Social Media - The Art of the Prank

July 26, 2017December 15, 2023

Spectacle TV Without the Spectacle…

Olympian Michael Phelps unsurprisingly lost his Sunday race against a simulated great white shark.

“Twitter users blast Michael Phelps for not racing a real shark”
by Chris Perez
New York Post
July 24, 2017

Can you blame him?

Social media users were tearing Michael Phelps to shreds for his “race” against a Great White shark on Sunday night “” calling it a “scam” “” after he chose to swim side-by-side with a simulation, instead of the real thing.

“Don”t say Phelps is racing a shark if you”re not going to put him against an actual shark,”
tweeted Breyanna Davis, who was one of countless viewers to get confused over the way the televised swimming competition went down.

“So you mean to tell me Michael Phelps didn”t even race a real shark? It was just a simulation. I”m mad. More like Shark WEAK!” said Frank Costa.

User @M_Frosti added, “smh Michael Phelps isn”t actually racing a shark. He”s just racing a simulation of a shark. Biggest scam of 2017.” Read more.

October 28, 2016December 15, 2023

Meet Trump Booster and Digital Chimera Steven Smith (R-GA)

Gullibility goes way up during election years.

“The Internet’s Favorite Congessman Is a Joke”
by Molly Taft
Medium
October 24, 2016

Rep. Steven Smith of Georgia”s 15th District was the first member of Congress to endorse Donald Trump and has been a vocal advocate for the candidate on Twitter. Two things, though: Georgia doesn”t have a 15th District and there”s no such congressman named Steven Smith. Meet the man behind the myth.

Two days after the third presidential debate, the right-wing internet is buzzing. The past week has been chock full of news fueling the rumors of an unfair election: The Podesta email dumps over the previous weekend were quickly followed by a video investigation into alleged bird-dogging at Trump rallies by DNC operatives, followed then by a report from the Center for Public Integrity titled “Journalists shower Hillary Clinton with campaign cash.” The Trump campaign”s new anti-corruption hashtag, #DrainTheSwamp, has caught on, and Representative Steven Smith, GA-15, wants to do his part to rally the base.

Using a photo editing app, Smith creates a collage of images familiar to conservative followers: a cartoon of Hillary Clinton being propped up by the mainstream media; an unflattering photo of the candidate mid-sneer; Clinton atop a pile of money. “It”s a #RiggedSystem,” Smith adds as a caption. “But we can beat it at the ballot box. #DrainTheSwamp.” Pro-Trump and anti-media content, which Smith tweets out on average over 60 times per day to over 20,000 followers, has energized his Twitter feed in recent months: @RepStevenSmith is already at 11.3 million impressions in the past 28 days alone. Read more.

May 30, 2014December 15, 2023

Political Hacktivism, Iran Style

Iran Is Using a Neocon to Hack Its Foes
Daily Beast
by Eli Lake
May 29, 2014

John Bolton, the former U.N. ambassador under George W. Bush, is playing an unexpectedly prominent role in an Iranian cyberspying campaign.

In Iran”s intelligence war against America, the regime has a new weapon: “John R. Bolton.”

No, Iran has not turned President Bush”s former ambassador to the United Nations into a sleeper agent. Instead, hackers believed to be connected to the Tehran government are posing as Bolton on social media platforms in a scheme to get human rights activists and national security wonks to hand over their passwords and user names.

Viral Videos: Fact or Fiction?

From Joe King:

Social Media Detectives: Is That Viral Video For Real?
Delmarva Public Radio
October 2, 2013

Listen (4:50)

Whether it’s an uprising in Egypt or a video of a fake twerking session gone awry, news outlets need to know everything they can about a video before they run with it. That’s where Storyful steps in. The company helps journalists figure out what’s real, and what’s not.

“We use the same forensic process of discovery and verification for Syria as we do for hoax videos,” says Executive Editor David Clinch.

Since 2010, Storyful has worked with companies like The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, ABC and others to make YouTube videos, tweets and cellphone snapshots a major part of the news cycle.

“When a story breaks, there is no shortage of content that exists,” Clinch says, “but the problems are finding it in the first place [and,] most importantly, verifying that it’s real.”

Read the rest of the story here.