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from the overlords-for-the-robotic-overlords dept.
This morning I was trying to find a video via Youtube of a dust-up that happened in an MLB game last night. I tripped over an annoying video with a robotic voice and still images being scrolled across the screen. I thought I hit this same video more than once, but it may have been multiple videos after seeing what Destin has come up with.
This evening, I finally watched a Smarter Every Day video that's been in my notifications for a few days and lo, he starts talking about political videos that look exactly like the one that plagued me this morning.
The first third of the SED video is the part I thought would be interesting to Soylents. It explains how these multiple videos with subtle changes are intended to avoid detection by algorithms that are looking for repeat postings. Later he also looks at how they are using the different platforms to generate buzz on each other, pushing the fake content up in listings. (In the 9th minute we're shown how easy it is to buy likes and comments and a farm of hundreds of smart phones to get it done.)
The technical measures Big Tech (Youtube, Twitter, Facebook) are both employing and being inundated with to either protect us or get content in front of us is fascinating.
Part 2 and 3 will cover interviews with Twitter and Facebook. I'm sure there are folks here that were already familiar with these goings on, can you share with us any other places to educate ourselves?
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Saturday April 06 2019, @10:50PM
Devil's advocate: misinformation has never not been a thing. Consider the quote by Mark Twain, who predates the Internet by half a century:
"If you don't read the newspaper, you're uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you're mis-informed."
Arguably, the purpose of organized religion is to communicate what leaders want heard. Sometimes that is correct information, sometimes that is incorrect information. Since the beginning of society, humans have always had to discern correct and incorrect news, and since the beginning of society, most humans have never been very good at it; but overall we have been good enough at it to make something resembling forward progress.
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