'Magical Overthinking' author says information overload can stoke irrational thoughts; NPR, Fresh Air, April 9, 2024

Tonya Mosley, NPR, Fresh Air; 'Magical Overthinking' author says information overload can stoke irrational thoughts

"How is it that we are living in the information age — and yet life seems to make less sense than ever? That's the question author and podcast host Amanda Montell set out to answer in her new book, The Age of Magical Overthinking. 

Montell says that our brains are overloaded with a constant stream of information that stokes our innate tendency to believe conspiracy theories and mysticism...

Montell, who co-hosts the podcast Sounds Like A Cult, says this cognitive bias is what allows misinformation and disinformation to spread so easily, particularly online. It also helps explain our tendency to make assumptions about celebrities we admire...

Montell says that in an age of overwhelming access to information, it's important to step away from electronic devices. "We are meant for a physical world. That's what our brains are wired for," she says. "These devices are addictive, but I find that my nervous system really thanks me when I'm able to do that.""

2024 may be the year online disinformation finally gets the better of us; Politico.eu, March 25, 2024

SEB BUTCHER , Politico.eu; 2024 may be the year online disinformation finally gets the better of us

"Never before have AI-powered tools been more sophisticated, widespread and accessible to the public.

Generative AI, in its broadest sense, refers to deep learning models that can generate sophisticated text, video, audio, images and other content based on the data they were trained on. And the recent introduction of these tools into the mainstream — including language models and image creators — has made the creation of fake or misleading content incredibly easy, even for those with the most basic tech skills.

We have now entered a new technological era that will change our lives forever — hopefully for the better. But despite the widespread public awe of its capabilities, we must also be aware that this powerful technology has the potential to do incredible damage if mismanaged and abused.

For bad actors, generative AI has supercharged the disinformation and propaganda playbook. False and deceptive content can now be effortlessly produced by these tools, either for free or at low cost, and deployed on a mass scale online. Increasingly, the online ecosystem, which is the source of most of our news and information, is being flooded with fabricated content that’s becoming difficult to distinguish from reality."

Kate conspiracies peddled by Russian disinformation group, experts say; CNN, March 30, 2024

 Christian Edwards , CNN; Kate conspiracies peddled by Russian disinformation group, experts say

"For Kate and her family, the past three months have been a crisis. But for others, they may have brought opportunity.

“You had a swirling mess of speculation, which provides a great place if you’re a foreign actor and you want to get involved,” Martin Innes, a disinformation expert at Cardiff University in Wales, told CNN. “It’s the ideal situation, really.”

Innes and his research team linked 45 social media accounts posting bogus claims about the princess to a Kremlin-affiliated disinformation campaign which has previously peddled conspiracies about Russia’s war in Ukraine and French President Emmanuel Macron. The motive of such campaigns, Innes said, is to “destabilize” Russia’s Western antagonists and “undermine trust” in their institutions.

The United Kingdom’s relationship with Russia has long been mixed. The Brits have been happy to provide services for – and welcome in the wealth of – oligarchs from the former Soviet Union, despite hostilities between London and Moscow. A 2020 UK parliamentary report found “plenty of evidence of Russian interference” in its democratic processes, saying Russian influence had become “the new normal.”

The Cardiff researchers have run a large research program into disinformation since 2018, but began investigating the Kate conspiracies after seeing “unusual patterns in the traffic data” and “spikes coming out of nowhere.”"

U.S., Finland Agree To Cooperate On Combating Foreign Disinformation; Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, April 4, 2024

RFE/RL, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty; U.S., Finland Agree To Cooperate On Combating Foreign Disinformation

"The United States and Finland have agreed to cooperate in “countering foreign state information manipulation,” the U.S. State Department announced on April 4. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen signed the memorandum in Brussels at a summit of NATO foreign ministers. The two countries pledged to “expand information sharing about foreign disinformation, share best practices for countering it,” and align policies with the U.S. Framework to Counter Foreign State Information Manipulation. At a joint press briefing, Valtonen said “information manipulation is a growing challenge to democratic countries and open societies.”"

China Is Targeting U.S. Voters and Taiwan With AI-Powered Disinformation; Wall Street Journal, April 5, 2024

 

Dustin Volz, Wall Street Journal ; China Is Targeting U.S. Voters and Taiwan With AI-Powered Disinformation

"Online actors linked to the Chinese government are increasingly leveraging artificial intelligence to target voters in the U.S., Taiwan and elsewhere with disinformation, according to new cybersecurity research and U.S. officials."

France to propose sanctions at EU level on Russian firms spreading disinformation; Reuters, April 2, 2024

Reuters; France to propose sanctions at EU level on Russian firms spreading disinformation

"France will propose EU-wide level sanctions on those behind spreading disinformation amid what Paris sees as growing efforts by Russia to destabilise the bloc, Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne on Tuesday."

How disinformation 'sabotages America'; WBUR, March 21, 2024

Jonathan Chang 

Meghna Chakrabarti

, WBUR; How disinformation 'sabotages America'

"CHAKRABARTI: By the way, I was really taken with the dedication that you put in the front of the book, and I just want to read it here for a second.

You said, "To all of the brave American heroes who have given their lives to defend democracy from fascism, a trip to Normandy where more than 9,000 American service members are buried, left me in awe of their courage and selflessness. We owe them and other American patriots our vigilance so that their sacrifices will not have been in vain."

Why are you dedicating the book to them?

McQUADE: Yeah, I had the opportunity to visit Normandy a couple of years ago, and anybody who's ever been there, I know, must feel that moving sense of awe to see all of those white crosses and stars of David representing the 9,000 young people who gave their lives for our democracy, and they're all, young, 19, 20 years old.

And then you think about the crass, lying power grabs that we're seeing today. It's really disgusting. And it is an insult to people who sacrifice their lives for democracy. To simply lie and try to steal the power of the people through lies to advance a party's power or an individual's power...

CHAKRABARTI: We're rounding towards the last few minutes of the conversation, Barbara. I would love to hear more about, given your experience inside government, within the law and the research that you did for this book, you have a couple of chapters of what can we do about it? So what are a couple of your other proposed solutions that we haven't already potentially touched on in this show?

McQUADE: Yeah. So I think there are a few things that can be done. One is I think we need some meaningful regulation of social media. It's been an incredible explosion of technology to have social media, especially those based in the United States, these tech companies, but they've allowed, they've been allowed to grow unregulated since the 1990s.

And now that we have seen the harms of it, I think in retrospect, we ought to have some controls. So one of them is to control these algorithms. The idea that they have computer programs, computer code. This is not speech. This is a process. And so I think without running afoul of the first amendment, we could regulate the processes that social media companies are allowed to use.

Some of these that manipulate us, that push us toward this content designed to engender outrage, I think, is certainly something that we could prohibit, or at least require disclosure, so people know when they are being manipulated."

Ethics in an age of disinformation: Free webinar series from the National Press Club Journalism Institute; National Press Club Journalism Institute, April 4, 2024

Press Release, National Press Club Journalism Institute; Ethics in an age of disinformation: Free webinar series from the National Press Club Journalism Institute 

"The National Press Club Journalism Institute is pleased to announce a free, four-part webinar series focused on ethics in the age of disinformation. These discussions are geared toward equipping journalists and the public with tools to combat mis and disinformation efforts aimed at disrupting journalism and democracy.

All of these webinars are free and open to the public and are designed to provide tools and best practices to support ethical, trustworthy journalism."

Conspiracy, monetisation and weirdness: this is why social media has become ungovernable; The Guardian, April 1, 2024

 Nesrine Malik , The Guardian; Conspiracy, monetisation and weirdness: this is why social media has become ungovernable

"Something has changed about the way social media content is presented to us. It is both a huge and subtle shift. Until recently, types of content were segregated by platform. Instagram was for pictures and short reels, TikTok for longer videos, X for short written posts. Now Instagram reels post TikTok videos, which post Instagram reels, and all are posted on X. Often it feels like a closed loop, with the algorithm taking you further and further away from discretion and choice in who you follow. All social media apps now have the equivalent of a “For you” page, a feed of content from people you don’t follow, and which, if you don’t consciously adjust your settings, the homepage defaults to. The result is that increasingly, you have less control over what you see."

Rep. Ken Buck says he will not serve out rest of term, narrowing GOP majority; The Washington Post, March 14, 2024

Amy B Wang

 and 

Patrick Svitek

, The Washington Post; Rep. Ken Buck says he will not serve out rest of term, narrowing GOP majority

"“Our nation is on a collision course with reality, and a steadfast commitment to truth, even uncomfortable truths, is the only way forward,” Buck said then. “Too many Republican leaders are lying to America.”

Buck also cited Republicans’ downplaying the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, in which a pro-Trump mob sought to stop the certification of Biden’s electoral win, as well as the GOP’s claims that the ensuing prosecutions amounted to a weaponization of the justice system.

“These insidious narratives breed widespread cynicism and erode Americans’ confidence in the rule of law,” Buck said. “It is impossible for the Republican Party to confront our problems and offer a course correction for the future while being obsessively fixated on retribution and vengeance for contrived injustices of the past.”"

More Americans are getting news on TikTok, bucking the trend seen on most other social media sites; Pew Research Center, November 15, 2023

KATERINA EVA MATSA, Pew Research Center; More Americans are getting news on TikTok, bucking the trend seen on most other social media sites

[Kip Currier: This November 2023 Pew Research Center article about news consumption by Americans--particularly increasing numbers of teens--who use TikTok should be concerning to anyone who has an interest in democratic principles, informed citizenries, accuracy of information, national security, and public health.

It's not going to be easy, though, to stem access to dis- and misinformation and instill more guardrails against conspiracy theories and hate speech (--looking at you too, Elon/Twitter-cum-X) for Big Tech platforms like TikTok (though states like Montana are trying to provide bulwarks) that are well-documented for-profit purveyors of disinformation and misinformation.

One step in raising awareness of social media platform concerns is to get more informed about TikTok's meteoric rise from new-kid-on-the-social-media-block just a few years ago to prodigious social media sensation/Trojan horse threat today: the Washington Post's May 2023 "How TikTok went from teen sensation to political pariah" provides an informative timeline of TikTok's onset and vitality.

A significant concern of TikTok usage and market penetration is public health-related: Social media companies like TikTok and Meta utilize known (and unknown "trade secret-shielded") design features that foster addictive consumption of their content, which, in part, is having documented negative impacts on mental health. Bloomberg's April 2023 article "TikTok’s Algorithm Keeps Pushing Suicide to Vulnerable Kids" is one example.

Ongoing concerns about TikTok's threats to U.S. national security and cybersecurity have also prompted the Biden administration to speak out forcefully in March 2023.

The burden of addressing the "information threats" these sites present is going to be on schools and public libraries: to advance "social media information literacy" and critical thinking skills in young people, as well as persons of all ages. Unfortunately, libraries are, in many instances, jumping pell-mell on the TikTok bandwagon: rhapsodically promoting the platform, both tacitly and overtly, without commensurately weighing the substantive downsides of its use for community engagement and messaging that, admittedly, can have positive upshots, like combatting rising rates of book challenges and bans.

Notice, too, on television the increased Public Relations/Crisis Management "feel-good ad" campaigning that TikTok--like Meta/Facebook--has been engaging in the past few years to counter reporting about the burgeoning amounts of disinformation and misinformation on these sites, as well as other real concerns highlighted above. These ads employ folksy, "nothing-to-worry-about-on-here" messages in attempts to downplay the genuine dangers that they represent to individuals and democratic societies. The reality, however, is that there is bonafide "stuff" to worry about regarding TikTok and its ilk -- and ample evidence of these intersectional problems to vindicate taking affirmative steps now to mitigate and push back against their negative impacts.

Are you listening, U.S. Congress and state legislatures?]

"A small but growing share of U.S. adults say they regularly get news on TikTok. This is in contrast with many other social media sites, where news consumption has either declined or stayed about the same in recent years.

In just three years, the share of U.S. adults who say they regularly get news from TikTok has more than quadrupled, from 3% in 2020 to 14% in 2023.

TikTok, primarily known for short-form video sharing, has become especially popular among teens – two-thirds of whom report ever using the platform – as well as young adults."

Guidelines for the governance of digital platforms: safeguarding freedom of expression and access to information through a multi-stakeholder approach; UNESCO, November 2023

UNESCO; Guidelines for the governance of digital platforms: safeguarding freedom of expression and access to information through a multi-stakeholder approach

"Guidelines for an Internet for Trust

Safeguarding freedom of expression and the right to information while dealing with dis- and misinformation, hate speech, and conspiracy theories requires a multistakeholder approach. This is the reason why UNESCO, the leading UN agency for the promotion and protection of freedom of expression and to information, is launching Guidelines for the Governance of Digital Platforms. The Guidelines outline a set of duties, responsibilities and roles for States, digital platforms, intergovernmental organizations, civil society, media, academia, the technical community and other stakeholders to enable the environment where freedom of expression and information are in the core of digital platforms governance processes. The Guidelines were produced through a multi-stakeholder consultation that gathered more than 10,000 comments from 134 countries. These global-scale consultations  fostered  inclusive participation, ensuring a diversity of voices to be heard, including those from groups in situation of marginalization and vulnerability.

Cultivating an Internet of Trust is a shared responsibility among all stakeholders. It calls upon us all to sustain an enabling environment for freedom of expression and the right to information."

0,000 comments from 134 countries. These global-scale consultations fostered inclusive participation, ensuring a diversity of voices to be heard, including those from groups in situation of marginalization and vulnerability

85% of people worry about online disinformation, global survey finds; The Guardian, November 7, 2023

 Jon Henley, The Guardian; 85% of people worry about online disinformation, global survey finds

"More than 85% of people are worried about the impact of online disinformation and 87% believe it has already harmed their country’s politics, according to a global survey, as the United Nations announced a plan to tackle the phenomenon.

Audrey Azoulay, director general of the UN’s culture body, Unesco, told reporters on Monday that false information and hate speech online – accelerated and amplified by social media platforms – posed “major risks to social cohesion, peace and stability”.

Regulation was urgently needed “to protect access to information … while at the same time protecting freedom of expression and human rights”, Azoulay said as she presented a “governance blueprint” for governments, regulators and platforms."

Our History Is Our Protection; American Libraries, November 1, 2023

 Tracie D. Hall, American Libraries; Our History Is Our Protection

"Before his own death, another civil rights crusader, US Rep. John Lewis, presciently asserted that in his estimation, access to the internet (and information more broadly) would be the civil rights issue of the 21st century.

Lewis’s words demonstrate uncanny foresight. In this moment where disinformation and information disparity have become normalized, many libraries are forced to fight defunding when they should rightfully be advocating for increased funding to provide the growing educational and social services they are being asked to take on.

We are indeed in the midst of a civil rights movement. Libraries are called to face this moment just as we have in times before, with an indefatigable commitment to information access and the unequivocal belief that right of access applies to everyone.

That legacy, that history, is our protection." 

Maine Mass Shooting Disinformation Floods Social Media as Suspect Remains at Large; Wired, October 26, 2023

DAVID GILBERT , Wired; Maine Mass Shooting Disinformation Floods Social Media as Suspect Remains at Large

"“It’s as if everyone thinks disinformation is a problem, but not for them personally—only for other people,” Caroline Orr, a behavioral scientist and postdoctoral researcher at the University of Maryland who tracks disinformation online, wrote on X, adding: “When 20+ people are murdered in a mass shooting, and the reaction of most people on this website is: ‘How can I use this to push a political agenda?’ or ‘How can I use this to attack XYZ person?’ … that reflects something far more disturbing.”"

AI voice clones mimic politicians and celebrities, reshaping reality; The Washington Post, October 13, 2023

Pranshu Verma

 and 

Will Oremus

, The Washington Post; AI voice clones mimic politicians and celebrities, reshaping reality

"Rapid advances in artificial intelligence have made it easy to generate believable audio, allowing anyone from foreign actors to music fans to copy somebody’s voice — leading to a flood of faked content on the web, sewing [sic] discord, confusion and anger.

Last week, the actor Tom Hanks warned his social media followers that bad actors used his voice to falsely imitate him hawking dental plans. Over the summer, TikTok accounts used AI narrators to display fake news reports that erroneously linked former president Barack Obama to the death of his personal chef.

On Thursday, a bipartisan group of senators announced a draft bill, called the No Fakes Act, that would penalize people for producing or distributing an AI-generated replica of someone in an audiovisual or voice recording without their consent...

Social media companies also find it difficult to moderate AI-generated audio because human fact-checkers often have trouble spotting fakes. Meanwhile, few software companies have guardrails to prevent illicit use."

Inside the Israel-Hamas information war, from insider attacks to fleeing leaders; The New York Times, October 14, 2023

Elizabeth Dwoskin, The New York Times; Inside the Israel-Hamas information war, from insider attacks to fleeing leaders

"While social media has been a critical tool for disseminating wartime information in recent days, a barrage of images, memes and testimonials is making it difficult to assess what is real...

“Right now,” said Hultquist, “it’s very difficult for a lay person to get to ground truth.”"

Naomi Klein on following her ‘doppelganger’ down the conspiracy rabbit hole – and why millions of people have entered an alternative political reality; The Guardian, August 26, 2023

 Naomi Klein, The Guardian; Naomi Klein on following her ‘doppelganger’ down the conspiracy rabbit hole – and why millions of people have entered an alternative political reality

"This is a twist on the disaster capitalism I have tracked in the midst of earlier large-scale societal shocks. In the past, I have written about the private companies that descend to profit off the desperate needs and fears in the aftermath of hurricanes and wars, selling men with guns and reconstruction services at a high premium. That is old-school disaster capitalism picking our pockets, and it is still alive and thriving, taking aim at public schools and national health systems as the pandemic raged. But something new is also afoot: disaster capitalism mining our attention, at a time when attention is arguably our culture’s most valuable commodity. Conspiracies have always swirled in times of crisis – but never before have they been a booming industry in their own right...

Almost everyone I talk to these days seems to be losing people to the Mirror World and its web of conspiracies. It’s as if those people live in a funhouse of distorted reflections and disorienting reversals. People who were familiar have somehow become alien, like a doppelganger of themselves, leaving us with that unsettled, uncanny feeling. The big misinformation players may be chasing clout, but plenty of people believe their terrifying stories. Clearly, conspiracy culture is fueled by deep and unmet needs – for community, for innocence, for inside knowledge, for answers that appear, however deceptively, to explain a world gone wild.

“I can’t talk to my sister any more.” “My mother has gone down the rabbit hole.” “I am trying to figure out how to get my grandmother off Facebook.” “He used to be my hero. Now every conversation ends in a screaming match.”

What happened to them?

When looking at the Mirror World, it can seem obvious that millions of people have given themselves over to fantasy, to make-believe, to playacting. The trickier thing, the uncanny thing, really, is that’s what they see when they look at us. They say we live in a “clown world”, are stuck in “the matrix” of “groupthink”, are suffering from a form of collective hysteria called “mass formation psychosis” (a made-up term). The point is that on either side of the reflective glass, we are not having disagreements about differing interpretations of reality – we are having disagreements about who is in reality and who is in a simulation."

Why the Trump trial should be televised; The Washington Post, August 3, 2023

 Neal Katyal , The Washington Post; Why the Trump trial should be televised

"The upcoming trial of United States v. Donald J. Trump will rank with Marbury v. Madison, Brown v. Board of Education and Dred Scott v. Sandford as a defining moment for our history and our values as a people. And yet, federal law will prevent all but a handful of Americans from actually seeing what is happening in the trial. We will be relegated to perusing cold transcripts and secondhand descriptions. The law must be changed...

Most important, live (or near-live) broadcasting lets Americans see for themselves what is happening in the courtroom and would go a long way toward reassuring them that justice is being done. They would be less vulnerable to the distortions and misrepresentations that will inevitably be part of the highly charged, politicized discussion flooding the country as the trial plays out. Justice Louis Brandeis’s observation that “sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants” is absolutely apt here."

RFK Jr. is building a presidential campaign around conspiracy theories; NPR, July 13, 2023

 Shannon Bond, NPR; RFK Jr. is building a presidential campaign around conspiracy theories

"What's not up for debate for scientists, researchers and public health officials is Kennedy's long track record of undermining science and spreading dubious claims.

"He has an enormous platform. He is going to, over the next many months, do a series of town hall meetings where he will continue to put bad information out there that will cause people to make bad decisions for themselves and their families, again putting children at risk and causing children to suffer," Offit said. "Because it's always the most vulnerable among us who suffer our ignorance.""