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Americans fear they can’t identify social media bots
A new poll from the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan fact tank that studies trends, found that many Americans fear they cannot discern a bot from an actual person on social media. This study did not tackle the percentage of people who have been fooled by bots, but more simply, what general knowledge and awareness Americans have. About half -- 47 percent -- of the people who've heard of bots feel confident or somewhat confident that they can recognize one on social media. Only seven percent felt they were very confident. This is contrast with another study done by Pew in December of 2016 that found 84 percent of Americans felt they could readily recognize fake news. According to the study, about 66 percent of Americans have heard of social media bots-- to at least some extent -- and are aware of their existence. Another 34 percent had never heard of bots at all. The margin of error for the 4,581-person sample was 2.4 percentage points.
Ticketmaster caught enlisting pro scalpers for online resales (updated)
Ticketmaster claims it's fighting scalpers tooth and nail, but it may be aiding them in private. Exposés at CBC News and the Toronto Star have shown the company courting professional scalpers, even when it's clear they're using bots or otherwise violating Ticketmaster's terms of service. The company quietly launched a secretive ticket inventory system, TradeDesk, that lets scalpers upload high volumes of tickets and quickly resell them at the price of their choice. Moreover, Ticketmaster salespeople caught on camera were adamant that they didn't verify whether or not TradeDesk users were violating terms of service, including the use of bots -- at least one rep was fully aware of the activity.
Twitter wants to ‘increase the health of public conversation’
Twitter doesn't only want to be more transparent about the toxic content on its site, it also wants to be more proactive about removing it altogether. Speaking to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce today, as part of a hearing titled "Twitter: Transparency and Accountability," CEO Jack Dorsey said that his company's singular objective is to "increase the health of public conversation." But he said this isn't just about spotting and removing abusive content like harassment, or blocking suspicious accounts. It's also about doing so in a timely, more proactive manner. As it stands, Dorsey said, Twitter relies heavily on users reporting others' bad behavior and that simply needs to change.
Twitter is keeping 500,000 bots from logging in every day
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is currently testifying before the House Energy and Commerce Committee and in response to questions from Representatives Kathy Castor (D-FL) and Gene Green (D-TX) about bots, Dorsey said that the platform is keeping around 500,000 bot accounts from logging in every day. He also reiterated that every week, Twitter's systems are challenging between eight and ten million accounts that are suspected of misusing automation or disseminating spam.
Twitter is considering a transparency report on suspended accounts
As part of his testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee today, in a hearing titled "Foreign Influence Operations' Use of Social Media Platforms," Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said that his company is exploring the idea of a transparency report for suspended accounts. He said that, while details of what this document would look like or what information exactly it could include are still being worked out, it's something that's heavily on his mind. Twitter already has a bi-annual transparency report which discloses how many accounts it removes for promoting terrorism, and Dorsey said doing something similar for suspended accounts would only be a matter of figuring out its implementation.
Watch tomorrow's Jack Dorsey congressional hearings right here
Another round of social media congressional hearings is upon us. This time, it's Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey's turn, who will be testifying alongside Facebook's Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg before the Senate Intelligence Committee on September 5th. But that hearing, which will focus on foreign election interference, won't be the only one of the day for Dorsey. He's also set to testify alone in a hearing from the House Energy and Commerce Committee entitled "Twitter: Transparency and Accountability." There, he'll be asked questions about how the company's algorithms work to filter out abuse, as well as its decision-making process when it blocks certain content (and accounts) from appearing on its site.
Bots on Amazon's task service may be souring psych studies
It's not uncommon for scientists to use Amazon's Mechanical Turk for research -- they can quickly gather survey data in return for a small outlay to participants. Academics are quickly discovering the limits of the task service with the modern bot-happy internet, however. Numerous psychology researchers have reported a sharp rise in the number of junk responses to their questions, many of which appear to come from bots. The offenders not only spam nonsensical answers to questions (such as "nice" or "good"), but tend to originate from the same location. And while anti-bot measures like captchas are in use, they aren't always reliable.
Twitter reportedly suspended 70 million fake accounts in May and June
Twitter been ramping up its purges of fake users, suspending 70 million accounts in May and June in its attempts to reduce the impact of misinformation. That's more than double the rate the social media platform was suspending back in October, according to The Washington Post.
Nine Inch Nails skips online ticket sales to fight scalper bots
Nine Inch Nails will not sell tickets online for its just-announced "Cold and Black and Infinite" theater tour this fall. Instead, NIN mastermind Trent Reznor is going old-school in an effort to beat the ticket bots: You'll have to wait in line at the venue. Each person can buy up to four tickets. Why? Let Reznor explain it to you himself:
Russians used fake social accounts to gather Americans' personal data
It appears as though Russian interest in America and our political landscape wasn't limited to ads and bots. According to The Wall Street Journal, the country's influence campaign extended to gathering personal information on Americans. The Internet Research Agency, which is backed by the Russian government, used fake social media accounts to collect names, email addresses and more. The activity continued after the 2016 election.
Twitter asks for help fixing its toxicity problem
Twitter has definitely come under a lot of fire in recent years for issues ranging from not doing enough to stop harassment on its platform to allowing foreign actors to sow political discord. In the past, the company has tweaked its tools, giving individuals more options when it comes to controlling what they're exposed to online, as well as updated its guidelines a handful of times. But today, Twitter announced it's trying out another route -- asking people outside of the company to propose ways that it can promote healthy, open and civil conversations online.
Twitter says most recent follower purge is about bots, not politics
A number of Twitter users are claiming the platform is purging itself of conservative viewpoints as some lost thousands of followers last night. Richard Spencer, writer Mark Pantano and Candace Owens of Turning Point USA were among those spreading the #TwitterLockOut hashtag campaign and claiming that only conservative accounts were being targeted.
New York AG will investigate firm selling fake followers to stars
Twitter bots are bad enough by themselves, but it's worse when they're built using real info -- and New York wants to clamp down. State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has opened an investigation into Devumi, a company that sold over 3.5 million fake social network followers (primarily on Twitter) to celebrities and politicians. While bots by themselves aren't automatically illegal, the company also offered "at least" 55,000 accounts using the personal details of real people, some of whom live in New York. That's "impersonation and deception," Schneiderman said, and it's made all the worse when some of those people aren't legal adults.
Facebook, Twitter and social media’s road to federal regulation
The extent of Russia's meddling in the 2016 US presidential election remains unclear, but it's no secret that social media played a major role. This year brought with it a great deal of scrutiny for tech giants, particularly Facebook, Twitter and Google. These three companies came under the US government's microscope after news that Kremlin bots and trolls, spearheaded by a group known as the Internet Research Agency, used their sites to tamper with the 2016 presidential election. They spread misinformation (fake news!) and dubious ads across Facebook, Twitter and Google to hundreds of millions of users in the US, with the aim of fomenting hostility among Americans. And it's safe to say they succeeded.
Facebook's new tool reveals any fake Russian accounts you followed
Nearly 150 million Facebook users encountered inflammatory posts created by a Russian propaganda operation, and the social giant is finally helping users understand how they were disseminated. Earlier this afternoon — and as promised — the company launched a tool to highlight those accounts sowing social discord across Facebook and Instagram.
How the 'Grinch bots' stole Christmas
Resellers have existed since way before the internet. But with the surge of online shopping, they have found the perfect weapon to aid their business: bots, automated software that can add products to a virtual cart and purchase them faster than any human. Even if your browser autofills personal information, like your address and credit card, and it only took you one minute to get to the checkout page -- that's too slow. Bots can buy almost anything in a matter of seconds, which is why they've become the ideal tool for people who make money by snatching up coveted items and selling them on eBay, Amazon and Craigslist for a profit.
Over 1.3 million anti-net neutrality FCC comments are likely fakes
It's no secret that bots flooded the FCC with comments supporting its plans to kill net neutrality. But just how many comments were fraudulent? All too many, according to data scientist Jeff Kao. He recently conducted a study that used natural language processing to conclude that "at least" 1.3 million of the anti-net neutrality comments were fakes originating from a central source. They appear to have come from a giant mail merge that made the messages appear superficially unique, but was really just swapping in synonyms for what was clearly the same core statement. The language sounds familiar, too, mimicking that of a giant telecom or lobbying group than everyday people.
Recommended Reading: Trust your gut
Is Your Gut Microbiome the Key to Health and Happiness? Amy Fleming, The Guardian You've likely heard the phrase "trust your gut" at some point in your life, but the key to being healthy and happy could actually lie in all of those organisms in your digestive system. The Guardian lays out the case for how influential your gut really is and discusses the act of "poop doping." Yes, that's a thing.
Twitter will also be at the Senate's Russia hearings
Social media played a huge part in determining the outcome of the 2016 election, and there's a suspicion that the ad-tracking tools those platforms offer could have been hijacked by nefarious forces. Shortly after news broke that Facebook will appear before a Senate hearing into Russian interference, Wired is reporting that Twitter will do the same.
Nike's secret weapon against sneaker bots: Augmented reality
As resellers of coveted Nike shoes continue to use bots, automated systems that can make purchases faster than humans, the company has been trying to find ways to stop them. And while doing things like in-store or online raffles have evened the playing field for shoppers -- particularly those who want to wear the items they buy, not sell them for a profit -- the process still isn't perfect. But augmented reality, a technology that's all the rage right now, could change that in the near future.
