Why are flat Earth truthers having such a huge year online?
Maybe You Missed It, but the Internet ‘Died’ Five Years Ago
A conspiracy theory spreading online says the whole internet is now fake. It’s ridiculous, but possibly not that ridiculous?
Looking for Life on a Flat Earth
What a burgeoning movement says about science, solace, and how a theory becomes truth.
Is anyone out there?
Dead Internet Theory says that you’re the only human left online. It started out as a conspiratorial joke, but it is edging ever closer to reality
The "No True Leftist" Fallacy
Scientists no Longer Find Twitter Professionally Useful, and have Switched to Bluesky
Synopsis Social media has become widely used by the scientific community for a variety of professional uses, including networking and public outreach. For the past decade, Twitter has been a primary home of scientists on social media. In recent years, new leadership at Twitter has made substantive changes that have resulted in increases in the prevalence of pseudoscience, conspiracy theory, and harassment on the platform, causing many scientists to seek alternatives. Bluesky has been suggested as a good alternative to Twitter, but the phenomenon of academics switching social media platforms has not previously been studied. Here we report on the results of a survey distributed to scientists on Twitter and Bluesky (n = 813). Results overwhelmingly confirm that changes to Twitter have made the social media platform no longer professionally useful or pleasant, and that many scientists have abandoned it in favor of Bluesky. Results show that for every reported professional benefit that scientists once gained from Twitter, scientists can now gain that benefit more effectively on Bluesky than on Twitter.
AI chatbots are encouraging conspiracy theories – new research
If you interact with chatbots about conspiracy theories, research shows you can can easily fall down the rabbit hole.
AI chatbots are encouraging conspiracy theories – new research
If you interact with chatbots about conspiracy theories, research shows you can can easily fall down the rabbit hole.
The Conspiracy Theory About Wayfair Is Spreading Quickly Among Lifestyle Influencers On Instagram
The theory plays into the bigger QAnon conspiracy theory, which baselessly claims that the world is controlled by a secret cabal of pedophiles that President Trump is actively fighting against.
Have people stopped trusting science? The data tell a surprising story
Some say there’s a global crisis of trust — but research reveals where the real problems lie.
The Trump Assassination Attempt Meets the Internet’s Brain-Rot Era
Today’s social platforms can instantly convert even the most harrowing news events into misleading tidbits and gleefully empty jokes.
Google Just Ruined One of Its Most Important Tools
Google Earth was a boon for researchers—and then came the deepfakes.
Conspiracy Brokers: Understanding the Monetization of YouTube Conspiracy Theories
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3485447.3512142 WWW '22: Proceedings of the ACM Web Conference 2022, Virtual Event, Lyon, France, April 2022
Fakebook: Using Data Science to Spot Fake News
Oh no it's happening here too! Massive science threads and convos with zero involvement from women 😭 That was one of the weirdest, most alienating things about science twitter (and why perhaps I don't have as fond memories of it as some of my male colleagues do) and I'd hate it to be replicated here
There's growing experimental evidence¹˒²˒³˒⁴ that LLMs are unusually good at talking people out of entrenched false beliefs and conspiracy theories. ¹ pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39264999/ ² pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41179846/ ³ sciety.org/articles/activity/10.21203/rs… ⁴ connecticut.adl.org/resources/report/short-dialog…
Der Fisher
Unpopular opinion: LLMs are generally deradicalizing people whose beliefs are based on pure propaganda. I've been watching this happen slowly with some people I care about. ChatGPT is one of the reasons they finally accept that the NRA, OAN, and NewsMax are lying to them.
