Angela Merkel fears bots on social media may sway public opinion in upcoming German election

German Chancellor Angela Merkel REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch

  25 Nov 2016 , 10:02

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s biggest contender in next year’s German election campaign may not be a rival party leader but so-called “social bots” – software programmed to sway opinion on social media sites. In her first speech to parliament since announcing plans on Sunday to seek a fourth term as chancellor, Merkel called for a debate on how fake news, bots and trolls can manipulate public opinion.

“In order to reach people, to inspire people, we need to deal with this phenomenon and – where necessary – regulate it,” Merkel told lawmakers on Wednesday. The role social networks Facebook and Twitter play in spreading false and malicious information has shot up Merkel’s agenda after the shock election of U.S. Republican candidate Donald Trump as president. Social bots are software programs that mimic human behaviour on social media sites, such as by publishing messages or liking posts. They can be used to spread erroneous information and muddy the debate. Some critics say the proliferation of fake news helped sway the U.S. election in Trump’s favor.

With the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) having chipped away at support for Merkel’s conservatives by attacking her open-door refugee policy, alarm is growing over the influence of bots and fake news on potential voters. In a sign of how seriously Merkel is taking the matter, she invited Simon Hegelich, professor of political data science at the Technical University of Munich, to brief the executive committee of her Christian Democrats (CDU) on Monday.

“Merkel is really interested in the topic of bots and fake news and hate speech on the Internet and she’s very well informed,” said Hegelich. While all of Germany’s political parties have said they will not deploy bots in the campaign, the fact that they are mostly anonymous makes it hard to work out who is behind them. Hegelich does not rule out third parties using them to try to discredit parties or politicians.

The head of the domestic intelligence agency raised concern last week about potential Russian interference in Germany’s election through the use of misleading media stories. Moreover, fake news has become a lucrative business model. In the U.S. election campaign, bloggers without political affiliation realized they could earn money by spreading sensational and false stories. “They act as if they were a news provider, but all the news is fake. It doesn’t matter if it’s true or not, it’s just a business model to get more clicks on advertising,” said Hegelich.

Echo Rooms

Germany’s established parties, the CDU and the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), are lagging the AfD in engagement on social media. The AfD has racked up more than 300,000 likes on Facebook, while the CDU and SPD can barely muster 240,000 together. While this may not seem many among Germany’s 62 million voters, many Facebook users share posts with one another, increasing their reach.

Algorithms on Facebook also shape what content appears in a user’s news feed, creating so-called “echo rooms” in which posts only reflect user’s own views. Facing a barrage of criticism for failing to stem a flood of phoney news articles in the run-up to the U.S. election, Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has disclosed steps to weed out hoaxes and other false information. These include making it easier to report false content, working with third-party verification organizations and journalists on fact-checking efforts, and exploring posting warning labels on content that has been flagged as false.

Justice Minister Heiko Maas said last week Germany would closely monitor how Facebook responds to the challenge of fake news, but said legislative measures were limited. Merkel has raised the idea of a code of conduct for social networks. Thomas Jarzombek, the CDU’s spokesman for digital policy, says more transparency is needed and called on journalists at traditional media companies to debunk fake news and create a more informed debate.

He said with 10 months to go until the election, he believed Germany had time to raise awareness of the issue among voters.

Reuters

Newspapers will print extra copies to match demand after historic elections

  09 Nov 2016 , 15:45

Print newspapers may be disappearing like the home telephone, but not after Election Day. Remembering the frenzy for old-fashioned papers the morning after Barack Obama’s historic win in 2008, newspapers are printing extra copies and setting up temporary retail stands this year, regardless of whether the nation elects the first woman or reality TV star as president. The Los Angeles Times is also selling a commemorative printing-press plate of the front page.

Many people now rely on Facebook and apps for news, but a screenshot doesn’t have quite the same romance as a newspaper’s front page. “We like to hold on to things that remind us of the experiences we’ve had,” like campaign buttons, theater programs or shells from a visit to the beach, said Naomi Baron, an American University professor who studies the interplay of language and technology.

A physical version of a newspaper recounting a life-altering event like 9/11 or the assassination of President John F. Kennedy is an extension of those keepsakes that a website or app can’t replace, she said. “Paper has a certain kind of look and feel and smell to it that digital equivalents don’t.”

Even so, after a long, sour campaign season, demand for a front page may be more muted than in 2008. Ben Redington, a 34-year-old graphic designer from Wichita, Kansas, likes buying papers after major events, such as the Chicago Cubs’ first World Series win in 108 years. But he doesn’t care for either Clinton or Trump and has no plans to buy a newspaper Wednesday. (He didn’t buy an

The big picture on big data about the election from mobile photo social network Instagram.

Images: Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump | Instagram

By Dan Patterson | October 13, 2016, 10:50 AM PST



The 2016 election has sparked the most mobile, connected campaigns in history. Both campaigns use social media vociferously, and how each campaign uses the social web is a reflection of the campaign's personality and strategic style. Trump fires multimedia missives about an assortment of topics, while the Clinton campaign creates vertical social media tailored to specific networks with careful precision.

This year has also arguably been the most photographed election in history. Technologically, the 2008 and 2012 campaigns were defined by the emergence of social media, primarily Facebook and Twitter. In 2016, for both presidential campaigns, Instagram is an indispensable tool.

And for good reason: the social network acquired in 2012 for $1 billion in 2012 by Facebook is growing rapidly. As of June 2016, Instagram had over 500 million monthly active users, 100 million more active monthly users than September, 2015. This puts the company ahead of prominent social networks like Twitter, 320 million monthly users, and LinkedIn, 100 million monthly users. Facebook has approximately 1.57 billion monthly users.



Instagram recently improved its brand management and advertising brands. In September the company announced it had half a million advertisers, double what it had six months ago. An additional 1.5 million profiles had been converted to brands pages, giving companies access to