Author Archives: Lisa Goldberg

Facebook Fails at Keeping Your Data Safe

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After the Cambridge Analytica scandal we would have thought Facebook would have been more diligent about data protection.

Per their own new bug bounty solution, Facebook found an opening that let many malicious actors (their words) request information from their system. But this new bug didn’t get closed up for over a month.

The hacker who found the leak, Inti De Ceukelaire says he began his search by “noting down what third party apps his Facebook friends were using — finding quizzes were one of the most popular apps.” He inferred quizzes rep for being an easy and shady sourve of data. “So he took his first ever Facebook quiz, from a brand called NameTests.com, and quickly realized the company was exposing Facebook users’ data to “any third-party that requested it”.”

It’s JavaScript was leaking data and gave users a pin to access any data on an individual they wanted in the future. “Depending on what quizzes you took, the javascript could leak your facebook ID, first name, last name, language, gender, date of birth, profile picture, cover photo, currency, devices you use, when your information was last updated, your posts and statuses, your photos and your friends,” wrote De Ceukelaire.

Why it’s hot?

As Facebooks marketing tries to preach more transparency, are they really practicing?

Alexa Secretly Records a Family’s Conversation and Sends it to a Random Contact… fun!

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Amazon’s Echo just wants to be part of the conversation. In the case of one Portland family, it sent that conversation to a random contact. The family was told about the incident when the colleague reached out to them.

Amazon, when asked to comment said that it was a misinterpretation of the family’s words.

Echo woke up due to a word in background conversation sounding like “Alexa.” Then, the subsequent conversation was heard as a “send message” request. At which point, Alexa said out loud “To whom?” At which point, the background conversation was interpreted as a name in the customers contact list. Alexa then asked out loud, “[contact name], right?” Alexa then interpreted background conversation as “right”. As unlikely as this string of events is, we are evaluating options to make this case even less likely.

Why it’s hot

As voice recognition becomes more prominent in our lives we may see more of these incidents. If Alexa is sending a private conversation, then what is the Echo listening to. As data collection grows, we have to wonder what restraints businesses are putting on themselves. Here’s Sillicon Valleys US House Rep talking about an internet bill of rights.

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/24/amazon-echo-recorded-conversation-sent-to-random-person-report.html

Sometimes the Internet Can Be Used for Good

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Last week and NYC lawyer went viral for threatening to call ICE on employees of a restaurant who were speaking to a customer in Spanish. This viral video helped people on the internet discover his real identity

It turns out this isn’t even a new move for Schlossberg. He’s confronted people all over NYC. Including YouTube star Willie Morris. This 2016 video has now been updated with Schlossberg’s real name.

But sometimes the internet works for good. Schlossberg was identified and DRAGGED. There are now gofundme campagins to send mariachi bands to his law firm, a facebook event organized lati party for outside his building and …

Maybe this wouldn’t have happened anywhere outside of NYC, but it’s interesting to see private citizens get shamed for anti immigrant sentiment in the same week as Donald Trumps “animals” comments.

Why it’s hot?

The dress, yanny/laurel, loose llamas and Aaron Schlossberg. Sometimes the internet can be a great place.

When I Tried To find a Locksmith

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I was recently having trouble with my front door, neither here nor there, I wasn’t locked out, but I couldn’t lock my door in the morning.

It turns out finding a locksmith is the hardest thing to do in New York City. “Why don’t you just Google it?” you might ask. Because Googling locksmiths is rife with fraud.

“The goal of lead gens is to wrest as much money as possible from every customer, according to lawsuits. The typical approach is for a phone representative to offer an estimate in the range of $35 to $90. On site, the subcontractor demands three or four times that sum, often claiming that the work was more complicated than expected. Most consumers simply blanch and pay up, in part because they are eager to get into their homes or cars.”

Scammers would go as far as adding fake “offices” into google maps so you can’t even use mapping to research. I wound up getting a referral, but I thought about going to a nearby locksmith in person to triple check they were real.

This is not new, the first reports of this problem are from 2011. Maybe you already know about it. So my question is, if this problem is an old problem why are you posting about it. Well, because it’s 2018 and its only just being fixed. In fact google was sued about it just last month.

Google has been sued time and time again.. and the good news is, they’re finally fixing the problem. Enter Google Guaranteed (October of this year).

Image result for google locksmith guarantee

Ok, Lisa this is all old news! But it isn’t old news for my locksmith, Nick, who has  the arduous task of applying to be google guaranteed. Apparently this is a months long process that has some expenses involved. This can be hard for someone trying to start a small business, like Nick.

Why Its Hot?

What happens to businesses if you’re not Googles priority?

“Defendants knowingly and deliberately flood organic search results displayed in response to queries such as “locksmith” (and related terms) with scam locksmith listings they know: 1) do not exist at all, or at least not at the locations indicated, 2) operate for the purpose of defrauding the consumer public, 3) are not licensed in jurisdictions mandating locksmith licensing, 4) are unregistered to do business in jurisdictions (such as DC) requiring business registration.

Defendants flood the market with fictitious listings to dilute Plaintiffs’ and other legitimate locksmiths’ listing in the organic and map results to the point of obscurity, thereby compelling legitimate locksmiths to pay Defendants for paid advertised results merely to be seen by the same prospective customers.”

Google made money off of locksmiths “problem” by creating artificial demand for their ads.

If you’re interested in hearing more about the real life heros spotting locksmith bots check out this article from the NYT. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/31/business/fake-online-locksmiths-may-be-out-to-pick-your-pocket-too.html

“What If We Just Make The Fake News Really Small?” – Mark Zuckerberg (Allegedly)

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The first round of attempt to stifle rampant fake news on Facebook via “red flags” were removed due to:

  1. “Buried critical information a.k.a. required too many clicks
  2. Could sometimes backfire because strong language or visuals can reinforce ideas
  3. Required at least two fact-checkers so was a slow process to be applied
  4. Only worked for false ratings so stories that were partly false or unproven were not marked”

What the disputed flag tool looked like

The crack team at Facebook has another idea…just make the fake news real small like….Or at least that’s what Tech Crunch is claiming with their new behind-the-scenes reporting.

“We reduce the visual prominence of feed stories that are fact-checked false,” a Facebook spokesperson told TechCrunch at the Fighting Abuse @Scale event in SF.

“Confirmed-to-be-false news stories on mobile show up with their headline and image rolled into a single smaller row of space. Below, a Related Articles box shows “Fact-Checker”-labeled stories debunking the original link. Meanwhile on the right, a real news article’s image appears about 10 times larger, and its headline gets its own space.”

Why it’s hot?

Facebook is trying to find work arounds for it’s duties to be an actual media company with a newsroom. They have a big issue on their hands thats affecting global politics and humanity. But, LOL, let’s just make the fake news small.

Fribo, the robot that tells all your friends you came home at 4am

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Fribo is a robot developed in Korea for young singles living alone. It seems to set up a virtual communal living space built by communication at home activities with a small group of friends.

Fribo listens to household activity sends messages to the group about. If you arrive home Fribo might message Your friends: “Your friend opened the front door. Did someone just come home?” Friends can respomd with a clap to their own Friebo which would send a message to the group chat.

Users in Korea responded positively “I usually wake up late in the morning,” said one, “but when I began to notice my friends getting ready early, I started thinking about starting the day earlier with my friends.”

Why it’s hot?

Although this is not for me its interesting how we’re mixing text with voice and smart home technology. It’s an out of the box way to think about human interaction.

An Inaccurate Census Could Have Big Consequences

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It was recently revealed that the Department of Justice is pressing to add a question about citizenship in the 2020 census. This question, one that has not been included in the census since the 50s, is believed to be meant to deter immigrant communities from participating, typically Democratic communities, and therefore depressing final population count and the distribution if house representatives, which is tied to population, not citizenry. John Thompson, who served as director of the Census Bureau until he resigned last year said:

The risk that really troubles me is that there’s a big undercount and then there’s a big lack of representation.

So what are the repursussions of a lower response rate other than less house seats for Democrats? It will be harder for the Center for Disease control to predict outbreaks if they think certain places have lower population (and therefore falsely higher instances of reported disease.

It’s also bad for brand strategists!

Why it’s hot?

Brand strategist need to know the true population of certain areas almost all of our research contain some sort of data from the US Census. Inconsistencies in census data one of the true long term high dats resources is a real loss for industry across the board.

 

 

Lets talk about Cambridge Analytica

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Last week the U.K.’s Channel 4 News exposed data mining company Cambridge Analytica in a series of hidden camera videos. The videos show Cambridge Analytica employees admitting to stealing Facebook data as well as offering to send prostitutes to the opposition to obtain blackmail material.

Cambridge Analytica obtained the Facebook data by getting it from an academic claiming to be producing a study. 250k users were paid to take a personality quiz and allow access to their data, however the company scraped data from all of their friends, leaving 50M exposed to the breach.
This firm is funded by Trump ally, hedge fund billionaire, Robert Mercer, and was the brain child of Steve Bannon. That the Trump Campaign was possibly using illegally obtained data is now a big topic of discussion.
Turns out Facebook new about this breach since 2015. Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg were notably quiet in the first few days of this news cycle and Facebook’s stock lost $59 billion in value in the first few days. Zuckerberg came forward with an apology. 

I want to share an update on the Cambridge Analytica situation — including the steps we've already taken and our next…

Posted by Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday, March 21, 2018

 

Why it’s hot?
We continue to talk about how our unregulated internet is booth a boon and a detriment to humanity. Facebook seems in this case to be asking itself to be regulated (literally “I’m not sure we shouldn’t be regulated”). We should be thinking about how we should put some limits on what can be done by these social behemoths.

YouTube is backpeddling

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https://twitter.com/jessik5898/status/973688926702628864

YouTube’s CEO Susan Wojcicki announced at SXSW that YouTube’s infamous conspiracy theory videos will now be paired with text from Wikipedia. “We will show a companion unit of information from Wikipedia showing that here is information about the event,” she said. YouTube is “using a list of well-known internet conspiracies from Wikipedia” to cull from.

Apparently Susan didn’t feel the need to inform Wikipedia before making this announcement:

Why it’s hot:

Wikipedia gets to cover itself legally while fact checking — but doesn’t really take responsibility and still gets to cash out on these videos. I don’t think its enough.

Vero, the Newest Social Media App To Come and Go

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Ok. So it hasn’t “gone” yet, but let’s see if it goes the way of Meerkat, Ello and Peach, but for now we at Hot Sauce can say, “oh yeah, I know about that”.

The appeal of the new app is its sleek design and it’s chronological feed. It’s still too early to tell what the path might be for Vero, but it might be interesting for our food service clients, as their new Places feature is a highlight.

Vero has been having trouble keeping up with customer demand:

and by the time I write this post… the backlash has already begun…

https://twitter.com/KaylaCJenkins/status/968300809715879936?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.her.ie%2Fentertainment%2Fi-tried-vero-this-week-and-here-are-my-first-thoughts-on-the-new-app-391151

That went from 0 to 60 real fast.

Oh and once your in, can you even get out?

Why it’s hot?

This might be just a flash in the pan, but it’s always good to be “in the know”.

YouTube’s Algorithm Helps Spread Lies

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Time to re-litigate our favorite Hot Sauce topic! Are social media platforms media platforms or not? Do they have a journalistic responsibility to the public?

Last week YouTube’s quickly algorithm spread a rumor that Parkland HS shooting survivor David Hogg was an actor hired by democrats. It had 200K views shortly after it’s posting, but has since been taken down.

Mashable, the source for this post had a very apt understanding of the problem at hand:

YouTube’s job, as it sees it, is to get as many eyeballs on as many videos as possible. It’s as if a media tycoon founded a newspaper, invited every conspiracy theorist to contribute, and blithely waved away the notion that there should be any ethical responsibility to put forth the verifiable truth — because selling ads was all that mattered.

In a recent Guardian study this recent Guardian study out of 643 of partisan videos  recommended to people watching politics content in 2016, 551 were conspiracy-based content that favored Trump while 92 favored Clinton. This study also notes that “More than 80% of the YouTube-recommended videos about the pope detected by his program described the Catholic leader as “evil”, “satanic”, or “the anti-Christ”.”

The Guardian tells the story of french programmer Guillaume Chaslot founder of https://algotransparency.org/ who was looking to make changes internally at YouTube in 2013 before he was fired (reportedly for performance reasons, but I’ll leave that up to you.) He believes that the YouTube Algorithm was biased towards Trump because it is biased towards divisiveness and conspiracy (things that shock and awe audiences can get more clicks). You can read his full blog post on the subject here.

Why Its Hot?

Let’s continue the conversation about how AI and algorithms shape the way we live, is there a way we can make them more human instead of human pandering.

Twitter’s Transparency Not so Transparent

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Image result for twitter ira blog

Mashable reports “Twitter is finally following Facebook’s lead and coming clean about how Russian trolls abused their platform in spreading misinformation ahead of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. But even in transparency, Twitter is still clouding the issue by literally deleting the evidence.”

We can give Twitter credit for a certain amount of forthrightness. They recently published a blog post recounting their platforms involvement in Russia’s tampering with the 2016 elections.

“We have now sent notices to Twitter users with an active email address who our records indicate are based in the US and fall into at least one of the following categories:

People who directly engaged during the election period with the 3,814 IRA-linked accounts we identified, either by Retweeting, quoting, replying to, mentioning, or liking those accounts or content created by those accounts;People who were actively following one of the identified IRA-linked accounts at the time those accounts were suspended”

While Facebook is putting together an action plan to properly label “fake news” and use user feedback to properly identify propaganda, Twitter has taken the same measures that they would any unwanted account… suspension and deletion.

Why it’s hot?
By destroying the evidence instead of properly marking it, as Facebook has done, Twitter removes both the cultural context and the cultural learning from the conversation.

I know we’ve spent time talking about bot accounts before but I’m still constantly fascinated that what humans do with AI can have an outsized role in global behavior.

Netflix Pulls a Beyonce After the Super Bowl

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Sometimes the best marketing campaign is no marketing campaign at all.

Netflix dropped their newest release “The Cloverfield Paradox” immediately after the Superbowl, with no warning. No campaign, no advanced trailers, just a blurry easter egg of a website and a Super Bowl ad.

Now instead of waiting (but really why can’t I already watch Black Panther), Netflix is giving its audience immediate gratification.

This movie, however, was previously considered unsellable, and Netflix had taken it off of Paramount’s hands, as they didn’t see it as a viable property. By “pulling a Beyonce” Netflix let the movie bloggers do the marketing for them.

Why It’s Hot?

Turns out, Paramount was right about the movie (it’s currently 18% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes)  but was wrong about the potential.

And that’s now Netflix sells a crappy movie as viral gold.

A lesson in authenticity: The Mad World of the Lisa Frank Social Presence

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We all remember our Trapper Keepers from the 1990s. Well now, you can get those same warm fuzzies + a shot of dada millennial feels from Lisa Frank’s social media pages.

The rainbow brand has taken their signature, busy, colorful style and added, busy colorful messaging… typically around the things they know you love. The up-coming weekend, sweet treats, and sitting on the couch and watching Netflix.

Lisa Frank is hoping to hone your 90s wistful nostalgia and adding a bit of what you aimlessly “like” on Instagram.

Posted by Lisa Frank on Monday, December 4, 2017

Pilates can wait until 2018! How are you enjoying this holiday season?

Posted by Lisa Frank on Wednesday, December 20, 2017

 

Posted by Lisa Frank on Sunday, January 21, 2018

Posted by Lisa Frank on Tuesday, January 30, 2018

Posted by Lisa Frank on Tuesday, January 2, 2018

Posted by Lisa Frank on Monday, January 8, 2018

Posted by Lisa Frank on Saturday, January 6, 2018

Why its hot?

Lisa Frank wins by being their authentic selves. By mixing their brand signature with not so amazing commentary on the work week, there is, some how a recipe for greatness.

 

VR Marriage Proposal…. How Far We’ve Come

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The company Zero Latency helped a real life couple make their proposal dreams come true. They worked with Melbourne carpenter Alex Lackovic to proposed to his beloved, social worker Kelly Lynn Norman, by bringing her to her favorite tree in her grandmother’s front yard.

Why its hot?

There is an emotional component to being able to be at “any place” at “any time”. By adding smell and sound, can we use this technology to re-create other important memories, or help Alzheimers patients?

Germany and Addidas take wearables local

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Berlin’s metro, BVD, has partnered with shoemaker, Addidas to give customers free year long transit. The shoes, that retail for $215, have a yearly metro card built into the tongue. There are only 500 pairs available.

Why it’s hot:

Though likely low tech, this innovation gives us a glimpse into the ways we can make our lives easier through wearable technology.

Germany is Taking Hate Speech Online to Task

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As of 1/1 Germany’s new anti-hate-speech law has come into effect. The new law promises fines of up to 50 million euros ($60 million, £44 million) for non compliance.

The law requires social networks to remove hate speech in under 24 hours from when it’s flagged by a user. Networks are given one week to deal with less clear cases.

Hate speech has seen a recent up tick online. YouTube stars accused of anti-Semitism; Trumps tweets against immigrants and Muslims.

Why it’s hot?

The real question is whether this has a positive effect on the rest of the internet.  With geolocation, it’s possible to keep the hate speech ban specific to Germany and German citizens. Depending on how tight the laws were written….the rest of us just might be in luck….

Also, fun fact. There’s a word in german for this kind of speech Volksverhetzung, in English “incitement of the masses”, “instigation of the people”

Data: Why CNN gets it wrong and Twitter gets it right

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We’re all aware of the Doug Jones recent win against Roy Moore in this week’s Alabama senate race. But how soon you knew  of this victory depended on where you got your information.

Those who turned into CNN and cable news sorely lagged behind those following the race on Twitter, the NY Times ticker and Times statistician and journalist Nate Cohen.

None of this is new, but statisticians have been modeling against turnout and percentage vote count goals per district and this technology has been getting better and better. By 9:30 on the eve of the election most pundits were still noting that Moore was up 8% in the raw votes coming in. But the Times ticker and online voices were noting how low the turnout was in these red districts and how Jones districts were late in coming in.

Why it’s hot:

There’s always a love for the horse race, but sometimes data is what trumps.

Snapchat looks to separate social from media. And I like it.

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Snapchat CEO, Evan Spiegel, announced an app redesign on Wednesday, one that focuses more on our interpersonal relationships. It looks to separate those one to one moment’s from our always on connection to the media cycle.

The combination of social and media has yielded incredible business results, but has ultimately undermined our relationships with our friends and our relationships with the media. We believe that the best path forward is disentangling the two by providing a personalized content feed based on what you want to watch, not what your friends post.

Evan is looking at a longer view of social media success instead of immediate gains. I think this separation is notable and valuable.

Why its hot?

We live in a world where our social lives are wrapped up among news and clickbait. We’ve long seen the trend of younger users moving to 1:1 messaging apps and dark social. It’s the natural response to the “public” requirement of social media. This change begs the thought: “Well… of course these things have been too unnaturally intertwined. Why haven’t I thought of that!”

 

Know Your Meme: 2016 Election Vs 2017 Election

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We learned on Halloween that the MRM team needs a real lesson in memes. Introducing the newest meme on the block: Me on Election Day 2016 vs. Election 2017.

And of course, our very own James Stewart-Meudt:

Why its hot?:

We have a fired up electorate…. and we need to know our memes!!

A Fun Exploration into RT’s Promoted Posts

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Facebook, in compliance with Richard Burr and the Senate Intelligence Committee, released examples of posts that were promoted by Russia and RT to help swing voters in the 2016 election.

Here are some examples of the posts that divided us:

Source: http://mashable.com/2017/11/01/facebook-ads-russian/#mEyDJvWCviqM

Why It’s Hot?

We live in a world dominated by social media, but we have a “build it first,” ethics later approach to technology. We have the tools at our fingertips to organize in moments but ideas can descend faster than we can figure out who’s sending messaging. Can your brains be hacked? The years after the discovery of the printing press were dark times for humanity. We should be careful when the power is in few hands and keep transparency at the forefront of not only social advertising but organic social as well. Twitter and Facebook have thrown up their hands, refusing to be “the arbiters” but if no one is left with this job, the American people suffer.

Democrats Propose Transparency for Online Ads (And Twitter Volunteers Early)

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Two Senators Amy Klobucha and Mark Warner, of Minnesota and Virginia, respectively, have proposed bi-partisan legislation to align online ad buying regulations with those for other forms of paid media in response to Russian propaganda attacks ahead of the 2016 election.

In related news, Twitter has offered to put in place a similar policy as this legislation is being proposed in Congress. This new policy adds a layer of transparency, showing viewers who bought the ad and why they were targeted.

Why it’s hot:

While silicon valley noticing and fixing it’s own issues is important for long term change, legislation is important to level the playing field to make sure all big digital media companies comply, not just those who think the issues of transparency are a big enough problem to self regulate.

Twitter Finally Does Something About Online Harassment

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This week Wired was leaked the exclusive scoop that the internal Trust and Safety Council at Twitter was looking to make changes after the popular #womenboycotttwitter movement last week. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey seems to confirm this in a series of tweets.

The list leaked to Wired of posts no longer allowed by Twitter were:

  • Non-consensual nudity
  • Unwanted sexual advances
  • Hate symbols and imagery
  • Violent groups
  • Tweets that glorify violence

Why it’s hot:

Twitter has a long history of avoiding harassment on its platform. As public outcry starts to grow about the #metoo and #womenboycotttwitter hashtags, Twitter is starting to feel the pressure. Ideally doing the right thing years ago would have been enough to trigger change, instead of a reactive response to public outcry.

 

 

Snapchat introduces Context Cards

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Snapchat is introducing Context Cards, a way for users to see reviews and maps of where their friends are checking in. From there you can make reservations or call the retail locations.

Why It’s Hot?

Snapchat kind of exists in a world of its own and anytime it integrates with other apps and plays nice, it’s a boon for marketers. This integration is pretty seamless and seems like a great way to bring in the larger internet snugly into the new “maps” piece of the Snapchat world. I hope Snapchat always sticks to their guns, and keeps their interface contained, as they continue to incorporate into the larger picture.

Facebook blocks advertisers who tout “Fake News”

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This is a big one! In the same week that we learn that Russian based operatives bought at 100K worth of targeted ads in the 2016 election, we have new news. We have knocked on Mark Zuckerburg in previous Hot Sauce posts of taking credit for solving the problem he helped create. Facebook is now looking to keep “fake news” from becoming “sponsored fake news” by requiring all ads be truthful, or face expulsion.

Why It’s Hot?

This is hot  because its not just a policy per ad but a policy that matches the content breach to the advertiser. Facebook is one upping the policy of not letting pages share links that 3rd party fact checkers have labeled false. Adweek notes that this policy is a  “move meant to help prevent Pages from making money off distributing misinformation.” Here at Hot Sauce, we can get down with that!

Using data mining to identify Russian Trolls

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With data so readily available now-a-days, we’re all data scientists. One Twitter super-sleuth (an anonymous one at that, ironically enough) is using numbers to find paid Russian human trolls feeding a sea of bots!

His process is this:

  1. Search users who use  and  for accounts that are followed by 8 digits
  2. Those 824 accounts had 63,099 followers with Name/8 digit handles
  3. Those accounts circled around a ‘hub,’ DavidJo52951945

His account was interesting….

This account represents a lot of the Kremlin’s interests and is particularly influential on Twitter, pushing out #s that can trend.

Why it’s hot?

I personally think Twitter should be taking a sharper stance on this issue, despite how it might affect its monthly active users, and subsequently… stock price.

These kinds of data experiments allow us to see the universe of the web, shown visually. Yes, these forces can be used by foreign governments, but those same tools can be leveraged by your average joe!

P.S. if you want more ‘fun’ reading, check out this thread as well about user @notmypresident, a “left-leaning” (actually the Kremlin,) human run troll account!

Facebook Blocks Shares to Heather Heyer Daily Stormer Article

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Facebook has taken Fake News head on this week. The Daily Stormer (a neo-nazi publication) wrote a disgusting article about Heather Heyer, the victim of a hate crime this weekend in Charlottesville.

Facebook has actively started removing shares of this article unless they condemn the piece in their post copy. This is a new move by the platform and an interesting one.

Why Its Hot:

Yes, Facebook is fighting hatred. But, Facebook has allowed partisanship to spread in our country and allowed falsehoods to remain that keep people from knowing what is true and false. This is a bit of a bandaid on a bullet hole, but props to Facebook for helping to fix what it helped to break.

It’s interesting how we will all start to take on false equivalency when not everything deserves to be shared.

Source: http://mashable.com/2017/08/15/facebook-deleting-daily-stormer-heather-heyer/#K06vVkFr6iqo

YouTube’s CEO Blasts Anti-Diversity Memo

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YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki wrote a heartfelt letter detailing her dismay at the infamous Google Memo written by a now-fired Googler who cited bialogical reasons for why there are fewer women and minorities in STEM and tech.

Yesterday, after reading the news, my daughter asked me a question. “Mom, is it true that there are biological reasons why there are fewer women in tech and leadership?”

She notes that:

 I thought about the women throughout the tech field who are already dealing with the implicit biases that haunt our industry (which I’ve written about before), now confronting them explicitly.

Why Its Hot:

We’ve spoken about Uber’s “women problem” and its apparent across other fields. I think its just important to talk about diversity and acknowledge the problems that typically aren’t on the surface.

Using Social Listening to Track Russian Bots

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Project Hamilton68 knows what Russia is thinking…by topic trend. The group, taking their name from Alexander Hamilton, known for having written 68 Federalist papers, around the theme of foreign interference, is taking to Twitter to sus out themes among the 600 Russian bots that they have identified.

The Hamilton 68 dashboard, a project with the Alliance for Securing Democracy at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, seeks to expose the effects of online influence networks and inform the public of themes and content being promoted to Americans by foreign powers.

 

The dashboard illustrates the themes that Vladimir Putin is promoting to Americans in pursuit of his foreign policy objectives–including the break up of the European Union, the dissolution of NATO and the failure of democratic governance in the United States specifically and in the West broadly.

http://dashboard.securingdemocracy.org/

Why it’s hot

We need tools to defend ourselves from the real fake news. This line of defense is built from the same stuff the bots are built from. We can use data to protect ourselves from whatever other hack related news is in our future.