twitter climate propaganda ads target platforms

Propaganda detection in Twitter

Propaganda Detection in Twitter: A Scientific and Practical Approach

- Purpose of the project: to develop an automated algorithm for detecting propaganda in tweets

- Object of the project: the phenomenon of propaganda itself, its influence and presence in social media overall and on Twitter in general

Scientific and Topical Grounds:

- The prevalence of propaganda in social media in today's social and political climates

- Three major Twitter propaganda incidents that illustrate the need for this project:

- Russian bots activity during the USA presidential elections of 2016

- Organized political campaign against a Sudanese political leader launched by Chinese government

- Saudi Arabian leader's troll army spreading harmful propaganda

Science and Technology:

- Previous research conducted manually, limiting effectiveness and speed

- Proposed solution: automated and generalized method using computer linguistic methods to approach an automated general solution to this problem

- Pitfalls: difficulty maintaining same level of precision for the model in absence of specific corpora

Practical Usage:

- Three variations of the project:

1. Standalone web API application with endpoints for text analysis, tweet analysis, statistics, and recorded analysis results

2. Integrated tool for already existing moderated app to filter propaganda

3. Pre-trained model for scientific researchers and topical improvements

- Data cleaning, feature extraction, and classification and training steps towards building the model

- Propaganda detection in Twitter is a relevant and necessary project

- Proposed solution offers a practical and automated method for identifying propaganda in tweets

- The project can be applied to various contexts, from individual tweet analysis to improving moderation of online spaces

- This project has the potential to contribute to future scientific developments and projects.

Revealed: Facebook received millions for ads promoting fossil fuel

Last week, ExxonMobil was revealed to have worked to water down climate legislation in the US. Now, similar tactics are being used by energy giants in the UK ahead of the COP26 climate conference. These companies are using social media to promote natural gas as a solution to climate change, despite the fact that this is misinformation. Facebook is taking millions of dollars in advertising sales from the US oil and gas lobby to promote natural gas. These ads are being targeted at young people, who are being misled.

Misinformation is a big problem when it comes to climate change, and social media companies have been slow to clamp down on it. While they have been quick to shut down conspiracy theories and falsehoods about the coronavirus and vaccines, they have not done the same for climate change. Oil and gas companies are using social media to greenwash themselves and promote continued use of fossil fuels.

Natural gas is not a clean or green energy source, despite what these ads claim. While it emits less carbon dioxide than coal, the methane it releases is 84 times more potent over a 20-year period. The growing global demand for gas threatens net zero targets needed to avoid climate meltdown.

Facebook's community guidelines prohibit ads containing misleading information, yet it allows these ads to be promoted. The American Petroleum Institute is responsible for most of these ads, which it calls energy literacy posts. Meanwhile, the American Gas Association claims that natural gas has helped reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the US.

Young people are being targeted by these ads, and they are not buying into the misinformation. They see the bias in these ads and want both sides to be heard. Facebook needs to take action against these misleading ads and hold oil and gas companies accountable.

Fossil fuels are causing destruction to the planet, and it is time for banks, financial institutions, and big tech companies to cut financial ties with them. The window for meaningful climate action is quickly closing, and we need to use all tools in our toolbox to take action and transform our economy and society. Facebook needs to withdraw these ads and stop promoting misinformation about natural gas.

Elon Musk ENRAGES Twitter With New Rule But Everyone Can't Read Apparently! Linktree Banned Too!

Jeremy from The Quartering discusses Twitter's new rule on promoting certain social media platforms. He initially freaks out, but upon reading the policy carefully, he realizes it's not that big of a deal. The rule prohibits accounts created solely for promoting other social media platforms and content that contains links or usernames for Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, True Social, Tribal, and No Sir. However, cross-posting content from any social media platform and posting links or usernames to other social media platforms not listed above are not in violation of the policy. The purpose of the rule may be to prevent Donald Trump from promoting True Social to his 80 million followers or to prevent journals from exclusively using their old accounts to promote Mastodon. The policy is poorly worded, and it's unclear how it will be enforced. Jeremy concludes that the best way to avoid being suspended is to pay for advertisements or promotions on the prohibited social media platforms. He also mentions his sponsor, Meta PCS, a veteran-owned business that offers customizable PCs with ready-to-ship options and financing. By using the promo code the quartering, viewers can save money and support Jeremy's content and a company that won't bow to cancel culture.

How Commercials Get Us To Buy Crap We Don't Need

Music advertising is a ubiquitous presence in our daily lives, influencing our thoughts and actions. Advertising agencies use various techniques to capture our attention and encourage us to buy their products, even if we don't really need them. In this article, we will explore some of the strategies employed by advertisers to get into our heads and convince us to part with our money.

Ways Advertisers Capture Our Attention:

1. Telling Us Who We Are:

Advertising agencies use ads to tell us who we are or who we should be. They often create a sense of inadequacy in us, making us feel like we're not good enough unless we buy their product. This can be seen in the numerous ads we encounter daily, which tell us that we're not smart enough, hot enough, or rich enough unless we use their product.

2. Creating Positive Messages:

Advertisers also create positive messages in their ads to promote their products. For example, the Dove Real Beauty Sketches ad tells women that they're more beautiful than they think they are. By tapping into our emotions and values, advertisers create a connection with us that makes us want to buy their products.

3. Using Celebrities:

Using celebrities in advertisements is a popular technique employed by advertisers. When we see our favorite celebrities using a product, we often want to use it too. Advertisers know this and use it to their advantage by creating ads that associate their products with celebrities we admire.

4. Creating a Sense of FOMO:

Advertisers create a sense of FOMO (fear of missing out) in us by making us feel like we're not part of the cool crowd unless we use their products. This technique is often used in ads that promote going out and trying new things, such as the Bud Light ad.

Advertising is a powerful force in our lives that influences our thoughts and actions. Advertisers use various techniques to capture our attention and convince us to buy their products. By understanding these techniques, we can become more aware of the ways in which advertising affects us and make more informed decisions about the products we choose to buy.

Rand Fishkin, Cofounder & CEO, SparkToro, interviewed by Kevin Lee (complete interview), 5/20/22

Music and Marketing with Kevin Lee: A Conversation with Grant Fishkin

In this podcast, Kevin Lee interviews Grant Fishkin, founder of SparkToro, a tool that helps businesses and individuals understand their audience's online behaviors and demographics. Grant discusses the origin story of SparkToro, the challenges he faced as an entrepreneur, and the benefits of using his tool for audience research.

Key Points:

- SparkToro was created to solve the problem of understanding customer behavior and demographics, which can be a long and expensive process.

- The tool crawls the web and public social media to create an index that anyone can search across, providing quick and easy answers to audience research questions.

- Grant left his previous company, Moz, in 2018 to prove to himself and others that he could be successful as an entrepreneur.

- He saw a need for a tool like SparkToro while working with companies that spent significant amounts of money to analyze their customer base.

- Grant and his co-founder, Casey, wanted to create a tool that would provide the same level of analysis for the entire internet, rather than just one email list or customer group.

- SparkToro helps businesses and individuals outside of marketing, providing insights into any online group's behaviors and demographics.

Twitter Bot Study:

- Grant and his team conducted a study on Twitter bots to validate or verify Twitter and Elon Musk's statements about bot activity on the platform.

- The study used a sample set of both randomly selected Twitter profiles and specifically selected profiles that had recent activity, such as sending a tweet or reply.

- While the study provided interesting directional data, it cannot determine definitively what Twitter counts as a monthly daily active user.

- The study found that roughly 15% of Twitter accounts analyzed showed strong signs of bot-like activity, while a more conservative estimate put that number at around 5%.

- Grant explains the methodology and cutoffs used in the study, which involved analyzing a range of metrics to determine authenticity.

Grant Fishkin's experience as an entrepreneur and his creation of SparkToro demonstrate the power of understanding audience behavior and demographics. His tool provides a quick and easy way to conduct audience research, helping businesses and individuals make informed decisions about their online presence. The Twitter bot study highlights the importance of authenticity and transparency online and provides valuable insights into the prevalence of bot activity on social media.

TARGETED POLITICAL ADS: Are they changing democracy?

Music and politics have long gone hand in hand, with politicians using advertisements to win over support. However, in today's world of social media, these ads are now tailored specifically to each individual based on their past behavior and preferences, using algorithms to draw them in and keep them engaged. This has raised concerns about the impact on democracy, as different versions of the same advertisement can be seen by different users. Personalized ads were widely used in the Brexit referendum and 2016 US presidential campaign, and while it's hard to say how influential they were on the outcome, there is concern that they are open to abuse. One notable example is the Cambridge Analytica scandal, where the firm accessed information on 50 million American Facebook users to target them with political ads. While Facebook has tightened its rules since then, there are still concerns about transparency and regulation in this digital age.

Round table participants include Zennet Engan, who researches digital ethics at University College London, Danny Meadows-Klue, CEO of a digital strategy consulting firm, Athena Hatzis, associate professor of media and communications at the University of Leicester, and Stacy Walsh, an expert on digital policy at Oxford Information Labs. While personalized ads can be seen as clever marketing, the ethics come into question when transparency and oversight are lacking. The algorithms used to create these ads are proprietary, and machine learning algorithms are not transparent by design. This lack of transparency can lead to issues in regulation and oversight, as was seen in the Brexit campaign where ads were not properly regulated and could be paid for by anyone. The concern is that people may not even realize they are viewing an ad, and may mistake it for unbiased information.

In conclusion, while personalized ads may be effective in persuading individuals, their impact on democracy and the lack of transparency and regulation is a cause for concern. As technology continues to advance, it's important to ensure that laws and regulations keep up with the changing landscape of political advertising.