Sunday, 24 October 2021

Atkisson: Three easy ways to tell you are being astroturfed. (Deceived by fake opinion)

Sharyl Atkisson is a gem.  I re-watched her 2015 TED talk on astroturfing, the pervasive "grass-roots" fake news machine.   It's found everywhere, in medical ads and surveys and fact-checks and facebook opinions.   Don't be surprised how much is caught in the net!  Three simple rules to tag most of the fakery and propaganda:

1.   Is the language inflammatory and dismissive?  (debunk, kook, conspiracy, nuts, paranoid, myth, crackpot)
2.   Are the people and organisations being attached instead of the facts they raise?
3.   Is the scepticism aimed at the people calling out wrongdoing instead of the wrongdoers?

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