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Coverage of a Disinformation Operation Against 2019 EU Parliamentary Elections
21–30 of 59 posts
Re: Coverage of a Disinformation Operation Against 2019 EU Parliamentary Elections
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It sounds like they're looking for someone to blame for right wing candidates' success in the same way people blamed Russian bots for Trump's success because they can't believe that real people could possibly be voting for such obviously "wrong" candidates of their own free will and they must surely have been fooled into it by clever tricksters. Since the media consumed by EU voters is so disjoint because of langua…
We recently had an Australian election in which there was a lot of fake news around a "death tax" imposed by one of the parties. That party lost in a close election in which at polling booths one of the top 3 issues was the death tax. Trickery works. It's why everyone keeps doing it.
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Re: Coverage of a Disinformation Operation Against 2019 EU Parliamentary Elections
#23[flagged]
WTF is a "UN banker". Stop mixing up your stereotypes!
Re: Coverage of a Disinformation Operation Against 2019 EU Parliamentary Elections
#24To answer the question at the end of the post: probably none. As others have said, it's incredibly unlikely that a tweet is going to change your mind about anything. Having worked both in and out of the journalism industry, I know that journalists get a lot more worked up about what people say online than everyone else does. They think it matters a lot more than it does (probably why they got into the job of saying t…
I think you might be underestimating the power of seeing some very subtle opinions over and over online.
In my country I've been seeing a constant campaign of subtle disinformation against opposition figures that is very powerful. You check the "user's" Twitter profile and they'll have a bunch of pro-opposition opinions on it. Then, the "user" will start to express disillusionment about certain people, asking them not to betray "our side" etc. By the end, it's a full blown attack against "traitors".
This kind of stuff is very subtle and powerful. I've seen it over and over and people will get dragged into believing this stuff and it's very damaging.
It's almost stuff straight out of the movie "Inception". You just need to plant that "seed" of doubt and it will grow in a lot people. It might just be the nature of our political climate, so it might not work everywhere though.
Re: Coverage of a Disinformation Operation Against 2019 EU Parliamentary Elections
#25To answer the question at the end of the post: probably none. As others have said, it's incredibly unlikely that a tweet is going to change your mind about anything. Having worked both in and out of the journalism industry, I know that journalists get a lot more worked up about what people say online than everyone else does. They think it matters a lot more than it does (probably why they got into the job of saying t…
If, as you suggest, opinions expressed online don't have the power to change anyone's mind, what does it matter when their free expression is curbed by new laws?
Re: Coverage of a Disinformation Operation Against 2019 EU Parliamentary Elections
#26To answer the question at the end of the post: probably none. As others have said, it's incredibly unlikely that a tweet is going to change your mind about anything. Having worked both in and out of the journalism industry, I know that journalists get a lot more worked up about what people say online than everyone else does. They think it matters a lot more than it does (probably why they got into the job of saying t…
If, as you suggest, opinions expressed online don't have the power to change anyone's mind, what does it matter when their free expression is curbed by new laws?
Because the freedom to express my point of view is important to me.
Re: Coverage of a Disinformation Operation Against 2019 EU Parliamentary Elections
#27To answer the question at the end of the post: probably none. As others have said, it's incredibly unlikely that a tweet is going to change your mind about anything. Having worked both in and out of the journalism industry, I know that journalists get a lot more worked up about what people say online than everyone else does. They think it matters a lot more than it does (probably why they got into the job of saying t…
You should probably relay this information to those spending huge amounts in advertising.
Re: Coverage of a Disinformation Operation Against 2019 EU Parliamentary Elections
#28To answer the question at the end of the post: probably none. As others have said, it's incredibly unlikely that a tweet is going to change your mind about anything. Having worked both in and out of the journalism industry, I know that journalists get a lot more worked up about what people say online than everyone else does. They think it matters a lot more than it does (probably why they got into the job of saying t…
I think you might be underestimating the power of seeing some very subtle opinions over and over online. In my country I've been seeing a constant campaign of subtle disinformation against opposition figures that is very powerful. You check the "user's" Twitter profile and they'll have a bunch of pro-opposition opinions on it. Then, the "user" will start to express disillusionment about certain people, asking them no…
that's very clever, and I'm sure the ~42 people who get to see the entire stream of tweets will be very persuaded by it. And since most of those people work in media, it may even lead to an article which might be read by a few thousand people.
Don't get me wrong: I think online "propaganda" can be effective - just not on Twitter, because of its scale and primary audience.
But because Twitter is more transparent it gets analysed more. I guess you could make the argument that the same people are doing the same things on FB and Whatsapp, but it's difficult to see how those messages propagate so well.
Re: Coverage of a Disinformation Operation Against 2019 EU Parliamentary Elections
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think you might be underestimating the power of seeing some very subtle opinions over and over online. In my country I've been seeing a constant campaign of subtle disinformation against opposition figures that is very powerful. You check the "user's" Twitter profile and they'll have a bunch of pro-opposition opinions on it. Then, the "user" will start to express disillusionment about certain people, asking them no…
that's very clever, and I'm sure the ~42 people who get to see the entire stream of tweets will be very persuaded by it. And since most of those people work in media, it may even lead to an article which might be read by a few thousand people. Don't get me wrong: I think online "propaganda" can be effective - just not on Twitter, because of its scale and primary audience. But because Twitter is more transparent it ge…
That's the thing, I don't think everyone needs to view the entire stream of tweets from this "person" for this to be effective. You just need one person to latch on to it and start retweeting it. Then this person's friends see it and don't need much convincing...
Re: Coverage of a Disinformation Operation Against 2019 EU Parliamentary Elections
#30To answer the question at the end of the post: probably none. As others have said, it's incredibly unlikely that a tweet is going to change your mind about anything. Having worked both in and out of the journalism industry, I know that journalists get a lot more worked up about what people say online than everyone else does. They think it matters a lot more than it does (probably why they got into the job of saying t…
This is the opposite of how reality works for a big chunk of the population, people reading the same lies multiple times (read "tweets" or any constant influx of information) is how we got anti-vaxxers, flat-earthers, and is the reason politicians many times spend money on ads with their names only (0 promises, 0 slogans, just their name, but it works)