+ Reply to Thread
Results 1 to 7 of 7

Thread: Are Forums, Social Media being data-mined and manipulated? If so Why?

  1. Link to Post #1
    Unsubscribed
    Join Date
    23rd June 2013
    Location
    North America
    Age
    72
    Posts
    6,884
    Thanks
    12,723
    Thanked 29,293 times in 6,140 posts

    Lightbulb Are Forums, Social Media being data-mined and manipulated? If so Why?

    Seems that social media creates a fantastic place to share thoughts, or plant ideas, create intense emotion, obviously a place to share that which moves us.

    The militaries around the world have recognized that too.

    And the military mind focuses on to take whatever advantage is possible, to "win".

    Social media is LOW COST but high yield in swaying the minds of people. By moving on emotion.

    Tools called data-mining BOTS (short for data-searching robots), go out on the net, and they gather up key phrases, or words, which people talk about.

    Based on the "weight" (the weight is a mathematical value of posts read, or comments made), the BOT will learn. That is a form of artificial intelligence.

    AI Networks can be created which will then respond with a personality..

    If certain "do not talk about topics" are revealed by the people in social media, it is possible that one may notice, DERAILING will happen, so try to bury the key critical observation - such as "people are being manipulated, programmed, deceived"..

    That is the preamble to the start of this thread - I'll start with an OLD article from 2011 from The Guardian (UK) - https://www.theguardian.com/technolo...ocial-networks

    It starts with US SPY OPERATIONS USING SOCIAL MEDIA NETWORKS.

    It goes beyond spying, the program gets into using social media to plant ideas, to create a belief system where there may be some sense of "plausibility", and to play on people's emotion desires to be HEARD, to have a say, and of course "speak from the heart" (a big one in social programming).

    Quote The US military is developing software that will let it secretly manipulate social media sites by using fake online personas to influence internet conversations and spread pro-American propaganda.

    A Californian corporation has been awarded a contract with United States Central Command (Centcom), which oversees US armed operations in the Middle East and Central Asia, to develop what is described as an "online persona management service" that will allow one US serviceman or woman to control up to 10 separate identities based all over the world.

    The project has been likened by web experts to China's attempts to control and restrict free speech on the internet.

    Critics are likely to complain that it will allow the US military to create a false consensus in online conversations, crowd out unwelcome opinions and smother commentaries or reports that do not correspond with its own objectives.

    The discovery that the US military is developing false online personalities – known to users of social media as "sock puppets" – could also encourage other governments, private companies and non-government organisations to do the same.

  2. Link to Post #2
    United States Avalon Member Mark's Avatar
    Join Date
    11th June 2011
    Location
    San Antonio, Texas
    Age
    56
    Posts
    2,985
    Thanks
    19,530
    Thanked 24,463 times in 2,850 posts

    Default Re: Are Forums, Social Media being data-mined and manipulated? If so Why?

    I'm sure they are. To what ends and under who's orders remains obscure. We know for sure that sites like PA are being mined. The creator of the X-Files admitted to mining the internet - and so-called conspiracy sites in particular - for topics to include in the reboot of the show earlier this year.

  3. The Following 9 Users Say Thank You to Mark For This Post:

    avid (28th May 2016), Bob (25th May 2016), KiwiElf (25th May 2016), muxfolder (29th May 2016), PurpleLama (25th May 2016), quiltinggrandma (26th May 2016), Wind (25th May 2016), Woody (25th May 2016), ZooLife (25th May 2016)

  4. Link to Post #3
    Morocco Unsubscribed
    Join Date
    23rd January 2011
    Location
    Ignoring Your Outrage
    Language
    Discordian
    Posts
    4,888
    Thanks
    29,096
    Thanked 40,082 times in 4,764 posts

    Default Re: Are Forums, Social Media being data-mined and manipulated? If so Why?

    I wonder what Chris Carter's PA handle is.

    ¤=[Post Update]=¤

    More than data mining, I'm sure they watch this place to catalogue persons of interest, those who are aware and would avoid more popular social media outlets.

  5. Link to Post #4
    Avalon Retired Member
    Join Date
    5th January 2015
    Posts
    609
    Thanks
    713
    Thanked 3,297 times in 575 posts

    Default Re: Are Forums, Social Media being data-mined and manipulated? If so Why?

    PurpleLama wrote:

    Quote More than data mining, I'm sure they watch this place to catalogue persons of interest, those who are aware and would avoid more popular social media outlets.
    All that and more. I was detained for 9 days in a hospital (nobody was allowed to visit me, family were told I was in "their care") by the SIS and given an Osman warning as a direct result of something I had started to talk about here, in private, that took place 36 years ago.

    Online IS the real world now, act accordingly.


    Regards.

  6. The Following 9 Users Say Thank You to Citizen No2 For This Post:

    avid (28th May 2016), Bob (25th May 2016), Franny (25th May 2016), PurpleLama (25th May 2016), quiltinggrandma (26th May 2016), sheme (25th May 2016), Ultima Thule (26th May 2016), Woody (25th May 2016), ZooLife (25th May 2016)

  7. Link to Post #5
    Unsubscribed
    Join Date
    23rd June 2013
    Location
    North America
    Age
    72
    Posts
    6,884
    Thanks
    12,723
    Thanked 29,293 times in 6,140 posts

    Default Re: Are Forums, Social Media being data-mined and manipulated? If so Why?

    Data mining - interesting words.. we all have an idea about data, and we have mental image pictures of people with picks and shovels digging for coal, or salt.. 'mining'.. slang term which doesn't help much for a lay person to understand the words..

    What are these data-robots "mining" - technically it is called: The process of extracting useful patterns from raw data is known as Knowledge discovery in databases (KDD).

    hmm.. that didn't help much..

    I understand the concept of patterns.. We start talking about chemtrails, we talk about how bad vaccines are, we talk about Trump, Bill Gates, heck NASA, and then we get emotional about what we are talking about - "We always know NASA LIES" ok, a pattern.. We see long clouds and we feel bad, and we call it "chemtrails".. OK another pattern.

    Let's look at a simple search analysis using Goo-gle: Keyword search - "Chemtrails" - About 5,630,000 results (0.48 seconds) hmm.. in less than 1/2 a second google searched its keyword table and found cross references to that word (databases can be searched very rapidly these days, by organizing data, but this thread isn't about how databases are organized nor their searching)..

    So let's try another word, NASA - About 266,000,000 results (0.79 seconds)

    And another.. BitCoin - About 85,400,000 results (0.47 seconds)

    How about Trump? - About 378,000,000 results (0.66 seconds)

    So a simple data search, for what is google finding people have published references, talked about, mentioned, TRUMP takes the lead, followed by NASA, followed by Chemtrails..

    Let's quickly do the same for Hillary Clinton - About 170,000,000 results (0.72 seconds) - - so.. Trump beats Clinton as far as INTEREST, Talking points.

    If one then takes an in-depth analysis within those "hits" one can start to build up what key buttons (hot points) are being talked about.. Trump could use data-mining and then come up with strategies based on what people want to have happen.

    Datamining "smartness" could be very refined, depending on how the programmers weighted significance.

    Asking people on a forum, for instance TELL ME, what moves you, takes a survey, and the data-miner then finds out for that forum, based on how long it took, based on the data, just what that forum's interest may be in "what moves you"..

    Quote The Knowledge Discovery concept

    KDD process takes raw data as input and provides statistically significant in Databases (KDD) patterns found in the data (i.e., knowledge) as output.

    From the raw data, a subset is selected for processing and is denoted as target data. Target data is preprocessed to make it ready for analysis using data mining algorithm.

    Data mining is then performed on the preprocessed (and transformed) data to extract interesting patterns. The patterns are evaluated to ensure their validity and soundness and interpreted to provide insights into the data.
    Simple example - JACK PARSONS always worked with Hubbard to create automated government systems which used black magic.

    How many times "jack parsons" appeared in social media, and what subject he was talked about can generate "interesting statistics".

    Disinformation campaigns can then be built up on the subjects, with selective SPIN, so that a reader may then assume (connecting dots by assumption), that Jack Parson's is one evil being, and that Hubbard is just as evil, from the tossed in word(s) "black magic", "government"..

    And people can then get lead down a path quite innocently by not catching the manipulation...

    Next post, will talk about DATA-QUALITY (or lack)..
    • NOISE (we certainly have heard about that
    • Outliers - In statistics, an outlier is an observation point that is distant from other observations. An outlier may be due to variability in the measurement or it may indicate experimental error; the latter are sometimes excluded from the data set. Hits (Likes) for Celebrities can be misleading due to the higher command for social attention afforded by a Celebrity..
    • Missing Key Statistical Values (of the poster)
    • Duplicate Posts


    (Source) - from Social Media Mining: An Introduction.
    By Reza Zafarani, Mohammad Ali Abbasi, and Huan Liu.
    Cambridge University Press, 2014. Draft version: April 20, 2014.

  8. Link to Post #6
    Unsubscribed
    Join Date
    23rd June 2013
    Location
    North America
    Age
    72
    Posts
    6,884
    Thanks
    12,723
    Thanked 29,293 times in 6,140 posts

    Default Re: Are Forums, Social Media being data-mined and manipulated? If so Why?

    Noise is the distortion of the data. If there is useful information and something comes along that is not in the same vein, the same channel, attention goes elsewhere trying to make sense of the distraction.

    A distraction then can have a slight measure of truth or a gross misrepresentation.

    We may start talking about "Social Income has dropped by 5% over the last 10 days" and someone may come in and start talking about how their shoes are dirty, and that Trump is always dirty, therefore he must be a kind of man who does that all the time (Elizabeth Warren).. emotional derailing. Noise interjected to the topic of "social income".

    The topic never defined what "social income" could be (poor op).. so one interjecting noise may feel justified about getting their 2 cents in, without even asking about the OP, just what do you mean by that? And a good thread gets derailed.

    But with search algorithms, the concept of NOISE skews and makes it harder for a machine to sort through Noise, or accurate topics to analyze.

    Can NOISE be useful?

    Depends on the context of NOISE once again, how it is used, either beneficially or malevolently.


    From the Radio Advertising Guide (link, one of many).. an audience may WANT distraction to get through the day. Such as turning to music instead of paying attention to "talk show radio" to hear about what is being talked about.

    A search on the keywords: "What is noise in social media" - About 42,800,000 results (0.46 seconds)

    3 generalized categories are presented using Business Dictionary as the reference:
    • Communication: Anything that interferes with, slows down, or reduces the clarity or accuracy of a communication. Thus, superfluous data or words in a message are noise because they detract from its meaning.
    • Quality control: Variability that may be caused by changes in the ambient conditions, faulty machine performance, or uneven quality of the material or human factor inputs.
    • Telecommunications: Random disturbance introduced into a communication signal, caused by circuit components, electromagnetic interference, or weather conditions. Also called line noise.

    So in point 1, above, for instance, arbitrarily asking a question in general about any thread, anywhere (forums, blogs, twitter, facebook) did the OP (opening post) clearly define what is the subject to be discussed, commented on, shared or explored? Clarity helps obviously then so that folks don't inadvertently "derail". There are "hit and run" derailers, who have an ax to grind and will interject noise.

    Did someone appear to come and argue the words chosen in an OP, a post, instead of starting a healthy dialog, discussing the concept/thought/idea shared? Did a presentation appear in a subsequent post to move "off topic"?

    In the OP for instance, in this thread, it was mentioned, that CENTCOM (US Central Command Middle East, Central Asia), contracted with a US firm to create social media manipulative technology. The purpose stated in the Guardian Article referenced was to point out such was for manipulating the thought process of foreigners.

    "Gen David Petraeus has previously said US online psychological operations are aimed at 'countering extremist ideology and propaganda'.

    And the stipulations say this:

    Quote The Centcom contract stipulates that each fake online persona must have a convincing background, history and supporting details, and that up to 50 US-based controllers should be able to operate false identities from their workstations "without fear of being discovered by sophisticated adversaries".

    Centcom spokesman Commander Bill Speaks said: "The technology supports classified blogging activities on foreign-language websites to enable Centcom to counter violent extremist and enemy propaganda outside the US."
    There is that word "TERRORIST" appearing (how the mind connects the social programmed "dots" : "Violent extremist" "enemy propaganda". "The War on Terror" comes to mind as another programmed pattern and belief system. Hear it enough through "noise" and one will start to see the terrorists everywhere, that extremists are blowing up planes out of the sky (when it may be equipment failure for instance)..

    Removing noise means doing your own accurate research, through reliable NOISE FILTERED locations, using reliable noise filtering people. And then being smart and LOGICAL. Noise can be arguing meaningless points trying to push the limits of what is tolerable or not. Like arguing that most people use blue fenceposts when they put up picket fences (on a website or blog which focuses on cattle farming). Sounds like it may be a legit post, but it could be there to create NOISE on the cattle farming website by a special interest vegan group (just saying as a for-instance maybe..)

    Michal Avny, Strategist, real time search expert, CEO EqsQuest talks briefly about NOISE:

    Quote There is noise in general, things like spam, repetitions, etc., there is what you might perceive as noise, that is anything that is not relevant to you, and there is the social media noise.

    The biggest problem with social media is that it is not easily comprehensible; the vast of information is chaotic (although powerful). It is extremely hard to search and discover topics, events, trends and sentiment, in other words, looking for anything useful.
    Her keyword is CHAOTIC (I will add in "Emotionally Powerful").. and in chaos, attempting to find anything useful in the "noise" is difficult. So understanding that NOISE makes for burying that which may be useful to finding something.. Where there may be an attempt to post truth and accuracy to the TOPIC, (the op for instance), NOISE comes in to create difficulty in understanding TRUTH. People pay attention to the noise and forget the important TRUTH. (defining truth is a subject in its own right too)..

    Can data mining algorithms (the procedures or equations or steps required) deal with noise? Yes, there are what is called "trained Supervised Learning" methods. We all know how easy it is to ignore or turn off "noise" in reading postings or threads, and even if it may be annoying, it is a skill that can be learned.

    Such techniques are being AUTOMATED - (from AI Horizons) - http://www.aihorizon.com/essays/gene...e_learning.htm

    Quote Supervised Learning

    Supervised learning is fairly common in classification problems because the goal is often to get the computer to learn a classification system that we have created. Digit recognition, once again, is a common example of classification learning.

    More generally, classification learning is appropriate for any problem where deducing a classification is useful and the classification is easy to determine.

    In some cases, it might not even be necessary to give pre-determined classifications to every instance of a problem if the agent can work out the classifications for itself. This would be an example of unsupervised learning in a classification context.

    Supervised learning is the most common technique for training neural networks and decision trees.

    Both of these techniques are highly dependent on the information given by the pre-determined classifications.

    In the case of neural networks, the classification is used to determine the error of the network and then adjust the network to minimize it, and in decision trees, the classifications are used to determine what attributes provide the most information that can be used to solve the classification puzzle.

    We'll look at both of these in more detail, but for now, it should be sufficient to know that both of these examples thrive on having some "supervision" in the form of pre-determined classifications.
    In other words, WE can train ourselves to be able to recognize NOISE and we don't have to buy into it. The next section will get into "Outliers".

  9. Link to Post #7
    UK Avalon Member avid's Avatar
    Join Date
    19th March 2010
    Location
    NW UK
    Language
    English
    Posts
    2,884
    Thanks
    58,257
    Thanked 15,637 times in 2,654 posts

    Default Re: Are Forums, Social Media being data-mined and manipulated? If so Why?

    http://www.cpexposed.com/about-common-purpose
    Behavioural modification has infiltrated societies for many years.

    Trending ideas/themes is glaringly obvious in MSM, and apparent in social media.
    Here we have the downright illogical persistent posts, ie flat earth, to what end?

    Most of us are aware of vitally informative issues being 'railroaded' off topic to the point that interest is lost and the issues are 'lost'.

    We have the fake personas, such as 'Sorcha Faal' littering viable news.

    Certainly, we are being monitored for 'persons of interest' which is disconcerting in these unfair times, but if noone stands up to social injustice or deliberate manipulation of our environment and sustenance sources, even more dastardly things will be done.

    So yes Bob, it is extremely important that we research topics, and are not tipped off-course, which is happening now much more frequently. Moderation works to a point, but there are those who ride roughshod over logic and well-meaning advice.

    Thank you for this fascinating subject.
    The love you withhold is the pain that you carry
    and er..
    "Chariots of the Globs" (apols to Fat Freddy's Cat)

  10. The Following User Says Thank You to avid For This Post:

    Bob (28th May 2016)

+ Reply to Thread

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts