ECM 1407 Online Social Issues

Question 1

Cambridge Analytica controversy

Answer 1

• A company that used data from Facebook to target people with political messages
  
  • They worked with the 2016 presidential campaign of Ted Cruz and Donald Trump
  • They were also accused of interfering with the Brexit referendum, but investigation failed to find any evidence supporting that

Question 2

How did Cambridge Analytica get the data?

Answer 2

• First they took data from approximately 270,000 users who completed a personality quiz
  
  • By exploiting a loophole in the API, they could get data from the friends of the people who participated in the survey
  • The exploitation of this data was done without user consent

Question 3

How did Cambridge Analytica target people?

Answer 3

Psychographic microtargeting

Question 4

Define microtargeting

Answer 4

a direct marketing technique that tracks and targets specific individuals (customers, supporters, voters, etc.)

Question 5

What is psychographics?

Answer 5

a methodology used to describe individuals by psychological attributes

Question 6

Big-5 Personality traits?

Answer 6

Openness
Conscientiousness
Extraversion
Agreeableness
Neuroticism

Question 7

Distinction between Information, Misinformation, And Disinformation

Answer 7

Information: No intention of deceit, but can be misleading
Misinformation: Misleading, regardless of intention
Disinformation: Intentionally misleading

Question 8

What are deepfakes?

Answer 8

Deepfakes are synthetic media, where the likeness of one person is replaced with that of another, often resulting in highly convincing and deceptive content. It is also used by scammers

Question 9

What is fact-checking?

Answer 9

verifying the accuracy of information and claims, typically in media or public statements.

Question 10

what is content moderation?

Answer 10

monitoring and managing content on digital platforms to prevent the spread of misinformation and disinformation

Question 11

What is a filter bubble?

Answer 11

A filter bubble is the intellectual or ideological isolation that might result from the way online platforms (like google and facebook) limit the exposure to news and other information based on our past behaviour, search history or demographic profile.

Question 12

What is an echo chamber?

Answer 12

An echo chamber is a situation where individuals inside the chamber distrust everybody on the outside of it.
○ Outsiders are actively excluded and discredited