Facebook has announced plans to begin prioritising publishers based on how much users trust them.

In a post on his site, Mark Zuckerberg detailed how Facebook will now ask its users whether they’re familiar with a news source and, if so, whether they trust that source. The results of these surveys will determine how widely posts from a particular publisher appear in news feeds.

The changes, which follow on from last Friday’s announcement that publishers will be deprioritised in the news feed, will go into effect from next week for US users, with an international rollout expected to follow suit.

“I’ve asked our product teams to make sure we prioritize news that is trustworthy, informative, and local,” wrote Zuckerberg.

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According to the post, Facebook struggled with how to decide the “trustworthiness” of publishers in an objective way.

“The hard question we’ve struggled with is how to decide what news sources are broadly trusted in a world with so much division. We could try to make that decision ourselves, but that’s not something we’re comfortable with.

“We considered asking outside experts, which would take the decision out of our hands but would likely not solve the objectivity problem.”

The team ultimately came to the conclusion that “having the community determine which sources are broadly trusted would be most objective.”

The changes are part of Facebook’s wider mission to prioritise posts from friends and family in its news feed.

Last week, Zuckerberg announced news posts would now take up four percent of the news feed, down from five percent.

Last week’s news was met with cautious concern from publishers, while others hailed the move as a chance for brands and publishers to sharpen their act.</s>The company said that since briefing Congress in November, it's identified an additional 13,512 Russian-linked bot accounts that tweeted around the election, bringing the total to 50,258. | REUTERS Twitter: More than 677,000 U.S. users engaged with Russian troll accounts

Twitter said Friday it's notifying 677,775 people in the U.S. who either followed, retweeted or liked a tweet from accounts of the Kremlin-linked troll farm known as the Internet Research Agency during the 2016 election period.

The company also said that since briefing Congress in November, it's identified an additional 13,512 Russian-linked bot accounts that tweeted around the election, bringing the total to 50,258.

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"Any such activity represents a challenge to democratic societies everywhere, and we're committed to working on this important issue," Twitter wrote in a blog post. The company said it will share the account handles with congressional investigators looking at Russian interference in the election.

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Twitter offered several examples of Internet Research Agency content, including tweets with pro-Donald Trump images and slogans.

An example of an Internet Research Agency tweet. | Twitter

Friday's disclosure — 14 months after the 2016 election — is the latest sign that social media companies are still coming to grips with the extent of Russian activity on their platforms during the campaign.

Intelligence experts, congressional investigators and others have concluded that Russian elements exploited Twitter and Facebook to distribute propaganda and misinformation during the 2016 campaign — much of it focused on damaging the candidacy of Hillary Clinton.

Twitter on Friday also laid out its plans for the 2018 midterm elections, including verifying major party candidates, communicating with federal and state election officials, applying anti-spam technology against "networks of malicious automation targeting election-related matters," and monitoring trends and spikes in conversation for "potential manipulation activity."

Facebook unveiled a portal last month to allow users to learn of any Facebook or Instagram contact they may have had with Russian internet trolls between January 2015 and August 2017. Facebook has said that Russian-linked posts were viewed by up to 126 million people during that period.

This article tagged under: Twitter

Russia

Elections</s>SAN FRANCISCO: Twitter on Friday said the number of Russia-linked accounts firing off tweets evidently aimed at the US election in 2016 was more widespread than initially determined.

The social media company found, and shuttered, an additional 1,062 accounts associated with the Internet Research Agency, considered a “troll farm” connected to the Russian government, Twitter said in an update posted online.

Along with Google and Facebook, Twitter has been criticized for allowing the spread of bogus news — some of which was directed by Russia — ahead of the 2016 US election and in other countries.

Twitter also said it is emailing notifications to almost 670,000 people in the US who followed, retweeted, or “liked” posts from any of those suspect accounts during the election period.

“Any such activity represents a challenge to democratic societies everywhere, and we’re committed to continuing to work on this important issue,” Twitter said in the update.

For the 10-week time span investigated prior to the November, 2016 election, Twitter identified a total of 3,814 Internet Research Agency-linked accounts, according to the San Francisco-based company.

Those accounts posted 175,993 tweets, approximately 8.4 percent of which were election related, Twitter said.

The analysis at Twitter also found an additional 13,512 automated accounts identified as “Russia-linked” and tweeting election-related content during that period, bringing the total to 50,258 accounts.

Twitter said it is sharing information about the accounts with Congress, where testimony late last year by Twitter, Facebook and Google revealed startling new data showing many more millions of Americans were exposed to the fake news than previously thought.

The companies said they were taking necessary steps to rid their platforms of disinformation, propaganda and provocation.

US legislators have been investigating whether President Donald Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia in its bid to influence the 2016 US elections. AFP</s>On Friday night, Twitter began emailing U.S. users notifying them that they have followed, liked or retweeted tweets from Russian government-linked accounts.

The email alert came as the company revealed more information about their internal investigation regarding Russia’s role on Twitter during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Back in November 2017, Twitter revealed it had discovered Twitter has 2,752 accounts tied to the Russian troll farm. In Friday’s public update, the company said it found 1,062 additional accounts associated with the Russian government-linked Internet Research Agency (IRA).

“We have suspended all of these accounts for Terms of Service violations, primarily spam, and all but a few accounts, which were restored to legitimate users, remain suspended,” Twitter said in a post. “At the request of congressional investigators, we are also sharing those account handles with Congress. In total, during the time period we investigated, the 3,814 identified IRA-linked accounts posted 175,993 Tweets, approximately 8.4% of which were election-related.”

Twitter provided examples of IRA content that circulated on the platform. The social media company tried to downplay Twitter users’ engagement with the Russian accounts saying: “Most user engagement was with a very small number of IRA-associated accounts.”

Twitter also handed over information to Congress on automated, election-related activity coming from Russia during the 2016 campaign. The platform said it found an additional 13,512 additional accounts. The newly discovered accounts brings the total number of Russian bots to 50,258.

The social media platform said 677,775 U.S. users followed, retweeted or liked a tweet from accounts associated with the IRA during the election period. Twitter notified users about their activity on Friday in an email.

“Consistent with our commitment to transparency, we are emailing you because we have reason to believe that you either followed one of these accounts or retweeted or liked content from these accounts during the election period. This is purely for your own information purposes, and is not related to a security concern for your account. We are sharing this information so that you can learn more about these accounts and the nature of the Russian propaganda effort. You can see examples of content from these suspended accounts on our blog if you're interested.”

The email and information on additional Russian-linked accounts come after Twitter last week failed to meet the deadline Congress gave the company to turn over information on Russia’s use of the platform in the 2016 election.</s>Twitter Inc. said it found another 1,062 accounts linked to the Russian government-backed Internet Research Agency accused of trying to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

The social media company said it’s emailing notifications to 677,775 people in the United States who followed one of these accounts or retweeted or liked a tweet from these accounts during the election period. The new IRA accounts are in addition to 2,752 accounts Twitter found and disclosed last year.

All those IRA-related accounts have been suspended, and the company is sharing information about them with congressional investigators who are reviewing potential manipulation in the 2016 election. During the time period Twitter investigated, the 3,814 identified IRA-linked accounts posted 175,993 tweets, about 8.4% of which were related to the election, Twitter said in a blog post.

“After the 2016 election, we launched our Information Quality initiative to further develop strategies to detect and prevent bad actors from abusing our platform,” the San Francisco company said in the post. “We have since made significant improvements, while recognizing that we have more to do as these patterns of activity develop and shift over time.”

Last year, when Twitter first disclosed the IRA-related accounts, it also revealed that more than 36,000 Russian-linked accounts generated about 1.4 million automated, election-related tweets. On Friday, it said it found 13,512 additional such bots, for a total of more than 50,000.

Lawmakers have sharply criticized social media companies for taking too long to recognize the seriousness of the Russian attempts to sow discord among U.S. voters. Twitter said that in preparation for the 2018 midterm elections it would verify major party candidates for all statewide and federal offices, with open “lines of communication” to federal and state officials. The company has also banned Russian state media accounts from buying ads and is creating a “transparency center” to show how much political campaigns spend on advertising, the identity of the organization funding the campaign, and what demographics the ads targeted.

Twitter’s announcement Friday came after Facebook Inc. said it would show people which Russian propaganda pages or accounts they had followed or liked on its social network.</s>All the IRA-related accounts have been suspended and the company is sharing information about them with congressional investigators who are reviewing potential manipulation in the 2016 election. During the time period Twitter investigated, the 3,814 identified IRA-linked accounts posted 175,993 Tweets, about 8.4 per cent of which were election-related.

The social media company said it’s emailing notifications to 677,775 people in the U.S. who followed one of these accounts or retweeted or liked a tweet from these accounts during the election period, according to a blog post Friday. That’s almost 1 per cent of Twitter’s 69 million monthly active users in the U.S. The new IRA accounts are in addition to 2,752 accounts Twitter found and disclosed last year.

Twitter Inc. said it found another 1,062 accounts linked to the Russian government-backed Internet Research Agency accused of trying to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Facebook, Twitter defend their security measures as more signs of Russian election activity emerge

Russian ‘trolls’ spread propaganda on Instagram as platform flies under the radar

“After the 2016 election, we launched our Information Quality initiative to further develop strategies to detect and prevent bad actors from abusing our platform,” the company said in the post. “We have since made significant improvements, while recognizing that we have more to do as these patterns of activity develop and shift over time.”

Twitter also said its second assessment found another 13,512 Russian-linked automated accounts, for a total of 50,258, that tweeted election-related content during the 10 weeks before the 2016 election. Last year, when Twitter first disclosed the existence of these accounts, the company said the bots were responsible for about 1.4 million automated, election-related tweets.

Lawmakers have sharply criticized the social media companies for taking too long to recognize the seriousness of the Russian attempts to sow discord among U.S. voters. Twitter said that in preparation for the 2018 midterm elections it would verify major party candidates for all statewide and federal offices, with open “lines of communication” to federal and state officials. The company has also banned Russian state media accounts from buying ads and is creating a “transparency centre” to show how much political campaigns spend on advertising, the identity of the organization funding the campaign, and what demographics the ads targeted.

Twitter’s announcement Friday comes after Facebook Inc. said it would show people which Russian propaganda pages or accounts they had followed and liked on the social network.</s>San Francisco, United States | AFP | Twitter on Friday said the number of Russia-linked accounts firing off tweets evidently aimed at the US election in 2016 was more widespread than initially determined.

The social media company found, and shuttered, an additional 1,062 accounts associated with the Internet Research Agency, considered a “troll farm” connected to the Russian government, Twitter said in an update posted online.

Along with Google and Facebook, Twitter has been criticized for allowing the spread of bogus news — some of which was directed by Russia — ahead of the 2016 US election and in other countries.

Twitter also said it is emailing notifications to almost 670,000 people in the US who followed, retweeted, or “liked” posts from any of those suspect accounts during the election period.

“Any such activity represents a challenge to democratic societies everywhere, and we’re committed to continuing to work on this important issue,” Twitter said in the update.

For the 10-week time span investigated prior to the November, 2016 election, Twitter identified a total of 3,814 Internet Research Agency-linked accounts, according to the San Francisco-based company.

Those accounts posted 175,993 tweets, approximately 8.4 percent of which were election related, Twitter said.

The analysis at Twitter also found an additional 13,512 automated accounts identified as “Russia-linked” and tweeting election-related content during that period, bringing the total to 50,258 accounts.

Twitter said it is sharing information about the accounts with Congress, where testimony late last year by Twitter, Facebook and Google revealed startling new data showing many more millions of Americans were exposed to the fake news than previously thought.

The companies said they were taking necessary steps to rid their platforms of disinformation, propaganda and provocation.

US legislators have been investigating whether President Donald Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia in its bid to influence the 2016 US elections.

The post Twitter says Russia-linked accounts more widespread appeared first on The Independent Uganda:.

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This post was syndicated from The Independent Uganda:. Click here to read the full text on the original website.</s>Twitter announced Friday that it has suspended more than 1,000 new accounts linked to Russian-controlled accounts which shared information meant to interfere with the 2016 presidential election.

In a post on its blog, the social media platform said it had suspended 1,062 new accounts linked to “a number of accounts that were potentially connected to a propaganda effort by a Russian government-linked organization known as the Internet Research Agency.”

In addition to them being taken down, Twitter also said it will send email notifications to 677,775 people in the U.S. that interacted with any of these accounts either by following, retweeting or liking a post during the campaign.

Twitter also found 13,512 Russian-related accounts that tweeted out 50,258 posts during the election period.

The blog post shared some examples of the tweets that may have found their way into some users' feeds during that time.

One tweet read, “Cops have killed 68 people in 22 days since #Kaepernick started protesting. 68 in 22 days… have no words #KeithLamontScott.”

Another featured a picture of former FBI Director James Comey with the words “Resign Now” and the caption “RT if you also think that FBI Director James Comey should be impeached for blocking the investigation & abetting a criminal.”

The findings come just a week after Twitter representatives testified before the Senate Commerce Committee, where they were grilled over Russia’s and other extremists’ use of the platform.</s>Twitter announced that more Russia-backed troll accounts were active during the 2016 US presidential election than previously thought.

The social network also announced that it plans to notify some 677,775 users who either followed, retweeted or liked a tweet from the more than 50,000 Russia-backed Twitter accounts during the 2016 election cycle.

Twitter has been conducting an ongoing investigation into its own role in the spread of extremist content and "fake news" during the 2016 election.

The investigation unearthed an additional 1,062 accounts associated with the Internet Research Agency (IRA), and 13,512 more Russia-based bots than were previously found. The company now believes a total of 3,814 accounts were associated with the IRA, and 50,258 accounts were automated bots linked to Russia.

Going forward, Twitter says it plans to clamp down on usage of the Twitter API, which enables users to perform coordinated actions across multiple accounts in services like Tweetdeck. Twitter will limit the coordination abilities of the API, revamp its developer onboarding process with a focus on policy enforcement, and enforce rules on the appropriate use of bots and automation.

Twitter also plans to bolster investments in machine-learning technology that will help the company "detect and mitigate the effect on users of fake, coordinated, and automated account activity."

Despite the rise in Russia-backed accounts, Twitter insists the total lot accounts for just "two one-hundredths of a percent (0.016%) of the total accounts on Twitter at the time."

"However any such activity represents a challenge to democratic societies everywhere, and we're committed to continuing to work on this important issue," the company said.

In an effort of transparency, Twitter is sending out email notifications to the more than 600,000 users who interacted with content from any of the of the since-suspended Russia-linked accounts.

In the past few months, technology giants have faced increased pressure from US and UK governments, and others, to work on curbing terrorist and extremist content online.

Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, and YouTube pledged to build a shared database of digital fingerprints of extremist material of content removed from their services in the hope of making it more difficult to share.

In October, Twitter banned media sites Russia Today (RT) and Sputnik from advertising on its platform after determining that both Kremlin-backed news outlets attempted to interfere with and disrupt the 2016 election.

Looking ahead to the 2018 election, Twitter says plans to better coordinate with federal and state election officials to ensure verification of major party candidates. The company also plans to weed out networks of malicious automation via improvements to its anti-spam technology, and will also "monitor trends and spikes in conversations relating to the 2018 elections for potential manipulation activity."

After facing scrutiny for enabling the spread of "fake news," Twitter cracks down on a campaign ad from a Republican congresswoman for its "inflammatory" content."

The role that social media platforms played in the 2016 US presidential election is being looked into as part of a broader investigation into president Donald Trump's alleged collusion with Russia.

Twitter suspends 299,000 accounts linked to terrorism in past six months

The company said 75 percent of the infringing accounts were suspended before their first tweet.</s>Twitter will inform nearly 700,000 people in the U.S. that they either followed a Kremlin-linked troll account, or retweeted or liked a tweet sent by one of the accounts, the social media company said Friday.

The company last year identified thousands of Twitter accounts associated with the Internet Research Agency, a Russian government-linked troll army in St. Petersburg that worked to meddle in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and to promote chaos and division in American society more generally.

"Consistent with our commitment to transparency, we are emailing notifications to 677,775 people in the United States who followed one of these accounts or retweeted or liked a Tweet from these accounts during the election period," Twitter said in a blog post announcing the move.

Twitter initially said it had found 200 accounts linked to the group. Then it told Congress last fall that it had identified 2,752 accounts linked to the group. On Friday, Twitter said it had since identified an additional 1,062 accounts, bringing the total to 3,814. The accounts together sent more than 175,000 tweets, the company said.

Related: The Kremlin-linked troll Twitter can't seem to shake

Twitter said it will hand over the details of the additional accounts to Congress.

The company also said it had also found more than 50,000 Russian-linked automated accounts that tweeted about the presidential election. Networks of automated accounts are often run from the same computer and sometimes post the same link, talking point or hashtag en-masse in an attempt to make it trend on the platform.

Among those getting emails will likely be some current and former members of the Trump administration, as well as a member of the Trump family.

White House counsellor Kellyanne Conway retweeted one of the IRA-linked accounts, @TEN_GOP, which was designed to look like it was run by the Tennessee Republican Party, just days before the 2016 election.

Donald Trump Jr. also followed the @TEN_GOP account, CNN found.

And former National Security Adviser Gen. Michael Flynn, his son Michael Flynn Jr. and former deputy assistant to the president Sebastian Gorka all followed a separate IRA-linked account, a CNN analysis last year found. That account, which used the pseudonym "Jenna Abrams," developed a persona of a conservative American woman, and amassed a following of more than 70,000.

Related: Facebook now lets you check to see if you followed Russian propaganda

A copy of the email sent to one Twitter user after the blog post was published Friday obtained by CNN showed that Twitter informed the user they had interacted with one of the IRA-linked accounts, but did not say which account it was.

In December, Facebook launched a tool in its help section that allows users to see if they followed any Facebook or Instagram accounts run by the Internet Research Agency. Unlike Twitter, Facebook has not announced plans to inform users directly.

Both companies appeared to time these announcements for moments when they would get less attention than they might otherwise. Facebook made its announcement the Friday before Christmas; Twitter published its blog post on a Friday when the news media was focused on a possible government shutdown.

Twitter also said on Friday it was investing in technology to help "detect and mitigate the effect on users of fake, coordinated, and automated account activity."

Its efforts on that front have included some missteps. The fake "Jenna Abrams" persona that was followed by the Flynns and Gorka has twice since re-emerged on the platform using the same name. On both occasions Twitter did not take action against the new accounts until CNN reported their existence.
Twitter announces it is notifying 677,775 people in the U.S. that they had some contact with the Kremlin-linked troll farm, Internet Research Agency, during the 2016 election period. The count of Russian-linked bot accounts is now 50,258, the company having identified an additional 13,512 bot accounts since its November Congressional briefing.