NBC
Members of the loose-knit Boogaloo movement who found each other online joined armed protests against Covid lockdowns.
Simplifying Complexity: The Sand Pile Model
Simplifying Complexity
When a system fails, how do you think about cause and effect? One way to consider this in complex systems is to imagine a pile of sand, and dropping one grain of sand at a time in random positions onto the pile. As time passes, you’ll start to form little hills. Eventually, a grain of sand will hit one of these hills, and you get an avalanche.
A new science: Using physics to understand hate groups on the internet
The Hindu
Scientists have been able to model the dynamics of online hate communities with equations used to describe shock waves.
New ‘Shockwave’ Science Tracks Online Hate Speech
A New Science for Describing Unhealthy Online Environments
Physics Magazine
A theory derived from nonlinear fluid dynamics is able to reproduce the formation dynamics of online hate communities—offering insights that could inform public policies.
American extremists linked to Russian sites
Axios
American extremists are consistently turning up on loosely-governed Russian social media platforms.
Tracking online hate speech that follows real-world events
Tech Explorist
Some spikes in hate speech target groups that appear uninvolved in triggering events
Real-world events trigger online hate toward unrelated groups, study finds
The Guardian
Researchers say finding could help moderators predict when content is likely to be published and what to look out for
Coronavirus Today: How COVID lies spread on Facebook
LA Times
They say a lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on. That’s especially true if the lies are about COVID-19 and they’re being spread via Facebook.
Best-science guidance lost battle early during COVID-19 pandemic
News Medical
In a recent study published in Science Advances, researchers used a mathematical model to depict how the general public drifted away from best-science guidance early during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.