Who Is Messing with Your Mind

Robby the Robot was one of the good guys. Please see *below.

Just as I was gettin' comfortable with knowing that most of the COVID stuff is social media disinformation and old-fashioned FAKE news/videos, I learn that there's a 50/50 chance that I'm readin' stuff generated by Robby Robot's Greatgrandkids - not even by Mr. Trump's human campaign staff.

Oh, how low can they go? We now know... really, really, deep, deep down, now that the king of Republican character assassins, Karl Rove, has joined the campaign.

Here's he whole story....

"Jevin West, who runs the Center for an Informed Public at the University of Washington, told Vice last month that the “real goal” of COVID-19 disinformation campaigns is “about creating distrust in the overall ecosystem and institutions. It’s not so much about picking a side as it is about creating confusion and doubt and distrust of authority.”

"For a deeper dive in what Carley’s team is doing, check out the video below based on research gathered through early April:"

Bots Are Likely Responsible For Nearly Half Of COVID-19 Tweets, Say Researchers, Mary Papenfuss, huffpost.com, 24 May 2020.

Many of them are promoting fake cures, spreading conspiracy theories and pushing to “re-open America.”

Nearly half of some 200 million tweets about COVID-19 likely came from bots, with many of them plugging false cures, peddling conspiracy theories and clamoring for the U.S. to drop safety measures in order to re-open America, researchers have found.

Ongoing research by computer scientists at Carnegie Mellon University indicates that a significant portion of the social media conversation about COVID-19 is likely automated amplifications of political perspectives and do not represent individual human authors.

The study has reached no conclusion about which interests may be primarily responsible for the bots, but many of the messages are repeating information from Russian and Chinese state media. During the 2016 presidential election, computer operations linked to the Kremlin were found to be responsible for campaign tweets and other messages that further divided the American electorate by amplifying controversy.

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*I remember watching Forbidden Planet, the 1956 science fiction movie at our neighborhood theater, The Ellet, in Akron, Ohio. Robby was one of the good guys in the film. Dr. Morbius created him to be servant. Robby had a dry wit about him and was fantastically smart as well as physically strong. All characteristics I admire. Most importantly, he was programmed against killing or hurting humans – programming modern bots lack. More about Robby.

Dr. Kathleen M. Carley - Social Media and COVID19