By AFP
July 31, 2024
Bot-like accounts remain entrenched on X, previously known as Twitter, researchers say.
- Copyright GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP JUSTIN SULLIVAN
Anuj CHOPRA
Bot-like accounts on social media platform X that spread misinformation and hate ahead of Britain’s election are now amplifying conspiracy theories around US politics, a watchdog investigation revealed Tuesday, as the race to the White House kicks into high gear.
Forty-five accounts analyzed by Global Witness, which collectively generated more than four billion impressions since late May, were active in the run-up to the British polls earlier this month.
Some of them subsequently pivoted to other high-profile events ahead of the US presidential election in November, including the recent assassination attempt on Donald Trump and President Joe Biden pulling out from the race, the watchdog said in a report.
The findings demonstrate how apparent bot activity continues to plague X, previously called Twitter, despite pledges by Elon Musk to crack down on the digital manipulation when he purchased the influential social media platform in 2022 for $44 billion.
The bot-like accounts, which collectively produced around 610,000 posts and amplified racist and sexualized abuse, also focused on climate disinformation and other global events, including anti-migrant protests in Ireland.
“In a moment when everyone is worried about democracy, it is shocking how easy it has been to find accounts that appear to be bots spreading division around the UK vote, and then to watch them jump straight into political discussions in the US and Ireland, frequently responding with hate and conspiracy,” said Ava Lee, campaign leader at Global Witness.
“Access to timely, accurate and reliable information is crucial for all democracies, and it’s needed now more than ever in the run up to the US presidential election.”
The platform did not reply to AFP’s request for comment.
An automated response from the platform’s press team said: “Busy now, please check back later.”
– ‘Flood’ of manipulation –
It was unclear who was behind the bot-like activity uncovered by the watchdog.
Global Witness said it did not find evidence that any British political parties were paying for, using or promoting the bot-like accounts as part of their campaigns.
After the assassination attempt on Trump at a Pennsylvania rally earlier this month, some accounts — which previously supported the right-wing party Reform UK — were found sharing unfounded theories holding Biden responsible, the watchdog said.
Other accounts supporting Britain’s Labour party questioned whether the incident was staged by Trump, it added.
After Biden announced he was pulling out from the race, a number of accounts increased their discussions of US Vice President Kamala Harris — the presumptive Democratic nominee — including sharing “gendered disinformation tropes” and racist comments, the report said.
Ahead of his purchase of the platform, Musk pledged to “defeat the spam bots or die trying.”
But bot activity remains entrenched on the platform, a report from Australia’s Queensland University of Technology (QUT) said last year after an analysis of about one million posts.
“X is flooded with platform manipulation of various kinds, is not doing enough to moderate content, and has no clear strategy for dealing with political disinformation,” the QUT report said.
Lee, in light of Global Witness’s findings, called on X to “increase its moderation efforts and get better at enforcing its own policies against inauthentic activity.”
“We’re relying on them to protect our democracies from interference,” Lee said.
The platform has gutted trust and safety teams and scaled back content moderation efforts once used to tame misinformation, making it what researchers call a haven for disinformation.
Last week, Musk — who recently endorsed Trump — himself faced a firehose of criticism for sharing a deepfake video featuring Harris on X, which tech campaigners said violated the platform’s own policies.
Anuj CHOPRA
Bot-like accounts on social media platform X that spread misinformation and hate ahead of Britain’s election are now amplifying conspiracy theories around US politics, a watchdog investigation revealed Tuesday, as the race to the White House kicks into high gear.
Forty-five accounts analyzed by Global Witness, which collectively generated more than four billion impressions since late May, were active in the run-up to the British polls earlier this month.
Some of them subsequently pivoted to other high-profile events ahead of the US presidential election in November, including the recent assassination attempt on Donald Trump and President Joe Biden pulling out from the race, the watchdog said in a report.
The findings demonstrate how apparent bot activity continues to plague X, previously called Twitter, despite pledges by Elon Musk to crack down on the digital manipulation when he purchased the influential social media platform in 2022 for $44 billion.
The bot-like accounts, which collectively produced around 610,000 posts and amplified racist and sexualized abuse, also focused on climate disinformation and other global events, including anti-migrant protests in Ireland.
“In a moment when everyone is worried about democracy, it is shocking how easy it has been to find accounts that appear to be bots spreading division around the UK vote, and then to watch them jump straight into political discussions in the US and Ireland, frequently responding with hate and conspiracy,” said Ava Lee, campaign leader at Global Witness.
“Access to timely, accurate and reliable information is crucial for all democracies, and it’s needed now more than ever in the run up to the US presidential election.”
The platform did not reply to AFP’s request for comment.
An automated response from the platform’s press team said: “Busy now, please check back later.”
– ‘Flood’ of manipulation –
It was unclear who was behind the bot-like activity uncovered by the watchdog.
Global Witness said it did not find evidence that any British political parties were paying for, using or promoting the bot-like accounts as part of their campaigns.
After the assassination attempt on Trump at a Pennsylvania rally earlier this month, some accounts — which previously supported the right-wing party Reform UK — were found sharing unfounded theories holding Biden responsible, the watchdog said.
Other accounts supporting Britain’s Labour party questioned whether the incident was staged by Trump, it added.
After Biden announced he was pulling out from the race, a number of accounts increased their discussions of US Vice President Kamala Harris — the presumptive Democratic nominee — including sharing “gendered disinformation tropes” and racist comments, the report said.
Ahead of his purchase of the platform, Musk pledged to “defeat the spam bots or die trying.”
But bot activity remains entrenched on the platform, a report from Australia’s Queensland University of Technology (QUT) said last year after an analysis of about one million posts.
“X is flooded with platform manipulation of various kinds, is not doing enough to moderate content, and has no clear strategy for dealing with political disinformation,” the QUT report said.
Lee, in light of Global Witness’s findings, called on X to “increase its moderation efforts and get better at enforcing its own policies against inauthentic activity.”
“We’re relying on them to protect our democracies from interference,” Lee said.
The platform has gutted trust and safety teams and scaled back content moderation efforts once used to tame misinformation, making it what researchers call a haven for disinformation.
Last week, Musk — who recently endorsed Trump — himself faced a firehose of criticism for sharing a deepfake video featuring Harris on X, which tech campaigners said violated the platform’s own policies.
‘Bending of reality’: US liberals stoke political conspiracies
PATHETIC ATTEMPT AT RED BAITING
By AFP
July 30, 2024
The United States confronts 'liberal' conspiracy theorists. - Copyright National Disaster Response Force (NDRF)/AFP -
Daniel Funke and Anuj Chopra
From false claims of a “staged” assassination attempt on Donald Trump to a viral joke about his running mate having sex with a couch, American liberals have taken a page from the far-right’s playbook in pushing wild conspiracy theories ahead of US elections.
The liberal and left-wing warping of reality — a trend some call “BlueAnon,” a play on the QAnon conspiracy cult — is fueling information chaos on social media platforms that are already a cesspool of right-wing falsehoods.
The trend underscores how Americans on both sides of the political divide are prone to outlandish conspiracy theories, as many turn to partisan influencers for information amid mistrust of mainstream media, researchers say.
Just moments after former president Trump was whisked off stage with blood on his ear following a shooting at a Pennsylvania rally earlier this month, unsubstantiated claims surfaced online that the incident was “staged.”
Some on the Elon Musk-owned platform X cast doubt on the injuries by sharing an image that appeared to show a burst ketchup packet tucked into his shirt collar.
“It’s always a con and a grift,” an X user named “Liberal Lisa in Oklahoma” wrote, using the hashtag “Trump is not fit to be president.”
But the image was digitally altered to include the packet, AFP’s fact-checkers reported.
Other posts baselessly accused the Republican, who narrowly survived a volley of gunshots that killed a bystander and wounded two other people, of staging the assassination attempt with fake blood capsules.
– ‘Off-the-rails noise’ –
The claims appeared to resonate with voters despite being debunked.
Roughly one in five voters -– including some Trump supporters — said they found it “credible that the shooting was staged and not intended to kill” the former president, according to a recent poll by the business intelligence company Morning Consult.
“It’s definitely dark that many leftists are clinging to the idea that the shooting was fake,” Mike Rothschild, an expert on conspiracy theories, told AFP.
“It’s a bending of reality,” he said. “It means that nothing that comes out in social media in the first minutes can be trusted.”
Misinformation has also ensnared Trump’s vice-presidential candidate J.D. Vance, with many social media users falsely claiming he wrote about having sex with a couch in his memoir “Hillbilly Elegy.”
Last month, President Joe Biden’s disastrous performance in a prime-time debate with Trump sparked unsubstantiated claims that the 81-year-old Democrat had been secretly drugged before the show.
Many also lambasted the mainstream press over what they called tough coverage of the president’s struggles with his age, with some going as far as calling it an “internal coup” in favor of Trump.
“The left-leaning conspiracy theories and misinformation have always been there, but they’ve been drowned out by the off-the-rails noise on the right,” Timothy Caulfield, a misinformation expert from the University of Alberta in Canada, told AFP.
“The recent debate debacle and assassination attempt created space –- and a perceived need -– for explanations that satisfy the liberal narrative. And the algorithms that control social media feeds amplify the segregation.”
– ‘Mental gymnastics’ –
The unfounded theories, which continue to circulate in liberal circles even after being widely debunked, are making it harder for ordinary users to decipher fact from fiction.
Many platforms have gutted trust and safety teams and scaled back content moderation efforts once used to tame misinformation.
That includes X, where Musk — who recently endorsed Trump — reinstated hundreds of right-wing campaigners and conspiracy theorists after he purchased the site in 2022.
Democrats — who have a far more negative view of X, according to surveys — are increasingly migrating to Threads, a platform launched by Meta to compete with X.
While Threads appears to have more robust content moderation policies, conspiracy theories have still gained traction among liberals on the platform ahead of the election.
“The general disposition toward conspiratorial thinking is not a particularly partisan phenomenon. It’s something that sort of afflicts everybody,” Adam Enders, associate political science professor at the University of Louisville, told AFP.
“It’s all just mental gymnastics to bring your beliefs in conformity with the world. And a reasonable way to do that would be to change your beliefs in light of evidence.”
Read more: https://www.digitaljournal.com/world/bending-of-reality-us-liberals-stoke-political-conspiracies/article#ixzz8hYAiPLVR
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