O'Rourke campaign stung by Twitter smear, implores tech firms to erase disinformation

[liskddksil]

Beto O’Rourke’s presidential campaign sent letters to major technology companies Friday morning imploring them to do more to root out disinformation ahead of the 2020 election.

The pointed appeals, from campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon, came after a conspiracy theory falsely linking the former Texas congressman to the gunman who killed seven people in two west Texas towns on Saturday was allowed to spread on social media this week, garnering thousands of shares and, according to the campaign, at one point becoming the second-highest-trending Google search query related to the candidate in the preceding seven days.

Among those who amplified the deceptive claim, which appeared to originate on Twitter with the charge that the gunman was a democratic socialist with an O’Rourke sticker on his truck, were Anthony Shaffer, a former Defense Intelligence Agency officer and member of an advisory board whose mission is to promote President Trump, and Sebastian Gorka, who worked briefly in the White House.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/this-is-your-job-not-ours-orourke-campaign-stung-by-twitter-smear-implores-tech-firms-to-erase-disinformation/2019/09/06/f6db3992-d091-11e9-b29b-a528dc82154a_story.html?arc404=true

[hlthe2b]

1. I think it is time for progressives to boycott twitter if this kind of thing is to continue. nt/

[dalton99a]

2. Bots have been very active

Many of the accounts that promoted the conspiracy theory exhibited botlike characteristics, according to analysts. Nir Hauser, the chief technology officer at VineSight, which uses artificial intelligence to track misinformation, said the original tweet received a first boost from accounts that behaved like bots, a type of software that can be set up to push messages on social media.

Twitter disallows abuse, harassment and threats of violence, among other types of behavior sketched out in its rules. The company also says it monitors for ma­nipu­la­tion and acts when it detects large-scale inauthentic behavior.

According to analysis by VineSight, none of the accounts that simply retweeted the original post about O’Rourke were verified on Twitter. That doesn’t factor in the users who amplified the tweet and added their own commentary, such as Shaffer and Gorka.

[peggysue2]

3. This is a disgusting smear

Yes, I think a boycott or some sort of action is called for and this Shaffer and Gorka called out for spreading malignant disinformation.

[DavidDvorkin]

4. There will be more and more of this

And it will be impossible to stop. I don't know what the solution is.

[BlueMississippi]

5. wonder who started it ....

Beto is no threat to republicans so they may have just amplified it for fun ... but it must have originated in the primary campaign. Now ... who would do that? hmmmmmmmmmmm

[lostnfound]

6. How handy that the gunman's name and background is no longer reported so much

That enables fake smears on twitter to be so much more effective.

Welcome to 1984.

[farmbo]

7. Twitter's Expected Response Couldn't be More Clear:

They must ban Shaffer and Gorka's Twitter (and FB also if they pushed it there) accounts through November 4, 2020.

It appears that Shaffer and Gorka knew or should have known that their story was false and defamatory, yet they pushed it and called in their lackey army of Russian Bots. Long after it was proven false they kept pushing it.

Yes, the poor snowflakes will claim victimhood and squeal that their First Amendment rights were violated, yadda, yadda. yadda,-- but they will have to make those arguments by the US Postal Service or through the Brietbart list-serve.

If Silicon Valley is remotely serious about stopping the proliferation of Fake News-- and in limiting their legal liabilities now that they've been fairly warned-- then banning is what they must do.

And do it NOW.

[calimary]

8. This.

[aggiesal]

10. Want to get rid of fake news? ...

Get rid of IQ45!

I hadn't even heard of the term "Fake News" until that idiot started blaring it with his media bullhorn.
Now it's everywhere, and the worst culprits are IQ45 & Faux NOOZ!

[jimmyzvoice]

9. The solution is to keep on top of false stories like this

No boycotts. Keep it all out in the open and respond immediately as Beto's campaign did. It sounds like twitter did the right thing in response.

[dalton99a]

11. Twitter is not doing anything about it

https://www.theverge.com/2019/9/6/20853447/facebook-twitter-google-beto-orourke-odessa-midland-texas-shooting-disinformation

Facebook, Twitter, and Google must remove disinformation, Beto O’Rourke demands
Posts claiming a connection between O’Rourke and Odessa shooter went viral last weekend
By Makena Kelly @kellymakena Sep 6, 2019, 5:37pm EDT

That attack occurred in Odessa, Texas, killing seven people and leaving 25 injured. In the aftermath, bots worked to spread false information across social media with many claiming that the suspected shooter supported Beto O’Rourke. Posts on Facebook and Twitter suggested that the shooter had an O’Rourke sticker on his vehicle. Texas officials have denied any link between the shooter and the O’Rourke campaign.

The campaign was first made aware of the posts from the Democratic National Convention, and O’Malley Dillon said in a Twitter thread on Monday that she was able to identify the original poster’s account — an account that had been suspended and later reinstated before. That tweet is still up and has over 11,000 retweets and 15,000 favorites.

In the campaign’s letter to Twitter, they ask that the platform take down any fake accounts that shared the original tweet. “And moving forward,” they continued, “no matter the purpose or intention, every time a propagandistic tweet, disseminated by a bot campaign, is posted, the fake accounts responsible for its amplification should be removed from the platform without any delay.”

Twitter declined to comment.