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Social media bots often tweet fake health claims about cannabis: study

news.usc.edu

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Re: Social media bots often tweet fake health claims about cannabis: study

#71

Post by scottlocklin »

JaumeGreen wrote: post #6
deith wrote: post #2

You don't have to go and look on social media, just come here to HN and say "perhaps weed is not completely safe and we should research whether it could damage the brain" to get downvoted

There's lots of pro-cannabis and pro-LSD comments everywhere. My cynical view is that the "power" wants us all sedated, and it's investing its media to promote the "new" batch of drugs to get another generation hooked up. I do think that there are probably quite beneficial uses of drugs, but probably not in a ludic way as most people prefer to use them.

Certainly one of the things that gives me the creeps are the CBD quiosques freaking everywhere selling what amounts to CBD weed, CBD lotions, CBD potions, CBD whatever; I've seen them in airports, in tourist locations and in shopping malls. Mostly completely unpatronized, with a sullen presumably CBD anesthetized employee manning the desk. Just for the rent and employees we're talking something like a hundred millions a year in money flying out the window. To what end? Nobody is buying this shit (outside of tourist locations afaik). Someone is paying for it to happen.

It reminds me of when the Israeli spooks were selling toys in shopping malls in 2001 (rounded up after 911 and memory holed)[1]. Maybe it's just RJR ramping up to sell actual weed everywhere, but it sure is creepy.

[1] https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel...

Re: Social media bots often tweet fake health claims about cannabis: study

#72

Post by KingMachiavelli »

deith wrote: post #2

You don't have to go and look on social media, just come here to HN and say "perhaps weed is not completely safe and we should research whether it could damage the brain" to get downvoted

You'll always have to ignore large categorizations such as safe or harmful anyway, no reasonable person is saying cannabis is as safe as air (well actually some air might be worse) rather they are saying that since society is perfectly fine and acomidating of worse substances such as alcohol and tobacco it makes no sense to prohibit cannabis much less criminalize it.

Re: Social media bots often tweet fake health claims about cannabis: study

#73

Post by kortex »

shkkmo wrote: post #21
swiley wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My first thought when I saw this was of all the people and corporations investing in CBD and whatnot. Most corporations seem to be using adtech and social media (which are really the same) to perform mass manipulation. When that’s combined with all the crazy financial tools people can make a lot of money. I think if lawmakers actually wanted people using drugs for the effects then drugs would be legal, I would argue…

I would personally find it more likely that these tweets are part of the ramp up phase of trying to attract real followers to then spread other messages. These are the sort of tweets that I would imagine are fairly popular with a certain segment and lead to the retweets and followers that give bots more reach. The market for cannabis is so undeveloped and unstable that it seems unlikely that such marginal market grow…

Ding ding ding.

People are getting savvy to bots (used here to mean all variety of inauthentic social media accounts). The one-track tweets approach doesn't cut it anymore, you need a modicum of authenticness. That's why we are seeing Deepfake profile pics and much more effort going into fleshed out bot accounts, getting friends and followers, and multifaceted story feeds.

It's a classic infiltration technique. Get in, silently grow your roots under the radar, before deploying the payload.

Re: Social media bots often tweet fake health claims about cannabis: study

#75

Post by DataWorker »

hanniabu wrote: post #63
lemiffe wrote: post #4

> The worry is that all the online chatter about cannabis’s beneficial qualities will have offline consequences, ultimately influencing attitudes and behaviors, Allem said I doubt this is a realistic consequence... I mean, who is following these bots? Would people really listen to a bot? I presume most people would be able to tell bot-controlled Twitter accounts from friends and legitimate followers. I think the stud…

> I mean, who is following these bots? Would people really listen to a bot? It certainly helped get Trump elected

Is there any actual evidence of this? I’ve heard that claim, but it seems like most trump voters were Republicans, not democrats who got duped by bots.

Re: Social media bots often tweet fake health claims about cannabis: study

#76

Post by yodsanklai »

deith wrote: post #2

You don't have to go and look on social media, just come here to HN and say "perhaps weed is not completely safe and we should research whether it could damage the brain" to get downvoted

Often nuanced points of view are those that get you criticised the most.

Re: Social media bots often tweet fake health claims about cannabis: study

#77

Post by damnyou »

geff82 wrote: post #16

Recently, a friend came to me with a list of all the health benefits that are attributed to cannabis. I sent him back a list of all the health benefits attributed to good old ginger - and they matched almost one to one. Health claims concerning cannabis are usually just for those who want to consume a drug and feel better about themselves.

Ginger actually does have a lot of health benefits though?

Re: Social media bots often tweet fake health claims about cannabis: study

#78

Post by susijdjdjxa »

JaumeGreen wrote: post #6
deith wrote: post #2

You don't have to go and look on social media, just come here to HN and say "perhaps weed is not completely safe and we should research whether it could damage the brain" to get downvoted

There's lots of pro-cannabis and pro-LSD comments everywhere. My cynical view is that the "power" wants us all sedated, and it's investing its media to promote the "new" batch of drugs to get another generation hooked up. I do think that there are probably quite beneficial uses of drugs, but probably not in a ludic way as most people prefer to use them.

LSD is sedating? Spoken like someone who never tried LSD.

Re: Social media bots often tweet fake health claims about cannabis: study

#79

Post by tayo42 »

kalium_xyz wrote: post #3
deith wrote: post #2

You don't have to go and look on social media, just come here to HN and say "perhaps weed is not completely safe and we should research whether it could damage the brain" to get downvoted

It always fascinates me how powerful the placebo effect is. If people believe false health claims they seem to become true health claims.

Something I read recently is that anti depressants are less effective since their initial release, mostly because of placebo wearing off.

Re: Social media bots often tweet fake health claims about cannabis: study

#80

Post by account73466 »

1337biz wrote: post #69
account73466 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> None of this is to say that weed can't be beneficial. There might be a non-trivial impact of weed on climate change if weed consumers produce less kids which according to UNESCO is the best way to reduce your carbon footprint.

Depending on which ideology you follow one could also make the case that this happens in first world nation that already have a problem with lower and lower birthrates.

Of course. Because my definition of rich/poor is w.r.t. people around and not some world's mean/median. Many people in first world nations cannot afford to have as much kids as even 40 years ago.
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