Seagate wants your photo and social media ID to register a product you’ve purchased from them

Seagate wants your photo and social media ID to register a product you’ve purchased from them

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I bought two external Seagate hard drives. Seagate wants me to “register” my product (the sole purpose of which is to gather information about me). You are presented several items to which you are to agree – but you have to click through a few levels to discover that they will attempt to collect the following information about you: “Personal Information” is information that identifies you as an individual or relates to an identifiable individual. We collect the following types…

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#Facebook uses propaganda troll methods to boost public’s image of Facebook

#Facebook uses propaganda troll methods to boost public’s image of Facebook

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Facebook deploys propaganda campaigns to tarnish its competitors and to discredit FB critics by associating them with those who may have unsavory public reputations. Facebook adopts the same methods used by the Internet Research Agency of Russia but for the benefit of Facebook. None of this is a surprise considering that Facebook is the world’s leading propaganda platform.

Are social media posts badly misinformed? Probably

Are social media posts badly misinformed? Probably

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In light of the survey finding most voters are badly misinformed on well known and popular public policy issues the same is likely true about social media posts. It is likely that more than half of political or policy oriented social media posts are incorrect. But depending on who makes the posts, and how many followers they have, their incorrect posts can be influential – and plant non factual and illogical constructions in the minds of their targets.

Survey finds most voters are badly misinformed about well known policy topics

Survey finds most voters are badly misinformed about well known policy topics

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A survey finds that most voters are badly misinformed about popular policy topics. Literally, what they know is wrong – per the facts. This is not an opinion survey but a knowledge survey. Take the survey yourself – how well do you score on these knowledge topics? Consider the role that propaganda plays in misinforming voters, and how opinion polls of misinformed voters are then used to influence policy.

Ignorance contributes to the effectiveness of propaganda

Ignorance contributes to the effectiveness of propaganda

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Democrats won the popular vote in the U.S. Senate, therefore the 2018 election is unfair, says the meme. Sounds convincing – until you see this claim taken apart by the Washington Post. In fact, Democrats won 22 of the 35 seats or 65% of the seats while receiving just 55% of the total votes. Read the whole thing. This is an example of propaganda messaging that uses the “What you see is all there is” method. Also see thelogical fallacy of implying a vote of 1/3d of the Senate seats is a vote of 100% of Senate seats, fooling the target of the propaganda messaging.

“The job of reporters in 2017” is to publish fake news, says news editor

“The job of reporters in 2017” is to publish fake news, says news editor

‘“Publishing this dossier reflects how we see the job of reporters in 2017,” Smith writes. This is an amazing thing to say, because if you think it through, it means publishing open libels and slanders is the job of reporters in 2017. “Fake news will become more sophisticated, and fake, ambiguous, and spun-up stories will spread widely,” warned an important American editor at the end of December 2016. His name: Ben Smith. His publication: BuzzFeed.’ Source: Buzzfeed’s Trump report takes…

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