People are the Problem With Fake News so Leave Those Poor Bots Alone

[DooKey]

According to a new study from the smart folks at MIT, bots aren't the ones spreading all the fake news. Wait for it. People are spreading fake news like crazy and they are the ones at fault. Further, the researchers came to the conclusion that the one way to stop the spread of fake news is to mark tweets as fake before people can hit the retweet button. Good luck with that. Anyway, who would have thought (sarcasm intended) that people just like to retweet anything and everything?

Sinan Aral, co-author of the paper and an expert on social networks at MIT, told The Register he was surprised. He "expected bots to play a significant role" in infecting social media with fake news. Instead they simply accelerated the number of retweets but did not really change the magnitude of how many lies were spread.

 

[KamelRed]

Twitter is and has always been a cancer.

 

[kidstechno3]

 

[Master_shake_]

everyone i don't like is a russian bot.

 

[Ididar]

Big shocker. If people see something they like they just share it or re-tweet it. They don't much care if it is fake or not as long as it reinforces their personal belief system. And, considering that their friends will then re-tweet or share it just as fast and with just as much critical thinking they're rarely forced to face the fact that they believed something fake. Every time I see something shared on social media that isn't coming from a major news organization I immediately do a web search to see if it is fake or not. Unfortunately, I'm obviously in the minority. And, if you point out to people that their share or re-tweet is fake they rarely, if ever, bother to respond and acknowledge they were duped. They prefer to bury their head in the sand and keep believing.

 

[Draax]

I can buy this. My brother-in-law regularly shares posts vomiting disgusting anti-immigrant nonsense filled with hate. He gets so mad when I post the snopes links clearly indicating that his posts are fake news. I'm not sure what he is more pissed of about ... that fact that he is proven wrong or that his attempt to spread hate fails.

 

[pcgeekesq]

Not surprisingly, the study found the novelty was the best predictor of how fast something spread.
So of course fiction spreads faster -- if it isn't more interesting than reality, why bother writing it?

Come to think of it, maybe this is what's wrong with the "news" media today? The bean counters don't care about truth, they care about eyeballs, and interesting fiction attracts more eyeballs than boring old truth.

 

[dandirk]

Not surprisingly, the study found the novelty was the best predictor of how fast something spread.
So of course fiction spreads faster -- if it isn't more interesting than reality, why bother writing it?

Come to think of it, maybe this is what's wrong with the "news" media today? The bean counters don't care about truth, they care about eyeballs, and interesting fiction attracts more eyeballs than boring old truth.

This is pretty much it, you can't remove all bias since people by default are biased but it has gotten a lot worse now that its a fast 24hour news cycle AND success is determined by viewers (ads etc) and less about integrity. You get both "sides" pandering to their viewers. They know a over blown "trump is evil" (or immigrants will kill your kids while taking your job) will get their customers to click on it and their opponents as well. If it was "Trumps plan will work but there are a few issues" both sides will most likely ignore it.

Its self-propagating as well. The sensational us vs them news just divides everyone farther increasing their reaction to ever more extreme reporting/news.

 

[Trinode]

Its seems like we have gotten into a positive feedback loop with the different media outlets. If you like topic XYZ you are going to end up looking for content on XYZ and ignore (for the most Part) any dissenting content (Confirmation Bias). Then of course at that point us consumers for the most part are not inclined to do thorough research and just read the headlines.

Some of us [H] guys and gals might be more willing to dive deep than the average consumer.

 

[Dead Parrot]

Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, etc are not in the news business. They are in the data collection and selling business and the business of selling and distributing ads. Expecting them to do stuff that hurts their primary business is fake hope. FB et. al. may talk a good game on fighting fake news but they really don't care if someone views a page because it is real or fake, they just want the page views so the tracking scripts run and collect data.

 

[dgingeri]

The bigger question is who determines what is "fake news"? I've seen a whole lot of mainstream news agencies tout complete garbage as news, and then say that truth about things they don't want to cover is fake news.

 

[Despotes]

Leftist political playbook Rule # 1. Blame everybody you don't agree with as being either a sexist, racist or fascist. The media and social networks will support you.
Truth has been replaced with relativism in our educational system and elsewhere. The above accusations become believable since the end justifies the means as critical thinking has been tossed out the window. Feelings and emotions, unfortunately, rule our culture as we become brain dead and hyper-emotional
News is no longer news, but editorial opinion designed to sway the average safe space seeking viewer or reader.

 

[jardows]

Conspiracy theories, urban legends, chain emails, and now "fake news." Is anyone really surprised that these are simply amplified with the advent of social media?

 

[dandirk]

Leftist political playbook Rule # 1. Blame everybody you don't agree with as being either a sexist, racist or fascist. The media and social networks will support you.

Yup the "leftists" are the only ones that point the finger at everyone else...

 

[PantherBlitz]

The bigger question is who determines what is "fake news"? I've seen a whole lot of mainstream news agencies tout complete garbage as news, and then say that truth about things they don't want to cover is fake news.

The crap that passes as "news" today by people who should know better is a sad indictment of society indeed. Never before has the ability to read between the lines been as important.

 

[Despotes]

Yup the "leftists" are the only ones that point the finger at everyone else...

Spoken like a true leftist.

 

[Navilor]

A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on. - Winston Churchill

 

[Jeremy C]

I can buy this. My brother-in-law regularly shares posts vomiting disgusting anti-immigrant nonsense filled with hate. He gets so mad when I post the snopes links clearly indicating that his posts are fake news. I'm not sure what he is more pissed of about ... that fact that he is proven wrong or that his attempt to spread hate fails.

Has your brother-in-law posted the meme that Snopes is a Dem/Soros controlled agency only out there to promote liberal propaganda? My favorite part is Snopes has a debunk of that meme already waiting.

 

[dgingeri]

I can buy this. My brother-in-law regularly shares posts vomiting disgusting anti-immigrant nonsense filled with hate. He gets so mad when I post the snopes links clearly indicating that his posts are fake news. I'm not sure what he is more pissed of about ... that fact that he is proven wrong or that his attempt to spread hate fails.

As if Snopes has any credibility as a source in any case. It can't prove squat.

 

[Snowdensjacket]

I can buy this. My brother-in-law regularly shares posts vomiting disgusting anti-immigrant nonsense filled with hate. He gets so mad when I post the snopes links clearly indicating that his posts are fake news. I'm not sure what he is more pissed of about ... that fact that he is proven wrong or that his attempt to spread hate fails.

Your emotion laden words in no way translate to being against importing foreigners as somehow "untrue". Some people would rather close our borders and focus on creating greater social bonds within our already existing population, and focus on fixing the many issues we already have to deal with, without creating even more problems and lose even more social cohesion then we already have.

Just because you disagree with his posts and have an emotional reaction to said posts doesn't mean that they are "fake". Nor does your post put forth any argument at all, except that you have an emotional reaction, to said posts not meeting some standard of truth. Perhaps rather than react emotionally you could post a counter argument. You would have to take the time to understand his position first though, which may be difficult if you have such an emotional reaction (as in immediately thinking "that's hate!").

 

[TwistedAegis]

Your emotion laden words in no way translate to being against importing foreigners as somehow "untrue". Some people would rather close our borders and focus on creating greater social bonds within our already existing population, and focus on fixing the many issues we already have to deal with, without creating even more problems and lose even more social cohesion then we already have.

Just because you disagree with his posts and have an emotional reaction to said posts doesn't mean that they are "fake". Nor does your post put forth any argument at all, except that you have an emotional reaction, to said posts not meeting some standard of truth. Perhaps rather than react emotionally you could post a counter argument. You would have to take the time to understand his position first though, which may be difficult if you have such an emotional reaction (as in immediately thinking "that's hate!").

Or perhaps this post is you showing your bias that, seeing the post is anti-immigrant, you identify with that and assume the poster is assuming that is in and of itself hateful, instead of trusting the poster's word.

Given that he references it being fake as shown by Snopes, he did post a counter-argument.

But this is where we've come to. I can post a flat earth argument written by a 3rd-grade teacher on "mysuperduperblogspot.com", and then I expect/demand that people refute my argument with 10,000 pages of math, physics, astronomy, etc, which I obviously won't get. Even if I do, I'll try to quickly find one quick discrepancy and use it to discredit the whole lot. (Forum 101)

 

[TAP]

I had friends who repeatedly shared batshit crazy anti-Clinton stuff even though they knew they were completely untrue. I even had 3 college educated software developers try to convince me that Pizzagate was real. The impact that fake news has had on society is profound. Americans are now making electoral decisions based on two different set of facts which is arguably more dangerous than anything else society has to face right now.

 

[naib]

Cognitive biased... They must already hold those views so when they see something that re-affirms their views/beliefs they will be drawn to it and disregard that which doesn't...

all in all... if the true report didn't align with their views they would disregard it so it really doesn't matter to the individual JUST the integrity of hte reporting medium

 

[dgingeri]

Therefore, what we have determined is that all news is fake news and this whole venture to prevent fake news is completely arbitrary and useless.

 

[Draax]

Your emotion laden words in no way translate to being against importing foreigners as somehow "untrue". Some people would rather close our borders and focus on creating greater social bonds within our already existing population, and focus on fixing the many issues we already have to deal with, without creating even more problems and lose even more social cohesion then we already have.

Just because you disagree with his posts and have an emotional reaction to said posts doesn't mean that they are "fake". Nor does your post put forth any argument at all, except that you have an emotional reaction, to said posts not meeting some standard of truth. Perhaps rather than react emotionally you could post a counter argument. You would have to take the time to understand his position first though, which may be difficult if you have such an emotional reaction (as in immediately thinking "that's hate!").

I’m not sure where you are getting “emotional” from ... and based on the tone of your post it would appear you are quite clearly projecting. The fact that you took such offence would also infer that you share the same disgusting factually incorrect extremist anti-immigrant beliefs.. good luck with your hate.

 

[lilbabycat]

I even had 3 college educated software developers try to convince me that Pizzagate was real.

There was absolutely nothing I saw in the MSM that debunked pizzagate until many many many weeks after (very conveniently) an attempted shooter tried to go into comet pizza. If there was something amiss there, it was cleared out in that time of absolute media black+denial. Whether or not that place had anything going on, I dunno. But to have a blanket denial of everything claimed by all parties of all parties without a shred of investigation; nope smells fishy. Given the history of Hollywood and government powers in the past, I have no doubts there are is weird-pedo shit going on somewhere in the ranks. Or we just gonna claim people like Weinstein and Weiner are isolated incidents?

 

[TAP]

There was absolutely nothing I saw in the MSM that debunked pizzagate until many many many weeks after (very conveniently) an attempted shooter tried to go into comet pizza. If there was something amiss there, it was cleared out in that time of absolute media black+denial. Whether or not that place had anything going on, I dunno. But to have a blanket denial of everything claimed by all parties of all parties without a shred of investigation; nope smells fishy. Given the history of Hollywood and government powers in the past, I have no doubts there are is weird-pedo shit going on somewhere in the ranks. Or we just gonna claim people like Weinstein and Weiner are isolated incidents?

Why would MSM debunk something that originated from a white supremacist twitter account and propagated through 4chan? The fact that you're sitting here telling me that this was a legitimate news story that should have been looked into by the MSM should scare the shit out of every American.

 

[TwistedAegis]

Why would MSM debunk something that originated from a white supremacist twitter account and propagated through 4chan? The fact that you're sitting here telling me that this was a legitimate news story that should have been looked into by the MSM should scare the shit out of every American.

It's like the exact opposite of Occam's Razor. Out of a population of answers, the answer with the absolute most assumptions possible is the most likely.

 

[Krenum]

Like most things in this world, people are the problem.

 

[Snowdensjacket]

Or perhaps this post is you showing your bias that, seeing the post is anti-immigrant, you identify with that and assume the poster is assuming that is in and of itself hateful, instead of trusting the poster's word.

Given that he references it being fake as shown by Snopes, he did post a counter-argument.

But this is where we've come to. I can post a flat earth argument written by a 3rd-grade teacher on "mysuperduperblogspot.com", and then I expect/demand that people refute my argument with 10,000 pages of math, physics, astronomy, etc, which I obviously won't get. Even if I do, I'll try to quickly find one quick discrepancy and use it to discredit the whole lot. (Forum 101)

Oh so you're just trolling me. Have a nice day sir

 

[Incontentia Buttocks]

Interesting (to me) was that the mainstream media fell all over itself in a rush to discredit Pizzagate...but did nothing to refute the "Hands up, don't shoot" lie. Double standard?

 

[Yukon Ranger]

The bigger issue at the heart of this, is who is deciding what “fake news” is?

I’d say more than ever it is important to check the data on literally everything you read these days, because more often than not, there will be no data, or data that links in a circle etc. What is becoming increasingly common though is massive anti conservative censorship by facegoogle et al, the David Hogg story is a perfect example. They didn’t like the narrative, are actively censoring it from the search, and have now started banning anyone supporting it.

It doesn’t matter if it is true or not, it’s a direct move against free speech with malicious political bias.

 

[lilbabycat]

Why would MSM debunk something that originated from a white supremacist twitter account and propagated through 4chan?

Well for one, it didn't originate from "a white supremacist twitter account", but good for you eating up the rhetoric they tell you. Perhaps you even went to wikipedia and used excellent references like the totally trustworthy and not-at-all-biased Snopes and Politifact to learn all the details?

My reading has shown that the fine detail allegations are probably weak yes, but the connections referenced are extremely strong and worth investigating. Those articles referenced spend the vast majority of their time on the "theory" part of the conspiracy and little on the facts that were represented. The connection between David Brock, the Comet Pizza owner, Podesta, and others are a very real thing. And guess what was completely passed by and never talked about again? Those facts. And now its another "Oh he's bringing up the emails again!" line. Yes motherfucker, I am bringing up one of the most common forms of communication in the 21st century and what is revealed by them. Apparently I'm a lunatic for wanting to know what exactly is going on behind the curtains. Apparently instead of taking the truth in the outlandish statements and distilled what is worthwhile from it, then going from there is too difficult a task for low-hanging-fruit "journalists" of today. So conveniently, instead of exploring the possibility that there could be some truth in there, we have to throw our hands up and proclaim that all of it should be completely ignored, forever and just reply snarkly with "the emails" "mah pizza".

But a "source" "close to" "people that are familiar with" the "people in the industry" claim that there is a Russian Piss tape of Trump, and that's totally ok to spout off as legitimate news. Where's the politifact on that one?

The fact that you're sitting here telling me that this was a legitimate news story that should have been looked into by the MSM should scare the shit out of every American.

And fuck your dishonest dialogue. The hypocrisy is what should "scare the shit out of every american".

 

[TAP]

Well for one, it didn't originate from "a white supremacist twitter account", but good for you eating up the rhetoric they tell you. Perhaps you even went to wikipedia and used excellent references like the totally trustworthy and not-at-all-biased Snopes and Politifact to learn all the details?

My reading has shown that the fine detail allegations are probably weak yes, but the connections referenced are extremely strong and worth investigating. Those articles referenced spend the vast majority of their time on the "theory" part of the conspiracy and little on the facts that were represented. The connection between David Brock, the Comet Pizza owner, Podesta, and others are a very real thing. And guess what was completely passed by and never talked about again? Those facts. And now its another "Oh he's bringing up the emails again!" line. Yes motherfucker, I am bringing up one of the most common forms of communication in the 21st century and what is revealed by them. Apparently I'm a lunatic for wanting to know what exactly is going on behind the curtains. Apparently instead of taking the truth in the outlandish statements and distilled what is worthwhile from it, then going from there is too difficult a task for low-hanging-fruit "journalists" of today. So conveniently, instead of exploring the possibility that there could be some truth in there, we have to throw our hands up and proclaim that all of it should be completely ignored, forever and just reply snarkly with "the emails" "mah pizza".

But a "source" "close to" "people that are familiar with" the "people in the industry" claim that there is a Russian Piss tape of Trump, and that's totally ok to spout off as legitimate news. Where's the politifact on that one?


And fuck your dishonest dialogue. The hypocrisy is what should "scare the shit out of every american".

And this insanely long post of yours continuing to imply that Pizzagate is a real story should scare the shit out of Americans even more.

 

[TAP]

Well for one, it didn't originate from "a white supremacist twitter account", but good for you eating up the rhetoric they tell you. Perhaps you even went to wikipedia and used excellent references like the totally trustworthy and not-at-all-biased Snopes and Politifact to learn all the details?

My reading has shown that the fine detail allegations are probably weak yes, but the connections referenced are extremely strong and worth investigating. Those articles referenced spend the vast majority of their time on the "theory" part of the conspiracy and little on the facts that were represented. The connection between David Brock, the Comet Pizza owner, Podesta, and others are a very real thing. And guess what was completely passed by and never talked about again? Those facts. And now its another "Oh he's bringing up the emails again!" line. Yes motherfucker, I am bringing up one of the most common forms of communication in the 21st century and what is revealed by them. Apparently I'm a lunatic for wanting to know what exactly is going on behind the curtains. Apparently instead of taking the truth in the outlandish statements and distilled what is worthwhile from it, then going from there is too difficult a task for low-hanging-fruit "journalists" of today. So conveniently, instead of exploring the possibility that there could be some truth in there, we have to throw our hands up and proclaim that all of it should be completely ignored, forever and just reply snarkly with "the emails" "mah pizza".

But a "source" "close to" "people that are familiar with" the "people in the industry" claim that there is a Russian Piss tape of Trump, and that's totally ok to spout off as legitimate news. Where's the politifact on that one?


And fuck your dishonest dialogue. The hypocrisy is what should "scare the shit out of every american".

Look, the first thing I need to do is apologize. I shouldn't be aggressive with my disagreement. It doesn't help anything. I've read extensively on Pizzagate from multiple perspectives and biases. I know as well as anyone that you have to put a story together by combining viewpoints. But I have yet to see anything that would lead me to believe that there is any truth to this. What I ask is that you give me a few good concrete nuggets of information that would make me reconsider my position. This is a sincere request.