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Anatomy of a false news story (NYT)
From: "Dave Farber" <farber () gmail com>
Date: Tue, 22 Nov 2016 13:53:58 -0500
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From: "Roger Bohn" <Rbohn () ucsd edu> Date: November 22, 2016 at 1:25:19 PM EST To: "Dave Farber" <dave () farber net> Cc: ip <ip () listbox com> Subject: Anatomy of a false news story (NYT) For IP if you wish. A detailed case study that traces the origin and spread of a completely false news story. Excerpts Mr. Tucker, who had taken photos of a large group of buses he saw near downtown Austin earlier in the day because he thought it was unusual, saw reports of protests against Mr. Trump in the city and decided the two were connected. He posted three of the images with the declaration: “Anti-Trump protestors in Austin today are not as organic as they seem. Here are the busses they came in. #fakeprotests #trump2016 #austin” Mr. Tucker said he had performed a Google search to see if any conferences were being held in the area but did not find anything. (The buses were, in fact, hired by a company called Tableau Software, which was holding a conference that drew more than 13,000 people.) “I did think in the back of my mind there could be other explanations, but it just didn’t seem plausible,” he said in an interview, noting that he had posted as a “private citizen who had a tiny Twitter following.” http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/20/business/media/how-fake-news-spreads.html The NYTstory does not add up the hits, but a casual reading suggests at least half a million shares (not likes!) on Facebook and Twitter, for the primary and secondary versions of Mr. Tucker’s original tweet. He tried to correct it when he discovered it was untrue, but the correction got minimal attention. Screening such false stories seems like a hard problem to me. I can imagine crowdsourcing approaches, but I don’t see any way to set a simple filter in Facebook that will eliminate them a priori. After the initial post is shown false, though, Facebook should easily be able to prevent further growth. Any system that is good at knocking out false news becomes susceptible to manipulation itself, presumably. But for democracy to remain effective, citizens need ways to distinguish lies and mistakes from reality. Roger Roger Bohn School of Global Policy and Strategy UC San Diego On 21 Nov 2016, at 19:20, Dave Farber wrote: ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com> Date: Mon, Nov 21, 2016 at 10:11 PM Subject: [Dewayne-Net] The NSA's Spy Hub in New York, Hidden in Plain Sight To: Multiple recipients of Dewayne-Net <dewayne-net () warpspeed com> The NSA’s Spy Hub in New York, Hidden in Plain Sight By Ryan Gallagher & Henri Moltke Nov 16 2016 https://theintercept.com/2016/11/16/the-nsas-spy-hub-in-new-york-hidden-in-plain-sight/ *They called it* Project X. It was an unusually audacious, highly sensitive assignment: to build a massive skyscraper, capable of withstanding an atomic blast, in the middle of New York City. It would have no windows, 29 floors with three basement levels, and enough food to last 1,500 people two weeks in the event of a catastrophe. But the building’s primary purpose would not be to protect humans from toxic radiation amid nuclear war. Rather, the fortified skyscraper would safeguard powerful computers, cables, and switchboards. It would house one of the most important telecommunications hubs in the United States — the world’s largest center for processing long-distance phone calls, operated by the New York Telephone Company, a subsidiary of AT&T. The building was designed by the architectural firm John Carl Warnecke & Associates, whose grand vision was to create a communication nerve center like a “20th century fortress, with spears and arrows replaced by protons and neutrons laying quiet siege to an army of machines within.” Excerpt from “Project X,” a short film by Henrik Moltke and Laura Poitras, screening at the IFC Center <http://www.ifccenter.com/films/project-x/> starting Nov. 18. This article is the product of a joint reporting project between The Intercept and Field of Vision. Construction began in 1969, and by 1974, the skyscraper was completed. Today, it can be found in the heart of lower Manhattan at 33 Thomas Street, a vast gray tower of concrete and granite that soars 550 feet into the New York skyline. The brutalist structure, still used by AT&T and, according to the New York Department of Finance, owned by the company, is like no other in the vicinity. Unlike the many neighboring residential and office buildings, it is impossible to get a glimpse inside 33 Thomas Street. True to the designers’ original plans, there are no windows and the building is not illuminated. At night it becomes a giant shadow, blending into the darkness, its large square vents emitting a distinct, dull hum that is frequently drowned out by the sound of passing traffic and wailing sirens. For many New Yorkers, 33 Thomas Street — known as the “Long Lines Building” — has been a source of mystery for years. It has been labeled one of the city’s weirdest and most iconic skyscrapers, but little information has ever been published about its purpose. It is not uncommon to keep the public in the dark about a site containing vital telecommunications equipment. But 33 Thomas Street is different: An investigation by The Intercept indicates that the skyscraper is more than a mere nerve center for long-distance phone calls. It also appears to be one of the most important National Security Agency surveillance sites on U.S. soil — a covert monitoring hub that is used to tap into phone calls, faxes, and internet data. [snip]
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- Anatomy of a false news story (NYT) Dave Farber (Nov 22)