More About Disinformation

It's time to publish links to several articles about misinformation and disinformation. I don't know if it's just that there's more of it or people are paying more attention to it. As you might expect, most of the articles are about politics and not just the US election as Canada gets in there too. 

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• The Russians had money. The Canadian had far-right influencers. The U.S. Department of Justice says it has a criminal case. "A U.S. indictment alleges that two Russians helped funnel millions of dollars into a media company in order to spread misinformation that would benefit Moscow."
• From the Storm to the Stormtroopers. "Today, our American fascists blame the hurricanes on the meteorologists and disrupt the government response.  Tomorrow they will blame climate change on the climate scientists and deport their enemies of choice.  And the day after tomorrow there will be no democracy and no country, just a politics of impotence and a fascist catastrophe."
• The Climate Clowns. "An outrageous new lie is being spread about hurricanes, and I can’t even." I don't know which is scarier: that a politician would have the nerve to spout garbage like that, or that people are stupid enough to believe them.
• A Disinformation Trial Run. "The conspiracies and false claims surrounding hurricane relief efforts carry an important silver lining." About the only positive side to the flood of disinformation is that the media seem to be catching on to the nonsense.
• The Media Is Finally Calling Trump Out. But Is It Too Late? "The double standard Kamala Harris is being held to by the media is mind numbing."
• A fringe party packed with conspiracy theorists could soon be leading one of Canada’s largest provinces. Here’s why I’m not surprised. "British Columbia’s provincial election is getting extremely weird, and it might be a sign something’s deeply broken in Canadian democracy. The Conservative Party of B.C. — led by a man who had to issue a mea culpa after discussing the idea of prosecuting doctors in “Nuremberg”-style COVID-19 trials — has been surging in the polls. The party now looks set to make significant gains or perhaps even replace the incumbent B.C. NDP."
• Weaponized Polling Is More Dangerous Than Ever. "Right-leaning outfits are skewing the polls for Trump for quite sinister reasons."
• What Keeps Latino Voting-Rights Activists Up at Night? Disinformation (gift link). Activists say the nefarious material is more widespread, sophisticated and complex than ever.