The scourge of Facebook

[buksida]

Their minds are set on auto based upon their long held opinions. Then comes the knee jerk to quickly pass along a story that reinforces their thinking, many times without researching its truthfulness...

That is exactly why Facebook is such an insipid scourge - it only shows people what they want to see and believe, reinforcing those beliefs regardless of fact or truth.

[caller]

That is exactly why Facebook is such an insipid scourge - it only shows people what they want to see and believe, reinforcing those beliefs regardless of fact or truth.

Only for those without a brain. I have a cousin who shares all sorts of stuff about French violence, because of Brexit. Most true, but every now and then an old tale re-dressed, a quick google check is all it takes.

But recently, some of the stuff he has been sending, the break in at one Government building, was actually breaking news that took a day or so to be reported by the main media. The Beeb only covered it on their World news, then Europe section and hidden quite deep down really, whilst having front page news about something trivial that is PC flavour of the month (and almost a daily occurence really).

How do you train people to question the news from any trusted, or liked source?

[T.I.G.R.]

I was flipping through this to get an idea of the content......my Facebook looks more like a bunch of sites that are not individuals, but groups.....going through my content for the day only saw about five from people I know.....and they are daily photo posters.....I'm getting ready to dump FB I think...it's more about politics now than people sharing themselves.

This piece of a post Jan 10 got my attention. The last sentence is a joke: "When other demographics and posting practices are factored in, people who called themselves very conservative shared the most false information, a bit more than those who identify themselves as conservative. The very conservatives shared misinformation 6.8 times more often than the very liberals and 6.7 times more than moderates. People who called themselves liberals essentially shared no fake stories, Guess said."

Definitely no bias there, eh?

Anyway, any suggestions on other sites that might be a bit more fun?

[handdrummer]

Anyway, any suggestions on other sites that might be a bit more fun?

xxnx, pornography for all tastes.

[PeteC]

This is disturbing to the extreme. It's something everyone who uses the internet needs to be aware of.

The link is such that I can't copy the content to here, you'll have to view it at the source. Pete


https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/201 ... -deepfakes

[handdrummer]

It reminds me of what George Carlin said; "Don't believe anything your government tells you." You can expand that waring to take in the media. We, as consumers, have been manipulated by advertising, the "news", the media in all forms and certainly by governments. With Deepfake it will nearly impossible to sort out the fake from the real. The one worlders are hard at work and now that the richest 26 people in the world control the same amount of money as 50% of the poorest people do the rest of us really have a say in anything beyond our immediate scope?

[buksida]

Facebook pays teens to install VPN that spies on them

Desperate for data on its competitors, Facebook has been secretly paying people to install a “Facebook Research” VPN that lets the company suck in all of a user’s phone and web activity, similar to Facebook’s Onavo Protect app that Apple banned in June and that was removed in August. Facebook sidesteps the App Store and rewards teenagers and adults to download the Research app and give it root access to network traffic in what may be a violation of Apple policy so the social network can decrypt and analyze their phone activity, a TechCrunch investigation confirms.

https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/29/faceb ... ect-atlas/

[buksida]

HOW FAKE NEWS AND DISINFO WILL AFFECT THAILAND’S ELECTION
A woman stands silently by as a man makes thinly veiled threats toward the monarch in a 45-second video clip from 2010.

According to the pro-junta news group that posted the video, the woman was Pheu Thai Party PM candidate Sudarat Keyuraphan. According to Sudarat, who filed a police complaint Wednesday, the whole thing is a fake.

It’s the first high-profile charge of fakery to emerge in the runup to what will be Thailand’s first election since once-routine democratic functions worldwide have become tainted by digital disinformation and social media manipulation.

Though the prospects of misinformation being used effectively are high in a nation with some of the world’s most active social media users, experts believe that – given the circumstances – it’s likely to play out differently and on a smaller scale.

http://www.khaosodenglish.com/news/2019 ... -election/

[oakdale160]

I thought--What will I be missing if I disconnect--I cant think of anything except that my family post photos there. I am requesting them to attach them to Emails instead.

[buksida]

Facebook labelled 'digital gangsters' by report on fake news
Facebook deliberately broke privacy and competition law and should urgently be subject to statutory regulation, according to a devastating parliamentary report denouncing the company and its executives as “digital gangsters”.

The final report of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport select committee’s 18-month investigation into disinformation and fake news accused Facebook of purposefully obstructing its inquiry and failing to tackle attempts by Russia to manipulate elections.

“Democracy is at risk from the malicious and relentless targeting of citizens with disinformation and personalised ‘dark adverts’ from unidentifiable sources, delivered through the major social media platforms we use every day,” warned the committee’s chairman, Damian Collins.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ ... y-law-dcms

[caller]

I find this report somewhat hysterical. How come I never see all this nefarious stuff? And it's a fine balance between regulation and control. Not sure I trust the politicians to get the balance right. Already in the UK, there is a form of social McCarthyism in place, seeking to determine individual values and mores. I would be worried that political parties and regulators could create a form of censorship and I would find that appalling - we might as well re-introduce the role of a Lord Chamberlain!

Luckily we have good security forces in the UK who will be monitoring and watching all the IT shenanigans.

[Big Boy]

I and several others are getting a 'Facebook blocked in your country' message. A VPN gets around it, but is this localised, or is the revolution about to start?

[Gregjam]

My son told me Facebook was not working on the house TOT internet. Strangely it works the AIS mobile internet. Certainly not the end of the world although it does identify those addicted to it.

[Big Boy]

Hmmm....... we're having problems on AIS (Soi 94 area).

[PeteC]

Dead on TOT and TRUE 4G for the past 2 hours here in the east.....