In 2018, Americans Took a Page From the Russian Disinformation Playbook
Getty Illustration Looking for news you can trust?Subscribe to our free newsletters. In the week leading up to the 2018 midterm elections, two massive stories dominated the news: the migrant caravan approaching the southern US border and pipe bombs mailed to major liberal figures. As the stories spread online, so did a constellation of hoaxes and…
Facebook Let These Misleading Advertisers Promote the Border Wall Fundraiser
Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire via ZUMA Press Looking for news you can trust?Subscribe to our free newsletters. Facebook users are running sponsored political advertisements promoting the crowdfunding campaign for Trump’s border wall under misleading “Paid for by” labels. Earlier this year, Facebook similarly came under fire for the “Paid for by” labels on its political ads. According to Facebook’s own policies, advertisers…
How Fascist Sympathizers Hijacked Reddit’s Libertarian Hangout
Igor Golovniov/SOPA Images/ZUMA Wire Looking for news you can trust?Subscribe to our free newsletters. For years, Reddit’s most popular libertarian board, r/Libertarian, eschewed formal moderation in a bid to stay true to its ideology’s anything-goes ethos. But over the course of the last several weeks, Reddit users with a history of advocating white supremacy and state…
After Propaganda, Conservative News Was the Most Popular Content Pushed by Russian Trolls
Arriens/NurPhoto/ZUMA Press Looking for news you can trust?Subscribe to our free newsletters. Russian internet trolls helped expand the reach of conservative media outlets as part of a Kremlin campaign to influence US politics and sow social discord, according to a new report commissioned by the Senate Intelligence Committee. Conservative content resonated heavily with the trolls’ Facebook…
Did Michael Flynn Try to Strike a Grand Bargain With Moscow as It Attacked the 2016 Election?
Michael Flynn leaves a federal courthouse following a status hearing in his case.Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Looking for news you can trust?Subscribe to our free newsletters. In early December, special counsel Robert Mueller, in preparation for the upcoming sentencing of Michael Flynn, submitted two memos outlining his recommended punishment for President Donald Trump’s former national security…
Congress Had a Chance to Press Google on Hoaxes and Hate Speech. They Blew It.
Douglas Christian/ZUMA Wire Looking for news you can trust?Subscribe to our free newsletters. House lawmakers spent three and a half hours on Tuesday going after Google CEO Sundar Pichai on a range of issues, but barely addressed one of the tech giant’s biggest problems: its role in spreading misinformation and radicalizing users. Instead, the Republicans…