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Everything Online Malign Influence Newsletter
Alarming attacks on press freedom in Bulgaria
A law that resembles Russia's legislation, which allows the state to label groups as foreign agents, is stalled in Bulgaria.
The draft legislation has been developed by the pro-Russian Vazrazhdane party, which became the fourth largest faction in parliament in the recent elections and is currently in negotiations to form a coalition government. While the passing of the law in the current political climate remains doubtful, it nonetheless represents a serious threat to media freedom which the European Commission should closely monitor.
Although the progress of the bill remains stalled for now, the proposal should set alarm bells ringing given the similarities to Russia’s notorious “Foreign Agents Act”, which has been systematically weaponized over the last decade to block and shut down what remained of the country’s independent media and NGOs.
A new podcast about disinformation: Decoding disinformation
This podcast focuses on a group of journalists investigating strategies used to divert attention from facts, create noise, and generate uncertainty. Hoaxlines has written about the role of uncertainty in increasing audience susceptibility to disinformation and media manipulation, so we look forward to seeing what this podcast reports.
Our brains were not built for this
Quotes:
“Even if we could stop all foreign propaganda and become rational actors, as long as big tech companies have polarisation as their business model, this problem is not going anywhere.”
“Even if we could stop all foreign propaganda and become rational actors, as long as big tech companies have polarisation as their business model, this problem is not going anywhere.”
Stollmeyer refers to the well-studied fact that the way social media companies operate is very much based on amplifying differences and extreme views.
QAnon is coming. We need to be ready.
Quote:
We are not prepared to deal with this threat. Traditional counterterrorism strategies do not and cannot address this. So we will see a problem that we are ill-equipped to face, grow.
Meta may struggle to comply with the EU's new antitrust law
From Dr. Emma Briant via Mastodon:
Recent #CambridgeAnalytica case #Meta own engineers appeared unaware of the full extent of #Facebook user data that it held in its systems. Meta may struggle to comply with European Union’s upcoming #antitrust law, which prohibits #data combination & reuse.
The people (or are they?) request that Must reinstate inauthentic accounts
Things just keep getting weirder on Twitter:
people are petitioning Elon Musk to have a variety of inauthentic accounts unbanned because of course they are.
Died Suddenly is the latest anti-vaccine propaganda video. Here's only some of the major problems with the video
Here's one of many recent fact-checks on the shockumentary
Post Omits Paxlovid’s Ability to Protect Against Severe COVID-19, Death
Video shows spilled trash in Australian mall, not ballots from Arizona midterms
On digital authoritarianism tactics for censoring journalists, scientists, and other inconvenient individuals
Targeting of specific journalists and scientists appears coordinated and intentional in some instances. I can think of at least two cases where the synchronization of influencer comments, hashtags, content mills, and coverage on an outlet like Fox led to threats to life.
The "Antifa" list sure has a lot of people who aren't affiliated with Antifa
Canadian attorney Michael Bond tried to get answers about why there are so many people on the list of "over 5000 antifa accounts” that don't seem to fit the bill. The response was less than encouraging, stating that if the accounts aren't violating platform policy, then they will not get banned. That claim is questionable given the platform's recent moderation strategies, which include requesting people remove posts critical of Elon Musk.
The rationale for including certain accounts remains unexplained. Examples include SpencerGuard (the Chair of Urban Warfare), Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, Monica Lewinsky, governmental agencies like NIH and the FBI, and smaller accounts belonging to researchers like Hoaxlines' Rosalie.
Incendiary Speech That Spurs Violence is Rising in US, But Tools Exist to Shrink It
Musk-owned Twitter echoes an earlier oligarch takeover of British newspapers
Quote:
This feels a little bit like the moment when The Independent, a British newspaper created in the 1980s as a rival to the country’s many tycoon-owned dailies, was bought by a Russian billionaire, except vastly more consequential since by then no one really read The Independent anyway.
