#misinformation

#misinformation

One of Simon Clark's most popular TikTok videos begins with him playing the part of a clueless climate contrarian. Adopting the overconfident tone that is common among social-media influencers, he proclaims: "Renewables are a scam!" Cut to the real Clark, who has a PhD in stratospheric dynamics and uses the handle @simonoxfphys, as he dismantles several myths about renewable energy using a deadpan style and a torrent of charts. The video, with almost 180,000 views, is an effort to fight misinformation by meeting people where they are, he says.

In December, the YouTuber Nick Shirley uploaded a video purporting to expose a scheme led by Somali refugees in Minneapolis. It caught the attention of Vice President JD Vance, who shared the video online. Soon after, ICE was deployed to the city. The video was inspiring to Amy Reichert, a 58-year-old San Diego resident, who started making her own videos claiming a similar scheme was afoot in her city.

Turns out the true Real Housewives of New York City legacy is wildly out-of-pocket social-media posts. Earlier this week, original RHONY cast member Jill Zarin went on Instagram, in a since-deleted post, to say such blatantly racist things about Bad Bunny's halftime show that she was fired from E!'s upcoming reunion series. (As always whenever Jill shows weakness, Dorinda Medley was there to pounce.)

Microsoft has warned customers it has found many instances of a technique that manipulates the technology to produce biased advice. The software giant says its security researchers have detected a surge in attacks designed to poison the "memory" of AI models with manipulative data, a technique it calls "AI Recommendation Poisoning." It's similar to SEO Poisoning, a technique used by miscreants to make malicious websites rank higher in search results, but focused on AI models rather than search engines.

"I've never felt massively feminine in my being female. I've always described myself to my husband as a gay man. And he goes, 'Yeah, I get that' And so I do feel at home and at ease. I feel like I have a foot in various camps. I know many people who do. I don't really spend an awful lot of time with people who are very staunchly heterosexual."

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RST: Good morning, my dear hard-boiled egg. Did you have a good trip to Austin, upholding the patriarchy and extolling the manly virtues of the Western canon? EGG: You are so irritating. Old white men need to have a little space in the lexicon of human endeavors. I stand for all of them. So there!! RST: 🤮 There's been a theme in the responses I'm hearing from people about this column, and it has to do with bodily functions and fluids.

Most days, an email lands in my inbox with the promise to amplify my growth-my newsletter subscribers, the reach of my podcasts, the number of client leads, etc. I've gotten used to random people pitching me on their services, and some of the messages expertly prey on my insecurities as a business owner ("you're leaving so much on the table," et al.). I never answer any of them, but I sometimes wonder which ones might actually be legit.

Recently, the Rowsons accidentally invented a new game that anyone can play at home. I have yet to come up with a world-beating name for it, so for now let's just call it How bloody stupid is AI? The playing of the game will change from player to player, depending on their circumstances but essentially the rules remain the same. Ask AI a simple question about yourself, and see just how wrong it gets it.

The term "conspiracy theory" calls to mind a variety of dubious claims and controversies, like rumors about Area 51, claims that the Earth is flat, and the movement known as QAnon. At first blush, these phenomena would seem to have little in common with bogus word origins. But there are a variety of false etymologies that spread virally and refuse to go away, in much the same way that stories about chemtrails, black helicopters, and UFOs refuse to die.

The Republican president's Thursday night post was deleted on Friday and blamed on a staff member after a widespread backlash, including from civil rights leaders and veteran Republican senators, for its treatment of the nation's first black president and first lady. The deletion, a rare admission of a misstep by the White House, came hours after press secretary Karoline Leavitt said there was nothing offensive about the post.

We are in what some people call the post-news media era, or in a social media era. So many people who provide information' are influencers who are focused more on getting clicks and growing an audience than they are in providing accurate information, said Tapper to CNN chief law enforcement John Miller. And that reared its head. Tapper noted comments from Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos, who slammed the reckless reporting of the case at a press conference on Thursday.

In an age of misinformation, we should be more careful about who we listen to

"With the widespread use of social media, the global spread of 'fake news' has become a serious social issue," Masahiro Yamamoto, the documentary's director, said in an email. " In Japan as well, information of mixed accuracy is circulating widely, and the situation continues to worsen. Against this backdrop, we felt there was much to learn from PolitiFact, which has been conducting fact-checking for nearly two decades."

Tylenol took a hit in the aftermath of President Donald Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s promotion of unfounded claims about it being linked to autism, but the brand's reputation is solid and has largely bounced back without any permanent damage, according to tracking polls YouGov has conducted for the past four months.

The violent federal occupation of Minneapolis - and the subsequent killings of two residents at the hands of immigration agents - began with a vlog. Nick Shirley, a roving 23-year-old with a smartphone and a taste for outrage, made a YouTube video with unfounded allegations of fraud at daycares operated by the local Somali American community. Like so much partisan media in history, he was trying to rile up the right-wing base. But he was also playing to another audience: the algorithm.

Well, that's a disgusting comment and the president's lies and misinformation continue to fan the flames of these types of violent incidents. And it's at a moment like this where we actually need leadership from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and it's something that we never get from this president. Ilhan Omar, of course, is a strong, courageous, hardworking public servant. This should have never happened. I'm thankful that she is physically OK. She's mentally strong, as is always the case, and we stand by her.

There was something different about this one, though. Something about how visible the whole act was. Something about this one coming so soon after the last one. Whatever it was, the Alex Pretti killing seemed to spark a different reaction online. Meanwhile, the counternarrative seemed to move just as quickly, and AI imagery became so ubiquitous that it might have been hard to trust your view of such a heavily documented event. How is anyone supposed to make sense of any of it?