Amazon, Facebook and Google have lofty goals for their effects on global society. But people around the world are still waiting for the positive results. Here’s what the tech giants could do.
Adding bots into an online discussion can definitely affect the views of real people.
Tatiana Shepeleva/Shutterstock.com
The U.S. is not the only country worried about foreign influence over its elections. Australia is concerned too, and taking steps Americans could learn from.
Do you want to be friends with this person?
Sasun Bughdaryan
Almost every online deception, fraud and scam – even propaganda and misinformation campaigns – begins with a fake social media profile. How do fakers get real people to agree to be friends?
A scene from Doug Engelbart’s groundbreaking 1968 computer demo.
Doug Engelbart Institute
A 90-minute presentation in 1968 showed off the earliest desktop computer system. In the process it introduced the idea that technology could make individuals better – if government funded research.
Civic groups like the Boy Scouts are likely under attack by Russian agents – and likely don’t know it.
Joseph Sohm/Shutterstock.com
Some behaviors might help tell propaganda-spewing trolls apart from regular internet users, but the main protection is for people to think more critically about online information.
Hey Google: How’s your news?
BigTunaOnline/Shutterstock.com
Google News does not differentiate search results according to users’ politics – but it does favor mainstream news sites, which are seen as leaning left, and doesn’t clearly disclose how its algorithms work.
The strengths of social media are also its weaknesses. Facebook must acknowledge that it has transformed from a startup company into a powerful social force.
Three trends suggest people in less developed nations – who are coming online in greater numbers – use and trust the internet very differently those in more developed economies.
People who share potential misinformation on Twitter (in purple) rarely get to see corrections or fact-checking (in orange).
Shao et al.
Information on social media can be misleading because of biases in three places – the brain, society and algorithms. Scholars are developing ways to identify and display the effects of these biases.
Researchers analyze social media data to gain useful insights into modern society and culture. But it’s important to protect users’ privacy. How can both ends meet?
How does searching affect voting?
Blablo101/Shutterstock.com
Social media sites aren’t the only online systems that can secretly influence people’s votes. Search engines can too and may be even more successful – and undetectable.
Policemen posted to prevent a campaign rally in Zanzibar in 2005.
EPA/Stephen Morrison