Cyabra’s reading list
Each month, our experts at Cyabra list all the interesting articles, items, essays and stories they’ve read this month. Come back every month for the current misinformation and disinformation news!
Elon Musk commissioned this bot analysis in his fight with Twitter. Now it shows what he could face if he takes over the platform
Bots on Twitter have been central to the dispute over Musk’s initial attempt to get out of the acquisition deal. Less than three months after signing the deal, and waiving due diligence in the process, Musk moved to terminate the agreement, citing claims that Twitter had misstated the number of bots on its platform, despite having previously said that he wanted to buy the company to address its bot problem.
October 10, 2022
CNN.com
Alex Jones: Will a $965m damages demand crush his Infowars empire?
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was handed a major defeat in a Connecticut court this week. But will relatives of the Sandy Hook victims be able to collect the money – and does it mean he’ll stop spreading lies?
October 16, 2022
BBC.com
The Hunt for Wikipedia’s Disinformation Moles
Custodians of the crowdsourced encyclopedia are charged with protecting it from state-sponsored manipulators. A new study reveals how.
October 17, 2022
Wired.com
John Oliver takes on misinformation about gender-affirming care for trans youth
While discussing transgender issues on Last Week Tonight With John Oliver Sunday, Oliver took time to debunk misinformation about gender-affirming care. Misinformation has led to bans or restrictions for such care in a handful of Republican-led states, with many more considering such legislation.
October 17, 2022
Yahoo.com
Violent Threats and Disinformation Have Officials Sounding Alarms Ahead of Midterms
US national security authorities didn’t explicitly name Donald Trump and his allies’ election lies in their readout of possible risks for November, but they made clear that election denialism is a huge concern.
October 3, 2022
Vanityfair.com
Misinformation played a huge role in Brazil’s 2018 election. Will this time be the same?
For months, officials in Brazil and across the international community have watched President Jair Bolsonaro cast doubt on Brazil’s voting systems, growing increasingly worried that the far-right leader was setting the stage to dispute an election loss.
October 2, 2022
NYtimes.com
The Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine doesn’t prevent transmission: Antivax disinformation goes viral again
Last week, antivaxxers were all over social media after Tucker Carlson touted a “revelation” that the phase 3 clinical trial used to support licensure of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine didn’t examine its ability to block transmission as meaning that its inability to block transmission had been “covered up”. It wasn’t, and antivaxxers are ignoring everything we’ve learned over the last two years to make the claim that vaccines “don’t prevent transmission”.
October 17, 2022
Sciencebasedmedicine.org
