Tuesday, October 10, 2017

In the news: Google And Facebook Amplify Far-Right Disinformation After Las Vegas Shooting


 It's no surprise that far-right leaning websites, blogs and social media made up stories about the vicious Las Vegas shooter and accused everyone except white, conservative men.
 It's just appalling on so many levels.
Here is what these right wing sites said (the same ones that made up lies about democrats to get Trump elected): 
1) They said (lied) the shooter to Democrats, leftist groups, Islamic terror organizations, the federal government and others.
2) 4chan threads promoted by Google pushed the narrative that Islamic terrorists, Jewish people or Asians were responsible for the attack.
   People who believe this crap are REALLY STUPID.

Google And Facebook Amplify Far-Right Disinformation Campaigns After Las Vegas Shooting
Both companies promoted blatantly false conspiracy theories that misidentified shooting suspects and victims.

The aftermath of the mass shooting in Las Vegas followed the usual dreary choreography of disaster news: First, disinformation rolled in from the usual assortment of trolls, then social media platforms amplified it. 
  On Monday morning, Google’s Top Stories section promoted threads from 4chan, an online forum that’s a popular source of disinformation campaigns. The threads had deliberately misidentified suspects and victims, tying the shooter to Democrats, leftist groups, Islamic terror organizations, the federal government and others.
Facebook, meanwhile, promoted a post from The Gateway Pundit to the top of its news feed, even though it had misidentified the suspected shooter.
The Gateway Pundit ― a right-wing blog that routinely traffics in disinformation but has received White House press credentials from the Trump administration ― identified the suspect as “Geary Danley,” a name that had previously been circulating on 4chan. The story said that Danley, “reportedly the murderer of at least 20 concertgoers in Las Vegas,” was “a far-left loon.” (4chan and others also mentioned Marilou Danley, who is apparently Paddock’s girlfriend, though police have since said they don’t believe she was involved in the shooting.)
The site’s evidence for its characterization of Geary Danley was “a review of Danley’s Facebook page, where he had liked Rachel Maddow and other liberal or anti-Trump pages.” But Danley was not involved in the shooting, according to police, who instead identified the shooter as a 64-year-old Las Vegas man named Stephen Paddock.
Even after police had identified Paddock, however, the alt-right conspiracy theories continued. 4chan threads promoted by Google pushed the narrative that Islamic terrorists, Jewish people or Asians were responsible for the attack. After initially pushing Danley’s name, commenters falsely tagged someone named “Samir Al-Hajeed” as the shooter. 4chan posters and alt-right Twitter accounts also wrongly suggested that comedians, porn stars and even soccer superstar Mesut Özil had been involved in the attack or were victims of it.
In a thread titled “Control The Narrative,” one poster urged 4chan’s members to “push the fact this terrorist was a commie on all social media. Make sure everyone knows.” On both Reddit and 4chan, right-wing commenters launched attempts to tie the shooter to the leftist antifa, or anti-fascist, movement.
“This is antifa,” one Reddit thread screamed. “It’s 1000% antifa/extreme organized leftism,” another on 4chan said, according to BuzzFeed reporter Ryan Broderick. The narrative quickly spread on Twitter.

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I'm a simple guy who enjoys the simple things in life, especially our dogs. I volunteer for dog rescues, enjoy exercising, blogging, politics, helping friends and neighbors, participating in ghost investigations, coffee, weather, superheroes, comic books, mystery novels, traveling, 70s and 80s music, classic country music,writing books on ghosts and spirits, cooking simply and keeping in shape. You'll find tidbits of all of these things on this blog and more. EMAIL me at Rgutro@gmail.com - Rob

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