[ExI] Update from H. L. Mencken

[BillK]

On Wed, 1 May 2024 at 14:26, <spike at rainier66.com> wrote:
>
> Oh it has been such a gift.  Can you even imagine your life without the
internet?  Without electronic communications?  No access to unfiltered
news?  Most of my adult life has had internet, but I remember what it was
like before it, in the 1980s.  We knew almost nothing.  What we did know
was mostly wrong.
>
> spike
>-------------------------------------------


Just ask the experts at lie-telling: chatbots!
BillK


>From Llama-3

Estimating the percentage of the internet that is lies, propaganda, and
advertising is a challenging task. The internet is a vast and dynamic
space, and it's difficult to quantify the proportion of content that falls
into these categories.
However, we can look at some studies and statistics that might provide some
insight:
* A study by the Pew Research Center in 2019 found that 54% of adults in
the United States said that most or nearly all of the news they saw was
inaccurate or misleading.
*A study by the University of California, Berkeley in 2018 found that 65%
of tweets from fake accounts were propaganda or disinformation.
*A report by the Digital Content Next (DCN) in 2020 found that 72% of
online content was advertising.
While these statistics provide some insight into the prevalence of lies,
propaganda, and advertising on the internet, it's important to note that
the internet is a vast and dynamic space, and it's difficult to quantify
the proportion of content that falls into these categories.

According to www.iAsk.ai <https://iask.ai/> Ask Ai Questions Search Engine:

*Approximately 60% of web traffic is non-human, with some years having a
majority of bot traffic. This includes lies, propaganda, and advertising
that contribute to the fake aspects of the internet.*

In the case of digital ad-fraud operations like Methbot and 3ve, where
fraudsters created a simulacrum of the internet using fake websites, fake
people, and sophisticated techniques to imitate human behavior, a
significant portion of online activity is indeed deceptive. These
operations involved infecting computers with malware to generate fake web
traffic and engagement metrics to deceive advertisers into thinking their
ads were being viewed on legitimate websites.

Furthermore, the prevalence of misinformation and fake news online has been
a growing concern. Studies have shown that people tend to seek information
that aligns with their existing views, making them vulnerable to accepting
and spreading false narratives. The rise of “fake news” and the spread of
doctored narratives by both humans and bots have challenged the credibility
of information sources on the internet.

Given these factors, it can be inferred that a substantial percentage of
internet activity involves lies, propaganda, and advertising aimed at
manipulating perceptions and influencing behaviors.
Misinformation on social media - Statistics & Facts
https//www.statista.com › topics › 9713 › misinformation-on-social-media
<https://www.statista.com/topics/9713/misinformation-on-social-media/>
Most common topics of false or misleading information worldwide:
COVID-19/politics ; Ad revenue of misinformation publishing sites
worldwide: 2.6bn USD ; etc.
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