Trollbot swarms
What is a trollbot, and what are they currently being deployed to do on social media platforms? How can we actually see what is happening?
Fact Check: Was June Hottest Month?
Tweets have been circulating on social media declaring that June 2019 was the hottest month ever recorded. For example … So was it? Quick Answer: Nope. Slightly longer answer is this correction from Climatologist Michael E Mann … But how do we know? The alpha source for all of the latest “Hottest” claims comes from … Read more
Debunking Roseanne Barr myths
Now that the dust has settled a little and the media frenzy has died down, I’d like to focus on it all by examining a few of the claims that have been tossed around within the twitter maelstrom. People tweet racist stuff all the time, so why all the focus? It is different for various … Read more
Analysis of 2.7 billion tweets confirms Echo Chambers on Twitter
First, just for completeness, here is a quick definition. The term “Echo Chamber” is a reference to the idea that people are increasingly being only exposed to the ideas that they agree with, and don’t hear the arguments of those with whom they do not agree. The net effect is that we become more polarised. … Read more
Trolling the right-wing with @arguetron – #bots
I was posting yesterday about how to spot bots. That is perhaps an important skill to develop because we live in an age where bots with a very specific malicious intent are being deployed to deceive and manipulate you by masquerading as a human. They promote extreme ideas, not because it is one that those behind … Read more
Are all your Twitter friends human? #bots and #botnets
You may indeed have Twitter Bots that are following you or that you follow that are openly and transparently bots. These are the harmless ones run by a piece of software, and exist to provide a useful service. Examples include PoetryBot, CloudVision (A Photo Bot), or simply News Bot to tweet out headlines. Generally nobody has … Read more