While the #US is completely abandoning and defunding the fight against #disinformation, and the #EU remains divided on how to combat it, #Russia is once again adapting and changing tactics - currently 'teaching' #AI models with false stories, disinformation and revisionist history.
The #European Broadcasting #Union (EBU) launches #Eurovision #News Spotlight (ENS), a network of 18 public broadcasters to collaborate on #FactChecking and #OSINT
https://thedesk.net/2025/04/ebu-fact-checking-disinformation-unit/
The mechanism by which ideas are disseminated on a large scale is propaganda, in the broad sense of an organized effort to spread a particular belief or doctrine. --Edward Bernays, Propaganda (1928) #EconomicHappinessMachine #uniparty #fakenews #misinformation #disinformation #propaganda
“RFK Jr. continues to believe that this vaccine causes autism. His belief is fixed, immutable, and science-resistant…he will “prove” that he was right all along by shoehorning data into a methodologically flawed series of studies that will make any conclusions uninterpretable.”
#Stupidity #Disinformation
We have voluntarily agreed to let an invisible government sift the data and high-spot the outstanding issue so that our field of choice shall be narrowed to practical proportions. --Edward Bernays, Propaganda (1928) #EconomicHappinessMachine #uniparty #fakenews #misinformation #disinformation #propaganda
Center for Countering Disinformation: How Russia Spreads Propaganda Worldwide Through Journalism Training Courses. “The russian state-owned media company RT continues to spread kremlin propaganda around the world under the guise of training programs. The company has announced the launch of a new large-scale course for foreign journalists.”
This invisible, intertwining structure of groupings and associations is the mechanism by which democracy has organized its group mind and simplified its mass thinking. To deplore the existence of such a mechanism is to ask for a society such as never was and never will be. To admit that it exists, but expect that it shall not be used, is unreasonable. --Edward Bernays, Propaganda (1928) #EconomicHappinessMachine #uniparty #fakenews #misinformation #disinformation #propaganda
@bplein Before generative AI, people had the same behavior with other sources of knowledge, like encyclopedias. I remember seeing kids just copy and paste the content of a Wikipedia article without checking their sources. But they were just kids, and it's fundamental to teach them how to use an encyclopedia, that it's just a starting point, and if you want to go deeper into a topic, you have to check reliable sources.
I think the situation today is similar to your description. We have text generators that give convincing answers to the unwary, and those who haven't learned to question the sources of knowledge will accept LLM answers without any critical thinking. The same is true of encyclopedias, books, magazines, and any other sources of knowledge.
The importance of critical thinking has never been as important as it is today, especially given how easy it is to create disinformation campaigns using generative AI.
In the face of #disinformation, defenders of democracy are often drawn into endless battles against falsehoods. This is precisely the trap laid by anti-democratic movements. Their aim is not to win the debate, but to waste our time and energy – keeping us busy defending our work instead of advancing it.
https://www.disinfo.eu/we-fight-disinformation-because-we-fight-for-democracy
In theory, every citizen makes up his mind on public questions and matters of private conduct. In practice, if all men had to study for themselves the abstruse economic, political, and ethical data involved in every question, they would find it impossible to come to a conclusion without anything. --Edward Bernays, Propaganda (1928) #EconomicHappinessMachine #uniparty #fakenews #misinformation #disinformation #propaganda
One of the most prolific spreaders of #Russian #disinformation now has #WhiteHouse access.
As civilization has become more complex, and as the need for invisible government has been increasingly demonstrated, the technical means have been invented and developed by which opinion may be regimented. --Edward Bernays, Propaganda (1928) #EconomicHappinessMachine #uniparty #fakenews #misinformation #disinformation #propaganda
"The United States is now the world’s biggest disinformation factory and Canada’s reliance on American-based social media platforms makes our country incredibly vulnerable, said Aengus Bridgman, head of McGill University’s Media Ecosystem Observatory."
#media #news #disinformation #usa #canada
https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-region/u-s-now-worlds-leading-disinformation-factory/article_98a95dc8-3f9a-52bf-961a-4e2b716f08a0.html
#Facebook #NonEnglish #ContentModeration #misinformation #disinformation
'Meta’s automated filters and content moderators often fall short when dealing with non-English content. This isn’t just a technical limitation — it’s a dangerous oversight. In communities where English isn’t the dominant language, this gap leaves space for disinformation to flourish unchecked.
Two recent examples show the effects disinformation can have.'
https://www.poynter.org/fact-checking/2025/meta-disinformation-non-english-languages/
Poynter: Meta is failing to stop dangerous disinformation in the world’s most spoken languages. “Meta’s automated filters and content moderators often fall short when dealing with non-English content. This isn’t just a technical limitation — it’s a dangerous oversight. In communities where English isn’t the dominant language, this gap leaves space for disinformation to flourish […]
By 1928, the word's troubling connotations had not faded: on the contrary. Throughout the decade there had been a gradual, disorienting revelation of just how systematically, and how ingeniously, the Allied governments had fooled the peoples of two great democracies, Great Britain and, in particular, the USA. --Edward Bernays, Propaganda (1928) #EconomicHappinessMachine #uniparty #fakenews #misinformation #disinformation #propaganda
Propaganda will never die out. Intelligent men must realize that propaganda is the modern instrument by which they can fight for productive ends and help to bring order out of chaos. --Edward Bernays, Propaganda (1928) #EconomicHappinessMachine #uniparty #fakenews #misinformation #disinformation #propaganda
I read an article in Rolling Stones magazine (@RollingStone) from 2017 about Elon Musk, "The Architect of Tomorrow." It's very funny to read this today. It reminded me of an argument I had a few years ago with a software developer I respected, because he argued that the guy was a genius and I said he was just a crook. Until recently, in the developer bubble, many people I knew said that the guy buying Twitter would be fantastic for the platform because it would increase freedom of expression. I even saw people I used to work with sharing some of this nonsense.
Isn't it amazing how easily people are manipulated into believing fantasies that help create a myth? And there was a lot of help from the media in all of this. This is the richest man in the world, who some believed wanted to solve humanity's problems, but is helping to destroy US democracy and interfering in that of other countries to go the same way.
