A string of articles posted at conservative media outlets were exposed last night as the work of an influence network of fake personas, reports Adam Rawnsley at The Daily Beast. Some 90 items under 17 fictional bylines, some using photos of real peoples, were placed at sites including the Washington Examiner, Newsmax, RealClearPolitics and elsewhere.
On Monday, Twitter suspended Badanis account along with 15 others after The Daily Beast shared the results of its investigation into the network for violating the companys policies on platform manipulation and spam…. This vast influence operation highlights the ease with which malicious actors can exploit the identity of real people, dupe international news outlets, and have propaganda of unknown provenance legitimized through reputable media, Marc Owen Jones, an assistant professor at Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar who first noticed suspicious posts by members of the network, told The Daily Beast. Its not just fake news we need to be wary of, but fake journalists.
Excellent work by the Beast. It uncovered a sprawling influence network of fake personas, fake social media accounts and even fake foreign news sites all crafted to sucker U.S. right wing media into publishing it. None of them, or their readers, would be any the wiser were it not for this expose.
The best part is the use of AI-generated avatars, though the network appears to have unraveled in part because one of the personas used the photo of San Diego startup founder.
A high-resolution profile photo of the Joseph Labba persona, posted for an article at The Post Millennial, shows some of the telltale glitches commonly found in AI-generated faces. The left ear is oddly smooth without any ear lobe creases. Middlebury Institute of International Studies research associate Sam Meyer reviewed the photo of Labba using imagery analysis software and also noticed he appears to have three misfit teeth in his mouth where there should be four.
Here’s “Joseph Labba”, a contributor at The Post Millennial. Count those pearly whites.
What a surprise, top talent at Fox News fired for sexual misconduct. Again.
Voice of America’s director and assistant director resign White House April 10 newsletter falsely accused VOA of using taxpayer dollars to “promote foreign propaganda” Two miserably failed right-wing filmmakers are taking control of VOA, four months before the 2020 election, and they’re bringing Sebastian Gorka in. What could possibly go wrong?
“Many young Kiwis are using porn to learn about sex.” The New Zealand Government released this PSA as part of their “Keep it Real Online” campaign.
A guy on the Apple discussion forum started a thread titled, Why do your Charger Cables have the lifespan of a housefly? That question is probably enough to elicit a whole bunch of head nods from virtually everyone reading this, whether youre an iPhone user, an Android owner or have virtually any device that needs […]
For all their power and capabilities, image editing software isnt like sitting down to play a video game. You arent there to have fun. Youre likely looking to make a few minor tweaks to an image to make it ready to be shared, then you move on with satisfaction in a job well done. If […]
This is truly a golden age for fans of a big ginormous TV screen. Not too long ago, to buy a television over 40 inches usually meant wheeling one of those massive Mitsubishi or Toshiba projection monoliths into your home, consuming a vast portion of any room at a cost of potentially $7,000 to $8,000. […]read more
Right-wing media ran dozens of “Middle East hot takes” by fake authors
