Comments on: Fake Facts on Twitter https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2009/04/fake_facts_on_t.html Mon, 27 Jan 2020 11:52:51 +0000 hourly 1 By: Sid Viscous https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2009/04/fake_facts_on_t.html/#comment-111469 Fri, 15 May 2009 17:53:25 +0000 https://www.schneier.com/fake_facts_on_t/#comment-111469 Interesting. So I go to the link at the top of the story

http://www.congressmatters.com/storyonly/2009/2/13/102933/725/384/627

So lets see the source of his claims.
First where he calls the cclaim of wetlands money in the stimulus package is complete “horseshit” is here

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/stimulus-package/pelosi-staff-conservative-talking-point-about-30-million-for-mice-is-fabrication/

Which is just Nancy Pelosi saying it’s not true, or at least she wasn’t briefed on it right. Hardly a strong argument, we are a the “He said she said” stage.

The second link he says is a “thorough debunking and summary” but is in fact a dead link.

So how exactly is this story about twitter any different than his blog page, and why would either be credible.

Interestingly I can no longer find the searchable stimulus package link and I aint reading 1075 pages to see if in fact the wetlands package is or is not in the stimulus package. Remember the “Mouse” is actually a red herring. Teh complaint is about the wetlands project, any wetlands project is going to be implemented to same some endangered critter, mouse or not, the main complain is the existence of the wetlands project.

So what we have is an article about a blog site that doesn’t have (at least currently) verification of it’s claims complaining about twitter not having verification of their claims.

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By: WDB https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2009/04/fake_facts_on_t.html/#comment-111468 Fri, 15 May 2009 13:38:18 +0000 https://www.schneier.com/fake_facts_on_t/#comment-111468 I briefly followed Twitter and one of the things that struck me most was just how off base most everything was. 140 characters written in stream of consciousness by the semi-illiterate products of texting on cellphones is pretty thin stuff.

At any rate a friend of mine who is very left leaning and Muslim posted tweeted about a ‘poison gas attack on a Muslim pre-school’. I followed that to its source on the Dailey KOS and from there to a newspaper article from Ohio. The truth seems to have been that some children found an empty cannister for dog repellent spray, took it to one of there mothers who was doing something at a Mosque at the time and she called 911. This was followed by a small scale panic.

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By: Outfoxed https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2009/04/fake_facts_on_t.html/#comment-111466 Fri, 01 May 2009 08:56:35 +0000 https://www.schneier.com/fake_facts_on_t/#comment-111466 Brevity may be the soul of wit, but concision is the death of truth.

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By: jman https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2009/04/fake_facts_on_t.html/#comment-111465 Tue, 28 Apr 2009 07:56:54 +0000 https://www.schneier.com/fake_facts_on_t/#comment-111465 Could Twitter be the perfect platform to spread viruses and worms. Imagine a news twitter that reports correct news for a couple of hours. Once a few thousand people have subscribed, a new news is spread with a link, e.g.

swine flu more dangerous than expected and some tinyurl.com/foo/bar

The link than refers to some malware site that contains the necessary browser exploits. Since there is no way to find out what’s behind the url, it should work quite well.

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By: RH https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2009/04/fake_facts_on_t.html/#comment-111464 Mon, 27 Apr 2009 16:35:11 +0000 https://www.schneier.com/fake_facts_on_t/#comment-111464 I am a longtime follower of the theory of Memetics (not really a theory per se, but I digress). Memetics is the idea that ‘ideas’ can reproduce, just like living beings. While we have our genes, ideas have ‘memes,’ the smallest reproducing part of an idea. The classic example is that song you hate to hear on the radio, but catch yourself humming anyways.

Twitter is the extreme example of what a Times editor (I long forget the name) described as “bad information getting cheaper, while good information still costs the same.” With twitter, you can get 100% unverified facts the INSTANT someone writes them.

What links these ideas… what are the chances of a meme eventually learning to do nothing but reproduce itself on twitter… an uuber Rickrolling meme or something of its kind. It would be a parasite on society, yet by social evolution it could be incredibly difficult to stop. Perhaps something like penny stocks, but tweaked in such a way that a scarce few marks actually DO make money.

We could become mere hosts for the next great lifeform… our own thoughts!

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By: Redfox https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2009/04/fake_facts_on_t.html/#comment-111463 Mon, 27 Apr 2009 10:14:40 +0000 https://www.schneier.com/fake_facts_on_t/#comment-111463 And (just like ordered 😉 ), xkcd on Swine Flu and Twitter:

http://xkcd.com/574

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By: Redfox https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2009/04/fake_facts_on_t.html/#comment-111462 Sun, 26 Apr 2009 19:47:41 +0000 https://www.schneier.com/fake_facts_on_t/#comment-111462 Here is an interesting an highly relevant Article about how misinformations about Swine Flu spread on Twitter:

http://neteffect.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/04/25/swine_flu_twitters_power_to_misinform

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By: behind the 8 ball https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2009/04/fake_facts_on_t.html/#comment-111461 Sun, 26 Apr 2009 07:14:35 +0000 https://www.schneier.com/fake_facts_on_t/#comment-111461 what are you all on about… the medium has not changed the possibilities… just made them more or less likely… but in thise case
“fake facts” … when i meet you, i’ll tell you how big the fish i caught was, and you can tell me if technology is helping promote lies, or if they existed before technology…

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By: nostromo https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2009/04/fake_facts_on_t.html/#comment-111460 Sat, 25 Apr 2009 21:12:37 +0000 https://www.schneier.com/fake_facts_on_t/#comment-111460 twitter works as meme spread because the size limit turns each message into a motto. No propaganda expert will convey long explanatory messages, but sequences of slogans sewn together. twitter makes easy to invent mottos.

After the bombings in Madrid, March 11, 2004, there was a strong movement using SMS to join forces mobilising people to demonstrate and vote against the government, and I think it worked from the same reasons: “mottos coming from close friends and spreading exponentially and very fast” == “distributed-mutiny” 🙂

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By: not who you think https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2009/04/fake_facts_on_t.html/#comment-111459 Sat, 25 Apr 2009 16:56:46 +0000 https://www.schneier.com/fake_facts_on_t/#comment-111459 @Roger

Already happened. Twittering about Steve Jobs health from unreliable sources caused a brief drop in Apple’s price last fall. Was intentionally devised to degrde the price? Probably not. Did it prove the principle? Yes.

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