Misinformation

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Preparing for the fight against 2024 election misinformation

A year out before the Presidential election used to be considered the calm time for election officials and watchers, but 2020 changed all that. Now election administrators and the people who assist them are trying to get ahead of what may come 509 days from now.

https://floridaphoenix.com/2023/06/18/preparing-for-the-fight-against-2024-election-misinformation/?

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Op-Ed: Republicans vs First Amendment again — Disinformation research under legal siege

It’s all about facts again. In the unmitigated denialist lunatic hell that used to be America, you’d think partisan politics would be kept firmly locked in the Sleazy Classifieds section. Any day of the week, you can just search “fact check” on Google News to see pages of disputed information.

https://www.digitaljournal.com/social-media/op-ed-republicans-vs-first-amendment-again-disinformation-research-under-legal-siege/article?

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UP FIRST

The X logo is shown on a computer screen. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic, File)

Anonymous users are dominating right-wing discussions online. They also spread false information

A group of anonymous influencers are rising to dominate right-wing discussion online, identifying as patriotic citizen journalists uncovering real corruption. Yet their demonstrated ability to spread misinformation unchecked while disguising their true motives worries experts with the United States in a presidential election year. Read more.

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? Coming '24 battleground

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

A steady stream of bureaucratic rule changes in Georgia is creating a framework that election deniers could use to delay the certification of the presidential election results come November, Axios Atlanta's Thomas Wheatley reports. Why it matters: Former President Trump and Vice President Harris know the road to the White House runs through Georgia, and the new rules could help cast doubt and fan flames of suspicion on the democratic process like it's 2020 all over again. "Elections are meant to be slow and deliberate processes with a whole lot of redundancies and checkpoints," Cathy Woolard, the former chair of the Fulton Board of Registration and Elections, told Axios. "You can't just drop in new processes and think that they logically work." Keep reading ...

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X fixes AI chatbot after secretaries of state complained it spread election misinformation

Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon on Monday announced that X, formerly Twitter, made changes to its artificial intelligence chatbot, Grok, after multiple secretaries of state wrote to X complaining the chatbot spread election misinformation.

https://floridaphoenix.com/2024/08/28/x-fixes-ai-chatbot-after-secretaries-of-state-complained-it-spread-election-misinformation/?

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? Fact fight fades

Data: Stanford Cable TV News Analyzer. Chart: Erin Davis/Axios Visuals America's obsession with countering mis- and disinformation has withered as society grows skeptical of institutions once trusted with facts, Axios' Sara Fischer writes. Why it matters: Professional fact-checking went mainstream during the first Trump administration, but it's since become politicized. Americans are less enthusiastic about policing information today than they were two years ago, and the trend is bipartisan, according to Pew data. ? By the numbers: Mentions of "misinformation" and "disinformation" across the country's three biggest cable news networks — MSNBC, Fox News and CNN — have declined considerably since the pandemic, according to data from Stanford's Cable TV News Analyzer. Keep reading ...

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?️ Misinformation machine

Illustration: Allie Carl/Axios

The public is increasingly turning to the internet with questions about their health. But for every credible answer, there's a flood of misleading — and sometimes dangerous — misinformation. Why it matters: Getting health advice has never been faster, but figuring out what's trustworthy has never been harder, Axios' Erica Pandey writes. ? Many of MAHA's core ideas — from vaccine skepticism to rejecting seed oils to promoting raw milk — mirror the content health and wellness influencers push today. But there are few signs that scientists or licensed medical professionals are vetting the messages beforehand. Zoom in: For decades, public health organizations have spread their messages through TV ads, press conferences and public service campaigns. But "information is so much more democratized now. It's harder for these slower-moving communication mechanisms to compete," says Tara Kirk Sell, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. Enter the health influencers — endlessly posting about breakfast routines, supplements and parenting hacks. Some share helpful tips, disclaimers included. Others spread half-truths or flat-out falsehoods that rack up millions of views. While health influencers have been gaining traction for several years, the MAHA movement is giving many of them an even bigger platform — and more legitimacy. ? By the numbers: Researchers at the University of Chicago tried to quantify the proliferation of health misinformation on TikTok in a recent study. They focused on #sinustok and found that nearly half (44%) of the videos about sinusitis contained false claims — most from influencers with no medical training. Keep reading.

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YouTube to start bringing back creators banned for COVID-19 and election misinformation

NEW YORK (AP) — YouTube will offer creators a way to rejoin the streaming platform if they were banned for violating COVID-19 and election misinformation policies that are no longer in effect, its parent company Alphabet said Tuesday.

https://apnews.com/article/youtube-reinstatement-covid-election-misinformation-5809a1da0afece53d6e2088e4ac5e462?

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Misinformation is reshaping how we see science

80% of Americans say science misinformation is a major problem. Social media is both the top source of science news and the top source of confusion. That loop is exactly why understanding how science actually works matters more than ever. Learn more.

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Medical misinformation

Covid-19 has killed more than a million people in the US, but Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has claimed that lockdowns did more harm than the virus itself. In a contentious interview with CNN's Dana Bash on Sunday, he made a series of misleading statements about coronavirus, measles, autism, and Lyme disease while renewing his criticism of Dr. Anthony Fauci, who led the US response to the pandemic. Here's what the evidence tells us about Covid-19 today.

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🤖 Synthetic everything

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Stock: Getty Images

A shadowy polling firm confessed this past week to faking surveys in two marquee races — then claimed the entire operation was a "short-term social experiment" on misinformation. Why it matters: An AI-enabled flood of synthetic and outright fabricated content is wreaking havoc on reality, poisoning the signals people rely on to understand politics, business and culture, Axios' Neal Rothschild writes. 📊 Catch up quick: Median Strategies, a previously unknown polling outfit with little public footprint, surfaced this summer with two blockbuster surveys that were quickly absorbed into the political conversation. In Wisconsin's Democratic gubernatorial primary, Median's fake poll showed democratic socialist Francesca Hong leading Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley by 23 points — reinforcing a broader consensus that cast Hong as the clear favorite. Crowley ultimately won by half of a percentage point. In Los Angeles, Median reported Mayor Karen Bass leading City Council member Nithya Raman by nearly 12 points. Bass cited the poll as evidence her campaign was "gaining momentum," only to delete her post after the survey was exposed as bogus. 21-year-old recent college grad Rahil Prakash revealed himself as the person behind Median's operation in an interview with The Guardian. 💥 The big picture: The cost of deception is plummeting. Robocalls using AI to imitate Joe Biden's voice discouraged thousands of people from voting ahead of the 2024 New Hampshire Democratic primary. Businesses are also grappling with terrifying new risks. North Korean operatives have built "a secret workforce" inside U.S. companies, using stolen identities, AI tools and U.S.-based facilitators to land remote jobs, according to a Wall Street Journal investigation (gift link). Global consultancy Arup lost more than $25 million after an employee joined a video call with deepfake versions of company executives and followed instructions to transfer money to various bank accounts. 🥶 Not even the weather has been spared: Alabama meteorologist James Spann said he fielded more than a dozen questions about an imaginary late-August "cold wave" this week after AI engagement farms churned out bogus forecasts online.