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How Online Hatred Toward Migrants Spurs Real-World Violence Social media posts assailing immigrants have fomented a climate of fear and hatred in Britain, Portugal and other countries. It followed months of vitriol on social media that came not only from disgruntled Portuguese, but also from prominent far-right figures inside and outside the country. “It’s not up-to-date for the social media age,” Leo Varadkar, the prime minister then, said. Asked whether he believes his social media posts contribute to violence, Mr. Robinson responded: “I believe the teachings in the Koran contribute to violence. July 29 1:42 p.m.Not much info yet, but it will be a Muslim culprit followed by violence protests 1:49 p.m.

Persons: ”, Rita Guerra, Patience, ” Lee Marsh, “, Elon Musk, X, Musk, TikTok, we’re, ” Tommy Robinson, Donald J, Trump, Joel Finkelstein, Tony Craig, “ It’s, —, ” Leo Varadkar, He now, Ro, rie, Marc, iona, Robinson, e, ari, rance Organizations: YouTube, Spurs, Center for Psychological Research, Italy British, Protesters, Sunderland, PA, Agence France, Institute for Strategic, Elon, Meta, The New York Times, National, Counterterrorism, Security, Network, Research, Staffordshire University, Reuters, Ireland, unc, rit Locations: Portugal, Portuguese, Lisbon, Porto, Britain, Germany, Ireland, Europe, Southport, Liverpool, Syrian, Wales, Italy, The Netherlands, Greenwich, London, United States, Russia, Netherlands, Leeds, Chester, New Jersey, England, Algeria, Dublin, Coolock

The internet was spewing racist and sexist attacks long before Vice President Kamala Harris began her presidential campaign this month, including when Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton sought the job. Since the last major election, however, it has become even more noxious — and more central to American politics. In 2008, Mr. Obama faced an ecosystem in which Facebook had millions of users, not billions, and the iPhone was just a year old. In 2020, when Ms. Harris was Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s running mate, it was far harder to use artificial intelligence to produce the fake pornographic renderings and misleading videos that now claim to portray her. In the week since Ms. Harris — who is Black, of Indian descent and a woman — became the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, false narratives and conspiracy theories about her have ricocheted across the digital landscape.

Persons: Kamala Harris, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Obama, Harris, Joseph R, Biden, Harris —, — Organizations: Facebook, Democratic

After the assassination attempt against former President Donald J. Trump, calmer voices on both sides of the political spectrum called for “lowering the temperature” of today’s toxic political discourse. By the time President Biden announced his withdrawal from the presidential race eight days later, the temperature was as scorching as ever. The emergence of Vice President Kamala Harris as the new Democratic front-runner touched off new paroxysms of disinformation and explicitly hateful comments. More than one in 10 posts mentioning her on X on Sunday included racist or sexist attacks, according to PeakMetrics, which tracks activity online. They included false claims about her race and whether she was ineligible to run for the presidency because she was not a citizen.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Biden, Kamala Harris Organizations: Democratic

☆ U.S. and Allies Target Russian Bots Working to Spread Propaganda
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-09 | by ( Steven Lee Myers | Julian E. Barnes | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Justice Department said on Tuesday that it had moved to disrupt a covert Russian influence operation that used artificial intelligence to spread propaganda in the United States, Europe and Israel with the goal of undermining support for Ukraine and stoking internal political divisions. In affidavits released with the announcement, officials with the Justice Department, the F.B.I. and the Pentagon’s Cyber National Mission Force linked the effort to Russia’s Federal Security Service and RT, the state television network that has channels in English and several other languages. The disclosure of such a large, global network of bots confirmed widespread warnings that the popularization of rapidly developing A.I. tools would make it easier to produce and spread dubious content.

Organizations: Ukraine, Elon, Justice Department, Force, Federal Security Service Locations: Russian, United States, Europe, Israel, Canada, Netherlands, Ukraine

☆ How Tom Hanks’s Son Spawned a Hateful Meme Online
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-02 | by ( Steven Lee Myers | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In the spring of 2021, Chet Hanks, the singer, actor and son of Tom, posted a series of statements and a music video with a refrain that caused confusion, not to mention a fair bit of cringing. Thousands of posts using the slogan “white boy summer” have appeared on the Telegram app this year. It’s been used by far-right groups to recruit new followers, organize protests and encourage violence, especially against immigrants and L.G.B.T.Q. people, the report said. For many of those who use it now, the phrase represents an unapologetic embrace of white heterosexual masculinity, often at the expense of women and people of color.

Persons: Chet Hanks, Tom, It’s Organizations: Global

☆ New Tactic in China’s Information War: Harassing a Critic’s Child in the U.S.
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-27 | by ( Steven Lee Myers | Tiffany Hsu | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Deng Yuwen, a prominent Chinese writer who now lives in exile in the suburbs of Philadelphia, has regularly criticized China and its authoritarian leader, Xi Jinping. China’s reaction of late has been severe, with crude and ominously personal attacks online. A covert propaganda network linked to the country’s security services has barraged not just Mr. Deng but also his teenage daughter with sexually suggestive and threatening posts on popular social media platforms, according to researchers at both Clemson University and Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram. The content, posted by users with fake identities, has appeared in replies to Mr. Deng’s posts on X, the social platform, as well as the accounts of public schools in their community, where the daughter, who is 16, has been falsely portrayed as a drug user, an arsonist and a prostitute. “I tried to delete these posts,” Mr. Deng said of the attacks online, speaking in Mandarin Chinese in an interview, “but I didn’t succeed, because today you try to delete and tomorrow they just switch to new accounts to leave attacking text and language.”

Persons: Deng Yuwen, Xi, Deng, “, Mr, ” Organizations: Clemson University, Meta Locations: Philadelphia, China

☆ Fake News Reports and Videos Seek to Undermine the Paris Olympics
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-03 | by ( Julian E. Barnes | Steven Lee Myers | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

With its athletes barred from competing in the Summer Olympics under the country’s flag, Russia has turned its fury on the Games and this year’s host, Paris. Russian propagandists have created an hourlong documentary, spoofed news reports and even mimicked French and American intelligence agencies to issue fake warnings urging people to avoid the Games, according to a report released on Sunday by Microsoft. The report details the disinformation campaign created by a group the company calls Storm-1679. The campaign appears to have accelerated since March, flooding social media with short videos raising alarms about possible terrorist attacks and stoking fears about safety. The operation, while aimed at the Games, is using various techniques to spread disinformation that could also be employed in European and U.S. elections.

Organizations: Games, Microsoft, Storm Locations: Russia, Paris, American

☆ Europe Banned Russia’s RT Network. Its Content Is Still Spreading.
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-30 | by ( Tiffany Hsu | Steven Lee Myers | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

There, a recent article belittled an international warrant to arrest Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin, for war crimes. It repeated, word for word, an article that had appeared a day before under a different byline on the website for RT, Russia’s global television network. RT, which the U.S. State Department describes as a key player in the Kremlin’s disinformation and propaganda apparatus, has been blocked in the European Union, Canada and other countries since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. Sites like Man Stuff News, however, have helped RT sidestep the restrictions and continue reaching European and American audiences, according to a new report. Many of the articles were then further disseminated through social media.

Persons: Beard, Labor ”, ”, Vladimir V, Putin, Alex Jones Organizations: Labor, RT, U.S . State Department, European Union, German Marshall Fund, University of Amsterdam, Institute for Strategic, San, San Francisco Telegraph Locations: Canada, Russia, Ukraine, San Francisco

☆ Once a Sheriff’s Deputy in Florida, Now a Source of Disinformation From Russia
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-29 | by ( Steven Lee Myers | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

A dozen years ago, John Mark Dougan, a former deputy sheriff in Palm Beach County, Fla., sent voters an email posing as a county commissioner, urging them to oppose the re-election of the county’s sheriff. He later masqueraded online as a Russian tech worker with a pseudonym, BadVolf, to leak confidential information in violation of state law, fooling officials in Florida who thought they were dealing with a foreigner. He also posed as a fictional New York City heiress he called Jessica, tricking an adviser to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office into divulging improper conduct by the department. “And boy, did he ever spill ALL of the beans,” Mr. Dougan said in a written response to questions for this article, in which he confirmed his role in these episodes.

Persons: John Mark Dougan, Jessica, Mr, Dougan Locations: Palm Beach County, Fla, Russian, Florida, New York City, Beach

Another group recently compared messages translated by humans and A.I. A Democratic firm tested four versions of a voice-over ad — two spoken by humans, two by A.I. The era of artificial intelligence has officially arrived on the campaign trail. With less than six months until the 2024 election, the political uses of A.I. The Biden campaign said it has strictly limited its use of generative A.I.

Persons: Biden, Trump Organizations: Democratic Locations: Mississippi

☆ Russian Disinformation Videos Smear Biden Ahead of U.S. Election
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-15 | by ( Julian E. Barnes | Steven Lee Myers | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Last month, a video began circulating on social media purporting to tell the story of an internet troll farm in Kyiv targeting the American election. Speaking in English with a Slavic accent, “Olesya” offers a first-person account of how she and her colleagues initially worked in support of President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine. Then, she says, after a visit by mysterious Americans who were “probably C.I.A.,” the group began sending messages to American audiences in support of President Biden. “We were told our new target was the United States of America, especially the upcoming elections,” the woman in the video says. U.S. officials say the video is consistent with Russian disinformation operations as internet warriors aligned with Russia appear to be honing their strategy.

Persons: Volodymyr Zelensky, Biden, “, Donald Trump Locations: Kyiv, Ukraine, United States of America, Russia

An article on a fake online news outlet that Meta has linked to Russia’s information operations attributed the clashes unfolding on American college campuses to the failures of the Biden administration. A newspaper controlled by the Communist Party of China said the police crackdowns exposed the “double standards and hypocrisy” in the United States when it comes to free speech. On X, a spokesman for Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nasser Kanaani, posted a cartoon of the police arresting a young protester in the guise of the Statue of Liberty. As protests over the war in Gaza have spread across the United States, Russia, China and Iran have seized on them to score geopolitical points abroad and stoke tensions within the United States, according to researchers who have identified both overt and covert efforts by the countries to amplify the protests since they began. There is little evidence — at least so far — that the countries have provided material or organizational support to the protests, the way Russia recruited unwitting Black Lives Matter protesters to stage rallies before the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections.

Persons: Biden, Nasser Kanaani, ” Organizations: Communist Party of, Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Locations: Communist Party of China, United States, of, U.S.A, Gaza, Russia, China, Iran

☆ Riding Rage Over Israel to Online Prominence
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-11 | by ( Steven Lee Myers | Tiffany Hsu | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Jackson Hinkle has cultivated an online persona so incendiary that he has been kicked off YouTube, Twitch and Instagram. Along the way, he has employed false or misleading content, promoted manipulated images and made comments that watchdog organizations have denounced as antisemitic. He calls himself an American patriot even as he praises American adversaries, including Vladimir V. Putin, Xi Jinping and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. “DROP A LIKE if you stand with IRAN in the face of ISRAELI TERRORISM!” he wrote last week on X after an Israeli airstrike in Syria killed several Iranian military officials. A day later he addressed the Houthi leadership in Yemen over video, praising the group for its attacks on shipping in the Red Sea.

Persons: Jackson Hinkle, Vladimir V, Putin, Xi Jinping, Ali Khamenei, ” Organizations: YouTube Locations: Israel, American, IRAN, Syria, Yemen, Red

☆ China, Russia and Trump
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-02 | by ( David Leonhardt | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

America’s biggest adversaries evidently want Donald Trump to win the 2024 presidential election. Some of the Chinese accounts impersonate fervent Trump fans, including one on X that purported to be “a father, husband and son” who was “MAGA all the way! !” The accounts mocked Mr. Biden’s age and shared fake images of him in a prison jumpsuit, or claimed that Mr. Biden was a Satanist pedophile while promoting Mr. Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan. In today’s newsletter, I’ll explain what China and Russia hope to gain from a second Trump term. Trump has suggested that he will end this support.

Persons: Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin’s, Trump, Tiffany Hsu, Steven Lee Myers, Donald J, Biden, Biden …, ”, “ MAGA, Mr, Trump’s, Putin Organizations: Trump Locations: Beijing, China, Russia, Ukraine

☆ China’s Advancing Efforts to Influence the U.S. Election Raise Alarms
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-01 | by ( Tiffany Hsu | Steven Lee Myers | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Covert Chinese accounts are masquerading online as American supporters of former President Donald J. Trump, promoting conspiracy theories, stoking domestic divisions and attacking President Biden ahead of the election in November, according to researchers and government officials. The accounts signal a potential tactical shift in how Beijing aims to influence American politics, with more of a willingness to target specific candidates and parties, including Mr. Biden. In an echo of Russia’s influence campaign before the 2016 election, China appears to be trying to harness partisan divisions to undermine the Biden administration’s policies, despite recent efforts by the two countries to lower the temperature in their relations. Some of the Chinese accounts impersonate fervent Trump fans, including one on X that purported to be “a father, husband and son” who was “MAGA all the way! !” The accounts mocked Mr. Biden’s age and shared fake images of him in a prison jumpsuit, or claimed that Mr. Biden was a Satanist pedophile while promoting Mr. Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan.

Persons: Donald J, Biden, Trump, ”, “ MAGA, Mr, Trump’s Organizations: Trump, Biden Locations: Beijing, China

☆ The Islamic State Claimed the Moscow Attack. The Kremlin Is Still Blaming Others.
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-26 | by ( Tiffany Hsu | Steven Lee Myers | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Even before the deadly toll of the attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday became clear, officials in Russia linked it to the war against Ukraine and a broader conflict with the West. Ninety minutes after first reports of the attack, Dmitri A. Medvedev, the former president and the deputy chairman of the Kremlin’s security council, darkly hinted at “terrorists of the Kyiv regime.”The claim of responsibility by the Islamic State did little to temper the Kremlin’s narrative, which has unspooled in a torrent of unsupported accusations and baseless, even fanciful conspiracy theories spread across social media. When President Vladimir V. Putin said “radical Islamists” had carried out the attack, he called it “just an element in a series of attempts of those who have been at war with our country since 2014,” an explicit reference to Ukraine and the upheaval that year that led to the illegal annexation of Crimea. “They need a ‘Big Lie,’” said Nina Khrushcheva, a professor of international affairs at the New School in New York, who has written extensively on Russian politics and propaganda.

Persons: Dmitri A, Medvedev, Vladimir V, Putin, “, ”, ’ ”, Nina Khrushcheva Organizations: Ukraine, West, New School Locations: Moscow, Russia, Kyiv, Ukraine, Crimea, “, New York

☆ From Russia, Elaborate Tales of Fake Journalists
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-18 | by ( Steven Lee Myers | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A young man calling himself Mohamed al-Alawi appeared in a YouTube video in August. Still, his story caromed through social media and news outlets from Egypt to Nigeria and ultimately to Russia — which, according to researchers, is where the story all began. Four months later, two new videos appeared on YouTube. They said Mohamed al-Alawi had been beaten to death in Hurghada, a town about 20 miles south of El Gouna. The suspected killers, according to the videos: Ukraine’s secret service agents.

Persons: Mohamed al, Alawi, Angelina Jolie’s, Still Organizations: YouTube Locations: Egypt, Angelina, El Gouna, Ukraine, Nigeria, Russia, Hurghada, El

☆ How Trump’s Allies Are Winning the War Over Disinformation
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-17 | by ( Jim Rutenberg | Steven Lee Myers | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Social media companies suspended Donald J. Trump, then the president, and many of his allies from the platforms they had used to spread misinformation about his defeat and whip up the attempt to overturn it. The Biden administration, Democrats in Congress and even some Republicans sought to do more to hold the companies accountable. Mr. Trump and his allies embarked instead on a counteroffensive, a coordinated effort to block what they viewed as a dangerous effort to censor conservatives. Waged in the courts, in Congress and in the seething precincts of the internet, that effort has eviscerated attempts to shield elections from disinformation in the social media era. It tapped into — and then, critics say, twisted — the fierce debate over free speech and the government’s role in policing content.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Biden Organizations: Social Locations: Jan, Washington, Congress

Climate Action Against Disinformation found that, in every month since COP27, the hashtag #climatescam generated more retweets and likes than #climatecrisis and #climateemergency on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. Researchers attributed much of #climatescam’s traction to a small group of influential accounts, which they said tended to be far more vocal about climate denial on X than on platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Some of the sites pushing climate disinformation made money from ads — a revenue stream that researchers said was enabled by more than 150 advertising exchanges owned by some of the largest tech companies. The marketplaces, which largely use automated auctions to buy and sell online ads, placed ads on at least 15 websites known for hosting climate denial content, according to the report. Doing so flouted policies set up by many of the exchanges to block climate denial content and other disinformation from being monetized.

Persons: Bean, ” Organizations: Twitter, Facebook Locations: Russia, China, United States

☆ 4,789 Facebook Accounts in China Impersonated Americans, Meta Says
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-30 | by ( Steven Lee Myers | More About Steven Lee Myers | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Meta announced on Thursday that it had removed thousands of Facebook accounts based in China that were impersonating Americans debating political issues in the United States. The company warned that the campaign presaged coordinated international efforts to influence the 2024 presidential election. The network of fake accounts — 4,789 in all — used names and photographs lifted from elsewhere on the internet and copied partisan political content from X, formerly known as Twitter, Meta said in its latest quarterly adversarial threat analysis. The copied material included posts by prominent Republican and Democratic politicians, the report said. Meta warned that the campaign underscored the threat facing a confluence of elections around the world in 2024 — from India in April to the United States in November.

Persons: Meta Organizations: Republican, Democratic Locations: China, United States, —, India

Suspicious videos that began circulating in Taiwan this month seemed to show the country’s leader advertising cryptocurrency investments. Her mouth appeared blurry and her voice unfamiliar, leading Taiwan’s Criminal Investigation Bureau to deem the video to be almost certainly a deepfake — an artificially generated spoof — and potentially one created by Chinese agents. For years, China has pummeled the Taiwanese information ecosystem with inaccurate narratives and conspiracy theories, seeking to undermine its democracy and divide its people in an effort to assert control over its neighbor. Now, as fears over Beijing’s growing aggression mount, a new wave of disinformation is heading across the strait separating Taiwan from the mainland before the pivotal election in January. Perhaps as much as any other place, however, the tiny island is ready for the disinformation onslaught.

Persons: Tsai Ing Organizations: Criminal Locations: Taiwan, China

☆ El discurso de odio antisemita y antimusulmán prolifera en internet
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-20 | by ( Sheera Frenkel | Steven Lee Myers | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

“Algunos de ellos dicen explícitamente que esta es una oportunidad para regodearse y celebrar el asesinato de judíos en internet”, declaró. “Están intentando atraer público a sus contenidos, y este es un momento de enorme crecimiento para ellos”. Sheera Frenkel es una reportera afincada en la bahía de San Francisco que cubre el impacto de la tecnología en la vida cotidiana, centrándose en las redes sociales, como Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, Telegram y WhatsApp. Más deSheera FrenkelSteven Lee Myers cubre temas de desinformación para The New York Times. Ha trabajado en Washington, Moscú, Bagdad y Pekín, donde contribuyó a los artículos que ganaron el Premio Pulitzer por servicio público en 2021.

Nearly two million posts with the hashtag #IsraeliNewNazism appeared on X in that period, and another 40,000 posts featured the hashtag #ZionistsAreEvil or #ZionistsAreNazis. In previous months, the hashtag appeared fewer than 5,000 times a month. Other sites, including TikTok and Facebook, have also experienced surges in hate speech but have removed the content that was flagged to them, researchers said. The hate speech that remained was often more veiled, such as a TikTok trend of using “Austrian painter” as code for Adolf Hitler. From Oct. 7 to Oct. 13, she added, TikTok took down 730,000 videos for violating hate speech rules.

Persons: IsraeliNewNazism, HitlerWasRight, —, LevelGaza, Memetica, ”, Adolf Hitler, TikTok, Pepe the, Noam Schwartz, “, Adi Cohen Organizations: Defamation League, Defamation, Facebook, Times, Palestinian, Nova, 4chan Locations: Austrian, Palestine, Israel, Florida, Gaza

☆ In a Worldwide War of Words, Russia, China and Iran Back Hamas
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-03 | by ( Steven Lee Myers | Sheera Frenkel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The conflict between Israel and Hamas is fast becoming a world war online. Iran, Russia and, to a lesser degree, China have used state media and the world’s major social networking platforms to support Hamas and undercut Israel, while denigrating Israel’s principal ally, the United States. Iran’s proxies in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq have also joined the fight online, along with extremist groups, like Al Qaeda and the Islamic State, that were previously at odds with Hamas. “It’s just like everyone is involved,” said Moustafa Ayad, executive director for Africa, the Middle East and Asia at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue. The institute, a nonprofit research organization in London, last week detailed influence campaigns by Iran, Russia and China.

Persons: denigrating, Al, ”, Rafi Mendelsohn, Cyabra, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, “ It’s, Moustafa Ayad Organizations: Hamas, Islamic, Institute for Strategic Locations: Israel, Iran, Russia, China, United States, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Al Qaeda, Islamic State, Cyabra, Tel Aviv, “, Gaza, Africa, East, Asia, London

The Consequences of Elon Musk’s Ownership of XNow rebranded as X, the site has experienced a surge in racist, antisemitic and other hateful speech. Research conducted in part by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue concluded that anti-Semitic tweets in English more than doubled after Mr. Musk’s takeover. Keeping X at the center of public debate is exactly Mr. Musk’s goal, which he describes at times with a messianic zeal. Even worse, the article argued, Mr. Musk’s changes appear to be boosting the engagements of the most contentious users. A month into Mr. Musk’s ownership, the platform stopped enforcing its policy against Covid-19 misinformation.

Persons: Elon Musk, ”, “, Musk’s, —, Musk, Tim Chambers, ” Mr, Chambers, Tesla, lockdowns, Thierry Breton, Mr Organizations: Elon, Twitter, “ Twitter, Hamas, Dewey, Group, Defamation, Research, Institute for Strategic, Commission, Kremlin, Pentagon, Tufts, Rutgers, Montclair, 4chan, Harvard Kennedy School, Covid, Media, Mr, Commission's Digital Services, Services, Defamation League, European Union Locations: Musk’s, Russia, China, Israel, Ukraine, Iran, guardrails

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