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Month: November 2017

Many online product review sites are paid by the company whose products they review

Many online product review sites are paid by the company whose products they review

[I wrote this item in October but never published it. In light of the news about TripAdvisor.com deleting and censoring negative reviews, this item is now relevant. While this post is about mattress reviews, the same principle is at work with TripAdvisor – that is, the review site receives a sales commission for sending a sale to the vendor.] The following link goes to a very long story about online mattress reviews. The short summary is that many mattress companies…

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Facebook Ad scheme looks much like a fake news publishing model

Facebook Ad scheme looks much like a fake news publishing model

The more we learn about the ads linked variously to parties in Russia, the more they look like online, social media-based, for profit, fake news publishers: The Facebook ads placed by a Russian troll farm and released on Wednesday by the U.S. Congress Intelligence Committee show that the Russian propaganda campaign of 2016 didn’t favor either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton. Instead, it mocked and goaded America, holding up a distorted but, in the final analysis, remarkably accurate mirror. …….

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Hackers and propagandists in Russia had worldwide targets, not just the U.S.

Hackers and propagandists in Russia had worldwide targets, not just the U.S.

Source: Russia hackers had targets worldwide, beyond US election | The Seattle Times When this story blew up in the fall of 2016, I turned to my server log files and noted my WordPress blogs of no importance were receiving hack attempts every day from locations all over the world. There were hack attempts from Russia. And Poland, Canada, China, Taiwan, Israel, Turkey and a large number from the United States. Any of the hack attempts could have been relayed…

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Avoid TripAdvisor.com? Online reviews were censored, worked as propaganda

Avoid TripAdvisor.com? Online reviews were censored, worked as propaganda

Update: TripAdvisor claimed to have apologized about deleting negative reviews but it turns out they lied about their apology: They had not apologized to the victim. One Senator is requesting the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to investigate TripAdvisor over their use of false reviews. TripAdvisor’s stock price fell this week from about $40/share to $31/share and one analyst is forecasting a $28/share price. In August, several analysts had forecast $44-$47 share prices for TRIP.   As noted previously, online reviews…

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Zuckerberg says Facebook is open to social media laws regarding foreign interference

Zuckerberg says Facebook is open to social media laws regarding foreign interference

“I’ve expressed how upset I am that the Russians tried to use our tools to sow mistrust,” he said. “What they did is wrong and we are not going to stand for it. For those who have followed Facebook you know that when we set our minds to something, we’re going to do it.” Source: Zuckerberg Is ‘Dead Serious’ About Russia, Open to Legislation – Bloomberg Unfortunately, as documented on this blog, there is extensive creation and distribution of fake…

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