If the late author George Orwell was correct that political language is “designed to make lies sound truthful” and “give an appearance of solidity to pure wind,” then surely social media was made to fan those lies far and wide. That’s much easier to do when bots artificially amplify disinformation. Automated accounts on Twitter do so in a variety of ways. One is by heavily promoting a lie immediately after it’s published, tricking real people into trusting and sharing it. Doing so is against Twitter’s rules on platform manipulation. But that’s apparently what happened this month when a Twitter account with relatively few followers posted a conspiracy theory falsely linking Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke to the Midland-Odessa mass shooter — and then swiftly received thousands of retweets. The original tweet was posted a day after the massacre to the account of Sue Moore, purportedly a 72-year-old retiree … [Read more...] about Tech giants should delete disinformation
Opinion
Restore funds for Camp Bullis dining hall
Plans for a new dining hall at Camp Bullis are indefinitely on hold now that funds have been siphoned away to build part of President Donald Trump’s border wall. It’s the same story with a middle school at Fort Campbell, an Army post on the Kentucky-Tennessee border. The border wall has stalled an ambulatory care center in North Carolina and a planned fire station in South Carolina. Hurricane recovery projects in Puerto Rico and Guam are also on hold. These are just some of the 127 construction projects that have been suspended as the Pentagon shifts $3.6 billion to the wall. The funds should cover 11 sections of the wall, spanning 115 miles along the U.S.-Mexico border. The dining hall drama is a reflection of misplaced priorities. But whatever your feelings about the wall and Trump’s declaration of an emergency to divert these funds, a new dining hall at Camp Bullis is overdue. Troops have eaten there since 1931, and as Express-News reporter Sig Christenson … [Read more...] about Restore funds for Camp Bullis dining hall
As Trump dials up the hate, a new poll shows he’s in trouble
Greg Sargent, The Washington Post Published 6:54 am PDT, Tuesday, September 10, 2019 President Trump arrives to speak at a campaign rally on Aug. 15, 2019, in Manchester, N.H. President Trump arrives to speak at a campaign rally on Aug. 15, 2019, in Manchester, N.H. Photo: Washington Post Photo By Jabin Botsford. Photo: Washington Post Photo By Jabin Botsford. Image 1 of / 4 Caption Close Image 1 of 4 President Trump arrives to speak at a campaign rally on Aug. 15, 2019, in Manchester, N.H. President Trump arrives to speak at a campaign rally on Aug. 15, 2019, in Manchester, N.H. Photo: Washington Post Photo By Jabin Botsford. As Trump dials up the hate, a new poll shows he's in trouble 1 / 4 … [Read more...] about As Trump dials up the hate, a new poll shows he’s in trouble
Letters to the Editor: Find middle ground on guns
Opinion San Francisco Chronicle Published 1:00 am PDT, Monday, September 9, 2019 A sign opposes assault weapons near a voter registration table at a protest against President Trump’s visit last month to El Paso, Texas, site of a mass shooting. A sign opposes assault weapons near a voter registration table at a protest against President Trump’s visit last month to El Paso, Texas, site of a mass shooting. Photo: Mario Tama / Getty Images Photo: Mario Tama / Getty Images Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Image 1 of 1 A sign opposes assault weapons near a voter registration table at a protest against President Trump’s visit last month to El Paso, Texas, site of a mass shooting. A sign opposes assault weapons near a voter registration table at a protest against … [Read more...] about Letters to the Editor: Find middle ground on guns
Newsletter: Save us from measles and rent hikes, Gov. Newsom
Good morning. I’m Paul Thornton, and it is Saturday, Sept. 7, 2019. The stars are aligned for the Dodgers to clinch another division championship against the Giants (how sweet that is). Let’s take a look back at the week in Opinion.You can’t fault Gavin Newsom for not giving himself anything to do, although you might be able to ding him for procrastination. The first-year governor has been busy lately, and by “busy” and “lately,” I mean having to make several decisions in the next week on issues fundamental to the quality of life in California.First, the good: Last week, Newsom delivered a sharp rebuke to local governments in Southern California that prefer to slow-walk their responses to the state’s housing and homelessness crisis. He won praise from the L.A. Times Editorial Board for telling them to plan for the construction of 1.3 million additional homes in the next decade, about three times what they had proposed. And he finally … [Read more...] about Newsletter: Save us from measles and rent hikes, Gov. Newsom