HadNews.com

In the wake of the recent assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, social media platforms have been flooded with misinformation and conspiracy theories surrounding the event. In an effort to combat this spread of false information, The Wall Street Journal conducted a fact-check on some of the most widely shared posts related to the incident. One of the biggest falsehoods circulating online is the claim of an incorrect shooter. Despite initial reports identifying the actual shooter, many conspiracy theorists have pushed forward the narrative that an entirely different individual was responsible for the attempt on Trump's life. ...... Read Full article on HadNews

The astounding rise in social media use in the past few years is seeing policy responses come to a head, both internationally and in Aotearoa New Zealand. Some estimates put the number using social media globally above five billion, with an annualised growth rate of more than 5%. Accelerated concerns about smartphone addiction, cyberbullying, misinformation and extremist content have often seen digital devices and social media blamed for declines in mental and social wellbeing, in young people in particular. The American social psychologist Jonathan Haidt calls them “the anxious generation”, and politicians and policymakers are scra...... Read Full article on HadNews

Disinformation, sharing false information to deceive and mislead others, can take many forms. From edited “deepfake” videos made on smartphones to vast foreign-led information operations, politics and elections show how varied disinformation can be. Hailed as “the year of elections”, with the majority of the world’s population going to the polls, 2024 will also be a year of lessons learned, where we will see whether disinformation can truly subvert our political processes or if we are more resilient than we think. The dissemination of disinformation, as well as misleading content and methods, is not always high-tech. We often think about s...... Read Full article on HadNews

Facebook’s parent company, Meta, has announced it will stop paying for news content in Australia when the current deals it has expire. Meta will also cease news aggregation on the site. Three years ago, the company signed deals with Australian news outlets after the government introduced laws requiring tech companies to pay for the news on their platforms. The law only comes into effect if no commercial deal is struck. Meta has now decided that the cost of providing news in Australia is too high. Its reason for the change is to “better align our investments to our products and services people value the most”. That is, it saves money....... Read Full article on HadNews

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools are supercharging the problem of misinformation, disinformation and fake news. OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and various image, voice and video generators have made it easier than ever to produce content, while making it harder to tell what is factual or real. Malicious actors looking to spread disinformation can use AI tools to largely automate the generation of convincing and misleading text. This raises pressing questions: how much of the content we consume online is true and how can we determine its authenticity? And can anyone stop this? It’s not an idle concern. Organisations seeking...... Read Full article on HadNews

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools are supercharging the problem of misinformation, disinformation and fake news. OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and various image, voice and video generators have made it easier than ever to produce content, while making it harder to tell what is factual or real. Malicious actors looking to spread disinformation can use AI tools to largely automate the generation of convincing and misleading text. This raises pressing questions: how much of the content we consume online is true and how can we determine its authenticity? And can anyone stop this? It’s not an idle concern. Organisations ...... Read Full article on HadNews

A senior Google executive has warned of the “very serious” threat posed to democracy by artificial intelligence (AI) powered deepfakes, in a year of crucial national elections across the world. The concerns have resulted in the heavyweights of the tech industry coming together to thwart the rise of disinformation and malicious actors online. Google has joined forces with more than 15 other companies, including Meta, X, Amazon, and TikTok to conduct a scheme to instantly identify and label suspected fake content which has a specific malicious intent. Kent Walker, Google’s president for global affairs, has spoken of the need to be alert ...... Read Full article on HadNews

Last year, the world experienced the hottest day ever recorded, as we endured the first year where temperatures were 1.5°C warmer than the pre-industrial era. The link between extreme events and climate change is clearer than ever. But that doesn’t mean climate misinformation has stopped. Far from it. Misleading or incorrect information on climate still spreads like wildfire, even during the angry northern summer of 2023. Politicians falsely claimed the heatwaves were “normal” for summer. Conspiracy theorists claimed the devastating fires in Hawaii were ignited by government lasers. People producing misinformation have shifted tacti...... Read Full article on HadNews

Misinformation is the number one risk facing society over the next two years, according to the World Economic Forum. With key elections due in the US, UK and many other nations this year, an onslaught of political misinformation can be expected. Some of this material is distributed through paid advertising on social media, like the AI generated “deep fake” videos of British prime minister Rishi Sunak doing the rounds. However, we know that much of the spread of false material is due to the actions of individual social media users. Many people share political news online. Inevitably some of that news is false. Fake political news is, a...... Read Full article on HadNews