The "Mind Bomb" defined

The firehose-of-bullshit problem...it can't all be combatted. Later:

But remember Olga Skabeyeva's words: There is no truth only interpretation. Her job and the job of every one of her colleagues is to replace truth with whatever narrative Putin desires.

Information versus Misinformation versus Disinformation

See also: Misinformation, Disinformation, and Malinformation from Leaked Documents Outline DHS’s Plans to Police Disinformation (The Intercept), 31-Oct-2022

Die Fossilindustrie finanziert seit Jahrzehten Universitäten und fördert damit Publikationen in ihrem Interesse, z.B. zu false solutions wie #CCS. Hintergrundbericht anlässlich einer neuen Studie: https://www.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/sep/05/universities-fossil-fuel-funding-green-energy

Studie: https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.904

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnotology

Für eine neue Studie wurden die Klagen gegen climate washing, also gegen falsche Angaben von Unternehmen und Organisationen über die von ihnen verursachten Emissionen, erfasst. Global haben diese Prozesse in den letzten Jahren enorm zugenommen, wobei die Zahl der Prozesse etwa zum Ende der Amtszeit von Donald Trump in den USA am schnellsten wuchs. Die Verurteilungen, zu denen es bereits gekommen ist, führen aufgrund der mit ihnen verbundenen Kosten zu Veränderungen bei den Unternehmen.

https://www.liberation.fr/environnement/climat/de-plus-en-plus-de-plaintes-contres-des-entreprises-et-des-gouvernements-pour-leurs-engagements-climatiques-trompeurs-ou-insuffisants-20230629_B447RVPNDFADBDY44XDJR2KDDI/

Vor einem Untersuchungsausschuss des französischen Senats hat sich der Chef von TotalEnergies, Pouyanné, mit den Standard-Argumenten von Big Oil gegen den Vorwurf gewehrt, die globale Erhitzung anzutreiben: Man befriedige nur die Nachfrage, nach fossilen Energien, senke den CO2-Ausstoß bei der Förderung, investiere auch in erneuerbare Energien und sei unverzichtbar, um die Energiewende zu vollziehen. https://www.liberation.fr/environnement/climat/totalenergies-interroge-au-senat-patrick-pouyanne-defend-ses-investissements-dans-le-fossile-20240429_Z5PVIU62UZDR3N2IKVRVW3UXJA/

Genaue Analyse einer Desinformationsjampagne: Konservative Medien begleiten Sunaks Ankündigung, die Ausbeutung fossiler Energien in der Nordsee zu maximieren, mir einer publizistischen Breitseite gegen angebliche Labout-Pläne, keine Öl- und Gaslizenzen für die nötige zu vergeben und deren vorgeblich desaströse wirtschaftliche Konsequenzen. Dabei wird Labour in eine Verbindung zu Just Stop Oil gebracht, um die Partei zu diskreditieren. https://www.carbonbrief.org/factcheck-why-banning-new-north-sea-oil-and-gas-is-not-a-just-stop-oil-plan/

In den USA besteht seit langem eine Netzwerk, in dem PR-Firmen mit Unternehmen der Fossilindustrie zusammenarbeiten, Dabei werden u.a. durch gefakete Kampagnen und die Gründung von Umweltgruppen die eigentlichen Stakeholder der Desinformation versteckt. In einem Hearing eines Unterausschusses des Repräsentantenhauses wurden die Praktiken von PR-Firmen aufgedeckt. https://www.desmog.com/2022/09/14/house-committee-pr-climate-disinformation/

Verantwortliche der großen US-Fossilunternehmen haben vertraulich die öffentlichen Statements der Firmen zur Dekarbonisierung relativiert und in ihrer Öffentlichkeitsarbeit gegen die von ihnen selbst offiziell vertretene Politik agiert. Das geht aus Dokumenten hervor, deren Herausgabe der Ausschuss des Repräsentantenhauses für Oversight und Reform erzwungen hatte. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/14/climate/oil-industry-documents-disinformation.html

In Chile wurde ein progressiver Verfassungsentwurf abgelehnt -– auch aufgrund einer massiven, von Superreichen finanzierten Desinformationskampagne. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/sep/06/chile-new-constitution-reject-pinochet

Eine Studie von Avaaz zeigt, dass Facebook erheblich dazu beiträgt, Falschinformationen zu Klimafragen zu verbreiten. Dabei wirkt sich fatal aus, dass Facebook auf das Factchecking bei Politiker-Posts verzichtet. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/04/23/technology-202-researchers-warn-misinformation-facebook-threatens-undermine-biden-climate-agenda/

Der Bezirk („county“) Maui hat die Fossilkonzern ExxonMobil und Chevron 2020 verklagt und für Umweltveränderungen verantwortlich gemacht, die u.a. Waldbrände begünstigen. ExxonMobil wurde dabei auch die jahrezehntelange Desinformation der Öffentlichkeit vorgeworfen. Die Klage könnte es nach den katastrophalen Bränden erleichtern, Schadenersatz zu fordern. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/18/climate/maui-fires-lawsuit.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/08/climate/michael-mann-defamation-lawsuit.html?searchResultPosition=1

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2023/aug/18/weatherwatch-lobbying-climate-action-crisis

https://www.liberation.fr/environnement/x-ex-twitter-classe-pire-reseau-social-sur-la-desinformation-sur-le-climat-20230921_2EFGPHKZX5GVXDCCKRHTVMBY2I/

George Monbiot zur Entscheidung Sunaks, die Öl- und Gasproduktion in der Nordsee zu maximieren. Er spricht vom pollution paradox: Die Firmen, die dem Planeten am meisten schaden, haben die triftigsten Gründe, in Politik und Desinformation zu investieren. Indiz für Desinformation sei der Rückgriff auf CCS. Die Konservativen erhalten große Spenden von der Fossilindustrie. Sunak hat verschuldet, dass der CO₂-Preis in Uk nur noch halb so hoch ist wie in der EU. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/aug/01/rishi-sunak-north-sea-planet-climate-crisis-plutocrats

In Myanmar wurde ein Journalist zu 20 Jahren Gefängnis verurteilt, weil er über die Folgen des Zyklons Mocha im Mai berichtet hatte. Der Sturm hatte mindestens 148 Todesopfer gefordert. Die Schäden trafen vor allem die Minderheit der Rohingya. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/07/myanmar-journalist-jailed-for-20-years-for-cyclone-coverage

Ein von 1000 Wissenschaftler:innen unterzeichnetes Papier, das sich für den Konsum vom Fleisch ausspricht, ist das Ergebnis einer PR- und Lobbying-Aktion der Fleischindustrie. Es diente der Beeinflussung der EU-Kommission. Der EU-Agrarkommissar übernahm die Argumentation. Offenbar ist es mit Hilfe der sogenannten Dublin Declaration, die von Fachleuten als wenig qualitätvoll beurteilt wird, gelungen, die EU-Kommission von ihrer ursprünglichen Absicht, Einschränkungen bei der Fleisch- und Milchproduktion zu vertreten, abzubringen. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/oct/27/revealed-industry-figures-declaration-scientists-backing-meat-eating

Der Guardian ist in den Besitz eines detaillierten Dokuments zur PR und Desinformations-Strategie der Vereinigten Arabischen Emirate und des COP28- Präsidenten Sultan Al Jaber gekommen. Zu den sogenannten sensiblen Punkten gehört die Ausweitung der Öl- und Gas-Produktion der Emirate. Im Zentrum der Strategie steht offensichtlich das Bemühen, die Verbrennung von fossilen Energieträgern so wenig wie möglich zu thematisieren. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/aug/01/leak-uae-presidency-un-climate-summit-oil-gas-emissions-yemen

Auf die aktuellen Informationen von Meteorolog:innen und Klimawissenschaftleri:nnen zu Hitzewellen wird im Netz zunehmend und systematisch mit Beschimpfungen und Drohungen reagiert. In der Libération berichten Meteorologen des französischen Wetterdiensts und eine privaten Website über Beleidigungen und zunehmende Aggressivität der Hassposter.

https://www.liberation.fr/environnement/climat/canicule-sur-les-reseaux-sociaux-les-scientifiques-sous-le-feu-des-climatosceptiques-20230721_5ZBR5O6NOFBDDBPX4PHJEKDKVE/

Post von Alexandre Slowik: https://meteo-express.com/article/quand-parler-de-canicule-declenche-lhysterie-des-sceptiques

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/politico-influence/2023/08/11/uae-taps-new-help-to-gin-up-good-press-ahead-of-climate-summit-00110921

Staaten, die von der Viehwirtschaft abhängig sind, haben über Jahre großen Druck auf die FAO ausgeübt, Forschungsergebnisse zu den Methanemissionen durch Vieh zurückzuhalten. Wichtige Berichte wurden nicht publiziert. Wahrscheinlich wurde auch das volle Ausmaß der Treibhausgasemissionen durch die Viehzucht bewusst nicht dargestellt. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/oct/20/ex-officials-at-un-farming-fao-say-work-on-methane-emissions-was-censored

Livestock's Long Shadow: https://www.fao.org/3/a0701e/a0701e.pdf

In der taz formuliert Sara Schurma 7 Schritte zu einer adäquaten Klimaberichterstattung:

1. Kontext liefern
2. Klima immer und überall mitdenken
3. Strukturelle Probleme anerkennen
4. Redaktionen mehr Fachwissen ermöglichen
5. Verzögerungsnarrative einordnen
6. „False Baance“ vermeiden
7. Lösungen kritisch mitberichten

Ihr Artikel gehört zu einem „Schwerpunkt Klima und Medien“. https://taz.de/7-Schritte-fuer-Redaktionen/!5956911/

Der Chefredakteur der Repubblica, Maurizio Molinari, setzt auf lösungsorientierten Klimajournalismus. Artikel zu Klimathemen, die Lösungen beschreiben, würden auch von Jüngeren gelesen. Bericht über eine Diskussion zum Klimajournalismus in Mailand. https://milano.repubblica.it/cronaca/2023/11/18/news/rapporto_tra_scienza_e_giornalismo_molinari_le_soluzioni_sono_il_futuro_dell_informazione_sul_cambiamento_climatico-420686220/

Der Finanzausschuss des amerikanischen Senats hat über einen Bericht zur Klima-Desinformation durch die Öl- und Gasbranche debattiert. Der Bericht führt detailliert auf, wie die Öffentlichkeit über Jahrzehnte manipuliert wurde. Inzwischen hätten „Täuschung, Desinformation und Doppelzüngigkeit“ die Klimaleugnung abgelöst. In der Debatte verwendeten republikanische Senatoren die traditionelle Rhetorik der Klimaleugnung. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/may/01/big-oil-danger-disinformation-fossil-fuels

Bericht; https://www.budget.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/fossil_fuel_report1.pdf

Amy Westervelt und Kyle Pope fassen kurz und treffend die wichtigsten Desinformationstaktiken der Fossilindustrie zusammen: - Fossilindustrie als Garantin der Energiesicherheit - Gegensatz von Wirtschaft und Umwelt - Verbraucher:innen brauchen fossile Energien für ihren Lebensstandard - Fossilindustrien sind Teil der Lösung, nicht des Problems - Fossilindustrien als Wohltäterinnen und Sponsorinnen.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/14/climate-disinformation-explainer

Verantwortliche der großen amerikanischen Ölfirmen haben auch nach 2015 privat zugegeben, dass sie die Gefahren fossiler Brennstoffe heruntergespielt haben. Sie haben internationale Pläne gegen die globale Erhitzung nach außen hin unterstützt und nach innen kommuniziert, dass ihre Firmenpolitik diesen Plänen widerspricht. Und sie haben gegen politische Maßnahmen lobbyiert, hinter die sie sich offiziell gestellt haben. Das alles ergibt sich aus dem neuen Bericht des amerikanischen Kongresses über die Desinformations-Politik von Big Oil. Ausführlicher Bericht mit Informationen über mögliche juristische Konsequenzen. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/30/big-oil-climate-crisis-us-senate-report

In einem Interview mit dem Guardian spricht sich der noch amtierende US-Klimabeauftragte John Kerry scharf gegen Desinformation und Demagogie aus. In einer Phase, in der es in der Politik um den Kampf um Fortschritt oder den Kampf um Verzögerung gehe, würden sie gezielt eingesetzt. Die Klimapolitik der Biden-Administration orientiere sich ausschließlich an der Wissenschaft. Käme es zu dem aktuell von vielen betriebenen Rückschlag in der Klimapolitik, wäre eine Katastrophe für Milliarden und globale Unsicherheit die Folge. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/feb/28/populism-imperilling-global-fight-against-climate-breakdown-says-john-kerry

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/mar/07/ai-climate-change-energy-disinformation-report

Der Klimaforscher Michael Mann hat einen Prozess wegen Rufschädigung gegen zwei Klimaleugner gewonnen. Ihm wurde mehr als eine Million Entschädigung zugesprochen. Die Liberation geht in ihrem Bericht kurz auf die deutlich zunehmende Zahl der Kampagnen gegen Forschende in den USA ein. Der Bericht der New York Times zeigt, dass die globale Erhitzung in großen Teilen der US-Öffentlichkeit noch immer nicht als Faktum behandelt wird. https://www.liberation.fr/environnement/climat/etats-unis-deux-climatosceptiques-condamnes-a-un-million-de-dollars-pour-avoir-diffame-un-chercheur-20240212_FSHPNQRKV5DORO6CAX54GZLGUU/

Information battlespace

Sharing “information” not to spread truth, but to influence behavior

Die Desinformation zur globalen Erhitzung hat sich von der Klimaleugnung hin zum Säen von Zweifeln an möglichen Lösungen verschoben. Einer neuer Studie zufolge sind wichtige Strategien auf Youdas Tube das Herunterspielen der negativen Konsequenzen, Erzeugen von Misstrauen in die Klimaforschung und vor allem die Behauptung, dass vorhandene technische Lösungen nicht praktikabel sind. Außerdem werden Verschwörungstheorien wie die vom Grand Reset bemüht. https://www.repubblica.it/green-and-blue/2024/01/17/news/negazionismo_climatico_youtube-421894897/

Studie: https://counterhate.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/CCDH-The-New-Climate-Denial_FINAL.pdf

Edelmann PR hat 2022 intensiv mit der Charles Koch Foundation zusammengearbeitet. Edelmann PR, der weltgrößte PR-Konzerne, hatte sich wiederholt verpflichtet, Klimaneugnung nicht zu unterstützen. Die Koch-Brüder, ein wichtiger Teil der amerikanischen Fossilindustrie förderten und fördern seit Jahrzehnten Klimarleugnung. Es gibt Hinweise auf weitere Verbindungen von Edelman zu Koch Industries. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/jan/14/edelman-charles-koch-foundation-climate

Die amerikanische fossilindustrie finanziert mit einem achtstelligen Millionenbetrag eine Kampagne deren Ziel eine weitere Ausweitung der Produktion ist, wobei man auch die Gaza-Krise ausnutzt. Dabei werden vor allem Desinformationsstrategien der sogenannten climate delayers verwendet.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/jan/10/oil-ads-lights-on-energy

Zur PR für die Vereinigten Arabischen Emirate während der COP28 trugen Prominente Influencer: innen bei, die fast alle ihre Auftraggeber nicht nannten. Einige von ihnen erklärten später, die Seiten zum Greenwashing der Emirate missbraucht worden. https://www.desmog.com/2023/12/14/instagram-influencers-paid-to-boost-uaes-climate-credential-over-cop28/

Dokumentation zu den PR-Firmen, die im Vorfeld der COP28 damit beauftragt waren, Sultan Al Jaber, die Vereinigten Arabischen Emirate und die Adnoc als Vorkämpfer einer ökologischen Wende darzustellen. Zu den Quellen des Artikels gehören die Offenlegungen, die das amerikanische Justizministerium von ausländischem Agenten verlangt https://www.desmog.com/2023/12/09/inoculate-from-criticism-a-closer-look-at-the-public-relations-companies-active-at-cop28/

https://www.derstandard.at/story/3000000198079/fachleute-warnen-vor-desinformation-im-rahmen-der-klimakonferenz

This study is a secondary source as it compares data from existing researches. The authors compare several studies on disinformation targeted to develop a theoretical framework that discusses the prevalence and measurable conditions that are responsible for the spread of disinformation. Confirmation bias and motivated reasoning are two big factors in consumption and propagation. Other agents include social bots which spreads false political information resulting in misrepresented viewpoints, false information by strategic actors, and the phenomenon of naive realism that rejects views that are opposite of one's own. The accumulation of massive amounts of manipulated information combined with techniques and platforms all contribute to information pollution. Results on resiliency to disinformation between countries are explained through the number and values of framework indices. Results are categorized into three clusters - one country group with high resilience to disinformation has consensus political systems, strong welfare states, and pronounced democratic corporatism, and two groups with low resilience to disinformation – identified by its low levels of polarization, populist communication, social media news use, low trust levels, low shared media consumption, politicized, and fragmented environment. Frameworks, principal components factor analysis, and graph indices were used in the study to support and interpret the results.

• for: example, example - internet flaws, polarization, disinformation,, example - polarization, political interference - Russia, political interference - China
• example: polarization, internet flaws

• Title
  • Climate misinformation in a climate of misinformation

Dave Troy is a US investigative journalist, looking at the US infosphere. Places resistance against disinformation not as a matter of factchecking and technology but one of reshaping social capital and cultural network topologies.

Early work by Valdis Krebs comes to mind vgl [[Netwerkviz en people nav 20091112072001]] and how the Finnish 'method' seemed to be a mix of [[Crap detection is civic duty 2018010073052]] and social capital aspects. Also re taking an algogen text as is / stand alone artefact vs seeing its provenance and entanglement with real world events, people and things.

Ein Bericht von Umwelt-Organisationen und des Center for Countering Digital Hate ergibt, dass Google nach wie vor viel Geld mit Anzeigen in der Umgebung von Inhalten von Klimleugnern verdient. 2021 hatte Google versprochen, auf solche Werbung zu verzichten. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/02/technology/google-youtube-disinformation-climate-change.html

This peer reviewed article titled "The Safety of COVID-19 Vaccinations—We Should Rethink the Policy" uses the mishandling of data provided by scientists to spready disinformation claiming that the Covid-19 vaccine is killing people. This is an example of disinformation because this study is peer reviewed, so the people involved in it are well educated and versed in the development and usage of the vaccine.

Zika virus as a cause of birth defects: Were the teratogenic effects of Zika virus missed for decades?

Although it is not possible to prove definitively that ZIKV had teratogenic properties before 2013, several pieces of evidence support the hypothesis that its teratogenicity had been missed in the past. These findings emphasize the need for further investments in global surveillance for emerging infections and for birth defects so that infectious teratogens can be identified more expeditiously in the future.

T he REVELATIONS about the possible complicity of the Bulgarian secret police in the shooting of the Pope have produced a grudging admission, even in previously skeptical quarters, that the Soviet Union may be involved in international terrorism. Some patterns have emerged in the past few years that tell us some- thing about the extent to which the Kremlin may use terrorism as an instrument of policy. A great deal of information has lately come to light, some of it accurate, some of it not. One of the most interesting developments appears to be the emergence of a close working relation- ship between organized crime (especially drug smug- glers and dealers) and some of the principal groups in the terrorist network.

Highlights

• We exploit language differences to study the causal effect of fake news on voting.
• Language affects exposure to fake news.
• German-speaking voters from South Tyrol (Italy) are less likely to be exposed to misinformation.
• Exposure to fake news favours populist parties regardless of prior support for populist parties.
• However, fake news alone cannot explain most of the growth in populism.

Results for the YouTube field experiment (study 7), showing the average percent increase in manipulation techniques recognized in the experimental (as compared to control) condition. Results are shown separately for items (headlines) 1 to 3 for the emotional language and false dichotomies videos, as well as the average scores for each video and the overall average across all six items. See Materials and Methods for the exact wording of each item (headline). Error bars show 95% confidence intervals.

Who falls for fake news? Psychological and clinical profiling evidence of fake news consumers

Participants with a schizotypal, paranoid, and histrionic personality were ineffective at detecting fake news. They were also more vulnerable to suffer its negative effects. Specifically, they displayed higher levels of anxiety and committed more cognitive biases based on suggestibility and the Barnum Effect. No significant effects on psychotic symptomatology or affective mood states were observed. Corresponding to these outcomes, two clinical and therapeutic recommendations related to the reduction of the Barnum Effect and the reinterpretation of digital media sensationalism were made. The impact of fake news and possible ways of prevention are discussed.

Fake news and personality disorders

The observed relationship between fake news and levels of schizotypy was consistent with previous scientific evidence on pseudoscientific beliefs and magical ideation (see Bronstein et al., 2019; Escolà-Gascón, Marín, et al., 2021). Following the dual process theory model (e.g., Pennycook & Rand, 2019), when a person does not correctly distinguish between information with scientific arguments and information without scientific grounds it is because they predominantly use cognitive reasoning characterized by intuition (e.g., Dagnall, Drinkwater, et al., 2010; Swami et al., 2014; Dagnall et al., 2017b; Williams et al., 2021).

Concomitantly, intuitive thinking correlates positively with magical beliefs (see Šrol, 2021). Psychopathological classifications include magical beliefs as a dimension of schizotypal personality (e.g., Escolà-Gascón, 2020a). Therefore, it is possible that the high schizotypy scores in this study can be explained from the perspective of dual process theory (Denovan et al., 2018; Denovan et al., 2020; Drinkwater, Dagnall, Denovan, & Williams, 2021). Intuitive thinking could be the moderating variable that explains why participants who scored higher in schizotypy did not effectively detect fake news.

Something similar happened with the subclinical trait of paranoia. This variable scored the highest in both group 1 and group 2 (see Fig. 1). Intuition is also positively related to conspiratorial ideation (see Drinkwater et al., 2020; Gligorić et al., 2021). Similarly, psychopathology tends to classify conspiracy ideation as a frequent belief system in paranoid personality (see Escolà-Gascón, 2022). This is because conspiracy beliefs are based on systematic distrust of the systems that structure society (political system), knowledge (science) and economy (capitalism) (Dagnall et al., 2015; Swami et al., 2014). Likewise, it is known that distrust is the transversal characteristic of paranoid personality (So et al., 2022). Then, in this case the use of intuitive thinking and dual process theory could also justify the obtained paranoia scores. The same is not true for the histrionic personality.

The Barnum Effect

The Barnum Effect consists of accepting as exclusive a verbal description of an individual's personality, when, the description employs contents applicable or generalizable to any profile or personality that one wishes to describe (see Boyce & Geller, 2002; O’Keeffe & Wiseman, 2005). The error of this bias is to assume as exclusive or unique information that is not. This error can occur in other contexts not limited to personality descriptions. Originally, this bias was studied in the field of horoscopes and pseudoscience's (see Matute et al., 2011). Research results suggest that people who do not effectively detect fake news regularly commit the Barnum Effect. So, one way to prevent fake news may be to educate about what the Barnum Effect is and how to avoid it.

Conclusions

The conclusions of this research can be summarized as follows: (1) The evidence obtained proposes that profiles with high scores in schizotypy, paranoia and histrionism are more vulnerable to the negative effects of fake news. In clinical practice, special caution is recommended for patients who meet the symptomatic characteristics of these personality traits.

(2) In psychiatry and clinical psychology, it is proposed to combat fake news by reducing or recoding the Barnum effect, reinterpreting sensationalism in the media and promoting critical thinking in social network users. These suggestions can be applied from intervention programs but can also be implemented as psychoeducational programs for massive users of social networks.

(3) Individuals who do not effectively detect fake news tend to have higher levels of anxiety, both state and trait anxiety. These individuals are also highly suggestible and tend to seek strong emotions. Profiles of this type may inappropriately employ intuitive thinking, which could be the psychological mechanism that.

(4) Positive psychotic symptomatology, affective mood states and substance use (addiction risks) were not affected by fake news. In the field of psychosis, it should be analyzed whether fake news influences negative psychotic symptomatology.

The uptake of mis- and disinformation is intertwined with the way our minds work. The large body of research on the psychological aspects of information manipulation explains why.

In an article for Nature Review Psychology, Ullrich K. H. Ecker et al looked(opens in a new tab) at the cognitive, social, and affective factors that lead people to form or even endorse misinformed views. Ironically enough, false beliefs generally arise through the same mechanisms that establish accurate beliefs. It is a mix of cognitive drivers like intuitive thinking and socio-affective drivers. When deciding what is true, people are often biased to believe in the validity of information and to trust their intuition instead of deliberating. Also, repetition increases belief in both misleading information and facts.

Ecker, U.K.H., Lewandowsky, S., Cook, J. et al. (2022). The psychological drivers of misinformation belief and its resistance to correction.

Going a step further, Álex Escolà-Gascón et al investigated the psychopathological profiles that characterise people prone to consuming misleading information. After running a number of tests on more than 1,400 volunteers, they concluded that people with high scores in schizotypy (a condition not too dissimilar from schizophrenia), paranoia, and histrionism (more commonly known as dramatic personality disorder) are more vulnerable to the negative effects of misleading information. People who do not detect misleading information also tend to be more anxious, suggestible, and vulnerable to strong emotions.

US IO capacity was poor and the campaigns were ineffective.

Protestant Paranoia: The American Protective Association Oath

In 1887, Henry F. Bowers founded the nativist American Protective Association (APA) in Clinton, Iowa. Bowers was a Mason, and he drew from its fraternal ritual—elaborate regalia, initiation ceremonies, and a secret oath—in organizing the APA. He also drew many Masons, an organization that barred Catholics. The organization quickly acquired an anti-union cast. Among other things, the APA claimed that the Catholic leader of the Knights, Terence V. Powderly, was part of a larger conspiracy against American institutions. Even so, the APA successfully recruited significant numbers of disaffected trade unionists in an era of economic hard times and the collapse of the Knights of Labor. This secret oath taken by members of the American Protective Association in the 1890s revealed the depth of Protestant distrust and fear of Catholics holding public office.

I do most solemnly promise and swear that I will always, to the utmost of my ability, labor, plead and wage a continuous warfare against ignorance and fanaticism; that I will use my utmost power to strike the shackles and chains of blind obedience to the Roman Catholic church from the hampered and bound consciences of a priest-ridden and church-oppressed people; that I will never allow any one, a member of the Roman Catholic church, to become a member of this order, I knowing him to be such; that I will use my influence to promote the interest of all Protestants everywhere in the world that I may be; that I will not employ a Roman Catholic in any capacity if I can procure the services of a Protestant.

I furthermore promise and swear that I will not aid in building or maintaining, by my resources, any Roman Catholic church or institution of their sect or creed whatsoever, but will do all in my power to retard and break down the power of the Pope, in this country or any other; that I will not enter into any controversy with a Roman Catholic upon the subject of this order, nor will I enter into any agreement with a Roman Catholic to strike or create a disturbance whereby the Catholic employes may undermine and substitute their Protestant co-workers; that in all grievances I will seek only Protestants and counsel with them to the exclusion of all Roman Catholics, and will not make known to them anything of any nature matured at such conferences.

I furthermore promise and swear that I will not countenance the nomination, in any caucus or convention, of a Roman Catholic for any office in the gift of the American people, and that I will not vote for, or counsel others to vote for, any Roman Catholic, but will vote only for a Protestant, so far as may lie in my power. Should there be two Roman Catholics on opposite tickets, I will erase the name on the ticket I vote; that I will at all times endeavor to place the political positions of this government in the hands of Protestants, to the entire exclusion of the Roman Catholic church, of the members thereof, and the mandate of the Pope.

To all of which I do most solemnly promise and swear, so help me God. Amen.

Source: "The Secret Oath of the American Protective Association, October 31, 1893," in Michael Williams, The Shadow of the Pope (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., 1932), 103–104. Reprinted in John Tracy Ellis, ed., Documents of American Catholic History (Milwaukee: The Bruce Publishing Company, 1956), 500–501.

Misinformation exposure and extreme right-wing ideology appear associated in this report. Others find that it is partisanship that predicts susceptibility.

This suggests the misinformation sharing elites may influence whether followers become more extreme. There is little incentive not to stoke outrage as it improves engagement.

In the co-share network, a cluster of websites shared more by conservatives is also shared more by users with higher misinformation exposure scores.

Nodes represent website domains shared by at least 20 users in our dataset and edges are weighted based on common users who shared them. a Separate colors represent different clusters of websites determined using community-detection algorithms29. b The intensity of the color of each node shows the average misinformation-exposure score of users who shared the website domain (darker = higher PolitiFact score). c Nodes’ color represents the average estimated ideology of the users who shared the website domain (red: conservative, blue: liberal). d The intensity of the color of each node shows the average use of language toxicity by users who shared the website domain (darker = higher use of toxic language). e The intensity of the color of each node shows the average expression of moral outrage by users who shared the website domain (darker = higher expression of moral outrage). Nodes are positioned using directed-force layout on the weighted network.

Exposure to elite misinformation is associated with the use of toxic language and moral outrage.

Shown is the relationship between users’ misinformation-exposure scores and (a) the toxicity of the language used in their tweets, measured using the Google Jigsaw Perspective API27, and (b) the extent to which their tweets involved expressions of moral outrage, measured using the algorithm from ref. 28. Extreme values are winsorized by 95% quantile for visualization purposes. Small dots in the background show individual observations; large dots show the average value across bins of size 0.1, with size of dots proportional to the number of observations in each bin. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.

Exposure to elite misinformation is associated with sharing news from lower-quality outlets and with conservative estimated ideology.

Shown is the relationship between users’ misinformation-exposure scores and (a) the quality of the news outlets they shared content from, as rated by professional fact-checkers21, (b) the quality of the news outlets they shared content from, as rated by layperson crowds21, and (c) estimated political ideology, based on the ideology of the accounts they follow10. Small dots in the background show individual observations; large dots show the average value across bins of size 0.1, with size of dots proportional to the number of observations in each bin.

Notice that Twitter’s account purge significantly impacted misinformation spread worldwide: the proportion of low-credible domains in URLs retweeted from U.S. dropped from 14% to 7%. Finally, despite not having a list of low-credible domains in Russian, Russia is central in exporting potential misinformation in the vax rollout period, especially to Latin American countries. In these countries, the proportion of low-credible URLs coming from Russia increased from 1% in vax development to 18% in vax rollout periods (see Figure 8 (b), Appendix).

We applied two scenarios to compare how these regular agents behave in the Twitter network, with and without malicious agents, to study how much influence malicious agents have on the general susceptibility of the regular users. To achieve this, we implemented a belief value system to measure how impressionable an agent is when encountering misinformation and how its behavior gets affected. The results indicated similar outcomes in the two scenarios as the affected belief value changed for these regular agents, exhibiting belief in the misinformation. Although the change in belief value occurred slowly, it had a profound effect when the malicious agents were present, as many more regular agents started believing in misinformation.

Undermining the Concept of Environmental Risk

By the mid-1990s, the Institute of Economic Affairs had extended its work on Risk Assessment (RA). More specifically, the head of IEA’s Environment Unit Roger Bate was interested in undermining the concept of “environmental risk”, especially in relation to key themes, such as climate change and pesticides, and second hand smoke.

MDM == Misinformation, Disinformation, and Malinformation.

These definitions from earlier in the article: * misinformation (false information spread unintentionally) * disinformation (false information spread intentionally) * malinformation (factual information shared, typically out of context, with harmful intent)

do your own research. Relate to Tripodi https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Propagandists_Playbook/rWZ4EAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover

disinfo strategy

This is crucial. Latour was constructing science based on the belief of its authority - not deconstructing science. And the point about the common world, as inherently connected to the authority of science, is great.

Perhaps among those that can be considered mistakes by the election campaigns that were conducted in opposition to the Marcos presidential candidacy was the inability to comprehend the impact made by disinformation materials generated over social media. There was an awareness that these had to be constantly called out and corrected. However the efforts conducted to accomplish it failed to understand the population to which the disinformation campaign was directed. Corrections to wrong facts, and the presenting of the truth were only understood by those who corrected them. Moreover, by the time the campaign against wrong information started in earnest, the mediums for disinformation have already been well established and have taken root among those who easily believe it as the truth. It explains why plenty of the efforts done to fact check information has fallen on deaf ears, and in some cases have even pushed those who believe disinformation to hold onto it even more.

Spreading misinformation and disinformation is really easy in this day and age because of how accessible information is and how much of it there is on the web. This is explained precisely by Edgerly. Noted in this part of the article, there is a business for the spread of disinformation, particularly in our country. There are people who pay what we call online trolls, to spread disinformation and capitalize on how “chronically online” Filipinos are, among many other factors (i.e., most Filipinos’ information illiteracy due to poverty and lack of educational attainment, how easy it is to interact with content we see online, regardless of its authenticity, etc.). Disinformation also leads to misinformation through word-of-mouth. As stated by Edgerly in this article, “people tend to believe in information… shared by their immediate families and friends”; because of people’s human nature to trust the information shared by their loved ones, if one is not information literate, they will not question their newly received information. Lastly, it most certainly does not help that social media algorithms nowadays rely on what users interact with; the more that a user interacts with a certain information, the more that social media platforms will feed them that information. It does not help because not all social media websites have fact checkers and users can freely spread disinformation if they chose to.

This statement from a man who claims to work for politicians as an internet troll and propagator of fake news was really striking, because it shows how fabricating something out of the blue can have a profound impact in the elections--something that is supposed to be a democratic process. Now more than ever, mudslinging in popular information spaces like social media can easily sway public opinion (or confirm it). We have seen this during the election season, wherein Leni Robredo bore the brunt of outrageous rumors; one rumor I remember well was that Leni apparently married an NPA member before and had a kid with him. It is tragic that misinformation and disinformation is not just a mere phenomenon anymore, but a fully blown industry. It has a tight clutch on the decisions people make for the country, while also deeply affecting their values and beliefs.

Not only programmed accounts are created but also troll accounts that propagate disinformation and spread fake news with the intent to cause havoc on every people. In short, once they start with a malicious comment some people will engage with the said comment which leads to more rage comments and disagreements towards each other. That is what they do, they trigger people to engage in their comments so that they can be spread more and produce more fake news. These troll accounts usually are prominent during elections, like in the Philippines some speculates that some of the candidates have made troll farms just to spread fake news all over social media in which some people engage on.

In all honesty, since I don't usually dwell on technology, coding, and stuff. I thought when you say "Bot" it is controlled by another user like a legit person, never knew that it was programmed and created to learn the usual patterns of posting of some people may be it on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms. I think it is important to properly understand how "Bots" work to avoid misinformation and disinformation most importantly during this time of prominent social media use.

ReconfigBehSci. (2022, January 3). masking is not an “unevidenced intervention” and, at this point, it is outright disinformation to claim so. Sad coming from an academic at a respectable institution [Tweet]. @SciBeh. https://twitter.com/SciBeh/status/1478003733518819334

Meet the media startups making big money on vaccine conspiracies. (n.d.). Fortune. Retrieved December 23, 2021, from https://fortune.com/2021/05/14/disinformation-media-vaccine-covid19/

Find common ground. Clear away the kindling. Provide context...don't de-platform.

develop a hypothesis, and pit different ideas against one another

Sir Karam Bales ✊ 🇺🇦. (2022, January 29). 1/🧵Some questionable stats, studies and statements over past 6 week Examples and evaluation First of all its worth looking at the impact some studies and articles have had in recent months https://t.co/o83T5fJW2N [Tweet]. @karamballes. https://twitter.com/karamballes/status/1487240863835119617