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We Tracked Down a Fake-News Creator in the Suburbs

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Re: We Tracked Down a Fake-News Creator in the Suburbs

#91

Post by DanielBMarkham »

epicureanideal wrote: post #3

This was the most interesting part for me... -------- He says he got into fake news around 2013 to highlight the extremism of the white nationalist alt-right. "The whole idea from the start was to build a site that could kind of infiltrate the echo chambers of the alt-right, publish blatantly or fictional stories and then be able to publicly denounce those stories and point out the fact that they were fiction," Coler…

False flag operations. Purposeful provocateurs. Seeing a lot of that lately.

The thing to remember -- and this comes before the time there was a net -- is that the vast majority of people are nice, socially intelligent, and well-meaning.

What the net is doing is convincing us that those in the out-group are simple-minded fools being led around by evil demagogues. That is not the case.

But the net is not doing that because of bad people on the net. The net is doing that because humans are predisposed to consume lots of content that tells them this. The fault is internal to each of us. The net is just automating the ability of content providers to take advantage of it.

Re: We Tracked Down a Fake-News Creator in the Suburbs

#92

Post by usrusr »

nickfromseattle wrote: post #14
caf wrote: post #5

The first "fake news" I remember seeing was about a year ago, and it was completely apolitical - it was a made-up story about a multiple-fatality car crash in my city. When I investigated the source, it had several exact copies of the same article, just set in different cities around the world. At the time I was completely bewildered as to the motive behind this, but I can only assume that it's the ad money, as paltr…

I was tricked by KNP7.com. If you search "Eminem moves to {city name}" the exact same article appears for multiple cities including Seattle, New York and probably dozens of other cities.

That's how you increase click rates using geoIP databases.

Re: We Tracked Down a Fake-News Creator in the Suburbs

#93

Post by JanezStupar »

JonnieCache wrote: post #71
dmichulke wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It almost sounds as if you believe that silencing these fake news will stop people from believing fake news. I don't think so. Also, slaughtering millions in the 20th century was usually the job of a big government in a big country and I have difficulty recalling that "fake news believers" or any kind of people actually voted for a war or went on the streets in favor of a war. And practically always before and during…

I'm not talking about wars - I'm talking about the holocaust and the deaths from internal repression in the soviet union and maoist china. One of the preconditions for such things to take place is the corruption of truth in the public discourse. I'm sorry if this seems like exaggeration or scaremongering but I find these stories terrifying far beyond the election of donald trump. >the governments regularly shouted "f…

Milgram and Stanford Prison experiments show us that "ordinary good people" are the ones who turn into monsters if you give them the right incentives/conditions.

What was one of major factors in bringing down the Soviet Union - was information campaign of which Radio Free Europe was a major part. While, indeed their policy was dissemination of truth. Undoubtedly it would have been seen as "fake news" by the Soviets.

While I have no idea what is the solution to this problem, I am pretty sure that censorship is the worst thing we can do.

Also consider - that the main stream media conglomerates have recently justified "fake news" sources by doing a horrendous job themselves.

Re: We Tracked Down a Fake-News Creator in the Suburbs

#94

Post by usrusr »

pakitan wrote: post #74
msane wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow. Thanks for the insight into this psychology. It's all greed with you then isn't it? You'll lie to people and de-educate them for good money. Perhaps you would consider being a slum lord or a pimp or a drug dealer for the right price?

Do you really think it's possible to de-educate any further people who think the moon landing was faked?

Just as education, de-education is a lifelong process.

Re: We Tracked Down a Fake-News Creator in the Suburbs

#95

Post by neom »

insertnickname wrote: post #55
dmfdmf wrote: post #34

Since the government had taken over education aren't they responsible for churning out morons who can't think for themselves and distinguish fake news from real news? Perhaps that was their goal all along.

When companies fail, consumers go somewhere else. When the government fails, we give it more money. The real problem with government is not enough spending.

Not enough or misapplied?

Re: We Tracked Down a Fake-News Creator in the Suburbs

#96

Post by intoverflow2 »

reitoei wrote: post #76
titzer wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not all bad. We're here, aren't we?

Going totally OT here for a sec, but you guys are awesome. Seriously. This is one of the only places I feel I can come where people are, for the most part, respectful and polite to each other. Nobody is pushing a personal agenda with religion, politics or ethics. Nobody is trying to convince you the world is flat or that aliens built the pyramids. Nobody cares if you're male/female/trans/whatever. Just a bunch of fol…

Isn't this the other half of the problem? People sitting comfy in their echo chambers.

I'm sure the people on alt-right forums feel the same way about their fellow posters.

Re: We Tracked Down a Fake-News Creator in the Suburbs

#97

Post by [deleted] »

reitoei wrote: post #65
epicureanideal wrote: post #3

This was the most interesting part for me... -------- He says he got into fake news around 2013 to highlight the extremism of the white nationalist alt-right. "The whole idea from the start was to build a site that could kind of infiltrate the echo chambers of the alt-right, publish blatantly or fictional stories and then be able to publicly denounce those stories and point out the fact that they were fiction," Coler…

> I hope we don't get to the point where it's really just all out information warfare... and it seems like we're already halfway there. We live in a world where the Daily Mail is the most-visited English language news web site and people are using fucking toasters to launch DDOS attacks. The internet has gone to hell. We've already lost.

[deleted]

Re: We Tracked Down a Fake-News Creator in the Suburbs

#98

Post by intoverflow2 »

msane wrote: post #70
vinhboy wrote: post #51

This story is fascinating to me. I also run a couple of these "wordpress" informational type sites, but never in my dream did I thought about publishing fake news to make money. Too bad I was not smart enough to get into this business. I wish he would be more honest about it. I am pretty sure he's just doing it for the money. I don't blame him. That's good money. The moral and ethical dilemma of it is kinda murky. Is…

Wow. Thanks for the insight into this psychology. It's all greed with you then isn't it? You'll lie to people and de-educate them for good money. Perhaps you would consider being a slum lord or a pimp or a drug dealer for the right price?

Don't think we're really on a moral high ground here when a huge chunk of this forum likely makes a living from utilising in depth personal info to drive advertisements, targeted advertising from the major tech companies make it all possible.

Re: We Tracked Down a Fake-News Creator in the Suburbs

#99

Post by reitoei »

intoverflow2 wrote: post #96
reitoei wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Going totally OT here for a sec, but you guys are awesome. Seriously. This is one of the only places I feel I can come where people are, for the most part, respectful and polite to each other. Nobody is pushing a personal agenda with religion, politics or ethics. Nobody is trying to convince you the world is flat or that aliens built the pyramids. Nobody cares if you're male/female/trans/whatever. Just a bunch of fol…

Isn't this the other half of the problem? People sitting comfy in their echo chambers. I'm sure the people on alt-right forums feel the same way about their fellow posters.

Is that fair though? Would you consider a something like a online bee-keeping community or a MUD an 'echo chamber'? I think the phrase gets bandied about a bit too easily nowadays.

Alt-right forums have a specific agenda, the former would have none. I see HN in that regard, but that's just me.

Re: We Tracked Down a Fake-News Creator in the Suburbs

#100

Post by pakitan »

usrusr wrote: post #94
pakitan wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you really think it's possible to de-educate any further people who think the moon landing was faked?

Just as education, de-education is a lifelong process.

If one lacks education in the first place, they don't have much to de-, do they?
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