S2E18: Countering Hate ft. Jason Carmel

Published: March 21, 2018, 12:30 p.m.

We're back for another week! After shouting out Vlad on his recent election victory (six more years baybee ), we move on to... MEANWHILE ON FACEBOOK / RIGHT-WING WATCH Rowan talks us through the recent revelations about Cambridge Analytica and their a) scrubbing of millions of users' Facebook data using free quiz apps (lol) and b) using that data to power hyper-targeted, emotionally-manipulative political marketing tactics. This story has developed massively since we recorded this so we'll be back next week with more, but that's the cross we have to bear as podcasters. The raw reporting on this is predominately coming from the Guardian/Observer: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/cambridge-analytica While you're at it, consider donating to them. This is great evidence of how important their work is, and all of the information is available free online. ___ FEATURE Continuing the social media/big data theme, we speak to Jason Carmel of the organisation We Counter Hate on their work dealing with hate speech on Twitter. It's approach is particularly clever, and what it's seeing is surprisingly hopeful! Check out their website: http://wecounterhate.com , Follow them on Twitter: https://twitter.com/wecounterhate?lang=en (Unlike Cambridge Analytica, WCH's work isn't only a better cause, but they're also considerably more transparent and limited in their approach. If this is the world we live in now, this is how social media algorithm's and big data efforts should behave.) ___ You can support us by... Following on Soundcloud! We're on itunes! Leave us a review if you like the show. itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/connected-disaffected/ Twitter – twitter.com/CandDPodcast Email - connectedanddisaffected@gmail.com No Facebook this week as we're working on our own data scrubbing algorithms.