Facebook boosted US election turnout via psychology experiment, company reveals
RT USA
Published time: November 04, 2014 05:54
Edited time: November 04, 2014 07:36
Reuters/Dado Ruvic
Facebook manipulated the news feeds of almost 2 million American users during the 2012 presidential election without telling them. The manipulation led to a 3 percent increase in voter turnout, according to the company’s own data scientist.
In a stunning revelation, the three months prior to Election Day in 2012 saw Facebook “tweak” the feeds of 1.9 million Americans by sharing their friends’ hard news posts rather than the usual personal posts. The effect was felt most by occasional Facebook users who reported in a survey they paid more attention to the government because of their friends’ hard news feeds. Facebook didn’t tell users about this psychology experiment, but it boosted voter turnout by 3 percent.
The experiment was first shared with the public in two talks given by Facebook’s data scientist, Lada Adamic, in the fall of 2012, and more details were disclosed recently by Mother Jones. In those talks, Adamic said a colleague at Facebook, Solomon Messing, “tweaked” the feeds. Afterwards, Messing surveyed the group and found that voter turnout and political engagement grew from a self-reported 64 percent to more than 67 percent.
FBI pretended to be Seattle newspaper in order to hack suspect’s computer
End the Lie
Oct 28, 2014
Screenshot from http://seattletimes.com
The editor of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Seattle Times newspaper says she’s “outraged” to learn only this week that the FBI made a mock-up of the publication’s website in 2007 in order to spread spyware onto the computer of a suspect.
When agents with the Seattle division of the FBI swarmed the home of a 15-year-old high school student that year and charged him with making bomb threats, media reports noted that the arrest was made possible with the use of a so-called “Computer & Internet Protocol Address Verifier” program, or CIPAV, that had been remotely installed on the individual’s machine to collect and then communicate to the authorities the user-specific information that eventually identified the suspect. The student later pleaded guilty to emailing repeated bomb threats to Timberline High School and was sentenced to 90 days in juvenile detention.
Until this week, how the FBI actually went about sneaking the CIPAV program onto the student’s computer was a matter that went unreported. After digging through a trove of emails previously obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, however, American Civil Liberties Union technologist Chris Soghoian stumbled upon details this week showing that authorities accomplished the installation by sending a malicious link disguised as a Seattle Times news article to a social media account used by their suspect.
AUDIO — Antony Sutton – 1976 Lecture (Full Length)
ConspiracyScope
Jul 1, 2011
A rare 1976 lecture from Professor Antony C. Sutton.
http://conspiracyscope.blogspot.com/
[hat tip: Alex Hunter]
A ‘No Social Media List’ For Extremists And Potential Terrorists?
by Michael Snyder
End Of The American Dream
Sept 30, 2014
You have heard of the “No Fly List”, right? Well, now the Tories are pledging that if they win the next election in the UK they will establish a list of “extremists” that will have to have their social media posts “approved in advance by the police” before they post them. There are also plans to ban “extremists” from broadcasting and speaking at public events. The stated goal of these proposals is to crack down on terrorism, but in the process the civil liberties of the British people are going to be flushed down the toilet. And the American people need to pay close attention to what is going on in the UK, because whatever police state measures are implemented over there usually also get implemented over here eventually. For those that believe that we need to do “whatever it takes” to fight terrorism, there is a very important question that you need to ask yourself. What if the government decides that you are an “extremist” because of what you believe? What will you do then?
When I saw a report in the Telegraph today entitled “Extremists to have Facebook and Twitter vetted by anti-terror police“, I could hardly believe it.
Do the British people actually want a “no social media list” that will essentially ban people from using Facebook and Twitter even though they haven’t actually been convicted of doing anything wrong?
The following is a brief excerpt from that article…
Extremists will have to get posts on Facebook and Twitter approved in advance by the police under sweeping rules planned by the Conservatives.
They will also be barred from speaking at public events if they represent a threat to “the functioning of democracy”, under the new Extremist Disruption Orders.
Theresa May, the Home Secretary, will lay out plans to allow judges to ban people from broadcasting or protesting in certain places, as well as associating with specific people.
The plans — to be brought in if the Conservatives win the election in May — are part of a wide-ranging set of rules to strengthen the Government’s counter-terrorism strategy.
This sounds like an Orwellian nightmare for the British people.
And who is an “extremist” anyway?
We are being told that those that belong to ISIS are extremists, and nobody would argue that.
But the article in the Telegraph makes it sound like any group “that spreads or promotes hatred” would be considered extremist. And under these new proposals, even belonging to such a group could get you thrown into prison for up to 10 years…
The Home Secretary will also introduce “banning orders” for extremist groups, which would make it a criminal offence to be a member of or raise funds for a group that spreads or promotes hatred. The maximum sentence could be up to 10 years in prison.
So what does all of that exactly mean?
Would anti-abortion groups be considered “extremist”?
Would groups promoting traditional values be considered “extremist”?
Would groups protesting against the abuses of the British government be considered “extremist”?
Would Christian churches ultimately be considered “extremist” because they don’t agree with the radical liberal agenda of the central government?
Essentially what the Tories propose to do is to tightly regulate all speech. And there is no way to do that without turning the entire United Kingdom into a totalitarian hellhole.
Meanwhile, the United States continues to march down a similar road.
Pentagon spending hits five-year high amid anti-ISIS campaign
End the Lie
Oct 30, 2014
AFP Photo/US AIR FORCE/Staff Sgt. Shawn
The rate at which the United States economy grew last quarter has surpassed the expectations of experts, and a surge in military spending is said to be the culprit.
On Thursday, the US Commerce Department announced that the country’s gross domestic product, or GDP, grew at a 3.5 percent annual rate for the third quarter of 2014, well beyond Bloomberg’s forecasted pace of only 3.0 percent.
The reason for the better-than-expected results, early reports indicate, is a spike in defense spending during Q3. The Pentagon saw its spending during the last quarter go up by 16 percent, signaling a five-year high not seen since the US was involved in wars in both Afghanistan and Iraq. So significant was defense spending during the last quarter, in fact, that the 16 percent growth seen in that sector is said to have helped the economy overcome below-expectation consumer spending rates recorded during that same span.
“This is the strongest six-month interval we’ve had in 10 years,” Carl Tannenbaum, chief economist at the Northern Trust Company, told the New York Times on Thursday,.
“Consumers were a little less active than we might have thought,”Tannenbaum said, adding, “the things that drove us were not the usual suspects,” referring to the defense sector bump.
“The bottom line: third quarter growth was stronger than expected, but the composition of the growth wasn’t what we were be hoping for,” CNBC “On-Air Stocks” editor Bob Pisani wrote this week.
VIDEO — Shooting at North Carolina Courthouse Prompts Lockdown!
THE FINANCIAL ARMAGEDDON BLOG
Oct 28, 2014
Shooting at Nash County Courthouse, 2 People Down, Lockdown For Searching Suspect
BREAKING: Two shot at Nash County courthouse
NASHVILLE, NC (WTVD) — The North Carolina Highway Patrol and Nash County authorities are on the scene after two people were shot Tuesday morning at the Nash County courthouse in Nashville.
Pictures from Chopper 11 showed crime tape up around the entrance to the courthouse and yellow bullet shell casing markers.
Sheriff Dick Jenkins said deputies are searching for a single suspect. A North Carolina Highway Patrol helicopter was being used to assist in the search in a wooded area. Dogs were also being used.
Two people were shot on the front steps of the Nash County Courthouse Tuesday.
At this time, the main entrances to the Nash County Administration buildings are locked, therefore no one is being allowed to leave or enter the office buildings.
There was no immediate word on how badly the two people shot are hurt. The sheriff did not immediately have a description of the suspect to give out.
Two dead from high school shooting in Washington state
RT
Oct 24, 2014
Screenshot from AP video
Two students at a Washington state high school are reportedly dead after one of them opened fire early Friday.
Emergency calls were made late Friday morning local time at around 10:45 a.m. by individuals reporting a suspected shooting at Marysville-Pilchuck High School.
Around 75 minutes later, Marysville Police Commander Robert Lamoureux told reporters: “We are confirming that there is one deceased, and that is the shooter.”
The shooter has since been identified as Jaylen Fryberg, a ninth-grader at the school. According to The Seattle Times, another student said Fryberg was angry at a girl who wouldn’t date him.
CNN and CBS have since reported that at least two people have died, including the suspected shooter. Dr. Joanne Roberts, the chief medical officer at Providence Hospital, told King 5 News that three students were at the facility in critical condition following the shooting.
According to preliminary, unconfirmed reports, as many as six people were shot at the school by a gunman equipped with a handgun.
PN 