Posted on 07/30/2019 11:13:18 PM PDT by bolobaby
it has been a mistake to think of FNC as friendly territory for quite some time now
Thank you for your insight.
Very interesting.
I wonder if blocking the google and google related Java ‘bots’ in my browsers and having all the google websites blocked (sent to 127.0.0.1) in the HOSTS file, would mess with the FauxNoose - Google algorithms.
I’ve been ranting about Google spying for years, but no one believes me, or if they do believe it, they don’t care, being addicted to all the ‘free’ stuff Google gives them.
.............
And at least here at FR, even though there is a google tracker on every page, at least there is no shadow banning... And I rarely even go to Faux, and have never commented there.
Fox News comments are infested with trolls engaged in ad hominem attacks or squeezing out unsubstantiated liberal talking points devoid of critical thought.
No - this would not work. The Google API is being called AFTER the submit to the Spot.IM servers based on all available evidence. So long as you submit a comment to Spot.IM, Google is getting it.
I should point out that they may have a data retention agreement with Google that disallows Google from keeping the comment, but - as you may know - an online learning algorithm doesn’t need to keep the data to benefit from it. The data nudges the algorithm in the right direction and is then discarded.
Here’s what I’ve noticed in relation to trolls on the foxnews.com comments sections:
For the most part, conservative views are well represented and up-voted on Fox. On hot-button issues, though, you will see sweatshop-esque activity kick in, with a LARGE volume of liberal comments generated in a short period of time, typically when news hits. In general, when the sweatshop is at work, the liberal comments are very short, all follow a similar pattern, and often are ad hominum in nature. It is also during these times that you will see comments regularly disappearing due to being flagged, as described in my original post.
Beyond that, the trolling is “reasonable.” A minority of leftists who feel like it is their job to tell everyone how bad Trump is.
Well, that sucks. Thank you for the further information.
I suppose if you block Spot.IM too, then the comment engine wouldn’t even run?
Did I ever mention that I hate google?
I have quit doing business with, or even going to, many retail websites that require Google Java to use them. And I’ve told the business owners why they no longer getmy business.
Same with Amazon.... At least Amazon has only about 1/4 the penetration Google has.
Great...now please start a conservative tech blog, and Patreon account so I can donate. This was brilliant, and VERY important. Sadly, FR has relatively low ratings, and many more people need to see this. Thank you
PING
I don’t go to the FoxNews website anymore. Can’t stand all the pop-up ads and videos before I can get to the articles. I am not a computer genius so I don’t understand most of what you posted but I do agree we are being controlled by the Left and this crap has to stop. Sure hope Trump can do something about it.
I thought it was MSNBC that used to allow comments.
Anyway, Samoa changed its time zone from -12 GMT (or +12?) to +13 GMT. The story said that Samoa would now have the “earliest sunrise.”
I commented that “earliest civil midnight” was not the same thing as “earliest sunrise.”
My comment was deleted, and the story was not changed.
Thanks, very interesting.
I have often thought that some things on Facebook, or online, are put out there specifically to collect data on people, or to train AI programs to deduce things about them. Things like “Take this Quiz”, “Do you Remember” or “Can you Name”.
Somewhere else, I recall reading that a main effort of Google, was to compile a database of the population, that included measures of psychological or attitudinal tendencies. They would draw input from multiple sources to fill out the fields and expand the file on individuals. That database itself could be used to train algorithms.
What magazines someone subscribed to could correlate with/indicate their political leanings; what music they listened to might correlate with/indicate their age, gender or ethnicity; etc.
Supposedly, it was this kind of trove of information on the population (some populated from Government databases or on Government contracts) that Eric Schmidt spun off to a new company he formed to help the Democrats in their election efforts of identifying (and more effectively manipulating) voters.
In addition to their algorithms, they have psychologists working to identify more ways to identify characteristics they can exploit, like shopping or voting decision making factors, and how those vary among groups - for targeting messaging, or manipulative sales techniques.
Big Brother is watching.
I don’t use Google and don’t comment on Fox Snooze.
Problem solved.
Fair enough, but your comment seems to miss the point.
Can you say with certainty that all of the services you DO use on the internet are not feeding data to Google? Discovering that Google was involved in Fox News comments was a surprise to me. Seeing the kind of processing they are doing on the comments is troubling given their bias. At the end of the day, it underscores the recent alarm over big tech bias.
I don’t use Google any more either - I use duckduckgo.com. I was not aware that Google could be potentially impacting Fox News comments. Where else are they exerting influence? When they exert that influence, is there a bias?
Finally - and most importantly - this is about the future. Right now they are building a system with data we are unwittingly providing to later (potentially) use against us. As a technologist, I see a significant threat on the horizon. It’s Big Brother territory.
Pretty much every website uses some kind of google services. They’ve spent well over a decade developing analytic tools for the web and they have the market pretty well cornered. There is no equivalent.
If you want to know who’s visiting your site, where they’re from geographically, what website they were previously on, which pages they visit on your site, how long they stay, what keywords they searched for when/if they used search results to end up on your site etc etc etc. It’s google and only google.
google analytics
google webmaster tools
google maps - is used in conjunction with the above for geographic data(and people think they’re just being nice with their Get Directions service)
google ads (the biggest online ads service)
youtube is google
gmail
google drive
Android operating system
Alexa
Enormous conglomerate to the web. With all the above services, apps, Android OS, they collect as much data as they can and put it all together.
Other internet services, like commenting systems for instance, also utilize google services. Their tentacles are everywhere.
Thanks for posting this interesting look “under the hood”. This is just another reason to use Dissenter for commenting.
...addicted to all the ‘free’ stuff Google gives them.
__________________________________
Privacy and free speech are a couple of my major personal concerns.
However: I write. Unfortunately, Google is better at some searches/services than any other search engine. I limit Google searches, but I need to use them.
Google Docs has taken over the world. Not only is it taught and used preferentially in schools, editors prefer a Google Docs link to a Word attachment.(I suspect that when I use Word’s research tools, my searches are still being forwarded ‘somewhere’. If I import visuals, including original illustrations, from my own machine to Word, they, too are likely then available elsewhere.)
Google is the preferred sign-in for too many sites to count.
On and on. They are ubiquitous.
...conservative views are well represented and up-voted on Fox. On hot-button issues, though, you will see sweatshop-esque activity kick in, with a LARGE volume of liberal comments generated in a short period of time, typically when news hits. In general, when the sweatshop is at work, the liberal comments are very short, all follow a similar pattern, and often are ad hominum in nature. It is also during these times that you will see comments regularly disappearing due to being flagged, as described in my original post.
Beyond that, the trolling is “reasonable.” A minority of leftists who feel like it is their job to tell everyone how bad Trump is.
______________________
Noticed the same activity pattern on Quora.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.