How Syria’s White Helmets became victims of an online propaganda machine | World news | The Guardian
The way the Russian propaganda machine has targeted the White Helmets is a neat case study in the prevailing information wars. It exposes just how rumours, conspiracy theories and half-truths bubble to the top of YouTube, Google and Twitter search algorithms. “This is the heart of Russian propaganda. In the old days they would try and portray the Soviet Union as a model society. Now it’s about confusing every issue with so many narratives that people can’t recognise the truth when they see it,” said David Patrikarakos, author of War in 140 Characters: How Social Media is Reshaping Conflict in the 21st Century.
(tags: propaganda white-helmets russia disinfo syria facebook assad google youtube fud algorithms)
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some design principles behind Circonus’ time series data store
(tags: circonus time-series irondb databases storage architecture coding)
What Gamergate should have taught us about the ‘alt-right’
Spot on, from a year ago:
Prominent critics of the Trump administration need to learn from Gamergate. They need to be prepared for abuse, for falsified concerns, invented grassroots campaigns designed specifically to break, belittle, or disgrace. Words and concepts will be twisted, repackaged and shared across forums, stripping them of meaning. Gamergate painted critics as censors, the far-right movement claims critics are the real racists. Perhaps the true lesson of Gamergate was that the media is culturally unequipped to deal with the forces actively driving these online movements. The situation was horrifying enough two years ago, it is many times more dangerous now.
(tags: politics fascism gamergate history alt-right milo fake-news propaganda nazis racism misogyny)