Conspiracists and far-right extremists are blaming just about everything and everyone for Tuesday morning’s Baltimore bridge collapse. A non-exhaustive list of things that are getting blamed for the bridge collapse on Telegram and X include President Biden, Hamas, ISIS, P. Diddy, Nickelodeon, India, former president Barack Obama, Islam, aliens, Sri Lanka, the World Economic Forum, … Read more
The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby called conspiracy theories about Kate Middleton “village gossip,” adding “gossiping in that way is wrong,” and said people who have health concerns should be allowed “to live their lives in peace.” The Princess of Wales was hospitalized for two weeks for a “planned abdominal surgery” in January that Kensington … Read more
Despite the overwhelming scale of former president Donald Trump’s victory in the Iowa caucuses on Monday night, some of Trump’s most ardent supporters have already claimed that the vote was rigged because he lost one single county. “After it was reported that President Trump won every county in Iowa tonight, Democrat shenanigans ensued and now … Read more
“All of these examples pose risks for users, causing confusion about who is running, when the election is happening, and the formation of public opinion,” the researchers wrote. The report further claims that in addition to bogus information on polling numbers, election dates, candidates, and controversies, Copilot also created answers using flawed data-gathering methodologies. In … Read more
‘Families were cheated’: Low-income Americans are about to receive $40.6M after chicken and tuna ‘price-fixing conspiracies’ — here’s what happened Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson has added a feather to his cap: he has successfully sued the nation’s largest chicken and tuna producers for engaging in practices he believes caused families to overpay by … Read more
No matter what you thought of The X-Files’ recent revival (we had, uh, mixed feelings), the truth (is out there) that it remains one of the best-loved sci-fi series ever. In 2020, io9 got a chance to spotlight Paul Terry’s wonderfully creative The X-Files: The Official Archives—and today, on X-Files creator Christ Carter’s birthday, no … Read more
First thing’s first: Misinformation and disinformation are bad. False tweets that go viral, government conspiracy theories, lies about vaccines—these are all huge problems online, and they’re poised to get worse thanks to generative AI. There are a few exceptions, though. The best of these came to light over the weekend when Taylor Swift showed up … Read more