22 February 2020   Leave a comment

The Guardian is reporting that 25% of all tweets on the issue of climate change are generated by automated bots. The report is based on a as-yet unpublished study conducted by researchers at Brown University. The article quotes several of the researchers and the conclusions seem to be robust. According to the article:

“An analysis of millions of tweets from around the period when Donald Trump announced the US would withdraw from the Paris climate agreement found that bots tended to applaud the president for his actions and spread misinformation about the science.

“The study of Twitter bots and climate was undertaken by Brown University and has yet to be published. Bots are a type of software that can be directed to autonomously tweet, retweet, like or direct message on Twitter, under the guise of a human-fronted account.

“’These findings suggest a substantial impact of mechanized bots in amplifying denialist messages about climate change, including support for Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris agreement,’ states the draft study, seen by the Guardian.”

Climate change denials are systematic attempts to shape public opinion in ways that undermine effective actions to halt the process.

The Economic Policy Institute has released a study of wage growth in the US over the last 40 years. The findings are sobering:

The US economy has been good to those who hold stocks. But for those who rely upon a wage, the situation is stagnant. Except for those who live in states that legislated an increase in the minimum wage.

Posted February 22, 2020 by vferraro1971 in World Politics

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