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The best medicine against online disinformation is an informed society that's thinking critically. The problem is there are no shortcuts to universal education.
Enter Finnish Public Broadcasting Company, Yle, which is hoping to harness the engagement power of gamification to accelerate awareness and understanding of troll tactics and help more people spot malicious internet fakes. It has put together an online game, called Troll Factory, that lets you play at being, well, a hateful troll. Literally.
The game begins with a trigger warning that it uses "authentic social media content" that viewers may find disturbing. If you continue to play you'll see examples of Islamophobic slogans and memes that have actually been spread on social media. So the trigger warning is definitely merited.
The game itself takes the form of a messaging app style conversation on a virtual smartphone in which you are tasked by the troll factory boss to whip up anti-immigrant sentiment. You do this by making choices about which messages to post online and the methods used to amplify distribution.
Online disinformation tactics intended to polarize public discourse which are depicted in the game include the seeding of conspiracy theory memes on social media; the exploitation of real news events to spread fake claims; microtargeting of hateful content at different demographics and platforms; and the use of paid bots to amplify propaganda so that hateful views appear more widely held than they really are.
After completing an inaugural week's work in the troll factory, the game displays a rating and shows how many shares and follows your dis-ops garnered. This is followed by contextual information on the influencing methods demonstrated — putting the activity you've just participated in into wider context.
Source: https://techcrunch.com/2019/09/13/this-game-uses-troll-tactics-to-teach-critical-thinking/
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 15 2019, @12:57AM (15 children)
Wow that sounds like the most amazing game EVER one that abuses me! Can not wait to get a copy /s
That is a serious lack of awareness why people play games.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 15 2019, @01:04AM
Nah, bro. You need to play this and Depression Quest too.
(Score: 4, Funny) by ikanreed on Sunday September 15 2019, @01:17AM (7 children)
If you'll excuse the imposition, let me abuse you for a minute, you fucking dipshit.
The game is about you organizing systems to deceive other people, thus helping establish a sense of how a provocateur might think, thus hopefully encouraging critical thought about the messages you read.
As you've very adequately demonstrated, this is a fruitless effort, because the internet is filled with people like you who can't read one fucking goddamn paragraph of summary before shouting your opinion about a headline.
(Score: 4, Funny) by fustakrakich on Sunday September 15 2019, @01:56AM
Hmm, sounds like the game has begun...
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 3, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday September 15 2019, @02:46AM (3 children)
You get that the shit they're calling trolling isn't trolling, yes? It's boring old psyops. Trolling doesn't require anything untrue be said, just something that will wind you up.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Monday September 16 2019, @01:10AM
Trolling is one method of psyop, though. For example, posting true but inflammatory things in the hopes of getting one portion of the opposition faction mad at the other portion of the opposition faction.
I agree "troll factory" is a bad name for these operations though. They would be much more accurately called "Internet astroturfing".
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by https on Monday September 16 2019, @12:36PM (1 child)
The term you are looking for is flamebait.
Offended and laughing about it.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday September 16 2019, @01:51PM
Flamebait is trying to create a flamewar. Trolling is trying to misplace someone's cheese for them. Subtle difference.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 15 2019, @02:57AM (1 child)
And as you have show you do not understand sarcasm.
I played educational games when I was younger. They were total crap. They teach nothing other than how to get out of class and make the teacher think you are learning something.
But here is your 'one goddamn paragraph'. The best medicine against online disinformation is an informed society that's thinking critically. The problem is there are no shortcuts to universal education.
Meaning shit to people who play games give about one rats ass about.
If you want to learn how to device people. Playing video games is pretty much exactly not how to do it. You first lose any empathy for anyone. Then learn sales techniques, magic, and marketing. You know shit that is proven in how to manipulate people.
Maybe you could try to understand someone's POV before calling them names? Maybe use your moniker and think about it. 'ikanreed' indeed. (oh by the way that is sarcasm again).
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 15 2019, @04:08AM
And as you have show you do not understand sarcasm.
I can't decide which of you two to tell first...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 15 2019, @01:42AM (5 children)
What happens when a troll plays? Will he/she/it get any smarter?
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Sunday September 15 2019, @02:45AM (3 children)
Actually, I once used a book titled "The Art of Deception" to teach critical thinking. Much the same strategy: if you know how to use the techniques, you can spot when others are attempting to use them one you.
Are you aware that Trump was not actually born in the United States? He was born in the Bahamas, or Jamaica, or somewhere not America. Look it up! What's good for the birther is good for the birthee! And, Steven Miller.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Mer on Sunday September 15 2019, @11:42AM
"Pre-suation" by the same guy (Cialdini) covers most of the same topics (if you read a lot about this subject you realize there's a lot of overlap) with a title that might get you less oblique leers if you read it in public. AoD has less matters on marketing/commercial applications but anyone with half a brain can draw their own conclusions and uses by reading just one of the two.
Shut up!, he explained.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 15 2019, @01:33PM
What AMERICAN has ever named a child "Hillary"? And, yes, Aribabbler, you are perfectly well aware that Hillary was the first Birther.
https://www.scribd.com/doc/4097983/Penn-Strategy-Memo-3-19-07 [scribd.com] Scroll down to "Lack of American Roots".
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Monday September 16 2019, @01:14AM
Important works in the field include Edward Bernays' books "Crystallizing Public Opinion" and "Propaganda", where he started codifying how to influence large groups of people using mass media. Attempts to control public opinion in modern times take a lot of the same techniques and add "... using the Internet".
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Sunday September 15 2019, @08:36AM
If I understand it correctly, it allows trolls to get even more efficient at trolling.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 5, Informative) by helel on Sunday September 15 2019, @01:15AM (3 children)
The game is here [trollfactory.yle.fi] for those that want to see it. In my opinion it's pretty much what it sounds like. In a number of places there aren't even any options, just click to continue.
I really question how effective this kind of thing is. If you're already familiar with how social media can be manipulated then you learn nothing new and if you're not I can't imagine this being any more effective than just writing an article.
Republican Patriotism [youtube.com]
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 15 2019, @01:27AM
Oh, I'm pretty sure this is effective. Very effective. But probably not the way the creators of this "game" intended. I just know this will be an invaluable tool for the next generation of internet trolls to learn the trade.
(Score: 2) by optotronic on Sunday September 15 2019, @01:34AM
Except a lot of people won't read an article, but may play a game. Not that I did either...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 15 2019, @02:46AM
I tried the game and all I saw was typical everyday Facebook shlit.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Captival on Sunday September 15 2019, @01:56AM (11 children)
I tried it for 2 minutes. "Illegal immigration is a crime" is an example of inflammatory evil content in the game, instead of being a factually true and completely sensible position.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 15 2019, @02:13AM (10 children)
I love the phrase islamophobic. Are we communistphobic if we reject communism?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 15 2019, @02:50AM (1 child)
Yes. St0pid Americans!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 15 2019, @02:51AM
Does AC win, now?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 15 2019, @03:05AM
You should be worried about those Calvinist no-go zones!
(Score: 5, Insightful) by janrinok on Sunday September 15 2019, @07:52AM (5 children)
No - only if you are frightened by it. A phobia is a fear, not a dislike of something. And many people are (unnecessarily in my view) frightened of Islam. They believe that every Muslim is a terrorist who wishes to kill them, whereas, like any other religion, the majority of Muslims are just normal people like you or I while a very small number of them are extremists.
It is exactly the same with every other religion.
This is NOT an invitation to begin a religious crusade in this thread - lets move on.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 15 2019, @09:53AM (2 children)
They didn't call it "The Red Scare" because people had rationally considered the theoretical tenants or practical application of Communism and decided to reject it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 15 2019, @04:15PM (1 child)
Not wanting to starve to death seems rather rational to me. I think there was this thing that happened in China and the Soviet Union.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Thexalon on Monday September 16 2019, @01:19AM
Arguing "Communism is bad because it caused starvation for millions of Chinese and Ukrainians." is not the same as "Communist spies are lurking all around you, ready to sneak into your nuclear bomb shelter to murder your family." The US government pushed the second line of thinking, not the first.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 15 2019, @04:11PM (1 child)
Of course, that’s why the Middle East is so peaceful and they’re so accepting of the LGBTQIAAP community. In fact can you name a majority Muslim country that is? I wonder if gays are islamophobic if they don’t come out in those countries. Much food for thought.
(Score: 4, Informative) by janrinok on Sunday September 15 2019, @04:33PM
Is Russia an Islamic nation? It wasn't when I last lived there. But they treat the LGBT community badly as well. Perhaps, then, the cause is not religion. Just because a nation has different laws to your own, views the world differently or has a majority of a people with a different religion doesn't make them wrong. We might ( and I do ) think that they could treat people better but each nation is free to choose its own path in the world. If you want to see change you can either move there and use your vote, or try to use your national influence to get them to change. Otherwise, your views are simply that - your views.
Until relatively recently the LGBT communities in the western world were also treated badly, and they are still are in the USA and Europe to this day but things are getting better - was that because they were full of Muslims, or because they hadn't yet developed a sense of justice and freedom for all people?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 15 2019, @01:44PM
It depends on if you fear Communism and/or see a wide conspiracy to implement it. See also the Red Scares [wikipedia.org].
I wonder if in 50 years we'll be remembering the Muslim Scares of the early 2000s.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Sunday September 15 2019, @02:52AM (3 children)
Educating ourselves and our children about trolling, disinformation, and propaganda is not easy, and worse, it's barely even attempted. Schools have mostly stuck to the hard technical subjects. Those are easier to teach than soft squishy social sciency stuff. Also, it avoids run-ins with politics. Mostly, the education on propaganda appears to consist of studying Orwell's 1984 and similar works, in English class, and touching on it in history class. Not exactly the most focused settings.
It would seem right up Social Studies' alley, but there's other problems with that class. First, the manner in which it's taught is often the rote memorization route. The students come away able to fill in the blanks on the tests, but do not understand it. And, it's apt to be abused as a propaganda organ itself, to stuff students full of nonsense. Like the states that were once part of the Confederacy telling students that the US Civil War was primarily about states' rights. History too is very easy to mangle with propaganda. American history gets pretty self-congratulatory and lacking in critical viewpoints. Yep, the Gilded Age had lots of corruption and wealth concentration, but that was long ago, the bad guys were stopped because American justice works, so you can all relax, it doesn't matter any more, ho hum, just more boring facts to memorize so you can pass the test. Any school that's trying to "teach the controversy" between evolution and creationism may well be mucking up those other subjects.
Another subject they're very bad at is teaching financial discipline. They sort of try, a little, with economics classes. Heck, they may think that's unteachable, because that's fighting against irrational human nature.
Gaslighting and dysfunctional work environments are subjects that as far as I've heard, aren't covered at all. Might be too painful for teachers stuck in just such an environment themselves.
(Score: 3, Funny) by c0lo on Sunday September 15 2019, @10:37AM (1 child)
Good God! Shut your mouth, you fool. Don't you realize what you proposed and consumerism are antagonist?
Do you want unemployement and job losses? Why do you hate capitalism?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Sunday September 15 2019, @02:37PM
LOL, why does capitalism hate the Earth?
Jobs? How quaint. Before long, robots and AI will take them all.
Now excuse me, I need to see what I can salvage from my grandfather's fallout shelter, for use on my escape rocketship to Mars, where I and my descendants can work towards the day that Earth will be habitable again. No place on Earth will be safe from the coming apocalypse, which will be in, oh, about 40 years, and will be a combo Global Warming, Nuclear War, Famine, Epidemic, Killer Robot, Gray Goo Event. Billionaire bunkers aren't going to be good enough to handle all that. Tours of the ruins should be good for some laughs centuries in the future, once Earth is repopulated.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 15 2019, @10:44AM
Our childrens will get that trolling education, whether they like it or not. Some of them will break. Should be fun.
Even without a formal curriculum, children are starting to adapt to the situation. Unlike the 70 year old men commenting on your local newspaper's website who can be trolled endlessly.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 15 2019, @03:41AM (1 child)
Sounds like Slashdot on steroids...
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Sunday September 15 2019, @08:43AM
So you say reading Slashdot teaches critical thinking?
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by J_Darnley on Sunday September 15 2019, @06:18AM
Needed for people who cannot handle the real world? They need to be in a madhouse because they are clearly insane.
(Score: 2) by BsAtHome on Sunday September 15 2019, @08:16AM (2 children)
Everybody should see Wag the Dog [imdb.com]. It was meant to be ironic, sarcastic and funny, but turns out to be an educational documentary. After seeing and understanding that film, you should be able to believe nothing from any media source ever again.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 15 2019, @10:42AM (1 child)
I had this ability well before I watched the movie. Even today I'm able to believe nothing, no matter the source
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 15 2019, @10:53AM
I don't believe you.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by jmichaelhudsondotnet on Sunday September 15 2019, @08:55AM (1 child)
I think they need to flip this around for better results, with only this side of it you are training kids how to actually be disinformation agents.
What they need help with is how to have a civilian society and effective work groups to get things done and affect change where needed.
How to hold a consensus when the united states military (and pick 5 others) do not want anyone to have a consensus about this topic?
Consider this scenario(and I hope the devels see this):
A class of 30 must decide on whether or not to give aid to a foreign country whose government is actively using propaganda on them to make it difficult to get the actual facts.
The students must
-decide which media sources are not owned and operated by people from this country
-decide which of 100 messages targetted to them individually are true, and each student gets a different set of personalized propaganda
-decide who was the aggressor or manipulator in 10 events in that region
-decide which person in their class is an actual former member of this countries spy agency while this person actively tries to make everyone in the class start a race war with each other over unrelated issues
THAT is what needs to be taught, but don't expect that to come from the institutions that are trying to make it impossible for 5 people to have an unsupervised, unrecorded meeting.
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 15 2019, @01:56PM
"Consensus" is one of those gay terms that real people don't use. "Consensus" is nothing more than a dogwhistle for liberals.
(Score: 2) by theluggage on Sunday September 15 2019, @09:38AM
This seems to be based off another study [cam.ac.uk] which actually claims to have some evidence of effectiveness. You can also play the "game" online.
I think there's a difference between using "gamification" techniques in education and claiming that you're producing games. If you look at the Cambridge example its actually fairly linear - what most of the decisions are doing is keeping you engaged and forcing you to read the text (some of them are "Yay!" vs. "I Rule!" non-choices - but you have to read them to know). The next GTA it is not - but its way more engaging than reading an essay or a "gawp mode" video on fake news techniques.
One problem I see with the Finnish idea is that they are basing it on a "serious" subject on which people may already have strong views. Also, I'd like to think that there's a pretty solid consensus view that, views on the details of immigration policy notwithstanding, knowingly stirring up racism to support your view (which the Finnish game pretty much explicitly asks you to do) is a Bad Thing.
A better exercise might be to ask players to write the fake news for both sides of an argument...
The Cambridge "game" relies on somewhat less sensitive subjects and gives you a bit of choice between vaguely left-ish (evil big corporations!) or right-ish (evil government!) subjects. Their theory makes comparisons to "vaccinations" and "weak doses" whereas the Finnish version seems to work on the basis a measles party... But then I read this tweet that said vaccinations are a plot by alien lizards to restrict human intelligence... [theguardian.com]
Disclaimer: haven't tried the Finnish app, have tried the Cambridge one and, as a result, suddenly realise that everything I ever read about The Blue Oyster Cult was a hoax... :-)