- astroturfing:
- influencers being paid to promote a product while feigning neutrality/unbiased opinion
- Astroturfing campaigns attempt to mislead the public into believing that their opinion or position is shared by most people. A person's beliefs on particular topics are often influenced and shaped by the beliefs of others - therefore, by creating the impression that multiple people feel a certain way, people are more likely to "hop on the bandwagon."
- Astroturfing is often used by political parties or other interest groups to manipulate public opinion or to gain support for a particular issue or policy.
- Astroturfing as a marketing tactic involves posting of fake reviews on online forums with the aim of promoting a given brand's products while smearing those of its competitors.
- doxxing:
- Doxing is the act of revealing identifying information about someone online, such as their real name, home address, workplace, phone, financial, and other personal information. That information is then circulated to the public — without the victim's permission. Doxing attacks can range from the relatively trivial, to the far more dangerous ones, like harassing a person's family or employer, identity theft, threats, or even in-person harassment.
- fabrication:
- Completely made up content can have many purposes - sometimes it's to be humourous, and sometimes it is a deliberate attempt to spread harmful information. With today's technology, virtually anybody can edit, alter, or completely fabricate images or videos online.
- Repurposing media is a common manipulative tactic employed by unreliable sources trying to boost their credibility. To verify if a photo is real, check if reputable news sources have shared other images of the event.
- false dichotomy:
- A false dichotomy (or false dilemma) is a logical fallacy in which a limited number of choices or sides are presented as mutually exclusive, when in reality more options are available. It’s also known as the “either-or" fallacy.
- example: "only criminals support defunding the police"
- This is an example of the “either or” fallacy. Law-abiding citizens might support defunding police for a variety of reasons–budgetary, ideological, or the simple belief that public money could be spent elsewhere.
- e.g.: "How are they going to install electric charging stations everywhere, when they can’t even fix the potholes downtown?"
- This is a rhetorical question that conflates two separate issues. On the surface, both are related to automobile infrastructure, but the policy decisions, budgets and other factors that influence both issues, are different from one another.
- e.g.: "We shouldn't be offering support to immigrants when there are homeless Canadians that need help"
- This claim is making it seem like offering support to immigrants and Canada-born citizens are mutually exclusive activities. It is possible to help both at once.
- scapegoating:
- example: "the hockey team keeps losing because of the coach"
- There are lots of reasons for a team to lose, such as the players, the opposing team, the weather, etc. The coach can also definitely be to blame, but placing all responsibility on this one factor of the equation is a prime example of scapegoating.
- e.g.: "the economy is bad because millennials refuse to work"
- This claim is trying to blame complex issues about the economy on a single subset of the Canadian population.
nov 16 2024 ∞
nov 18 2024 +
