/pinterest-anti-vaxx-propaganda-search-facebook?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
jmThe phenomenon on display in the Facebook search result screenshots is known in technology circles as a “data void”, after a paper by the Data & Society founder and researcher danah boyd. For certain search terms, boyd explains, “the available relevant data is limited, non-existent, or deeply problematic”.
In the case of vaccines, the fact that scientists and doctors are not producing a steady stream of new digital content about settled science has left a void for conspiracy theorists and fraudsters to fill with fear-mongering propaganda and misinformation. [...]
Pinterest has responded by building a “blacklist” of “polluted” search terms.
“We are doing our best to remove bad content, but we know that there is bad content that we haven’t gotten to yet,” explained Ifeoma Ozoma, a public policy and social impact manager at Pinterest. “We don’t want to surface that with search terms like ‘cancer cure’ or ‘suicide’. We’re hoping that we can move from breaking the site to surfacing only good content. Until then, this is preferable.”
]]>data-voids danah-boyd pinterest antivax vaccination misinformation disinfo vaccines truth blacklistinghttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:24d807cb77ad/Zeynep Tufekci: "Youtube is a crucial part of the misinfomation ecology"2017-02-28T14:36:08+00:00
https://twitter.com/zeynep/status/836253363889143808
jmYouTube is crucial part of the misinformation ecology. Not just a demand issue: its recommender algo is a "go down the rabbit hole" machine.
You watch a Trump rally: you get suggested white supremacist videos, sometimes, auto-playing. Like a gateway drug theory of engagement.
I've seen this work across the political spectrum. YouTube algo has discovered out-flanking and "red-pilling" is.. engaging. So it does.
This thread was in response to this Buzzfeed article on the same topic: https://www.buzzfeed.com/josephbernstein/youtube-has-become-the-content-engine-of-the-internets-dark]]>youtube nazis alt-right lies politics google misinformation recommendations ai red-pillhttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:073e20b72cf3/How Macedonia Became A Global Hub For Pro-Trump Misinformation - BuzzFeed News2016-11-04T13:29:28+00:00
https://www.buzzfeed.com/craigsilverman/how-macedonia-became-a-global-hub-for-pro-trump-misinfo#.abyP0oOAe
jm“I started the site for a easy way to make money,” said a 17-year-old who runs a site [from Veles] with four other people. “In Macedonia the economy is very weak and teenagers are not allowed to work, so we need to find creative ways to make some money. I’m a musician but I can’t afford music gear. Here in Macedonia the revenue from a small site is enough to afford many things.”
]]>macedonia veles scams facebook misinformation donald-trump us-politicshttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:96b0b429041a/