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The Fake News Machine: Inside a Town Gearing Up for 2020 (cnn.com)
CNN has a story on Veles, riverside town in Macedonia, which back in the day was known to make porcelain for the whole of Yugoslavia. But now, as an investigation by the news outlet has found, it makes fake news. Veles has become home to dozens of website operators who churn out bogus stories designed to attract the attention of Americans. Each click adds cash to their bank accounts. From the report: The scale is industrial: Over 100 websites were tracked here during the final weeks of the 2016 U.S. election campaign, producing fake news that mostly favored Republican candidate for President Donald Trump. One of the shadowy industry's pioneers is a soft-spoken law school dropout. Worried that his online accounts could be shut down, the 24-year-old asked to be known only as Mikhail. He takes on a different persona at night, prowling the internet as "Jesica," an American who frequently posts pro-Trump memes on Facebook. The website and Facebook page that "Jesica" runs caters to conservative readers in the U.S. The stories are political -- and often wrong on the facts. But that doesn't concern Mikhail. "I don't care, because the people are reading," he said. "At 22, I was earning more than someone [in Macedonia] will ever learn in his entire life." He claims to have earned up to $2,500 a day from advertising on his website, while the average monthly income in Macedonia is just $426. The profits come primarily from ad services such as Google's AdSense, which place targeted advertisements around the web. Each click sends a little bit of cash back to the content creator. Mikhail says he has used his profits to buy a house and put his younger sister through school. [...] That site was blocked a few months ago after Facebook and Google started cracking down on fake news sites. Mikhail is now retooling his operation, with his sights set firmly on the 2020 presidential election.
The election was rigged.
This dick had to point out the fictitious republican connection to the town while failing to mention any other political afilitations. I have a sneaking suspicion that the people in this town don't give a shit about American politics.
Just call it 'lies'.
Wow what ground breaking stuff.
captcha: nonsense
CNN started the term "fake news". Unfortunately for them, they started lying on their news stories and getting caught frequently lying. Trump then used their term "fake news" to describe CNN. It stuck to CNN because they were literally making up stories they hoped was true.
So that's why people are using the term. Its a form of irony and being mean towards CNN for telling people not to read WikiLeaks (what they were calling fake news) because it was illegal for US citizens to read WikiLeaks according to them.
but this is why you want liberal arts majors. You've got millions of folks who just aren't sharp enough for science & engineering but they _can_ make it through a liberal arts degree. Believe it or not critical thinking is a skill that can be taught, it just takes time and effort. And there are advantages to having an electorate who's learned that skill.
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New York and Los Angeles undoubtedly will still have the lock on supplying fake news in 2020. In case you have forgotten that's where all the stories about how wonderful Hillary was came from and how she was a lock in for the win.
It could probably have occurred in a lot of places. The basic requirements are poverty, reasonable internet connections, and a reasonably well-educated populace. Beyond that, it's just a certain random factor, that somebody in this town started making money from this business, word got around, and it spread. The fact that it's so concentrated in this town kind of implies that it spread by off-line word of mouth rather than online, because there's no real reason for these people to be concentrated locally otherwise, so I guess that probably implies a certain size of town and kind of society.
If you read the article at all and happened to follow the links, it's quite obvious the main site(s) they're talking about are digital tabloids. They're website and headlines are about as believable as the onion. I don't believe you could convince me that the majority of people who visit politicspaper don't see that. The most amusing thing about this is you have a new organization who actively tries to manipulate facts with bias and pass them off as the whole truth calling a tabloid fake news. Of course it's fake news, every knows they are, but cnn has their head so far up their own ass that they believe they're the good guys when they're even more guilty of it.
Just in case somebody is thinking of taking this seriously. Macedonia has an average internet speed between 4 and 10 Mbps.
The idea that Macedonians don't have the ability to make websites is quite frankly insulting. Whether on not they can swing elections is of course debatable. However that wasn't the aim of the sites, the aim was to generate content that people wanted to read (or believe), and they appear to have succeeded.
http://www.bandwidthplace.com/...
http://www.dospeedtest.com/spe...
that mostly favored Republican candidate for President Donald Trump
Yes, of course it did. Even if it didn't. It still did. It has to. Trump is evil, he can do no right.
Proud neuron in the Slashdot hivemind since 2002.
who believe whatever they read if it aligns with their world view. This is hardly a revelation. Most people shouldn't be allowed to have a say on important matters and anyone who should have a say knows this. Sadly that's ultimately fascism which doesn't work since in every group, regardless of intelligence, there are people that only look out for themselves. Perhaps even more sadly, the average Trump supporter knows absolutely nothing about how the world works on any level. Be it politically, economically, socially, legally, etc it they are either unwilling or unable to comprehend. The left is better as has been objectively demonstrated by the various fake news research but we shouldn't pretend this is a one party problem.
The true problem is most people are no longer capable or interested in rational thought, long term thinking or basic common sense. Take the border wall for instance. Anyone who believes that America will be building a border wall paid for by Mexico has abandoned any common sense. Even if you think the wall will be build, the notion that a foreign nation being actively targeted by our current administration would pay for it is beyond laughable. It shows a detachment from reality so extreme we should be far more concerned than we are. If we fix the core problem the fake news problem will go away. It's only a problem because people believe it.
the number of people that Visit CNN in an hour is more than the number of people that visit all these websites combined in a month CNN is the problem
I have it on good authority that a guy named 'Sergey' founded Google, was born in Russia and is behind this whole 'ad-sense' payment system!
See!Proof that the Russians are to blame.
Versus fox news who had to be threatened with a lawsuit from the canadian government to take down a false story about the terrorist attack from the trump supporter?
I am currently building a web-domain ranking whose main metric is counting (properly-weighted) backlinks. This has allowed me to have a quite good understanding about another online fake reality, which is likely to also be closely related to these fake news: domains whose sole purpose is to backlink others as a way to improve their visibility. I have found quite a few situations involving various thousands of different domains, repeating the same or similar content or even not content at all and linking to all the other domains in the corresponding fake network. Some times the names are very similar (site1a.com, site1b.com, site1c.com), other times they are pure nonsense (asdfasdf.com, aserrffeff.com, dddeddfsfs.com, asdfasdf.com) and there are even quite elaborate cases (whatever.com, otherhing.com, nothingtodowithothers.com).
These are quite common scenarios and, actually, represent one of the main obstacles for my ranking to deliver accurate enough conclusions. That fact, together with the associated cost/effort and not being precisely easy to be tracked, seems to indicate that this kind of crappy approaches are actually very profitable. I might even say that the current internet reality, formed by search engines, advertisers, investors, users, etc., somehow promotes these behaviours: the prize is high (at least, for those caring just about money) and the eventual punishment virtually inexistent. Fully solving all this seems almost impossible, although more demanding users looking for high-quality, reliable, objective outputs (as opposed to anything, quickly, easily and from anywhere) might certainly help to improve things.
Custom Solvers 2.0 = Alvaro Carballo Garcia = varocarbas.
You're 100% right. There's no Veles in Macedonia, the whole report was filmed in a studio with a green screen, and all the people in the video are paid actors.
For a couple a grand a day, hell, for €250 a day, it makes sense to quit your day job and just do this instead, even for a lot of folks in first world countries.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
politically motivated + biased != fake
"fake news" apparently now means "i don't like the perspective used to discuss this news event.", which is exactly that certain people wanted: de-legitimatize all sources of news. However what fake news *should* mean is "this story is made up/has no basis in fact."
Fox news is also not fake news(most of the time) though it is also politically motivated and biased.
"CNN *is* fake news, very politically motivated and biased."
Sounds like someone doesn't like their narrative being challenged at all!
that comment wins the internetz for the day
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
What a time to be alive.
Not sure where you heard that, but we definitely have election advertising in Canada. The main difference to the USA is that in Canada you can only run election advertising in the 37 days prior to the election (which helps limit the never-ending election cycle where candidates are in determinant campaign mode) and no advertising on the actual day of the election (which may be the cause of your confusion).
Support Right To Repair Legislation.
I'd be interested to know how you define "fair".
Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba
3 people resigned from CNN as a result of a retracted article. I'm unable to find any evidence of anyone being fired or resigning from New York Times for fabricating stories. The difference between CNN and actual fake news sites is that when CNN learns that it made a mistake, they issue a retraction. Actual fake news sites don't care and leave it up.
> this entire russia thing is the epitome of fake news
No it isn't. But the Russians have their own sophisticated troll and fake news factories. They probably don't need to rely on some freelancers in Macedonia.
The "entire Russia thing" is the epitome of fake news? Well, you're not necessarily wrong. Here's some research which shows that some of these bots, identifying themselves as British people or whatever, post exclusively between 8am and 8pm Moscow time. People pushing out propaganda which favors Russia and their goal of destabilizing the Western governments set up after the fall of the Soviet Union, doing their work during 12-hour days in Moscow time.
"Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
Real news sites use journalism techniques like fact-checking. Fake news sites do not; they fabricate falsehoods.
So despite the stories for the past year or so about groups of young people in Macedonia cranking out fake news sites, you've decided that this story is fake because CNN is now also reporting on it. So, just to be clear, you're saying that anything reported by CNN is fake, correct? Anything at all, if it appears on the CNN site, it's fake, right?
"Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
They should try self-reflecting on why almost every major news organization and poll showed Clinton winning before the election. Maybe the problem isn't that a handful of websites which favored Trump somehow skewed the election. Maybe it's that the media's expectation for the election was skewed from reality.
The one poll which called the election correctly noticed that Trump supporters were less likely to admit to pollsters that they were going to vote for Trump. When they corrected for this, surprise surprise, their poll showed that Trump would win. That's what happens when you engage in campaigns to shame people with certain political beliefs - they disappear from public view, but still show up in elections (thanks to secret ballots).
Real change comes about from convincing people that your way is right. Not from shaming, ridiculing, and attacking those who disagree with you. Unfortunately, the media and to a lesser extent the Democratic party seems to be trying its hardest not to learn this lesson.
Sorry but your claims about the "staged Muslim protest" are unsubstantiated claims, with no evidence. The CNN side of the story is a heck of lot more believable than yours (I say yours because you're the one promoting these tweats). Sorry. You weren't there; you don't know what was going on. Talk to someone that was involved in the protest as the reporter did. All you can do is make allegations based on your own feelings and beliefs. That's not news. To perpetuate these unsubstantiated claims as if they were facts is, well, a lie. Fake news. And it promotes the very kind of hatred that people at that protest were trying to protest against. You are part of the problem. Maybe you should stop following extremists on Twitter and make friends with Muslims, blacks, hispanic immigrants, refugees that live near you, and find out what things are really like in their families and neighborhoods.
Muslims in many places feel they want to speak up, protest against those who commit atrocities in the name of Islam, and tell us what the vast majority of Muslims think and feel about peace. I'm glad those protesters talked to the reporter and showed her their signs, and posed for pictures. It's a very important thing!
The Clinton New Network is biased? I'm shocked, shocked I say.
You mean like the Associated Press claiming "There are no government rules dictating how tanks [oil storage] are designed." ?
https://www.apnews.com/0485b3c...
Where's the fact checking in that article?
Yes it's an anecdote! Were you expecting original research in a Slashdot comment?
The headline saying Trump is going to jail tomorrow or the one saying Hillary wants to commit suicide are just made up? Now I feel better about not clicking on them, I was so worried that I missed out on the story of the century.
I feel like instant runoff, range voting, or approval voting would have had a strong chance of electing Johnson. I don't think that Trump's most ardent supporter could claim that he would win under approval voting, and Hillary was nearly as disliked. The country seemed like it was poised to take a more conservative turn, or perhaps I should say some conservative backlash, but Johnson might have won broad approval as everybody's second choice.
I disagree totally with libertarian principles, but I think that it's pretty clear to everyone that they are a large segment of American politics and that our political parties don't necessarily reflect the broad divisions in our society very well. I would like to institute a voting system which would more accurately reflect the support there is for your party. I think it would be better for the nation for us to have more choices at the polls, and more meaningful ones. I mean, at this point random lottery might even be a good option: I can certainly say that I trust the average person far more than the average politician. In any case, I reserve the right to an opposite opinion, but I do think it's a shame that neither of us are being heard.
Those who advocate genocide deserve every protection afforded by law, and none afforded by common human decency.
Shit, man, I didn't know bots were punching time cards now!
politically motivated + biased != fake
But it is fake NEWS... news is objective and unbiased by definition
politically motivated + biased == fake news
5 out of 6 people enjoy Russian Roulette & 6 out of 7 Dwarfs are not Happy
Bana Alabed is a seven-year-old Syrian Girl. She's also a pawn in the propaganda war. CNN manufactured a story of a seven-year-old Syrian girl asking America to liberate Syria from its tyrant president. Problem is, she doesn't understand English, so her CNN interview is implausible.
https://www.youtube.com/result...
The internet is the greatest tool ever invented for education and sharing information - it can greatly strengthen democracy, and has become a serious threat to private industry's control over governments. We're seeing three main tactics to counter this:
Destroy faith in government.
Do this and you also destroy faith in the vote, and democracy itself. The vote is dangerous because it can't be controlled. Strangely, "government is bad" has long been a classic conservative standby. Power not claimed by government gets seized by private industry.
Turn voters against each other.
Another way to sabotage democracy is to turn the public against itself so there's no unity. Hammer on polarizing issues to distract everyone from the dangerous ones.
Destroy faith in sources of information.
We see attacks on the mainstream media as well, but the biggest attack is on sources of information on the internet itself. Democracy is less effective when the electorate is misinformed, or feels all information is suspect.
While trying to read the linked story, I was overwhelmed by the atrocious web design. It was basically unreadable.
It sucks when news reporters are confusing like this, but again, that's not a fabrication.
They didn't exactly consult with experts. CFR references the API standard (650) which means that the API standard is not "self regulated" it is incorporated into the federal law by reference. Also in the article they interview another "expert" who says there are no design requirements for hurricane areas. Again, this is not understanding how standards work. No, API-650 doesn't specifically mention hurricanes, but there are design requirements for wind and rain loading according to ASCE 7 which DOES have design criteria for hurricane zones.
It's not a fabrication, it's reporting on things they don't understand and are factually incorrect about. They had their slant decided and they got the answers they wanted and stopped before investigating to determine if the statements were actually correct. That's internet research for you. Search until you find someone who says what your opinion is and call it a reference so it's not "your" opinion anymore. Even better if some sort of organization employs this person so you can call them an "expert."
Yes it's an anecdote! Were you expecting original research in a Slashdot comment?