Anatomy of a false news story (NYT)

["Dave Farber" <farber () gmail com>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: "Roger Bohn" <Rbohn () ucsd edu>
> Date: November 22, 2016 at 1:25:19 PM EST
> To: "Dave Farber" <dave () farber net>
> Cc: ip <ip () listbox com>
> Subject: Anatomy of a false news story (NYT)
>
> For IP if you wish. A detailed case study that traces the origin and spread of a completely false news story.
>
> Excerpts
>
> Mr. Tucker, who had taken photos of a large group of buses he saw near downtown Austin earlier in the day because he 
> thought it was unusual, saw reports of protests against Mr. Trump in the city and decided the two were connected. He 
> posted three of the images with the declaration: “Anti-Trump protestors in Austin today are not as organic as they 
> seem. Here are the busses they came in. #fakeprotests #trump2016 #austin”
>
> Mr. Tucker said he had performed a Google search to see if any conferences were being held in the area but did not 
> find anything. (The buses were, in fact, hired by a company called Tableau Software, which was holding a conference 
> that drew more than 13,000 people.)
>
> “I did think in the back of my mind there could be other explanations, but it just didn’t seem plausible,” he said in 
> an interview, noting that he had posted as a “private citizen who had a tiny Twitter following.”
> http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/20/business/media/how-fake-news-spreads.html
>
> The NYTstory does not add up the hits, but a casual reading suggests at least half a million shares (not likes!) on 
> Facebook and Twitter, for the primary and secondary versions of Mr. Tucker’s original tweet. He tried to correct it 
> when he discovered it was untrue, but the correction got minimal attention.
>
> Screening such false stories seems like a hard problem to me. I can imagine crowdsourcing approaches, but I don’t see 
> any way to set a simple filter in Facebook that will eliminate them a priori. After the initial post is shown false, 
> though, Facebook should easily be able to prevent further growth. 
> Any system that is good at knocking out false news becomes susceptible to manipulation itself, presumably. 
> But for democracy to remain effective, citizens need ways to distinguish lies and mistakes from reality. 
> Roger
>
> Roger Bohn
> School of Global Policy and Strategy
> UC San Diego
>
> On 21 Nov 2016, at 19:20, Dave Farber wrote:
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ---------
> From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
> Date: Mon, Nov 21, 2016 at 10:11 PM
> Subject: [Dewayne-Net] The NSA's Spy Hub in New York, Hidden in Plain Sight
> To: Multiple recipients of Dewayne-Net <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
>
> The NSA’s Spy Hub in New York, Hidden in Plain Sight
> By Ryan Gallagher & Henri Moltke
> Nov 16 2016
> https://theintercept.com/2016/11/16/the-nsas-spy-hub-in-new-york-hidden-in-plain-sight/
>
> *They called it* Project X. It was an unusually audacious, highly sensitive
> assignment: to build a massive skyscraper, capable of withstanding an
> atomic blast, in the middle of New York City. It would have no windows, 29
> floors with three basement levels, and enough food to last 1,500 people two
> weeks in the event of a catastrophe.
>
> But the building’s primary purpose would not be to protect humans from
> toxic radiation amid nuclear war. Rather, the fortified skyscraper would
> safeguard powerful computers, cables, and switchboards. It would house one
> of the most important telecommunications hubs in the United States — the
> world’s largest center for processing long-distance phone calls, operated
> by the New York Telephone Company, a subsidiary of AT&T.
>
> The building was designed by the architectural firm John Carl Warnecke
> & Associates, whose grand vision was to create a communication nerve center
> like a “20th century fortress, with spears and arrows replaced by protons
> and neutrons laying quiet siege to an army of machines within.”
>
> Excerpt from “Project X,” a short film by Henrik Moltke and Laura Poitras,
> screening at the IFC Center
> <http://www.ifccenter.com/films/project-x/> starting
> Nov. 18. This article is the product of a joint reporting project between
> The Intercept and Field of Vision.
>
> Construction began in 1969, and by 1974, the skyscraper was completed.
> Today, it can be found in the heart of lower Manhattan at 33 Thomas Street,
> a vast gray tower of concrete and granite that soars 550 feet into the New
> York skyline. The brutalist structure, still used by AT&T and, according to
> the New York Department of Finance, owned by the company, is like no other
> in the vicinity. Unlike the many neighboring residential and office
> buildings, it is impossible to get a glimpse inside 33 Thomas Street. True
> to the designers’ original plans, there are no windows and the building is
> not illuminated. At night it becomes a giant shadow, blending into the
> darkness, its large square vents emitting a distinct, dull hum that is
> frequently drowned out by the sound of passing traffic and wailing sirens.
>
> For many New Yorkers, 33 Thomas Street — known as the “Long Lines Building”
> — has been a source of mystery for years. It has been labeled one of the
> city’s weirdest and most iconic skyscrapers, but little information has
> ever been published about its purpose.
>
> It is not uncommon to keep the public in the dark about a site containing
> vital telecommunications equipment. But 33 Thomas Street is different: An
> investigation by The Intercept indicates that the skyscraper is more than a
> mere nerve center for long-distance phone calls. It also appears to be one
> of the most important National Security Agency surveillance sites on U.S.
> soil — a covert monitoring hub that is used to tap into phone calls, faxes,
> and internet data.
>
> [snip]



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