Social networks

Education and Awareness Are Key to Stopping Online Radicalization
The current battlefield for terrorism is not a faraway country but the computers and phones right next to us. Terrorists have taken advantage of this technology to allow conflict to transcend its geographic borders. They know that reaching one sympathetic viewer can create catastrophic consequences in support of their agenda. The social network is now an environment where everyone is vulnerable to encountering propaganda or misinformation online, making everyone susceptible to radicalization.
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Hard-Right Social Media Activities Lead to Civil Unrest: Study
Does activity on hard-right social media lead to civil unrest? With the emergence and persistent popularity of hard-right social media platforms such as Gab, Parler, and Truth Social, it is important to understand the impact they are having on society and politics.
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Understanding Antisemitism on Twitter After Musk
New research has found a major and sustained spike in antisemitic posts on Twitter since the company’s takeover by Elon Musk on October 27, 2022. Researchers found that the volume of English-language antisemitic tweets more than doubled in the period following Musk’s takeover.
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Extremist Propaganda Soars to All-Time High in 2022
In 2022, there has been a significant increase in racially or ethnically motivated violent extremist (RMVE) propaganda efforts, which included the distribution of racist and antisemitic fliers, stickers, banners, graffiti, and posters, as well as laser projections - with a total of 6,751 cases reported in 2022, compared to 4,876 in 2021.
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5 Key Takeaways from State of Antisemitism in America Report 2022
For too many American Jews, being Jewish no longer feels as safe as it once did. And the younger those American Jews are, the more they experience that threat firsthand.
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Americans’ Trust in News Continues to Decline – but Local News Are Much More Trusted Than National News
A new study explores the disconnect between newsrooms’ efforts to rebuild the public’s trust and the continued decline of confidence in that effort. The study distinguishes between the practical and emotional dimensions of trust, and finds that that more than twice as many Americans have higher emotional trust in local news than in national news.
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Foolproof: A Psychological Vaccine Against Fake News
Even an optimistic account of our ability to spot fake news has to come to grips with the fact that not everyone needs to be fooled in order for misinformation to be highly influential and dangerous. After all, major elections are often decided on small margins, and cyber propaganda is playing an increasingly important role in tearing down the fabric of our democracy.
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Since Elon Musk’s Takeover, Twitter Has Seen a Rapid Rise in Gen-Z, Neo-Nazi Antisemitism: Study
A new study has demonstrated that extremist elements have viewed Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter as an opportunity to rejoin the social media platform en masse. The study also indicates that a sea change is taking place on Twitter with respect to the proliferation of extremist antisemitic content.
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Content Moderation Sacrificed in Left-Right Deals on Tech Reform
With time running out on the lame-duck Congress, tech reformers are pushing for votes on a package of bills that stalled over the summer. Three bills—the American Innovation and Choice Online Act (AICOA), the Open App Markets Act (OAMA), and the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA)—would write special competition rules for large tech companies in ways that could fundamentally change how tech platforms moderate content like hate speech, disinformation, and incitement to violence.
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Smart AI Tools Could Protect Social Media Users’ Privacy
Digital assistants could help prevent users from unknowingly revealing their views on social, political and religious issues by fighting AI with AI, researchers say.
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FBI Says It has ‘National Security Concerns’ About TikTok
FBI Director Christopher Wray said on Tuesday that the bureau has “national security concerns” about popular short-form video hosting app TikTok. The FBI’s concerns about TikTok include “the possibility that the Chinese government could use it to control data collection on millions of users.”
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Empowering Social Media Users to Assess Content Helps Fight Misinformation
An experimental platform that puts moderation in the hands of its users shows that people do evaluate posts effectively and share their assessments with others.
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In Disasters, People Are Abandoning Official Info for Social Media. How to Know What to Trust
In an emergency, where do you turn to find out what’s going on and what you should do to stay safe? The rise of social media has seen community groups, volunteers and non-government organizations nudging out official channels. While these informal sources often provide faster, more local information, they may also be less reliable than government sources.
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The Conspiracy Theorist “Worldview” and the Language of Their Argument
A study has analyzed the difference between mainstream and conspiracy articles. It found that conspiracies rely on other conspiracies as “evidence,” jumping around different topics, less coherently than mainstream texts, but relying on a web of interconnected ideas to connect the dots.
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Violent Extremist Music Prevalent on Spotify, While Platform Largely Declines to Act
Music has long been an effective way to radicalize extremists, allowing artists to both entertain and indoctrinate vulnerable listeners. Researchers have identified 40 racially or ethnically motivated violent extremist (RMVE) artists with a presence on Spotify, the world’s largest music streaming platform.
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