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Study reveals misuse of archive services by fringe communities (Liberals don't like web archives)
Techxplore.com ^ | 26June18 | Tiffany Westry Womack

Posted on 07/03/2018 7:54:00 AM PDT by Drew68

In a large-scale analysis, researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Cyprus University of Technology and University College London reveal fringe communities within Reddit and 4chan push the use of URLs from archive services to avoid censorship and undercut advertising revenue of new sources with contrasting ideologies.

"Web archiving services play an increasingly important role in today's information ecosystem by preserving online content," said Jeremy Blackburn, Ph.D., assistant professor of computer science in the UAB College of Arts and Sciences. "News and social media posts have been found to be the most common types of content archived. URLs of archiving services are extensively shared on 'fringe' communities within Reddit and 4chan to preserve possibly contentious content."

Researchers analyzed millions of URLs from archive.is and Wayback Machine shared on four social networks: Reddit, Twitter, Gab and 4chan's politically incorrect board (/pol/). The results of the study were published this week in a paper at the 12th International Conference on Web and Social Media in Stanford, California.

The social-network-specific analysis shows, among other things, that moderators leverage web archiving services to ensure content shared on their community persists. In particular, they found that 44 percent of URLs from archive.is and 85 percent of URLs from Wayback Machine URLs are shared by Reddit moderation bots. Web archiving services were also found to be used extensively for the archival and dissemination of content related to conspiracy theories and world events related to politics, suggesting these services play an important role in the alternative news ecosystem.

Additional evidence shows moderators from specific subreddits force users to misuse web archiving services so as to ideologically target certain news sources by depriving them of traffic and potential ad revenues. Links from unwanted news websites shared are deleted, and users are prompted to utilize a cached link, screenshot or archive.is.

"For example, we observed that 'The Donald' subreddit systematically targets ad revenue of news sources with conflicting ideologies," Blackburn said. "Moderation bots block URLs from those sites and prompt users to post archived URLs. According to our conservative estimates, popular news site like the Washington Post lose approximately $70,000 worth of ad revenue annually due to the use of archiving services on Reddit."

The analysis reveals that out of 3,800 submissions made to Reddit using links from the Washington Post and 3,300 submissions with links from CNN, 44 percent and 39 percent were removed.

"These findings highlight the importance of archiving services in the web's information and ad ecosystems, the need to carefully consider them when studying social media and when designing systems to detect and contain the cascade of misinformation on the web," Blackburn said.

Blackburn is a co-founder of the International Data-driven Research for Advanced Modeling and Analysis Lab, or iDRAMA Lab, an international group of scientists focusing on modern socio-technical issues with expertise ranging from low-level cryptography to video games.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 4chan; reddit; webarchive
Web archiving services stymie the Left's attempts to control and censor information as well as deprive MSM sites of important advertising revenue. Links at the source.
1 posted on 07/03/2018 7:54:00 AM PDT by Drew68
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To: Drew68
"For example, we observed that 'The Donald' subreddit...

Who would have guessed. The real issue is conservatives using archives to accumulate evidence that the Bolshevik left is subverting the country and constitution along with their globalist crony-capitalist running dog lackeys.

2 posted on 07/03/2018 8:05:44 AM PDT by AndyJackson
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To: Drew68
Leftist academics make it up as they go along.

The reason people with views censored by the media use archive services is to preserve evidence. Without them as soon as the leftist media realizes that what they posted is being used against their cause they disappear the news article, quote, image or video.

The supposed side effect - less people viewing the original article - is not the intent of the people preserving evidence.

The researchers should have looked at the effect of ad-blockers or people simply not visiting web sites belonging to newspapers with other points of view. The effect on ad revenue of those activities is vastly higher than the effect of activists preserving evidence.

3 posted on 07/03/2018 8:07:02 AM PDT by freeandfreezing
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To: AndyJackson
There's a large (400+) post on this article over at The_Donald. That's where I found it.

Liberals are now angry that Archive links are used

Increasingly, "fringe groups" (i.e. conservatives) are posting the archived links to stories from archive sites rather than the direct links themselves.

4 posted on 07/03/2018 8:11:03 AM PDT by Drew68
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To: Drew68

Archival services go directly against the left’s desire to revise history. How can they fool our children and grandchildren if the truth is in the way?


5 posted on 07/03/2018 8:13:07 AM PDT by refreshed (But we preach Christ crucified... 1 Corinthians 1:23)
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To: refreshed

this study is setting up the argument that news sites “have damages” and the left is going to sue these places out of business if they can...look for a court case to show up in the 9th circuit in the next few months....after all, there can only be two approved news sources (reuters and AP) and all comments must be controlled along the way...


6 posted on 07/03/2018 8:23:19 AM PDT by willyd (I for one welcome our NSA overlords)
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To: willyd

Probably true. And scriptural. For the love of money is the root of all evil.


7 posted on 07/03/2018 8:29:11 AM PDT by refreshed (But we preach Christ crucified... 1 Corinthians 1:23)
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To: Drew68

>>popular news site like the Washington Post lose approximately $70,000 worth of ad revenue annually due to the use of archiving services on Reddit

IIRC, the Compost was one of the ones that sued to keep FreeRepublic from linking to their articles. Compost don’t want no web hits, Compost don’t get no web hits.


8 posted on 07/03/2018 8:29:30 AM PDT by vikingd00d (chown -R us ~u/base)
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To: vikingd00d; Drew68
Compost don’t want no web hits, Compost don’t get no web hits.

Another thing that's relevant in online discussions:

I will maintain that "evidence" behind a paywall doesn't exist.

"Sorry - I can't look at your article proving this or that. You lose."

 smiling face

9 posted on 07/03/2018 8:53:38 AM PDT by kiryandil (Never pick a fight with an angry beehive)
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To: refreshed

the precious archived truth is probably why Q advises to back up copies of info.


10 posted on 07/03/2018 9:06:40 AM PDT by huldah1776 ( Vote Pro-life! Allow God to bless America before He avenges the death of the innocent.)
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To: Drew68

A “fringe community” is any collection of people who have not been brainwashed by the elites and their tools of the “intelligence community”, MSM, big education, big corporations, and big government.

Got it.


11 posted on 07/03/2018 9:11:09 AM PDT by cgbg (Hidden behind the social justice warrior mask is corruption and sexual deviance.)
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To: Drew68

The one comment after the article nailed it.


12 posted on 07/03/2018 9:14:28 AM PDT by RushIsMyTeddyBear
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To: refreshed

Nope, nope, nope, no!

You cite the Gospel according to the left. Money is a medium of exchange which is useful to all of us.

(I’ll trade you 300 pounds of potatoes for that ham Radio! What? No? How about 400 pounds of potatoes and two chickens?)

1 Timothy 6:9 & 10.

“9 But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” NAS version

http://biblehub.com/nasb/1_timothy/6.htm

Paul is talking about the sin of avarice, not about money.
Yes, I am a little nuttsy about this.


13 posted on 07/03/2018 10:38:49 AM PDT by Pete from Shawnee Mission (Yes, I am a little nuttsy about this....)
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To: Pete from Shawnee Mission

Yep Yep Yep and Yep. Notice I said the love of money, not money itself. That is what the Scriptures say so maybe you want to argue with Paul when he wrote that to Timothy.


14 posted on 07/03/2018 12:23:03 PM PDT by refreshed (But we preach Christ crucified... 1 Corinthians 1:23)
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To: Pete from Shawnee Mission

By the way, I appreciate your passion for context and share it.


15 posted on 07/03/2018 12:30:52 PM PDT by refreshed (But we preach Christ crucified... 1 Corinthians 1:23)
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