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☆ Brendan Carr wrote the FCC chapter in ‘Project 2025.’ Now he’s Trump’s pick for the agency
▼ + stars: | 2024-11-18 | by ( Brian Stelter | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

New York CNN —President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, wasted no time in stating his priorities on Sunday night. Carr is now the senior Republican at the agency, which meant he was widely expected to get the chairman appointment. As chairman, Carr may be able to steer generous federal subsidies to Starlink. In his Project 2025 chapter, Carr laid out an agenda for the federal agency under a future Trump administration. The FCC chairman during Trump’s first term in office, Ajit Pai, had a very different set of priorities.

Persons: Donald Trump’s, Brendan Carr, Carr, ” Carr, Elon Musk, ”, Trump, NewsGuard, hasn’t, “ Carr, Gigi Sohn, Tom Wheeler, Trump’s, Ajit Pai, Pai, Jessica Rosenworcel, can’t Organizations: New, New York CNN, Federal Communications Commission, FCC, Democrats, Republican, Politico, Elon, Facebook, Twitter, Meta, Microsoft, Apple, Trump, Communications, Free Press, Democratic, Democrat Locations: New York, Big Tech

On the right, familiar conspiracy theories about voting popularized by President-elect Donald Trump continued to circulate. NewsGuard said there was “no evidence” that Starlink was used to interfere with the presidential election in Trump’s favor. As the 2024 election results were reported, social media users on the left began to speculate about Musk’s role in vote counting. “Kamala Harris left us a breadcrumb,” one TikTok user said about the updated language on the fund’s website in a video that received over 700,000 views. CISA responded to this speculation on its website’s “Rumor vs. Reality” resource, where it has debunked election misinformation.

Persons: Donald Trump, Kamala Harris, Sam Howard, NewsGuard, Elon Musk’s, Starlink, Max Read, ” Read, “, ”, denialism, ” NewsGuard’s Howard, ” Howard, Howard, Trump, weren’t, Musk, Joe Rogan, Theo Von, Harris, “ Starlink, Elon Musk, Jen, “ Kamala Harris, CISA Organizations: President, Facebook, NBC, Institute for Strategic, NBC News, Trump, Conservative, “, Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Security Agency, Fund, Republicans, Street Journal, Democratic National, Harris, Democratic Party, FBI Locations: NewsGuard’s U.S, U.S, Wisconsin, Trump’s, Pennsylvania, California

☆ US intel says Russian actors made the fake Georgia voter-fraud video — and expects more to come
▼ + stars: | 2024-11-01 | by ( Grace Eliza Goodwin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Russian influence actors created a fake Georgia voter-fraud video, US intelligence officials say. Officials warn more Russian disinformation is coming. AdvertisementRussian influence actors are behind a fake Georgia voter-fraud video that's been circulating online, US intelligence officials said. Related VideoBut it's all fake, and the result of Russian interference, intelligence officials said. Brad Raffensperger, Georgia's secretary of state, posted on X Thursday, calling out the video as "obviously fake" and likely "a production of Russian troll farms."

Persons: Kamala Harris, —, Harris, CISA, Brad Raffensperger, Raffensperger, Elon Musk, chatbots, Meta Organizations: Service, National Intelligence, FBI, Infrastructure Security Agency, stoke, IC, Business Locations: Georgia, Russia, Haiti, Georgia's Gwinnett County, Fulton County, America, Moscow, Ukraine

☆ US intel says Russian actors made the fake Georgia voter fraud video — and expects more to come
▼ + stars: | 2024-11-01 | by ( Grace Eliza Goodwin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Russian influence actors created a fake Georgia voter fraud video, according to US intel officials. US intel group warns more Russian disinformation is coming. AdvertisementRussian influence actors were behind the fake Georgia voter fraud video that's been circulating online, US intelligence officials said. Related Video Ukraine launched a major drone attack on Russia over its election weekendBut it's all fake, and the result of Russian interference, the US intel group says. More disinformation is likely to crop up before Election Day and beyond, the US intel group warned.

Persons: Kamala Harris, —, Harris, CISA, Brad Raffensperger, Elon Musk, chatbots, Meta Organizations: intel, US intel, Service, National Intelligence, FBI, Infrastructure Security Agency, Ukraine, stoke, IC, Business Locations: Georgia, US, Russia, Haiti, Georgia's Gwinnett County, Fulton County, America, Moscow, Ukraine

“It just exploded into something I didn’t mean to happen,” Erika Lee, a Springfield resident, told NBC News on Friday. She has since deleted the Facebook post. She is also concerned for the safety of the Haitian community, which she said she did not intend to villainize en masse. “I feel for the Haitian community,” she said. Still, she never imagined that her Facebook post would set off a national news cycle.

Persons: ” Erika Lee, Lee, Kimberly Newton, NewsGuard, Newton, Newsguard, ”, hasn’t, Donald Trump, Ohio Sen, JD Vance, “ I’m, I’d, that’s, ” Vanessa Cárdenas, refor, MAGA, ” Lee, Springfield Organizations: NBC, Facebook, Local, Ohio, America's Locations: SPRINGFIELD , Ohio, Ohio, Springfield, Columbus , Ohio, Canton , Ohio, Springfield ,

☆ Trump’s ties to far-right activist alarm GOP: From the Politics Desk
▼ + stars: | 2024-09-13 | by ( The Politics Desk | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +9 min

In today’s edition, we explore how far-right activist Laura Loomer's access to Donald Trump is worrying his Republican allies. Plus, "Meet the Press" moderator Kristen Welker dives into the questions Kamala Harris and Trump danced around at the debate. One one side of the GOP, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said Thursday that Loomer is “really toxic” and shouldn’t be in Trump’s circle. Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina on Friday called Loomer “a crazy conspiracy theorist” who was hurting Trump’s chances in the election. Because your running mate JD Vance has said that you would veto if it did come to your desk.

Persons: Laura Loomer's, Donald Trump, Kristen Welker, Kamala Harris, Trump, Laura Loomer’s, Jonathan Allen, Julie Tsirkin, Vaughn Hillyard, Laura Loomer —, Loomer, don’t, Sen, Lindsey Graham of, Thom Tillis, ”, Marjorie Taylor Greene, —, Harris, “ Everybody’s, “, Laura, Laura — she’s, Read, Henry J, Gomez, Brandy Zadrozny, Allan Smith, JD Vance, Vance, Linsey Davis, JD —, David Muir, ’, Joe Biden, Biden, “ Donald Trump Organizations: NBC, White House, Capitol, Republican, Trump, stoke, Republicans, U.S, GOP, Indian, Nazi, Facebook, “, Press, ABC, JD, U.S . Capitol Locations: Loomer, Springfield , Ohio, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Indian American, Springfield, Columbus, Ohio, Gab, Ukraine, Russia, U.S, Afghanistan

“In Springfield they’re eating dogs,” the former president said, referring to an Ohio city dealing with an influx of Haitian immigrants. On Sept. 6, there were 1,100 posts on X mentioning Haitians, migrants or immigrants eating pets, cats, dogs and geese, according to PeakMetrics, a research company. The Springfield rumor “made it to his desk. Another source close to Trump’s campaign said Trump and Vance did not discuss the Springfield issue ahead of the debate. “I don’t know what he was thinking,” a different Trump ally said of his choice to bring up the Springfield rumor unprompted.

Persons: Donald Trump, —, Kamala Harris, Sen, JD Vance, Ohio, ” Tim Murtaugh, Trump, Harris, ”, ” Sen, Lindsey Graham, ” Graham, Elon Musk, Vance, ” Vance, “, MAGA, David Muir, ” Rep, Byron Donalds, Laura Loomer, ” Loomer, ” “, “ It’s Organizations: “, Trump, NBC News, White, CNN, Nazi, Facebook, Springfield, Springfield News, NBC, ABC News, ” Locations: Springfield, Ohio, Trump, South Carolina, Columbus, Gab, Springfield Ohio, Springfield , Ohio, Clark County , Ohio, NatCon, United States, Florida, America

☆ How AI chatbots are already helping fuel conspiracy theories ahead of the election
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-19 | by ( Erin Snodgrass | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Generative AI chatbots are guilty of spreading dangerous disinformation, a new report found. NewsGuard audited 10 AI chatbots and found they spread Russian propaganda one-third of the time. download the app Email address Sign up By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . AdvertisementYour favorite AI chatbot likely isn't immune to the powers of Russian propaganda, a new report found. The world's leading generative AI chatbots are fueling disinformation and citing Moscow-funded fake news sources as fact more than 30% of the time, according to a recent NewsGuard audit.

Persons: — Organizations: Service, Business Locations: Moscow

☆ An intensifying Republican-led legal campaign alleging big advertisers colluded to defund conservative media is rankling the ad industry
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-29 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

The Judiciary Committee's probe has sought documents related to discussions about advertising on "The Joe Rogan Experience" podcast. GARM and its members developed a "brand safety floor and suitability framework" for the industry to adopt. Jordan and the House Judiciary Committee issued wide-ranging subpoenas to both GARM and the WFA last year as part of the probe. The CEOs were also told to preserve all existing and future records related to their companies' work with GARM. Advertisement"GARM's members and board members are senior advertisers," a marketing executive close to GARM said.

Persons: —, Jim Jordan, GARM, Sherman, Jordan, Ørsted, Joe Rogan, Elon, Vivian Zink, Ørsted didn't, Rob Rakowitz, Unilever —, Breitbart, Joe Rogan's, Ben Shapiro, Michael Brochstein, Jim Jordan's, Lou Paskalis, Ad Fontes Media's Paskalis, Paskalis Organizations: Service, Global Alliance, Responsible Media, Business, Spotify, Syfy, NBCU, Getty, World Federation, YouTube, WFA, Diageo, GroupM, Procter, Gamble, Unilever, Steer Team, Fox News, Daily, Republican, Federalist, US Department of State, Ad Fontes Media Locations: Ohio, GARM, Jordan, Texas

☆ Kristi Noem’s dog: The internet wants you to believe this is the dog she shot. It isn’t.
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-22 | by ( Donie O'Sullivan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Indeed, when I Googled “Kristi Noem’s dog” this morning, it was one of the first pictures that popped up. It was on the “Puppy” subreddit where user “LukeWarm273” posted a photo of their dog “Blue” last year. “He’s a cutie,” one Reddit user responded. “Please join me in wishing Cricket (the dog Kristi Noem shot to death) a blessed journey to the land of beautiful puppy dog souls. The story shows a photo of Reddit user LukeWarm273's dog, Blue, next to Noem.

Persons: Kristi Noem, It’s, Kristi Noem’s, LukeWarm273 ”, NewsGuard, LukeWarm273, “, ”, Noem, Donald Trump’s, haring, lear, ince, taff, ike, rove, ake, hotos, hough, uppy) Organizations: CNN, South Dakota Gov, United Kingdom’s, Cricket, GOP Locations: Washington, DC, ”, South Dakota

☆ Sports Illustrated reportedly published articles by fake AI-generated writers
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-28 | by ( Tom Carter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Sports Illustrated published articles by fake authors with AI-generated profile pictures, Futurism reported. The magazine denied using AI but said it would take down the articles while it investigated. The magazine said it will take down several articles after a report found they were written by fake, AI-generated authors. Futurism identified two Sports Illustrated writers, " Drew Ortiz" and " Sora Tanaka ," whose biographies appeared to be fake. In a statement to Futurism, Sports Illustrated owner Arena Group denied publishing AI-generated articles but said they were removing the pieces while an internal investigation took place.

Persons: —, Drew Ortiz, Sora Tanaka, Ortiz's, Ross Levinsohn Organizations: Service, Sports Illustrated, Sports, Arena Group, AdVon Commerce, Arena, Gannett, Tech, CNET, Business Locations: NewsGuard

☆ Democrats accuse X of profiting from Hamas propaganda
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-21 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Washington CNN —A group of House Democrats has accused X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, of profiting from Hamas propaganda and misinformation about the Israel-Hamas war after reports by independent researchers found numerous accounts glorifying the US-sanctioned terror group. More than two dozen US lawmakers signed the letter dated Tuesday addressed to X owner Elon Musk and CEO Linda Yaccarino. Musk sued Media Matters on Monday, accusing it of distorting the likelihood that ads may be shown against extremist material. But some legal critics have cast doubt on the complaint, calling it “weak” and “bogus” in the face of the First Amendment. The letter calls for Yaccarino and Musk to answer by December 1 to allegations that X has amplified terrorist propaganda in violation of its own policies.

Persons: X, Elon Musk, Linda Yaccarino, ”, Adam Schiff of California, Daniel Goldman, Jamie Raskin, Musk, Joe Benarroch, White Organizations: Washington CNN, House, Twitter, Institute for Strategic, Tech, Reps, Maryland, of Business, Media Matters, Media, Committee, US Marshals Service Locations: Israel, New York, Gaza

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

☆ Musk’s X cashes in on ‘superspreaders’ of Israel-Hamas misinformation, new report finds
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-19 | by ( Donie O'Sullivan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

NewsGuard identified seven accounts it describes as “misinformation superspreaders,” which have shared widely debunked claims about the conflict. Verified users are also eligible to receive payments from the platform, financially incentivizing posts from the users who are actively spreading misinformation. The group said 186 of the 250 posts were sent by premium X accounts. Soon after NewsGuard published its report Thursday, Musk posted on X that the company “should be disbanded immediately.” CNN has reached out to X and Musk for further comment. In May, there was a brief dip in the stock market after verified accounts on X shared fake images of a purported “explosion” near the Pentagon.

Persons: NewsGuard, ” NewsGuard, Musk, ”, Linda Yaccarino Organizations: CNN, Elon, Twitter, Hamas, ” CNN, European Union, EU, Meta, X, Pentagon Locations: Israel

REGULATORY SCRUTINYWhile disinformation has spread on all major social media platforms including Facebook and TikTok, X appeared to be the most recent to draw scrutiny from regulators. On Tuesday, European Union Commissioner Thierry Breton warned Musk that X was spreading "illegal content and disinformation," according to a letter Breton posted on X. Musk himself recommended that X users follow two accounts that had previously spread false claims for "real-time" updates on the conflict, the Washington Post reported. False information has also spread on messaging app Telegram and short-form video app TikTok, said DFRLab's Trad. Like other online platforms, YouTube has moderation employees and technology to remove content that violates its rules.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Ruslan Trad, X, Bruno Mars miscaptioned, Thierry Breton, Breton, Musk, Renee DiResta, Jack Brewster, Brewster, Tamara Kharroub, DFRLab's Trad, TikTok, Solomon Messing, there's, Messing, Kharroub, Sheila Dang, Riniki Sanyal, Deepa Babington Organizations: Twitter, REUTERS, Elon, European Union, Reuters, Atlantic, Forensic Research, Hamas, Meta, Facebook, European, EU, Stanford Internet Observatory, Washington Post, Washington, Arab Center Washington DC, New York University's Center for Social Media, YouTube, Thomson Locations: Israel, American, New, Dallas, Bangalore

☆ OpenAI's ChatGPT can actually make workers perform worse, a new study found
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-02 | by ( Aaron Mok | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Workers using OpenAI's ChatGPT may actually perform more poorly than those who don't, new BCG research finds. AdvertisementAdvertisementIf you're using ChatGPT as a shortcut at work, you may want to be extra careful. For tasks "inside the frontier," consultants using AI were "significantly more productive" and "produced significantly higher quality results" than those who weren't using the chatbot. BCG's findings demonstrate a cautionary tale for workers thinking about using ChatGPT to help do their jobs. AI-generated errors may only get worse: In a recent paper, AI researchers found that generative AI models could soon be trained on AI-generated content — a phenomenon they call "model collapse."

Persons: —, it's, Wharton, Saren Rajendran, ChatGPT, NewsGuard, Bard, James Webb Organizations: Service, Boston Consulting, Harvard, MIT, CNET, James Webb Space Telescope

By comparison, its closest mainstream cousin, the Google-owned video service YouTube, has billions of monthly logged-in users, a spokesperson said. In an emailed response, they said the leaderboard rankings are generated from the most liked recent videos on the site. However, YouTube, unlike Rumble, has said it will continue to remove content that tries to deceive voters in the 2024 elections. The RNC said it was taken down to direct users to the debate livestream and avoid confusing viewers with multiple videos. Other comments on his recent videos told Trump to “execute” Democrats and suggested that someone should “build a lot of gallows.”Rumble said it removed those comments in response to AP's inquiry.

Persons: Ronna McDaniel, ”, Peter Thiel, Republican Sen, J.D, Vance of Ohio, Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy, Donald Trump, Robert F, Kennedy Jr, Rumble, Joe Biden, Trump, Chris Pavlovski, Jared Holt, “ It's, Holt Organizations: Fox Business Network, Univision, GOP, Republican National Committee, Facebook, YouTube, Big Tech, RNC, Republican, Google, Florida Gov, Democratic, Meta, Associated Press, US, Institute for Strategic, AP Locations: London

☆ A disturbing AI phenomenon could completely upend the internet as we know it
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-29 | by ( Aaron Mok | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Generative AI could soon be trained on AI-generated content — and experts are raising the alarm. The new term comes as AI-generated content filled with errors continues to flood the internet. Other AI researchers have coined their own terms to describe the training method. Jathan Sadowski, a senior fellow at the Emerging Technologies Research Lab in Australia who researches AI, called this phenomenon "Habsburg AI," arguing that AI systems heavily trained on outputs of other generative AI tools can create "inbred mutant" responses that contain "exaggerated, grotesque features." These new terms come as AI-generated content has flooded the internet since OpenAI launched ChatGPT last November.

Persons: Jathan, paywalls, Ray Wang, Baji, Cohere, OpenAI, ChatGPT, It's, Gizmodo, Kai, Cheng Yang, OpenAI's chatbot, Yang Organizations: University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, Stanford, Rice, Emerging Technologies, Constellation Research, CNET, Microsoft, Ottawa Food Bank Locations: Australia, Ottawa

☆ Scientists found more than 1,000 AI spam bots trying to scam people and steal their social media profiles — and regulators can't keep up
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-24 | by ( Shubham Agarwal | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

One of the latest is flooding social media with spam bots and AI-generated content that could further degrade the quality of information on the internet. Botnets are networks of hundreds of harmful bots and spam campaigns on social media that can go undetected by current anti-spam filters. We can still detect AI-generated spam — for nowBoth NewsGuard and the paper's researchers were separately able to unearth AI-generated spam content using an obvious tell that chatbots currently have. AdvertisementAdvertisementResearchers look for when these responses slip out in an automated bot's content, whether on a webpage or in a tweet. AdvertisementAdvertisementOne such measure was tagging AI-generated content with a hidden label to help people distinguish it from content made by humans, per the White House.

Persons: Kai, Cheng Yang, Filippo Menczer, Yang, Menczer, ChatGPT, chatbots, Wei Xu, Europol, Xu, Biden Organizations: Indiana University, Twitter, ChatGPT, Indiana University's Observatory, Social Media, telltale, Georgia Institute of Technology, Regulators, Google, Microsoft, House Locations: Indiana

☆ AI Scams, Spam, Hacking, Are Ruining the Internet
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-08 | by ( Shubham Agarwal | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

A report from Europol expects a mind-blowing 90% of internet content to be AI-generated in a few years. A report from Europol, the European Union's law-enforcement agency, expects a mind-blowing 90% of internet content to be AI-generated in a few years. And while AI bots have telltale signs now, experts indicate that they will soon get better at mimicking humans and evading the detection systems developed by Menczer and social networks. While misinformation has long been a problem with the internet, AI is going to blow our old problems out of the water. But security researchers have discovered that the AI bots in your apps and devices might steal sensitive information for the hackers.

Persons: HBO Max, haven't, ChatGPT, Christian Selig, Reddit, Martijn Pieters, He'd, NewsGuard, Gordon Crovitz, NewsGuard's, Filippo Menczer, NewsGuard's Crovitz, Christopher Cowell, Cowell, John Licato, Bing, Florian Tramèr, Toby Walsh, Walsh, Shubham Agarwal Organizations: HBO, Europol, Market, Indiana University's Observatory, Social Media, Facebook, Microsoft, Google, University of South, ETH Zürich, University of New, University of Oxford, Wired, Company Locations: Cambridge, Europol, Portland , Oregon, Etsy, University of South Florida, University of New South Wales, Ahmedabad, India

☆ AIs trained on other AI output will start producing junk within a few generations, scientists warn
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-19 | by ( Mia Jankowicz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

AIs trained solely on other AIs will eventually spiral into gibberish, machine learning experts say. As more and more AI-generated content is published online, future AIs trained on this material will ultimately spiral into gibberish, machine learning experts have predicted. A group of British and Canadian scientists released a paper in May seeking to understand what happens after several generations of AIs are trained off each other. Improbable events are less and less likely to be reflected in its output, narrowing what the next AI — trained on that output — understands to be possible. In addition to being home to some of the world's largest populations of black @-@ tailed jackrabbits, white @-@ tailed jackrabbits, blue @-@ tailed jackrabbits, red @-@ tailed jackrabbits, yellow @-"Anderson likened it to massive pollution, writing: "Just as we've strewn the oceans with plastic trash and filled the atmosphere with carbon dioxide, so we're about to fill the Internet with blah."

Persons: Ross Anderson, Anderson, Mozart, Antonio Salieri, Salieri, Dr Ilia Shumailov, —, NewsGuard, Shumailov Organizations: AIs, Morning, University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, Washington Post

☆ One year into Russia's invasion of Ukraine, disinformation sites with ads powered by Google have more than doubled
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( Ryan Joe | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Russian disinformation sites with Google-powered ads have more than doubled since last year, according to NewsGuard. Last year, as Russia began its invasion of Ukraine, Google and major brands placed ads on sites that promoted Kremlin propaganda. Google added that it has stopped running ads on specific pages on sites shared by Insider that show "violating content." The problem of ads appearing in sites containing disinformation is growing, as these sites take advantage of programmatic ad buying, where digital ads are purchased in an auction using automation. Programmatic ad buying is both a complicated and technical process, so advertisers often don't see where their ads are going.

☆ TikTok shut down 2 networks of pro-Russian influencers who tried to mislead users about the war in Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-12 | by ( Stephanie Stacey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

TikTok uncovered two networks of pro-Russian TikTokers last year, TikTok said in a report on Thursday. They used speech synthesis software to spread pro-Russian propaganda in various languages. The accounts amassed more than 133,000 followers before being identified and removed by TikTok between July and September last year. In its report, TikTok said that Russia's "war of aggression" in Ukraine has "challenged us to confront a complex and rapidly changing environment." In a blog post that accompanied the report, TikTok public policy director Caroline Greer said the platform was able to help find innovative solutions to these "long-standing industry challenges."

☆ Gen Z is increasingly using TikTok videos instead of Google search, but 1 in 5 of them contain misinformation, a new study says
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-19 | by ( Lakshmi Varanasi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

A new study by a site that tracks online misinformation found that 1 in 5 videos on TikTok contain misinformation. The study found that TikTok often yields more partisan search results than Google. Gen Z users are increasingly turning to TikTok instead of Google as their primary search engine. Gen Z users have begun replacing Google with TikTok as their primary search engine, The New York Times recently reported. A new study by NewsGuard, a site that monitors misinformation across the internet, found that one in five search results on TikTok contains misinformation.

☆ TikTok’s search engine repeatedly delivers misinformation to its majority-young user base, report says
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-18 | by ( Emma Tucker | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

TikTok, whose users are predominantly teenagers and young adults, “repeatedly delivered videos containing false claims in the first 20 results, often within the first five,” the report states. “Google, by comparison, provided higher-quality and less-polarizing results, with far less misinformation.”A Google spokesperson declined to comment on the report when contacted by CNN. For example, a search for the question “Was the 2020 election stolen?” yielded six videos that contained false claims in the first 20 results, NewsGuard found. In response to the NewsGuard report, a TikTok spokesperson told CNN that its community guidelines “make clear that we do not allow harmful misinformation, including medical misinformation, and we will remove it from the platform. If I had kids of TikTok age, I would certainly want to know what they’re using as a search engine,” Brill said.

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