Facebook Fueled Anti-Refugee Attacks in Germany, New Research Suggests ImageAmanda Taub and Max Fisher, NY Times, Aug. 21, 2018 Karsten Müller and Carlo Schwarz, researchers at the University of Warwick, scrutinized every anti-refugee attack in Germany, 3,335 in all, over a two-year span. In each, they analyzed the local community by any variable that seemed relevant. Wealth. Demographics. Support for far-right politics. Newspaper sales. Number of refugees. History of hate crime. Number of protests. One thing stuck out. Towns where Facebook use was higher than average, like Altena, reliably experienced more attacks on refugees. That held true in virtually any sort of community — big city or small town; affluent or struggling; liberal haven or far-right stronghold — suggesting that the link applies universally. Journal reference: Müller, Karsten and Schwarz, Carlo, Fanning the Flames of Hate: Social Media and Hate Crime (May 21, 2018). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3082972 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3082972
Facebook Identifies New Influence Operations Spanning GlobeSheera Frenkel and Nicholas Fandos, NY Times, Aug. 21, 2018 Facebook said on Tuesday that it had identified multiple new influence campaigns on its platform that were aimed at misleading people in different countries and regions. The social network found and took down 652 fake accounts, pages and groups that were trying to sow misinformation. The activity originated in Iran and Russia, Facebook said. Unlike with past influence operations, which largely targeted Americans, the fake accounts, pages and groups were this time also aimed at people in Latin America, Britain, the Middle East, as well as in the United States, the company said.