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Common
10-21-2015, 08:28 PM
Theres thousands and thousands of fake reviews on amazon

Amazon has begun taking legal action against more than 1,000 freelancers it claims have written fake reviews for its website. According to court records, the US based e-commerce giant filed the lawsuit in Seattle, Washington, on Friday.
The lawsuit directly targets freelancers working for Fiverr.com (https://www.fiverr.com/), an online freelance website. Amazon states that the 1,114 defendants, all currently referenced as “John Does,” wrote false reviews for products on Amazon.com in exchange for payment and the promise of five-star reviews for sellers’ products.


http://news.filehippo.com/2015/10/amazon-sues-writers-fake-reviews-fiverr-com/

waltky
12-06-2016, 05:32 PM
Fake news story results in violence...
http://www.politicalforum.com/images/smilies/icon_omg.gif
Officials: Potential for Violence From Fake News Troubling
December 06, 2016 | WASHINGTON — The bizarre rumors began with a leaked email referencing Hillary Clinton and sinister interpretations of references to pizza parties. It morphed into fake online news stories about a child sex trafficking ring run by prominent Democrats operating out of a Washington, D.C., pizza joint.


On Sunday, it culminated in violence when police say a North Carolina man fired an assault rifle inside the Comet Ping Pong restaurant as he attempted to “self-investigate” the conspiracy theory known in the Twitterverse as “Pizzagate.” No one was hurt and the man was arrested. But the shooting alarmed those from neighboring businesses all the way to the White House about the real life dangers of fake news on the internet. One of those people posting on the conspiracy theory is the son of President-elect Donald Trump's proposed national security adviser.

On Monday, White House Spokesman Josh Earnest, asked about the shooting, said, “There's no denying the corrosive effect that some of these false reports have had on our political debate, and that's concerning in a political context. It's deeply troubling that some of those false reports could lead to violence.” Edgar Maddison Welch, 28, of Salisbury, North Carolina, was arrested Sunday afternoon outside the popular eatery in an affluent neighborhood of the nation's capital, police said. At his initial appearance Monday in D.C. Superior Court, Welch was ordered held pending a hearing scheduled for Thursday. The public defender he was assigned didn't immediately respond to an email seeking comment.


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Pedestrians pass by the front door of Comet Ping Pong pizza shop, in Washington, D.C., Dec. 5, 2016. A fake news story prompted a man to fire a rifle inside the popular eatery as he attempted to "self-investigate" a conspiracy theory of a child sex ring being operated from there, police said

Court records made public Monday state Welch fired an AR-15 assault rifle multiple times inside the restaurant but later walked out with his hands up and unarmed, leaving his weapons inside. He told police “he had read online that the Comet restaurant was harboring child sex slaves and that he wanted to see for himself if they were there.” He said he “was armed to help rescue them” and “surrendered peacefully when he found no evidence that underage children were being harbored in the restaurant.” Welch was charged on multiple counts, including assault with a dangerous weapon. Authorities recovered the AR-15 assault rifle and a handgun from the restaurant, court paperwork said. Police said an additional weapon was recovered from his vehicle.

One of Welch's friends told The Washington Post she doesn't think he intended to shoot anyone. “He most likely really believes the conspiracy theory,” said Kathy Sue Holtorf, 29, who lives in California and works as a film producer. “He's a good guy with the best of intentions. He probably saw himself as more on a hero mission to save children than anything else.”

‘Not a conspiracy nut’ (http://www.voanews.com/a/fake-news-dangers/3624959.html)

waltky
12-09-2016, 02:45 AM
“Treem”, will be available on mobile platforms for free...
http://www.politicalforum.com/images/oldicons/icon17.gif
New Social Network Aims to Limit Spread of 'Fake News'
December 08, 2016 | WASHINGTON — Amid a flurry of reporting on what some are calling a flood of “fake news” on social media, a new social network was being unveiled Thursday, with its backers saying it might slow the spread of inaccurate information.


The social network, called “Treem”, will be available on mobile platforms for free. According to its creators, Treem will give its users significantly more control over who sees what they post, and who in turn can share it. “There’s a tremendous amount of information right now out there on social media,” said Treem CEO Ken Kaufman. “A lot of the bigger players are addicted to pushing information to everyone, no matter what, so the idea of being able to control who sees what information and better curate how people get information is really important.”


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Most social networks, such as Facebook, allow users one public profile – or “wall” – where they can post content to share with friends. That content is then often monetized by the network, which gathers information about the user for sale to third parties or for ad revenue. “Most social media companies are addicted to advertising revenue, so every post is supposed to be seen by everybody,” Kaufman told VOA.

Controlling information

In contrast, Treem uses a graphic “tree” structure where users create “branches,” or separate groups. Users control who they want in what group – for example, college friends or hobby enthusiasts – and also can control whether the content they post can in turn be re-posted by others. For those seeking even more privacy, users can create secret password-protected groups to further limit who sees what. “How I organize my friendships and relationships is different than everybody else. You don’t know how I categorized you – it’s all up to each user how to organize content and views,” said Kaufman. “We’re really trying to get rid of all the noise on social media.”


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Screen shot of Treem App loaded on iPhone

In putting users in control of their posts, Kaufman says, fake news stories are much less likely to go viral because fewer people are likely to see them, and potentially even fewer will be able to re-post or share with their groups. The idea for Treem began long ago, Kaufman notes, long before journalists began writing about the explosion of false news and information on social media. “I saw what was going around with people who were partisan on any position and pushing information about, and people believing everything that they read on social media, and I thought, that’s not good,” he said.

'Confirmation bias' (http://www.voanews.com/a/new-social-network-aims-to-limit-spread-of-fake-news/3628473.html)