NEWTEKWORLDNEWS
Menu

Social media helped elect Trump

15/11/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
OpEd: There are numerous reports of phoney stories posted on social media that helped Donald Trump win the election.

Facebook is the main villain because it initially denied there was any problem.


Google, without being asked, said it was going to review its algos to keep phoney stories off Google Plus.

Users have complained they are not going to use Twitter and other sites until the problems are fixed.

“Last week Buzzfeed revealed that a handful of teens in Macedonia, were responsible for dozens or more of the inaccurate conspiracy theories that had been getting sometimes hundreds of thousands of likes and shares on Facebook. Nearly all of these were in favour of Donald Trump. They’d gamed Facebook’s algorithm, noting that stories aimed at Clinton supporters didn’t make as many ad dollars as those aimed at Trump supporters,” Forbes reported.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder, said this was “a pretty crazy idea.”

“A quiet group of rebel Facebook employees have created a fake-news “task force” to address the issue of hoax news appearing in users’ feeds, BuzzFeed News reports.

“More than dozens” of employees have banded together, fearing retribution from management and meeting in secret, and plan to come up with a set of recommendations to deliver to Facebook’s management about how to fix the fake-news problem. “What’s crazy,” one anonymous Facebook employee tells BuzzFeed, “is for [Zuckerberg] to come out and dismiss it like that, when he knows, and those of us at the company know, that fake news ran wild on our platform during the entire campaign season,” said Vanity Fair.


Gizmodo said Facebook was afraid of a conservative backlash.

“It’s no secret that Facebook has a fake news problem. Critics have accused the social network of allowing false and hoax news stories to run rampant, with some suggesting that Facebook contributed to Donald Trump’s election by letting hyper-partisan websites spread false and misleading information.

They absolutely have the tools to shut down fake news "Still, it’s hard to visit Facebook without seeing phony headlines like “FBI Agent Suspected in Hillary Email Leaks Found Dead in Apparent Murder-Suicide” or “Pope Francis Shocks World, Endorses Donald Trump for President, Releases Statement” promoted by no-name news sites like the Denver Guardian and Ending the Fed."

Google publicly declared it had seen the problem and was working on it. It was embarrassed by reports it carried saying Trump had won the popular vote.

Hillary Clinton has at least one million more votes, perhaps more.


Westerners were cheered by the Arab spring several years ago, when social media brought down Arab dictators. Many tyrants regained power, and no one in the U.S. expected we would see our own November winter.

Trump took credit for his mastery of social media, declaring it helped him win. He said he didn’t have the money the Clintons had so he used social media.

Many users who supported Clinton blocked these hoax news stories.

But they showed up on many Facebook sites. No one realized they were hoaxes. Some defriended the people posting these false stories. But many were generated by bots.


Trump has threatened libel against news outlets like the New York Times which publish articles critical of him. He sent them several tweets.

The Times replied that they would keep reporting all the truth on trump and he could shove it.

Trump’s latest manoeuvres are to try the block on his several trials for federal racketeering charge.

The status of a 14-year-old who claims Trump and a friend raped her. It is in limbo after she has received death threats.


Vanity Fair
Forbes
Gizmodo
Fortune

​
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-37992573
0 Comments

    Robert Weller

    2016 US election news and other news from the USA

    Bio

    Worked in journalism, including on the Internet, for more than  40 years. Started as a news editor at the Colorado Daily at the University of Colorado, joined a small Montana newspaper, the Helena Independent-Record, and then United Press International.

    AP hired me away in 1973 after a couple of years with UPI and I worked with them until 2008. Assignments have included being the leading AP reporter on the Columbine Massacre, bureau chief in Alaska during the construction of the trans-Alaska pipeline, and covering coups, wars and other events overseas for 14 years.

    I was top editor on the AP news desk in New York during the last years of the Vietnam War before going to Alaska. From Anchorage I went to Johannesburg to cover apartheid. I spent 14 years in Africa, throughout the continent, and covered the assassination and cremation of Indira Gandhi.

    Once back in Colorado I covered the Army and Air Force, Columbine, skiing, arts and the environment. Worked on both sides of the Continental Divide, Denver and Grand Junction.

    My main interests are history and arts, especially classical music, theater and opera.

    Graduated from William Jewell College with a B.A. in history.

    In addition to my travels as a writer I was a military brat and moved around with my father and mother.

    My wife and I have  twins, who keep us up-to-date on new trends.

    I follow events around the world and have a huge collection of bookmarks that include many overseas sites.

    Archives

    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016

    Categories

    All
    2016 US Presidential Race
    Abortion USA
    Agnew
    Alamo
    Alice In Wonderland
    American Politics
    Arizona
    Art Works Flooding
    Bankruptcies
    Bastille Day Nice
    Baylor
    Bernie Sanders
    Bernie Sanders Wins New Hampshire
    Bill Clinton
    Bingo
    Birther Lie
    Bonwit Teller
    Bonwitt Teller
    Breibart
    BRexit
    Broadcity
    Brussels Terror
    California
    Caucuses
    CBD
    Chris Christie Quits
    Churchill
    Civil Rights
    Cleveland
    Climate Change
    Clinton
    Clinton Nominee
    Clinton Pneumonia
    Colin Powell Liar
    Columbine
    Columbine Massacre
    Crooked Trump
    Democracy
    Democratic Convention
    Denver Broncos
    Des Moines
    Disenfranchised Voters
    DNC 2016
    Donald Trump
    Donald Trump Lies
    Donald Trump Violence
    Donald Trump Wins New Hampshire
    Donlad Trump Trust
    Doping Russians
    Dylan Klebold
    Egypt Air
    Electoral College USA
    Elizabeth Warren
    Eugene Mccarthy
    FBI
    Floridagate
    Football
    Fossil Fuels
    French Floods
    Freudian Slip
    Gentle Giant
    Gore
    Guns America
    Gun Violence
    Harambe
    Harambe Dead
    He Who Owns The Media
    Hillary
    Hillary Clinton
    Hillary Clinton Presumptive Nominee
    Hillary Emails
    Hillary Leading
    House Of Cards
    Hugo Colorado
    Humphrey
    Independents
    ISIS
    JFK
    Johnson
    Kukluxklan
    Kunin
    Lewis Carroll
    Liar Trump
    Lincoln
    Losing Popular Vote
    Manafort
    Manchurian Candidate
    Marijuana
    Media
    Media Loves Donald Trump
    Media Mind Manipulation
    Medium The Message
    Meteorite
    MH17
    Mob Rule
    Mona Lisa Still Smiling
    MS804
    MS804 Tweets
    Muhammad Ali
    My Lai
    NATO
    Nazis
    New York
    NFL
    Nixon
    Obama Endorses Clinton
    Obese Trump
    Obituaries
    Olympics
    Payback
    Pennsylvania
    Playoffs
    Popular Vote
    Primary Story Fake
    PTSD
    Punish Women For Abortion
    Putin
    Racial Violence USA
    Rape
    Rfk
    Rickroll
    Roosevelt
    Rubio Bows Out
    Sanders
    Sanders Endorses Clinton
    Sanders The Grouch
    Scotland
    Silverback Gorillas
    Stabs Europe In Back
    Starr
    States Rights
    Super Bowl 2016
    Swing States
    Tale Of Two Cities
    Ted Cruz
    Terri Lynn Rote
    THC
    Trump
    Trump Acts Like Chimpanzee
    Trump And Gaddafi
    Trump And Mexico
    Trump Tax
    Trump Titties
    Trump Towers
    Tyranny Of The Majority
    Ukraine
    Underground Railroad
    US Assassinations
    USFL
    US Nominations
    US Presidential Election
    Vietnam
    Voter Fraud
    Weaver
    Why Is America Angry
    Wisconsin
    Wisconsin Primary
    World Anti Doping Agency

Click to set custom HTML
Support NEWTEK - Like what we do here at NEWTEK? If so, you should consider supporting us…
Running a news based website is fun, time consuming and can be costly. If you would like to help the site keep afloat please use the donate button
​
Sections:
News:
Welcome
Front page
Specials:

One Woman So Many Blogs


The Jeremy Corbyn Effect
​
NEWTEKWORLDNEWS:
About Us
Contact Us
Terms of Service
Cookie policy
Picture
  • Welcome
  • Latest
  • Animal Welfare
  • Barbara McPherson
  • Robert Weller
  • Dava Castillo
  • Odd News
  • Environment, science and health matters
  • On this day in History
  • About Us
  • Terms of Service
  • Our Cookie Policy
  • Welcome
  • Latest
  • Animal Welfare
  • Barbara McPherson
  • Robert Weller
  • Dava Castillo
  • Odd News
  • Environment, science and health matters
  • On this day in History
  • About Us
  • Terms of Service
  • Our Cookie Policy