News & Politics
Debunking Election & Social Media Myths | WIRED
Does fake news spread faster than real news? Are voting booths hack-proof? Sinan Aral is the David Austin professor of management at MIT, Director of MIT’s initiative on the digital economy and the author of the book “The Hype Machine,” which you can check out here: ►► Listen to the Get WIRED podcast ►► Also,…
Szilard Szilagyi
October 23, 2020 at 5:17 pm
I R O N I C
lostabyss
October 23, 2020 at 5:21 pm
Wasnt there a case of an internet security firm affecting an election through social media in one of the north eastern states?
M. M. Ali
October 23, 2020 at 6:10 pm
“Cambridge Analytica” has been implicated in manipulating voters in both the US 2016 Election and the Brexit vote. They used fake surveys to gain access to the information of the participants and their contacts.
lostabyss
October 23, 2020 at 8:45 pm
@M. M. Ali i think the group i was referring to may have been called new knowledge. I believe they affecred the roy moore campaign.
ryanlol
October 23, 2020 at 5:22 pm
77th
John Sheppard
October 23, 2020 at 5:24 pm
Fool. Willfully ignorant and blind. You to will pay the price for it
Matthew Magda
October 23, 2020 at 5:28 pm
Because 55% of communication is visual, Bald neoteny requires facial hair.
jorge elchor
October 23, 2020 at 5:28 pm
hi George 🇦🇷✌️
Warren Philips
October 23, 2020 at 5:59 pm
Quid est veritas?
NotgreatBOB!
October 23, 2020 at 6:08 pm
If you want examples of Russian bots on social media, look no further than the comments on this video. Temper tantrums and whataboutisms galore while completely ignoring the point of the video.
Yellow Keyboard
October 24, 2020 at 10:07 pm
Not everything is a Russian bot. For the same reason it’s ridiculous to say nothing is a Russian bot, you cannot simply imply everything is a Russian bot.
There are comments here that sound robotic, of course, but that’s likely due to the mindlessness of our contemporary political discourse.
Check out Matt Taibis book, “Hate Inc” covers a lot of this subject.
M. M. Ali
October 23, 2020 at 6:11 pm
*”Cambridge Analytica”* has been implicated in manipulating voters in both the *2016 US Election* and the *Brexit vote.* They used fake surveys to gain access to the information of the participants and their contacts.
Atzin
October 24, 2020 at 3:54 am
Source?
Tryanii
October 23, 2020 at 6:16 pm
This video is BuIIshit
Marty D
October 23, 2020 at 6:17 pm
Why don’t people just do their own due diligence?! 🤔
joowahn
October 23, 2020 at 8:32 pm
it’s hard to do when due diligence is controlled by region specific google results. Google results changes depending on where you live. And then of course news sites you consume are typically sided with a political party
Charlene C
October 24, 2020 at 3:49 am
@joowahn Not just by region. Two people living in the same house can do the exact same search and get different results.
Matthew Streacker
October 23, 2020 at 6:43 pm
Social Media does sway elections though. It literally turns people towards a certain political mindset.
It has no short term effects, but it does change people long term. People easily get radicalized by far right messaging on facebook. Don’t get it twisted.
mario mario
October 23, 2020 at 6:52 pm
The comments here denying reality proves this guy right.
FullyCharged
October 23, 2020 at 6:53 pm
Says a person living in a delusional state of amusement.
M103Tanker
October 23, 2020 at 6:53 pm
Lmao Russia isn’t interfering any more than Twitter, Facebook, and Google.
DJCTE
October 23, 2020 at 7:02 pm
Not watched this but I’ll make a prediction, they don’t mention Iranian or Chinese interference (in favour of Biden) even though the FBI has confirmed it
Aloïs
October 23, 2020 at 7:18 pm
Source?
DJCTE
October 23, 2020 at 7:26 pm
@Aloïs John Ratcliffe, Director of National Intelligence, he gave a press conference
Aloïs
October 23, 2020 at 7:35 pm
@DJCTE He’s a republican he’s just repeating campaign points, do you have any credible soure?
China Lies
October 24, 2020 at 3:53 am
@Aloïs #Obamagate has proven Democrats always lie.
Rockabilly Housewife
October 24, 2020 at 8:56 pm
You obviously know nothing about Prof. Aral and are too lazy to do even a modicum of googling. I fear the human race is doomed because of people like you. Way to prove his point though!
Reuben
October 23, 2020 at 8:04 pm
Any time you hear ‘debunking’ in a political context, watch out.
WHARZONE
October 23, 2020 at 8:12 pm
What he is saying makes sense but the way he phrased it is so bad especially in the thumbnail.
Jerome Wanliss
October 23, 2020 at 8:30 pm
Ive read research saying how seeking out contrasting information online isn’t as effective, as that information is most likely to be extreme, given the media culture of promoting news thats shocking or emotive. In fact they showed that it entrenches either sides stance more rather than open them up to new ideas (Dr Bail 2018)
Arpit Das
October 25, 2020 at 3:54 am
It’s a clever game.Tickle the reptile brain,and the mammal stays that way
Hybrid Mix
October 23, 2020 at 8:35 pm
Well this has, motivated me to unsubscribe. I mean is this guy being hired by twitter?
PeaBrane
October 23, 2020 at 8:50 pm
Tell that to fb/twitter
UFOs not Religion
October 23, 2020 at 8:50 pm
I’m old enough to remember when Wired was relevant, and about tech… Before tech was evil…. before Wired became another media propoganda rag.
Jeremy Habegger
October 23, 2020 at 10:45 pm
Yang for president. Luckily he’ll be in Biden’s administration to help us tackle one of the most important issues of our time. Taking control back over our data, tackling technology and social media impacts. Debunking deep fakes.
Jason Appleby
October 23, 2020 at 10:57 pm
Of course Russian influence is miniscule compared to the disinformation peddled by the major networks
Vasco Martinez
October 23, 2020 at 11:06 pm
Yhea m8, you’re full of sh@t if you are standing there with a straight face saying that the media doesn’t manipulate elections. If you only do negative coverage for one side and only positive coverage for the other one you are manipulating public opinion to influence who gets elected.
s pharr
October 24, 2020 at 1:49 am
Get off of social media
Problem solved
FoulPet
October 24, 2020 at 5:14 am
Nope,media has no effect.
Tim E.
October 24, 2020 at 8:40 am
We need to do away with these archaic systems like “voting” and political parties. We got to many people clinging to the past and using an alignment and a parties reputation as an excuse and an agenda instead of being original and tackling the present and the future.
albert gnat
October 24, 2020 at 9:55 am
What a liar. Professor liar.
Rockabilly Housewife
October 24, 2020 at 8:58 pm
Read the book and try to understand the research being done by MIT and Harvard before saying that, genius. 🙄
Johnny Shanksalot
October 24, 2020 at 2:12 pm
Bubbletalk. The Russian state or it’s citizens engaging in speech or journalism isn’t interference. Hillary had a problematic history, pointing that out is not a nefarious act. The level of elitist hypocrisy… The fraud fears have to do with the NEW voting by mail where the requirement for requesting the ballot is gone and the protections are weak to nonexistent. Plenty of videos showing open ballot fraud THIS time.
Conservative Chris
October 24, 2020 at 4:33 pm
Please Watch “The Plot Against The President” To See What Our Government Has Been Up To. – Free On Amazon Prime
nekeke
October 24, 2020 at 6:00 pm
Please, send AOC, Warren, Kamala, creepy Joe, Omar and Bernie to Venezuela, Cuba, or N. Korea. One way ticket.
North Korea vs South Korea at night:
unice5656
October 25, 2020 at 12:11 am
You should really label the facts as facts rather than putting “myth” before every statement.
ayissatsana aaa
October 25, 2020 at 8:43 am
Woaaaaah, the investigation into russian interference had barely any evidence to back its claims and operated mostly on probabilities. To boldly say that ‘the number one culprit in spreading misinformation in the 2016 election was Russia’ absolutely cheapens your journalistic integrity, gross
Sock TV
October 25, 2020 at 9:04 am
actually this video was already debunked
mathwithjanine
October 25, 2020 at 9:14 pm
This is so interesting! It is insane that social media has such a profound impact on society.
TROXXOS
October 25, 2020 at 11:23 pm
Cinnamonroll
Rudolph Timbre
October 26, 2020 at 12:13 am
Bathroom
Mary Mckenna
October 26, 2020 at 2:58 am
MIT professor Sinan Aral may have read a lot of books, but I have been in marketing for over 38 years and I can tell you he is completely wrong. Social media can be used as a weapon against peoples minds and their actions.
Abel salinas
October 26, 2020 at 3:57 pm
Jaystation’s dad
Mary Rose Kent
October 26, 2020 at 5:12 pm
This makes me glad that YouTube is as close as I get to social media.
Sanity Sold Separately
October 26, 2020 at 7:20 pm
This applies on YouTube as much as anywhere else. Maybe more if you’re interacting with political information here.
Mary Rose Kent
October 27, 2020 at 1:03 am
@Sanity Sold Separately
I mostly watch science channels.
jialiang lu
October 26, 2020 at 10:56 pm
Journalists are one of the biggest source of fake news
Onkel Pappkov
October 26, 2020 at 11:59 pm
Your statistics must be correct because why would anyone lie on the internet?
Bernie Lomax
October 26, 2020 at 11:58 pm
Wether or not the mainstream media reports on a story and How they present their narrative has much more profound effects on political psychology than comments and tweets spread on social media. Obviously
F. Michael Bremer-Cruz
October 27, 2020 at 12:20 am
This was quite a thoughtful overview of this complex topic and I appreciated hearing Professor Aral’s take on it. It will be quite interesting to see what Humanity does with the power of Social Media and the Internet more generally in future.
The Hd Tv
October 27, 2020 at 9:51 am
Ahh yes mark Zuckerberg the Russian spy
The Hd Tv
October 27, 2020 at 9:54 am
This is actually so f.ing dumb
The Hd Tv
October 27, 2020 at 9:55 am
Ahh yes Russia sends memes to put in a president
The Hd Tv
October 27, 2020 at 9:56 am
How about you keep your propaganda
Jesse Gartung
October 27, 2020 at 7:42 pm
Here’s something to debunk as well
Matt S.
October 28, 2020 at 4:39 am
The nice thing about being a russian citizen is that they get to vote in American elections.
I guess it makes up for not being able to vote in their own, but hey, you take what you can get.
Ayse Deniz
October 28, 2020 at 6:52 am
Great insights Sinan Aral! This was quite like an information pill that can quickly be swallowed to be inspired. We really need to break our “bubbles” 9:23
John Johnson
October 28, 2020 at 8:22 am
DEBOOOOONKED
Mr. Trou de cul PHD
October 29, 2020 at 7:37 pm
“Debunked” let me laugh even harder
麦子一百公斤
October 29, 2020 at 9:43 pm
LOL Russia？？？how you think about china？