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Lecture on ‘Disinformation, Fake News and Privacy’

Firstly, ‘disinformation, fake news and privacy’ taught me how the spread of news can sometimes be misleading as the media can make you believe what they want you to believe. Factors that interested me were ‘how does fake news spread today?’ as the idea of low quality news with intentionally dishonest information vital to understand and ‘solutions to disinformation’ as the methods to resist the creation of and spread of false information helped me to learn the importance of combating inaccurate facts (Shu, Sliva, Wang, Tang and Liu, 2017).

Disinformation, Fake News and Privacy

Source: (The problem with fake news on Facebook - and how to spot it, 2015)

Moreover, the whole idea of ‘how does fake news spread today?’ was to display how inaccurate information found its way onto a mainstream platform. An argument that had me intrigued was the fact that social media for news consumption is a double-edged sword due to the fact that it’s cheap, easily accessible and it is where people who usually go to for information. This means that the wide spread of fake news is very much possible as the ideas of ‘Fake News Detection on Social Media: A Data Mining Perspective’ promoted. To give an example of fake news spreading on social media, rumours circled round on Facebook that the UK threatened to invade Switzerland on Facebook. Of course, posts like these do sound very stupid in general but it was treated seriously at first. I believe this is the perfect way to spread false information and to mislead the public.

Sources: (Shu, Sliva, Wang, Tang and Liu, 2017),   (The problem with fake news on Facebook - and how to spot it, 2015)

Solutions of Disinformation

Link for video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MA1vD_L8Mjs

Source for picture: (Trollface)

Likewise, I felt fascinated to see ‘solutions of disinformation’ as it even taught me how I can avoid misleading news. It would be wise to fight fake news with facts and figures. But as Jennifer Szalai stated, fighting fake news with the facts might not be enough due to the fact that Kellyanne Conway in 2017 defended the White House’s lies about attendance numbers at Trump’s inauguration the week before . She was on “Meet the Press,” criticising an irritated Chuck Todd for being “overly dramatic” as he tried to get her to admit that lying to the American public was bad. It definitely seemed as if Kellyanne Conway was ‘trolling’ NBC’s Chuck Todd which is a common term used for those who provoke others with false information. So it is clear that there are people who regularly appear on TV and feed the public with false information but because they have a high place in the media industry, the public may believe them. But fighting disinformation like this should help to re-inform the public of real news with facts and figures with reliable sources.

Sources: (Szalai, 2019), (Kellyanne Conway: Presidents 'Aren't Judged by Crowd Size' (Full) | Meet The Press | NBC News, 2017),  (How is Fake News Spread? Bots, People like You, Trolls, and Microtargeting, n.d.)  

Final Thoughts   

My verdict on ‘disinformation, fake news and privacy’ is that it perfectly showed how various media sources can reinforce false information much quicker now than ever before as a result of social media. On the other hand, there are solutions to disinformation such as using facts and figures. These are aspects I feel that are very important to learn so I can be aware of false information that can be displayed all over TV as well as social media.

References: CITS (n.d.) How Is Fake News Spread? Bots, People Like You, Trolls, And Microtargeting. [online] Available at: https://www.cits.ucsb.edu/fake-news/spread#spread-trolls [Accessed 24 March 2020].

Newsbeat (2015) The Problem with Fake News on Facebook - And How To Spot It. [online] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/37974816/the-problem-with-fake-news-on-facebook---and-how-to-spot-it [Accessed 13 March 2020].

Shu, K., Sliva, A., Wang, S., Tang, J. and Liu, H. (2017) Fake News Detection On Social Media: A Data Mining Perspective. [online] Cornell University. Available at: https://arxiv.org/abs/1708.01967 [Accessed 15 March 2020].

Szalai, J., 2019. Why Fighting Fake News With The Facts Might Not Be Enough. [online] The New York Times. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/09/books/review-misinformation-age-cailin-oconnor-james-owen-weatherall-down-to-earth-bruno-latour.html [Accessed 22 March 2020].

Kellyanne Conway: Presidents 'Aren't Judged by Crowd Size' (Full) | Meet The Press | NBC News. 2017. [video] NBC Studios: NBC News. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MA1vD_L8Mjs [Accessed 23 March 2020].

Trollface (n.d.). [image] Available at: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/trollface  [Accessed 24 March 2020].

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My Lecture on Online Hate and Racism

To begin I learnt about hostility towards different groups online which is a huge part of today’s society considering the amount of racism, sexism and Islamophobia that people have endured. The issues brought up in this lecture allured me were ‘social networking sites and hate’ as it is a platform that has played a vital part in the spread of hate against different types of people along with ‘algorithms of oppression’ due to the fact that it is a common factor because people believe sources that are on the top sites are the most popular trustworthy and credible whether true or not.

Social Network Sites and Hate

Source for picture: (Millstein, 2015)

Source for picture: (Grygiel, 2018)

Source for picture: (Donald Trump, 2020)

Link for video: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=grab+her+by+the+pussy  

Furthermore, when thinking about the lecture on ‘social networking sites and hate’ was vital considering social media is growing and people express their views and opinions whether they are hateful or not. Tamara Shepherd argued, “more optimistic pronouncements of the Internet’s ability to offer spaces for productive democratic interactivity seem at best naive in what can be framed as the current ascendancy of online hate”. Shepherd implies that the free speech online has created the chance for people to state their own detest for the opposite gender, race, religions and beliefs. For example, an anti-Semitic tweet in 2014 involved a user named ‘Hamas Palestine’ mentioning killing Jews for fun while using the hashtag and stating ‘killjews’ which is usually used for starting a movement . Movements like these are extremely dangerous as it usually gathers more attention. In 2015, Donald Trump made sexist remarks against one of his opponents while running for president as he said she could not please her husband which was of course sexual remarks. This was not the first time Trump had made these sexual remarks as in 2005, he was bragging about sexually assault . This was brought up several times during his 2016 U.S. election campaign and this spread throughout different social media platforms such as Twitter and YouTube while also being shown through memes.

Sources:  (Shepherd, 2015), (Grygiel, 2018),  (Trump's uncensored lewd comments about women from 2005, 2016),  (Donald Trump, 2020)

Algorithms of Oppression

Source for picture: (baby, n.d.)

In addition to this, ‘algorithms of oppression’ is important due to the facts news ends up being one of the popular parts of the internet whether it is good or bad. According to Safiya Noble, just two years before her book [2016’s Black Girls Code, an organisation teaching and mentoring black girls], searching on “black girls” surfaced “Black Booty on the Beach” and “Sugary Black Pussy”. Another example involves typing in “baby” and when that word is typed in on Google Images, only white babies appear. This is a reoccurring example that has been reinforced by the media several times across the years, particularly in European and North American nations.

Sources: (Noble, 2018)

Final Thoughts

In conclusion, ‘online hate and racism’ taught me the importance of how social media provokes hate online. It dissected how online hate can emerge and I believe the social networking sites which creates a forum of freedom of speech and algorithms of oppression which display the most stereotypical or sometimes offensive aspects of a particular topic. Therefore, these issues are the most vital causes of this which helped to extend my knowledge of online hate. 

References: Garber, M. (2012) Where America's Racist Tweets Come From. [online] The Atlantic. Available at: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/11/where-americas-racist-tweets-come-from/265006/ [Accessed 13 March 2020].

Google Images. n.d. Baby. [online] Available at: https://www.google.com/search?q=baby&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwia4Legj7HoAhVJYBoKHRDNCz0Q2-cCegQIABAA&oq=baby&gs_l=img.3..0i67l6j0l4.4931.5354..5560...0.0..1.200.410.1j1j1......0....1..gws-wiz-img.JODUtI4ieM4&ei=kfF4XtrTLMnAaZCar-gD&bih=657&biw=1349&hl=en [Accessed 23 March 2020].

Meme. 2017. DONALD TRUMP ISA RACIST SEXIST MEGALOMANIAC NARCISSISTIC STUPID LUNATIC BUT THE WORSTRSTHANKSTOHIM HILLARY CLINTON WILL BECOME PRESIDENT MEMEFUL COM MEME. [online] Available at: https://me.me/i/donald-trump-isa-racist-sexist-megalomaniac-narcissistic-stupid-lunatic-but-11138345 [Accessed 23 March 2020].

Millstein, S. (2015) The 9 Most Sexist Donald Trump Quotes From 2015 Are Honestly Just The Tip Of The Icerberg. [online] Bustle. Available at: https://www.bustle.com/articles/131835-the-9-most-sexist-donald-trump-quotes-from-2015-are-honestly-just-the-tip-of-the [Accessed 13 March 2020].

Noble, S. (2018) Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism. [online] ProQuest Ebook Central. Available at: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/brunelu/reader.action?docID=4834260 [Accessed 13 March 2020].

Shepherd, T. et al. (2015) ‘Histories of Hating’, Social Media + Society. doi: 10.1177/2056305115603997. Volume: 1 issue: 2, Article first published online: September 30, 2015; Issue published: July 1, 2015 

Trump's uncensored lewd comments about women from 2005. (2016) [video] Hollywood: Access Hollywood/CNN. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSC8Q-kR44o

Grygiel, J., 2018. Hate Speech Is Still Easy To Find On Social Media. [online] The Conversation. Available at: http://theconversation.com/hate-speech-is-still-easy-to-find-on-social-media-106020 [Accessed 23 March 2020].