The problem with social media

[Gfamily]

Someone creates a fake post, then others believe it.

stupid lying bastards.PNG (118.43 KiB) Viewed 4819 times

[GeenDienst]

For info, the Indy (and doubtless others) are reporting what ol' Beardy actually said:

Shocking reports from London Bridge. My thoughts are with those caught up in the incident. Thank you to the police and emergency services who are responding,

Pretty much the same thing...

[TimW]

It just reads like something written by a thick Brexiteer though.

[GeenDienst]

It just reads like something written by a thick Brexiteer though.

Maybe they though that would make it more plausible.

[username]

Someone creates a fake post, then others believe it.
stupid lying bastards.PNG

Isn't there a study somewhere showing that a certain age-related subsection are more inclined to give credence to such things

Mostly I blame lack of scepticism and confirmation bias for a lot of it. Social media makes it easier to propagate stuff, but gossip and rumour spread by word of mouth or publishers used to do it pretty well too :/

[jimbob]

It just reads like something written by a thick Brexiteer though.

Maybe they though that would make it more plausible.

Some of the comments have lowered my IQ and raised my blood pressure just by seeing them:

John jones
@joanhaj007

He wasn't murdered he was neutralized before he could kill or injure anyone else. Corbyn is a disgrace!

Rhiannon Taylor Esq.
@areteedee2
·
18h
Read previous comments before making yourself look a bit silly...its not real. This is photoshopping at its worst.

John jones
@joanhaj007
·
18h
I don't feel silly at all and I know its a fake, but its the kind of comment he would make, I reckon.

[murmur]

Did I step into the wrong thread? I was looking for something about social media...

[discovolante]

Did I step into the wrong thread? I was looking for something about social media...

I've split the topic, albeit somewhat clumsily...

and one day i will work out which shade of green to use

[Matatouille]

I've split the topic, albeit somewhat clumsily...

and one day i will work out which shade of green to use

Re. the critical matter of shades of green, on the default blue/grey forum theme that shade is a bit bright to read easily if the post is in the 50% to be rendered with the paler background. I'm sure this information will be treated the seriousness it deserves not a bit.

[discovolante]

Yes, now I'm reading it on my mobile I can see it is quite horrible. Sorry.

[jaap]

Did I step into the wrong thread? I was looking for something about social media...

I've split the topic, albeit somewhat clumsily...

and one day i will work out which shade of green to use

You want #00AA00 I think, at least that is the colour used in your user name.

[nekomatic]

#00AA00

00AA00:

• moderator green
• my favourite line from Walk Like An Egyptian

[GeenDienst]

Social media is wonderful for promoting health scares as well.

There was a great example a few years ago in France. New regulatory rules meant that levothyroxine tablets (and other “narrow therapeutic index” drugs, i.e. need tight dosing to separate benefit from side-effects) had to be manufactured to tighter standards of bioequivalence, meaning less potential for batch to batch variation, better shelf stability and so on. A manufacturer of a leading brand did this. The resulting bioequivalence study passed the new regs easily, and showed the new tablet to be bang on switchable for the old one.

And when the new tablet was introduced, all f.cking hell broke loose. Some complaints turned into an online petition, hit French social media and were picked up by the media and suddenly thousands of complaints about "fatigue, memory loss, palpitations, weight gain, dizziness, and nausea, prompting 318,077 signatories to a petition demanding Merck return to the previous formulation". Elsewhere:

"We are facing a major crisis," Chantal L’Hoir, founder of the French thyroid disorder association told France Info.

"I had cramps in my thighs like I've never had before, to the point where I couldn't walk," she said. "I didn't dare to drive anymore because I was dizzy.

"I was more tired than I've ever been. Since stopping the treatment, I've had a new lease of life."

Others have complained of suicidal thoughts, memory loss, hair loss and palpitations, some of whom have been on the treatment for decades without complaint until the formula change, according to Ouest France.

Obviously, politicians and courts (the company won a civil case against 4000 plaintiffs recently) got involved, and naturally we had a scientific study apparently supporting the controversy that was based on b.llsh.t methodology and interpretation.

This was restricted to France, pretty much, with nothing like this outside France, probably because it was essentially a local social/national media thing. And even with this number of complaints, it's still a tiny proportion of people taking this stuff in France (seen <1% cited in one of the above links).

One probably contributor was that the company took the opportunity while reformulating to eliminate lactose (tiny amounts but, hey, lactose) and replaced it with citric acid and mannitol, so the tablet would have tasted a little different, alerting people to the change. Other than that failure of physicians to explain the change and why it was happening, and why it didn't matter, likely contributed.

But there you have it, working example of the Internets amplifying a baseless health scare.

[Stephanie]

This article is interesting, in terms of pointing out how traditional news media also add to the problem, by monitoring social media trends, and then reporting on them without checking things https://www.cjr.org/special_report/face ... -media.php

[tenchboy]

Data Point

[Sciolus]

See what happens when you start a thread called "Elizabeth II (1926-2019)"?

[Gfamily]

See what happens when you start a thread called "Elizabeth II (1926-2019)"?

Oi !, isn't there a "no callbacks" meme?
... now, that really annoys

[GeenDienst]

Here's another one.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/ ... spital-boy

A medical secretary has claimed her Facebook account was hacked after it was used to post false information claiming that a photograph of an ill boy on the floor at Leeds General Infirmary was staged for political purposes.

The woman denied posting the allegation that four-year-old Jack Willment-Barr’s mother placed him on the floor specifically to take the picture which became symbolic of the NHS’s troubles after it appeared on the front page of Monday’s Daily Mirror.

“I was hacked. I am not a nurse and I certainly don’t know anyone in Leeds,” said the woman, whose name the Guardian is withholding because she says she has received death threats. “I’ve had to delete everything as I have had death threats to myself and my children.”

[Gfamily]

Here's another one.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/ ... spital-boy

A medical secretary has claimed her Facebook account was hacked after it was used to post false information claiming that a photograph of an ill boy on the floor at Leeds General Infirmary was staged for political purposes.

The woman denied posting the allegation that four-year-old Jack Willment-Barr’s mother placed him on the floor specifically to take the picture which became symbolic of the NHS’s troubles after it appeared on the front page of Monday’s Daily Mirror.

“I was hacked. I am not a nurse and I certainly don’t know anyone in Leeds,” said the woman, whose name the Guardian is withholding because she says she has received death threats. “I’ve had to delete everything as I have had death threats to myself and my children.”

Who the f.ck copies something and posts it in their own FB timeline as if it's their own story?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/50728920

Within hours of the exchange with the prime minister, this post emerged on Facebook claiming that, according to "a good friend" who is a senior nursing sister at Leeds Hospital, the mother staged the photo to send to the media and that, in fact, the boy did have a hospital trolley.

It was first posted on Facebook we think at about 18:30 GMT on 9 December. This post, shared at least 20,000 times, has since been deleted.

BBC Newsnight has spoken to the owner of this account who said that they do not, in fact, have a good friend who is a senior nursing sister at Leeds hospital.

The woman, in her 50s, who does not want to be named, said she'd accepted a friend request from someone claiming to be an old school friend on Monday afternoon. Despite not recognising them, she accepted and then looked at her new friend's Facebook page.

She saw the post about the hospital and copied and pasted it into her own account. She said the way it suddenly went viral made her suspect she'd been the victim of a co-ordinated ploy. She's now taken down her social media accounts.

[Bird on a Fire]

The credulous way some (most, AFAICT, of the older persuasion) people approach online content is terrifying.

This would never happen to the Limewire generation. We don't believe in anything.

[GeenDienst]

Yes, that's an unusual definition of "hacked". She's been had, looks like, though.

[Stephanie]

This is it. On twitter folk were saying bots, but it seems like lots of actual people just copying the content from FB. I remember reading a piece about some of the "Trump patriots" and how they were all older folk who had DM groups where they shared tweets that they wanted to be retweeted or repeated across accounts.

[tenchboy]

So why doesn't everyone get on to the owner of 'the new friends facebook page' and go from there rather than only the lady who copied it? If it's been forwarded and forwarded 20 000 times, why don't they go back one more?

[dyqik]

So why doesn't everyone get on to the owner of 'the new friends facebook page' and go from there rather than only the lady who copied it? If it's been forwarded and forwarded 20 000 times, why don't they go back one more?

Because it seems that her son is Facebook friends with Matt Hancock, and the story appears to have come from him.

[tenchboy]

So why doesn't everyone get on to the owner of 'the new friends facebook page' and go from there rather than only the lady who copied it? If it's been forwarded and forwarded 20 000 times, why don't they go back one more?

Because it seems that her son is Facebook friends with Matt Hancock, and the story appears to have come from him.

Oh!