The way that machine learning works is basically this: you input some models, let’s say of what tables look like, and then the code generates some things it thinks are tables. You click yes on the things that look like tables and the code reinforces the processes that made those and makes some more attempts.… Continue reading

I wrote a prediction a couple weeks ago for Nieman Lab, and it was general and media literacy focused. But here’s some more mundane, somewhat U.S.-centric predictions: Social media overrun by AI. AI’s main influence in the coming year will not be in driving cars but in driving state-sponsored social bots and corporate astroturfing. The ability of AI… Continue reading

When you’re confronted with a news claim you want to verify, you have a lot of options. Generally, the first move of our four move method is to look for previous work. Find a fact-check or a reliable article from a local or well-resourced publication that’s already done the verification for you. The easiest way… Continue reading

New Video. Using Wikipedia to investigate sources is a core technique. In this one we show what verifying a traditional news source in Wikipedia looks like. Continue reading

  I do a lot of work that I don’t cover here — in particular, I’m slowly putting together curriculum for the American Democracy Project on what the Stanford History Education Group calls Civic Online Reasoning. (I don’t show a lot of this work here because anything I publish on this blog alters the search… Continue reading

New Twitter assignment. A claim is made here. Who is the source of it? What are their qualifications? Link to tweet is here. Bonus question: Can you find a better source for this comparison? Comments closed. To answer, tweet me @holden on Twitter. Continue reading

I’ve been looking at political culture on Pinterest. I pulled these images from my feed today. Apologies that there are so many from the right and none from the left — that’s just what came up today. Political culture on Pinterest tends towards the Republican side of things (I’m training another Pinterest account to feed… Continue reading

There is currently unrest in Kenya over the Kenyan Supreme Court’s certification of results of a disputed election. A number of people have been killed in protests. There is some dispute around how many have died, but estimates range from five to eighteen. The police maintain that mobs in support of the opposition candidate have… Continue reading

Originally sent on Nov 21, 2017 via Tinyletter. Your Autocracy Will Be Laundered Pizzagate: Anatomy of a Fake News Scandal. I’ve talked before about how most discussion of free speech and disinformation is stuck in a centralized model that ignores the current multi-agent process by which the fake is laundered into the real. This article… Continue reading

For some reason Tiny Letter’s archive is not showing the latest newsletter, so I am putting it here for safe-keeping. You can read other previous newsletters here, and also sign up to receive them by email. Global Potemkin Village A new NATO Stratcom report on social media-based disinformation is out. I haven’t finished it, but… Continue reading