Showing posts with label troll. Show all posts
Showing posts with label troll. Show all posts

Sunday 12 January 2020

Lies and misinformation about Australian fires being spread on social media in January 2020


"Arson is the act of intentionally and maliciously destroying or damaging property through the use of fire." [Australian Institute of Criminology, 9 November 2004]

The first response of hard right politicians and climate change deniers when faced with the effects of climate change is to resort to lies and misdirection.

This has begun to occur with a vengeance in 2020 with exaggerated claims concerning arson during the 2019-20 bushfire season.

ABC News, 8 January 2020: 

Australia's bushfire emergency is being exploited on social media, as misinformation is spread through cyberspace via hundreds of thousands of posts. 

Out-of-date photos of survivors and inaccurate fire maps have been widely shared, including by international celebrities. 

As authorities fight the flames on firegrounds around the country, an ABC investigation has revealed a battle of a very different kind online. 

One area of misinformation has been the hashtag #ArsonEmergency on Twitter. 

Queensland University of Technology (QUT) researcher Dr Timothy Graham analysed 315 accounts posting #ArsonEmergency and said a third of them displayed highly-automated and inauthentic behaviour. 


He said the topic appeared to be attracting a "suspiciously high number of bot-like and troll-like accounts". 

The ABC found many of the suspicious accounts were amplifying unproven suggestions arson had been the overwhelming cause of Australia's disastrous bushfire season. 

Several Twitter users were misrepresenting a media report about police investigating whether some of the fires were deliberately lit, despite the same report noting the blazes on the NSW South Coast were likely caused by lightning strikes. 

Some incorrectly quoted Australian police as having dismissed the link between the fires and climate change. An article posted by an American far-right figure went one step further, claiming left-wing ecoterrorists were responsible for lighting the blazes.... 

Read the full article here.

The Guardian, 8 January 2019:

Victoria police say there is no evidence any of the devastating bushfires in the state were caused by arson, contrary to the spread of global disinformation exaggerating arsonist arrests during the current crisis.
A misleading figure suggesting 183 arsonists have been arrested “since the start of the bushfire season” spread across the globe on Wednesday, after initial reports in News Corp were picked up by Donald Trump Jr, US far-right websites and popular alt-right personalities.....
Queensland police said between 10 September and 8 January there had been 1,068 reported bushfires in the state, of which 114 had been deliberately or maliciously lit through human involvement and have been subject to police enforcement action.....
NSW police statistics show 24 individuals have been arrested for deliberately lighting bushfires during the current fire season.
But a Rural Fire Service spokesman told Sky News on Wednesday that the majority of the larger fires in the state were caused by lightning, and that arson was a relatively small source of ignition.

The Sydney Morning Herald, 10 January 2020:

A News Corp employee has slammed the organisation for its "irresponsible", "dangerous" and "damaging" coverage of the national bushfire crisis, urging executive chairman Michael Miller to think about the "big picture".

In an email distributed to News Corp Australia staff and addressed to Mr Miller, commercial finance manager Emily Townsend said she had been filled with anxiety and disappointment over the coverage, which had impacted her ability to work.

Ms Townsend, who has worked for News Corp Australia for five years, thanked Mr Miller for the email about fundraising initiatives in relation to the fires, but said the efforts did not offset the company's coverage of the bushfires.
"I have been severely impacted by the coverage of News Corp publications in relation to the fires, in particular the misinformation campaign that has tried to divert attention away from the real issue which is climate change to rather focus on arson (including misrepresenting facts)," she said.

"I find it unconscionable to continue working for this company, knowing I am contributing to the spread of climate change denial and lies. The reporting I have witnessed in The Australian, The Daily Telegraph and Herald Sun is not only irresponsible, but dangerous and damaging to our communities and beautiful planet that needs us more than ever to acknowledge the destruction we have caused and start doing something about it."….

After the email leaked, Ms Townsend said she felt compelled to send it to Mr Miller's email group because of the "sickening" coverage the media organisation had given to the bushfires.

"Everything I said in the email I stand by. I feel sick, not because the email has been circulated but because I have been contributing to this deception by continuing to work for this organisation. I haven't been able to sleep, this has really preoccupied my thinking; it is unconscionable what this company has been doing when it comes to climate change," she said.

Ms Townsend's comments follow an influx of false and misleading posts spread on social media websites this week about the cause of the bushfires, which have raised concerns among politicians and academics....
It would not surprise me to find that Tophan Guerin - contracted by Scott Morrison to handle his social media election campaign in 2019 - had a hand in starting this fake news conflagration which News Corp has vigorously stoked on a daily basis.

NSW recorded crime statistics for the 2019-20 financial year will not be available before July this year. However, arson statistics for the 24 months up to September 2019 are publicly available.

These statistics show that there was a -36.1% trend fall in the total number of persons taken to court on arson related charges in those 24 months.

As of end September 2019 the NSW arson rate was 62.8 per 100,000 head of population.

According to NSW Rural Fire Service spokesman Ben Shepherd the vast majority of major fires in the state since August 2019 were the result of lightning storms.

A more realistic picture of what has been happening on the ground since August 2019 can be found on the NSW Police website and in online media articles under The Sydney Morning Herald and The Guardian mastheads, rather than posts or tweets with the hashtag #ArsonEmergency.

In the 23 locations listed below only 8 had fires which met the definition of arson and, of these only 6 involved grass or bushland fires.

Information from NSW Police website & non-News Corp mainstream media articles:

Wednesday 21 August 2019

* Three girls aged 12, 13 and 14 allegedly set fire to grasslands on thirteen occasions in the Kempsey area of the mid-North Coast, Grasslands which at the time were being controlled by NSWRFS.

Monday 11 November 2019

* 27 year old man during a total fire ban allegedly lit a campfire at Wallacia in the Sydney outer western metropolitan region.

Tuesday 12 November 2019

* 35 year old man living at Prestons in the Sydney outer western metropolitan region allegedly burned fence palings in a cylindrical BBQ causing a fire.

* Man living in Laylor Park in the Sydney outer western metropolitan region allegedly lit a coal BBQ during a total fire ban.

* 9 year old boy allegedly set grass alight with blowtorch causing a grass fire behind a street in Nowra on the South Coast.

Wednesday 13 November 2019

* 5 men in different locations were allegedly found to be breaching total fire bans by lighting barbeque fires, incinerating rubbish or lighting a candle at a campsite.

Thursday 14 November 2019

*51 year old man allegedly attempted a backburn to protect his cannabis crop and lost control of the fire which spread across est. 5,400ha in the Ebor region.

Tuesday 26 November 2019

* 19 year old NSWRFS volunteer firefighter charged with allegedly starting seven fires in the Bega Valley on the South Coast between October 17 and November 26

Saturday 30 November 2019

* 15 year old girl and 23 year old man allegedly set fire to a grandstand in Orange, destroying est. about 40% of the structure.

Thursday 5 December 2019

* 40 year old man allegedly deliberately set fire to grass on a vacant lot in Telarah on the Central Coast.

Sunday 22 December 2019

* Reserve at Wellington in the central west of the state caught fire and a number of boys were allegedly seen running from the area. An 11 year old boy attended Wellington Police Station in relation to the incident.

* Two 18 year old men allegedly set off fireworks in Bright Park, Guildford  (Sydney) causing grass fires.

Thursday 26 December 2019

* 71 year old man allegedly lit fire for land clearance/fire break without permit/notice and permited fire to escape his land in Deua River Valley causing extensive fire damage to nearby Wandera State Forest (>100ha) and Monga National Park on the South Coast. This fireground merged with other fires, eventually covering est. 83,425ha and was still listed as out of control on 10 January 2020.

Friday 27 December 2019

* 23 year old man allegedly deliberately lit two fires in bushland at Neath and Aberdare in the Lower Hunter Valley region.

Monday 30 December 2019

* 18 year old man charged with 5 counts of malicious damage after allegedly setting fire to 3 cars and 3 garbage bins in the township of Raymond Terrace in the Hunter Valley.

Thursday 2 January 2020

* 84-year-old man on a rural property at Kalkite in the Southern Highlands allegedly lit a fire for land clearance/fire break without permit/notice.

Saturday 4 January 2020

* 63 year old man living in Cooma in the Snowy Mountains region allegedly had a small fire burning in a shallow pit dug into the ground in his backyard for the purposes of cooking.

Sunday 5 January 2020

* 38 year old man and his companion allegedly started a small scrub fire in the Taro area of the Hunter Valley after a cooking fire ignited brush.

* 44 year old man allegedly lit fires for land clearance/fire break without permit/notice and set fire to the property at Countegany in the Southern Highlands.

Friday 10 January 2020

* 40 year old man allegedly set alight two metal drums filled with plastic at Schofields in Sydney’s western suburbs, during a total fire ban.

Wednesday 13 March 2019

NSW Liberals behaving badly in March 2019 state election campaign


ABC News, 9 March 2019:

A NSW Liberal Party candidate has had her personal Facebook account suspended, after it was linked to fake accounts that trolled her opponent.

Sitting Labor MP for Port Stephens, Kate Washington, last week claimed that for the past six months fake Facebook accounts had been deriding her, but praising her Liberal rival Jaimie Abbott.

The Liberal Party last week denied any involvement, but yesterday conceded Facebook suspended Ms Abbott's account as well as the account of parliamentary staffer Tasman Brown.

Mr Brown works for Liberal MLC Catherine Cusack.

Ms Washington said Ms Abbott should be disendorsed for what she said were dirty tactics…..

The Liberal Party has denied Ms Abbott had any knowledge of the fake Facebook accounts, and it is blaming Mr Brown.

Ms Abbott told the ABC she was deeply saddened about the incident and felt many were misled.

"Elections should be a contest of ideas rather than a race for likes on social media, and I think that Tasman [Brown] forgot about this," she said.

"Tasman has admitted to me that as a volunteer on my campaign he was responsible for making multiple Facebook posts about the campaign under a number of names."

The Liberal candidate said she had called Ms Washington to apologise on behalf of her campaign and assured her that Mr Brown would have no further involvement in it.

"I intend to focus on continuing to campaign on issues that are important to this community," she said.

Opposition Leader Michael Daley said the trolling was a "new low" in Australian politics.

"This is Putin-style politics in Australia, it's not acceptable and I think that the position of the Premier's candidate in Port Stephens is untenable," he said.....

Mr Brown is employed under Liberal MLC Ms Cusack, who said she was incredibly disappointed.

"He [Mr Brown] realises that it's been a huge mistake, it's an embarrassment and all I can say is he's very full of remorse and he's stepped completely aside from anything to do with the Port Stephens campaign," she said.

Ms Cusack said Ms Abbott's personal Facebook account was suspended only because it was linked to Mr Brown.

She said Mr Brown had administration rights to Ms Abbott's personal account to help with her social media campaign ahead of this month's state election.

Ms Washington has asked the clerk of the NSW Parliament to investigate whether Mr Brown's online activities violated any breach of parliamentary resources.....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sunday 17 August 2014

Oh, the irony! Human Rights Commission appears to have received a s18C Racial Discrimination Act complaint from a Twitter troll. **WARNING: Offensive Language/Graphic Image**


Snapshot from ABC Media Watch Episode 28 on 11 August 2014

Excerpt from Mike Carlton’s The Sydney Morning Herald column on 24 July 2014 which elicited a very hostile response:

The onslaught is indiscriminate and unrelenting, with but one possible conclusion: Israel is not fighting the terrorists of Hamas. In defiance of the laws of war and the norms of civilised behaviour, it is waging its own war of terror on the entire Gaza population of about 1.7 million people. Call it genocide, call it ethnic cleansing: the aim is to kill Arabs.
As none other than Malcolm Fraser tweeted this week: "If any other country went to war killing as many civilians, women and children, it would be named a war crime." But it is not, although the UN is asking the question of both sides.
Yes, Hamas is also trying to kill Israeli civilians, with a barrage of rockets and guerilla border attacks. It, too, is guilty of terror and grave war crimes. But Israeli citizens and their homes and towns have been effectively shielded by the nation's Iron Dome defence system, and so far only three of its civilians have died in this latest conflict. The Israeli response has been out of all proportion, a monstrous distortion of the much-vaunted right of self defence.

Carlton asserts he was then subjected to a barrage of abusive emails on his Gmail account and I tend to believe him. Unfortunately, in tit-for-tat, he was less than polite in his replies.

News Corp now reports that two 18C Racial Discrimination Act 1975 complaints have been received by the Australian Human Rights Commission.

Unless there has  been a third complaint, the second complainant appears to be Simon Goldstein (@simongolds), who until his Twitter account was suspended last week (presumably for offensive, abusive, racist language and graphic images) described himself as a Jewish-Australian teen, UQ student, anti-Hamas, Pro-Israel, Young Liberal! Brisvegas, QLD.

This is the last photo of himself Simon posted on his account and this is his message:




Simon's account appears to have a distasteful history: 






Unfortunately, I rather suspect that the Human Rights Commission will never be fully aware of the pressure that trolls hunting in packs can bring to bear, especially if they are encouraged by the attitude of Murdoch’s minions.

On the other hand, I'm sure the Liberal Party is well aware of the vile side of the Young Liberals organisation and appears to tolerate its members' excesses. 

Tuesday 26 November 2013

Abbott's adviser deletes Twitter account now the damage is done - blames death threats



Mark Textor an adviser to Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has deleted his Twitter account @markatextor after employing the same boots and all approach to Australia-Indonesia relations as Abbott himself.

Textor claimed he could not tolerate the 'death threats' received since he sent the tweets set out below, however if these alleged threats happened they must be thin on the ground because the Topsy archive carries little or no trace of these threats as far as I can tell.

Indeed the twitterverse was more likely to respond with comments such as You are a bogan moron, end of story or "Conduct unbecoming?" Don't f*cking flatter yourself, no one expects anything better from you.

Time online 22 November 2013:

Textor has admitted he slipped up. "Twenty-five years in politics, one or two mistakes, this is certainly one of them," he said Thursday.
As we ponder what the other mistake of his career could be, here are some of his mud-slinging tweets preserved for posterity.
The one where he brought up the 2005 suicide attack in Bali and linked to a photo of the bombers
"Last time I looked no Indonesians were ever bombed in Australia" (removed from Twitter)
The one where he slammed Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's propensity to use Twitter
"What sort of head of state communicates with a head of a neighbouring government by twitter FFS? SBY" (removed from Twitter)
The one where he gave tips for saving on apparently alcoholic beverages to the leader of the country with the biggest Muslim population in the world
@Drew_Bowie @Colvinius @SBYudhoyono @TonyAbbottMHR I think he should sack his foreign service and just do twitter. Save on the drinks bill
— Mark Textor (@markatextor) November 19, 2013
The one where he predicted journalists would find Indonesia's relationship with Australia sexually arousing…
Indonesian junior official criticises Oz Government. 2 things happen: left media gets hard on. Govt gets more domestic support
— Mark Textor (@markatextor) November 11, 2013
… but that anyone who mattered didn't care if Indonesians were offended
"No one gives a rat's arse in the real world. The bubble at work." (removed from Twitter)
The one where he described Indonesia's ambassador to Australia as a chess piece
Indonesian ambassador Read: Pawn of Indonesian domestic politics #indonesiavotes2014
— Mark Textor (@markatextor) November 18, 2013
The one where he implied the Indonesian President was senile
"Poor old bugger SBY is confused." (removed from Twitter)
The one where he re-tweeted a political reporter's response to his porn star slur
@latikambourke @markatextor Personally I disagree Mark. Marty looks more like a bad 70′s Bond villain.
When he reacted to the controversy over his porn star slur
@cathywilcox1 @jonathanvswan it's dull. Silly, gossipy and moronic. Compensated for by fake moral outrage and intellectual snobbery.
— Mark Textor (@markatextor) November 19, 2013
The time he claimed Indonesia's reaction to the spying controversy was fake
@PetefromHayNSW I think we act peacefully. But the fake indo outrage posturing is frustrating.
— Mark Textor (@markatextor) November 19, 2013
The one where he demanded Indonesia apologize for spying in 2004
SBY should apologise. "Indonesia 'bugged' Australia By Brendan Nicholson National Security Correspondent Canberra November 15, 2004″
— Mark Textor (@markatextor) November 19, 2013
The one where he took a dig at Australia's public broadcaster and gossip columnists
@latikambourke Where did i mention SBY exactly? More ABC inaccurate nonsense. More ant rooting from glorified gossip columnists

Front page mock up courtesy of @lol_trotsky

Saturday 10 November 2012

'Yambaman' did an Alexander Downer on Saturday 3 November 2012?

 
According to a regular North Coast Voices reader; Yamba's Rene Rivkin did an Alexander Downer on Saturday.
 
He sent in this snippet from The Daily Examiner on 7 November 2012 with emphasis added:
 
Stroke rounds always produce a plethora of disasters...a fine airswing from Cliffy Wood on the 2nd, Ian Brockwell 4 putting from 60 cm on the 12th, Paul Reid failing to get his tee shot passed the ladies on the 13th ..'Crownies', Chris Durrington hitting Rob Connolly's ball on the 15th but feature of the day was non playing Dave Schwarz who turned up in the late afternoon in fishnet stockings....the mind boggles.
 
Yambaman is also getting noticed locally for remarks such as these:
 
·         yambaman from Yamba

                So sad fcwscott that you appear paranoid about BULK BILLING - yet
                another not prepared to pay his/her way, no wonder Swan can't get the
                budget into surplus! If you can't afford to pay for medical treatment when
                you need it why should you expect others to pay your way?

·     yambaman from Yamba  

MOST of the protesters are unemployed, greenies or uni students, they'll protest against anything! Bottom line is it's the same people who have now got all of us paying through the nose for "renewable" energy, when we have more coal and uranium than we know what to do with (so we export it cheap!).

EDITOR'S NOTE: Comment modified to comply with NS guidlines: http://www.northernstar.com.au/contact/#StoryCommentsNotShowing