The 69th Block: Unbubbling
A steady process of coming out of your echo chamber
This week…
For some reason, this thread went viral in Malaysia—at least a couple of doctors I know retweeted it. And the comments under the retweets? “FBI-level investigation.” “Wow, next-level creepy.” At the end of the thread, Brecht Castel summarised his work as open-source intelligence, meaning, his methods use publically available sources. That means virtually anyone can do the same. There are literally free public online courses to walk you through the free public online OSINT tools if you need lessons. I have shared at least one of the courses in this newsletter before.
I was more intrigued that people found these methods “scary” and “creepy,” when they are typical verification processes. And it is commonplace for large organisations such as AFP and Reuters to share how they do their fact-checking and verification too. So it means anyone can do it: Journalists and researchers, yes, but also your stalkers and tyrannical government.
Some of us do it as a hobby.
It is a reminder that I am in my own filter bubble.
Anyway, I’m doing little things out of the ordinary now to come out of my echo chamber. Like listening to true crime podcasts and reading fiction (not just because I’m back to school doing high school English). Next week, I think I will even start doing cardio. Just trying to be the typical “42-year-old Ontario woman who votes Liberal” (Bruce Anderson, Maclean’s). But you won’t stop me from live-tweeting the federal debates again.
Should doxxing be illegal?
It’s more complicated than you think, writes Emma Betuel for The Markup:
Journalists regularly publish private information, like addresses or names. Voters might share a politician’s email address on Twitter. Both of these actions include sharing someone’s identity or contact information—sometimes against that person’s wishes. But they’re also tools to hold the powerful accountable, and concerns have been raised that doxing laws may be used to prevent or prosecute protected First Amendment activities.
All the most popular posts on Facebook are plagiarised
Casey Newton on The Platformer:
It more or less goes on like this for the rest of the top 20: lots of viral questions stolen from Reddit, Quora, Twitter or other sites, rewarded with huge engagement on Facebook.
Maybe at this point you’re rolling your eyes. So some dumb meme pages stole memes from other dumb meme pages — what’s the big deal? And I’ll allow that the Facebook pages of Texas-based daytime talk shows typically do not observe the zero-tolerance policy on plagiarism that journalists do.
[…]
But this kind of dumb, cheap growth hacking should sound familiar to anyone who paid even passing attention to the 2016 election. Russia’s infamous Internet Research Agency commissioned a troll army to build up big followings on innocuous-seeming Facebook pages using a wide variety of engagement bait, then gradually shifted those pages to begin sharing more divisive political memes.
K-pop fan groups may spread misinformation especially in defence of their favourite idols
Tamar Herman for The South China Morning Post:
The discourse pervasive in K-pop fandom spaces online isn’t so different from that of any community, celebrity-oriented or otherwise. Beyond instances where fans perpetuate narratives to defend or extol their favourite stars, there is also concern over the power of K-pop stars, and the most dedicated superfans supporting them, to shape discourse among their followers.
“Fans’ strong emotional connection to their idols and heroes means they are predisposed to believe them and trust their messages,” cautions Esther Chan, the Asia-Pacific bureau editor of First Draft, a media organisation dedicated to tackling misinformation and disinformation.
What I read, watch and listen to…
I’m (re-)reading Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides for ENG4UL. This book is a different vibe when you read it two decades later.
I’m reading The Spine Collector on Vulture by Reeves Wiedeman with Lila Shapiro, about “a mysterious figure” who has been stealing books before their release for years.
I’m listening to Uncover: The Village.
Chart of the week
Brexit is one now perhaps of the classic misinformation case studies of the decade. I saw this Statista diagram from February 2021 shared on my Twitter timeline this week, perhaps, as a “post-pandemic” wanderlust UK finally reckons with the consequences of their Brexit vote that was finally solidified just before the pandemic hit.
