At a holiday party in New York on Tuesday (Dec. 5), Facebook unveiled its 2017 year in review, an annual roundup of what the world…
Propaganda
Manipulation is as old as politics, but today’s politicians—as well as companies, NGOs, activists, and criminals—have more techniques than ever for shaping public opinion. This obsession tracks those techniques, from the old-fashioned use and abuse of language to the deployment of bots, online crowds, and personalized targeting on social media—as well as the latest scientific research on persuasion, belief, and how information and ideas are spread.
LEST YE BE JUDGED
In a Supreme Court battle over cake, US conservatives are using the Spanish Inquisition to defend discrimination
Between 1487 and 1834, Spain’s monarchs had a legal policy of forcing religious “heretics,” like Jews and Muslims, to convert to Catholicism or die. At…
HATE THEY GIVE
A celebrated YA novel about Black Lives Matter was pulled from school libraries in Texas
One of the biggest breakout books of the year in the US is about an unarmed black teenager killed by the police. A school district…
DAY LATE, DOLLAR SHORT
Army researchers will have a solution for fake news right after the next US election
As media’s highest-T fake news broadcaster (paywall) says: “There’s a war for your mind.” Now the US Army wants to fight it. The Army announced…
GOALIE AT THE GATES
Russia’s 2018 World Cup poster holds a hidden message to the West
That Russia’s 2018 World Cup poster is a paean to old-school Soviet imagery is clear for all to see. But less apparent are the layers…
CONSPIRATOR-IN-CHIEF
Donald Trump is apparently still not convinced Obama was born in the US
During one of the US presidential debates in September last year, Donald Trump for the first time publicly acknowledged that Barack Obama was born in…
TERROR TACTICS
Facebook says it can stop the sharing of most terror-related posts within an hour of creation
Facebook is trying to fight the perception that it’s not doing enough to fight terrorism. Yesterday, (Nov. 28) the company published a blog post with…
BOT OR NOT
How a bot made 1 million comments against net neutrality look genuine
“Gathering and analyzing comments from the public is an important part of the Federal Communications Commission’s rulemaking process,” the American agency says on its website.…
PARLIAMENTARY PRIVILEGE
British lawmakers are relying on an ancient power to force the government to tell the truth about Brexit
Britain’s Brexit secretary David Davis has come under fire for heavily editing government analyses about how the UK leaving the European Union could impact 58…
TELL LITERALLY ALL
Anthony Scaramucci has 60,000 words to say about his 10 days as Donald Trump’s spokesman
Anthony Scaramucci is not a man of few words. The verbal exuberance of the former White House director of communications is precisely what the country…
ANOTHER SHUTDOWN
Cameroon has restricted internet access for more than 150 days in 2017
For almost two months now, Cameroon’s government has restricted access to social media and messaging apps in its Anglophone regions, adding to the already simmering…
WORRYING TRENDS
There’s growing concern about the price Africa will pay for internet shutdowns and fake news
The internet has been lauded as a panacea for Africa—a tool for economic, political and social transformation. The availability of mobile broadband and fiber optic…
