Those Cute Cats Online? They Help Spread Misinformation.
December 1, 2021 9:49 AM Subscribe
We may have no idea how these people got their cats wedged into their scanners — but we now know why. (SLNYT) A mainstay of the internet is regularly used to build audiences for people and organizations pushing false and misleading information.
Rachel E. Moran, a researcher at the University of Washington who studies online misinformation, said it was unclear how often the animal videos led people to misinformation. But posting them continues to be a popular tactic because they run such a low risk of breaking a platform’s rules.
“Pictures of cute animals and videos of wholesome moments are the bread and butter of social media, and definitely won’t run afoul of any algorithmic content moderation detection,” Ms. Moran said.
Rachel E. Moran, a researcher at the University of Washington who studies online misinformation, said it was unclear how often the animal videos led people to misinformation. But posting them continues to be a popular tactic because they run such a low risk of breaking a platform’s rules.
“Pictures of cute animals and videos of wholesome moments are the bread and butter of social media, and definitely won’t run afoul of any algorithmic content moderation detection,” Ms. Moran said.
all cats are bastards
posted by flabdablet at 10:25 AM on December 1, 2021 [5 favorites]
posted by flabdablet at 10:25 AM on December 1, 2021 [5 favorites]
In retrospect, this kind of thinking appears a horrible mistake.
I remember believing firmly that the rise of Internet discussion forums would inevitably lead to the widespread promulgation of correctness on every conceivable topic. It seemed so obvious that forums would connect people who actually knew their stuff with an essentially unlimited worldwide audience, giving everybody the opportunity to go ah, ok, that's how that works, and that the cumulative effect of that would pretty much unavoidably be worldwide enlightenment and mutual understanding. I used to go around saying things like "the internet is as close as computers have ever got to justifying their own existence".
That view was of course revealed as completely untenable on first encountering seriously wilful ignorance online a few years into Eternal September, and the shattering effect of being unable to maintain even a glimmer of that hope in order to convince myself that my choice of career was not part of something wholly destructive was a big part of what eventually slid me all the way down into psychosis in late 2000. I still grieve the loss of innocence involved in recovering from that.
posted by flabdablet at 10:53 AM on December 1, 2021 [28 favorites]
I remember believing firmly that the rise of Internet discussion forums would inevitably lead to the widespread promulgation of correctness on every conceivable topic. It seemed so obvious that forums would connect people who actually knew their stuff with an essentially unlimited worldwide audience, giving everybody the opportunity to go ah, ok, that's how that works, and that the cumulative effect of that would pretty much unavoidably be worldwide enlightenment and mutual understanding. I used to go around saying things like "the internet is as close as computers have ever got to justifying their own existence".
That view was of course revealed as completely untenable on first encountering seriously wilful ignorance online a few years into Eternal September, and the shattering effect of being unable to maintain even a glimmer of that hope in order to convince myself that my choice of career was not part of something wholly destructive was a big part of what eventually slid me all the way down into psychosis in late 2000. I still grieve the loss of innocence involved in recovering from that.
posted by flabdablet at 10:53 AM on December 1, 2021 [28 favorites]
In retrospect, this kind of thinking appears a horrible mistake.
I think the internet has been a double edged sword. It gave us "all* more power, humanist and hatemonger alike. It allows the cheap amplification of any idea, good or bad. Not all platforms are neutral or spaces of equal opportunity to reach an audience, but the underlying technology of TCP/IP still allows just about anyone to spin up a web server and publish just about whatever they want, and that's still very powerful and has enormous potential to do good. As long as individuals can run their own servers, there's still hope for the net, imho
posted by signsofrain at 10:54 AM on December 1, 2021 [2 favorites]
I think the internet has been a double edged sword. It gave us "all* more power, humanist and hatemonger alike. It allows the cheap amplification of any idea, good or bad. Not all platforms are neutral or spaces of equal opportunity to reach an audience, but the underlying technology of TCP/IP still allows just about anyone to spin up a web server and publish just about whatever they want, and that's still very powerful and has enormous potential to do good. As long as individuals can run their own servers, there's still hope for the net, imho
posted by signsofrain at 10:54 AM on December 1, 2021 [2 favorites]
It has undoubtedly done good. A great deal of good. The point is whether or not it's been a net good, and on that I remain unconvinced.
posted by flabdablet at 10:56 AM on December 1, 2021 [13 favorites]
posted by flabdablet at 10:56 AM on December 1, 2021 [13 favorites]
People running their own servers? In conversation a week ago, I said that the internet is like a gigantic uncurated library. Good luck finding those more reliable websites. The current curators are only there to steer you towards money making opportunities for them. A gigantic library, where every page in every book is full of ads, and you have almost no way to determine the veracity of the little bit of actual content on a page. Net good, more like not good. Period.
posted by njohnson23 at 11:43 AM on December 1, 2021 [6 favorites]
posted by njohnson23 at 11:43 AM on December 1, 2021 [6 favorites]
While we're revealing our approximate ages, I remember when people on usenet were very concerned that the internet might become commercialized.
posted by haricotvert at 12:11 PM on December 1, 2021 [30 favorites]
posted by haricotvert at 12:11 PM on December 1, 2021 [30 favorites]
the widespread promulgation of correctness on every conceivable topic.
This sounds like the vision that open-source software would never have any bugs or defects in it, because everyone would just chip in and help fix all of its problems, and we'd have a technological utopia.
Of course, this didn't happen, even though open source software has a fraction of bad actors compared to social media.
posted by meowzilla at 12:16 PM on December 1, 2021 [5 favorites]
This sounds like the vision that open-source software would never have any bugs or defects in it, because everyone would just chip in and help fix all of its problems, and we'd have a technological utopia.
Of course, this didn't happen, even though open source software has a fraction of bad actors compared to social media.
posted by meowzilla at 12:16 PM on December 1, 2021 [5 favorites]
all cats are bastards
Cats are fine. People, given the option, act like bastards.
posted by dg at 12:38 PM on December 1, 2021 [5 favorites]
Cats are fine. People, given the option, act like bastards.
posted by dg at 12:38 PM on December 1, 2021 [5 favorites]
Cats.
You'll never guess
what happens next.
posted by thecincinnatikid at 1:36 PM on December 1, 2021 [5 favorites]
You'll never guess
what happens next.
posted by thecincinnatikid at 1:36 PM on December 1, 2021 [5 favorites]
There was an interesting bubble of related articles a few weeks back that I kind of meant to wrangle into a post but it seemed like it would be a nebulous downer - Kaitlyn Tiffany’s “I Made the World’s Blandest Facebook Profile, Just to See What Happens” for The Atlantic, Charlie Warzel’s “Facebook’s Vast Wasteland” for his Galaxy Brain Newsletter (also run by The Atlantic now), and some other things I can’t find.
Essentially, the idea is that the bulk of Facebook content for the undefined user is basically bland content - memes, response qs, and the sort of things you could easily license from ViralHog or Jukin Media. That sort of nonsense is safe and popular, and it’s going to be the bland content background for a lot of our online experience in the future. The middlest of middle brow, used to sell everything else.
posted by Going To Maine at 2:08 PM on December 1, 2021 [4 favorites]
Essentially, the idea is that the bulk of Facebook content for the undefined user is basically bland content - memes, response qs, and the sort of things you could easily license from ViralHog or Jukin Media. That sort of nonsense is safe and popular, and it’s going to be the bland content background for a lot of our online experience in the future. The middlest of middle brow, used to sell everything else.
posted by Going To Maine at 2:08 PM on December 1, 2021 [4 favorites]
I remember when people on usenet were very concerned that the internet might become commercialized
I've always considered that to be a completely well-founded concern, and it seems to me pretty hard to argue, given the subsequent history of everything, that it was not.
posted by flabdablet at 4:42 PM on December 1, 2021 [7 favorites]
I've always considered that to be a completely well-founded concern, and it seems to me pretty hard to argue, given the subsequent history of everything, that it was not.
posted by flabdablet at 4:42 PM on December 1, 2021 [7 favorites]
A gigantic library, where every page in every book is full of ads
and almost all of the patrons are now so completely conditioned to expect that books will be laid out in this way as to experience an instinctive desire to close and ignore any volume that isn't, because that's clearly not a book, it's some kind of crank pamphlet.
posted by flabdablet at 4:46 PM on December 1, 2021 [4 favorites]
and almost all of the patrons are now so completely conditioned to expect that books will be laid out in this way as to experience an instinctive desire to close and ignore any volume that isn't, because that's clearly not a book, it's some kind of crank pamphlet.
posted by flabdablet at 4:46 PM on December 1, 2021 [4 favorites]
1997: I get to teach the world to sing in three-part harmony. Kumbaya, Dudes.
2019: I get to scroll the cat GIFs, dodging pop-ups until--wait, here's a pop-up selling adblockers. Yay.
2021: The video will continue after the ads.
2025:
Me--I want to talk to your supervisor...
Them--You are talking to my supervisor.
Me: What? Wait--
Them: 404
posted by mule98J at 8:49 AM on December 4, 2021 [1 favorite]
2019: I get to scroll the cat GIFs, dodging pop-ups until--wait, here's a pop-up selling adblockers. Yay.
2021: The video will continue after the ads.
2025:
Me--I want to talk to your supervisor...
Them--You are talking to my supervisor.
Me: What? Wait--
Them: 404
posted by mule98J at 8:49 AM on December 4, 2021 [1 favorite]
It seemed so obvious that forums would connect people who actually knew their stuff with an essentially unlimited worldwide audience, giving everybody the opportunity to go ah, ok, that's how that works, and that the cumulative effect of that would pretty much unavoidably be worldwide enlightenment and mutual understanding.It turns out that people aren't generally convinced by truthful expositions, and prefer fallacies and other cognitive errors.
posted by Aardvark Cheeselog at 1:50 PM on December 7, 2021
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In retrospect, this kind of thinking appears a horrible mistake.
posted by Aardvark Cheeselog at 10:24 AM on December 1, 2021 [30 favorites]