Posts by DavidRuben:

    Fed-backed Twitter study draws fire

    December 19th, 2014

    By David Ruben.

     

     

    • The Hill – A Republican member of the Federal Communications Commission is warning about a government-backed study that “seems to have come straight out of a George Orwell novel.”

      Commissioner Ajit Pai — one of two Republicans on the five-member commission — warned in aWashington Post op-ed on Saturday about a National Science Foundation study of people’s communications on Twitter, which he said amounted to government monitoring of people’s speech.

      “In the United States, the government has no business entering the marketplace of ideas to establish an arbiter of what is false, misleading or a political smear,” he wrote.

      “The federal government has no business spending your hard-earned money on a project to monitor political speech on Twitter.”

      The “Truthy” study, which is funded by the National Science Foundation, is being developed by Indiana University researchers to study how popular ideas and jokes spread throughout popular culture.

      One focus is the spread of “political smears, astroturfing, misinformation, and other social pollution,” researchers said.

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    60% of comments on Obamacare Facebook for 2 years from only 100 people

    November 18th, 2014

     

     

    By David Ruben.

    • Fewer than 100 people comment numerous times a day, analytics revealed
    • One California woman posted 59 times a day for 60 days only during working hours, she used four different profiles, claims she isn’t paid to comment
    • She claims to be employed full-time, LinkedIn page lists commercial firm
    • Organizing For Action, which runs the Facebook site, refused to comment on whether the 100 users were being paid for their services
    • Numerous posts boost the Facebook site in search engines

    Daily Mail (UK), by Mia De Graaf – More than 60 per cent of comments on Obamacare’s Facebook page have come from fewer than 100 people, a report has revealed.

    The site has amassed 226,838 posts since September 2012 – a significant number that has boosted the page in search engines.

    But an investigation by the Washington Times has found 136,103 of those were left by a small collection of Facebook users – many of whom have at least three profiles.

    The revelation came just hours before a poll found Obamacare to be more unpopular than ever, with just 37 per cent support – just as the state and federal health exchanges central to the health care reform law reopen for business.

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