Category Archives: Capitol insurrection

Misinformation flooded Parler around Capitol insurrection, research finds

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The overwhelming majority of news links shared on Parler in the days surrounding the Capitol insurrection last month were filled with misinformation, according to an analysis by NewsGuard and PeakMetrics. In all, 87% of news links shared on Parler around the Jan. 6 riots contained misinformation, the analysis published Wednesday concluded.  One of the most popular sites shared across the social networking platform was a site that appeared to be an American news outlet, called American Conservatives Today, but which actually was run from North Macedonia and plagiarized stories from The Gateway Pundit. The site, which was created in December of last year, spread lies that the voting equipment maker Dominion Voting Systems was switching votes from then-President Donald Trump to then-candidate Joe Biden. Other popular misinformation-based sites that spread falsehoods on Parler included a video website linked with Alex Jones, InfoWars.com’s founder, which spread lies that Biden was interested […]

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Pro-China influence campaign claiming ‘hypocrisy’ of American democracy gains traction

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A clumsy social media influence operation that aligns itself with Chinese government interests has started gaining traction online, according to Graphika research published Thursday. Social media activity associated with the campaign, known as Spamouflage Dragon, has typically failed to attract many eyeballs. Some recent tweets, though, have attracted attention from Chinese diplomats, prominent politicians in Venezuela and Pakistan, a senior figure at Huawei Europe and a commentator in the U.K. The campaign’s YouTube following has grown as well in recent months, according to the social media analysis firm Graphika. Spamouflage Dragon, a cross-platform social media influence campaign, has been working for years to spread pro-Chinese government propaganda online, is one of many influence operations that seizes on news of the day to peddle its narratives. While it appears to have significant resourcing, it has largely failed to gain amplification due to its overtly spammy behavior and rudimentary execution. Many of […]

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