DisinfoDocket 21 November

Hi! I'm Victoria and welcome to DisinfoDocket. DisinfoDocket curates influence operations-related academic research, news, events and job opportunities.
Did you know that DisinfoDocket takes requests? If you have suggestions or relevant work that you'd like to see included, simply reply to this email and send us the details!
* More on developments at Twitter and reactions to Musk's stance on content moderation
* Developments at Meta and US fears that TikTok is a security threat
* Concerns that declining content moderation will result in a rise in online hate speach
* and much more!
Highlights:
Last week, I made the decision to leave my role leading Trust & Safety at Twitter.
— Yoel Roth (@yoyoel) November 18, 2022
Today, I'm sharing a few thoughts about what comes next for the site. https://t.co/QPAQR6zpqU
Over the last year, there's been a lot of energy among regulators about how to potentially require more data sharing from large social platforms. And in fact, there has been enough progress to date that we can actually start to compare & contrast the different approaches. (1/7)
— Brandon Silverman (@brandonsilverm) November 18, 2022
Did you hear that Trump's making it official caused @facebook to STOP fact-checking Trump mis/disinformation on the platform? You read that correctly. FB's exemption for politicians makes no sense. I explain why in this piece for @thehill:https://t.co/TSytatfCxn
— Paul M. Barrett (@AuthorPMBarrett) November 18, 2022
- How to find swarms of fake Twitter followers: Using patterns in follow order, account creation dates, and other attributes to detect inauthentic follower growth (Conspirator Norteño, 18 November)
- How to Stand Up to a Dictator by Maria Ressa review – tales of a moral giant (Guardian, 20 November)
1. Platforms & Technology
- Database of Tech layoffs by company (Layoffs.fyi)
- Cobalt Strike, the tool used by red teams to test the resilience of their cyber defenses has been updated to help the community flag and identify Cobalt Strike’s components and its respective versions. (Google, 18 November)
- May I have a word about… the sins of Twitter, Meta and Amazon (Guardian, 20 November)
- GAN-tastic satisfied customers: Coupon website coupons.ivoicesoft.com is full of positive reviews from satisfied customers. Unfortunately, neither the reviews nor the customers are real. (Conspirator Norteño, 21 November)
- Women more likely to leave tech jobs than men (Computer Weekly, 15 November)
Twitter Alternatives
- Post: A social platform for real people, real news and civil conversations (Post)
- Is Mastodon Private and Secure? Let’s Take a Look (EFF, 16 November)
LISTEN: Mastodon: The Platform Taking Twitter's Worn and Weary (WNYC, 16 November)
Corporate Governance
- Former Twitter employees fear the platform might only last weeks (MIT Technology Review, 18 November)
- Elon Musk’s new email pushes Twitter managers to do his dirty work / Remote work will only be allowed if your manager puts their own job on the line — and guesses right. (The Verge, 17 November)
- Democrats fear Musk may retaliate against Twitter researchers (Washington Post, 18 November)
- 11 (and counting) things journalism loses if Elon Musk destroys Twitter (NiemanLab, 18 November)
- Navigating Elon Musk’s Twitterpocalypse (NiemanReports, 18 November)
- Elon Musk Has Inherited Twitter’s India Problem (Time, 11 November)
- Does Twitter, under Elon Musk, Need Government Regulation? (Boston University, 18 November)
- Elon Musk has said he’ll stop Twitter from becoming a ‘hellscape.’ Yet he’s the one who gets to decide between that and heaven (The Record, 20 November)