The Russians Are Tweeting, The Russians Are Tweeting
Twitter now says it has identified 3,184 accounts run by the Kremlin-linked Internet Research Agency… which posted 175,993 Tweets, about 8.4% of which were election-related, Twitter said. In addition to over 50,000 Russian bots tweeting about the election.
Parts of the media suggest that this isn’t an issue, but rather part of an “Alt-Right fight” against the media and Silicon Valley.
For a bit of Fast Dispatch fun, note that both of the above links… the one characterizing the problem and the one blaming it on the Alt-Right, are from the same outlet – USA Today in this case. (There are plenty of citations; that juxtaposition was just particularly poignant.)
Congress threatened Twitter, Facebook and Google with legislation for their lapses during Congressional hearings, which Congress is referring to as Russian interference in the election. Facebook has launched an investigation into whether Russian agencies used Facebook to interfere in the U.K.’s Brexit vote (over whether to leave the E.U., which they did vote to do.) And Twitter has announced that they have suspended over another 1000 Russian-linked accounts. Both Twitter and Facebook have detailed plans to vet posts more carefully in the next election cycle.
Twitter does have some interesting tweet quotes on their investigation page. The examples they show come from a far-right perspective.
Paul Bocuse: French Chef
Fast Dispatches feature analysis of trending news that is either too big to ignore or odd for having even hit our lists.
Paul Bocuse is a great example. We hadn’t heard of him. But more than half of our most relevant publications did a story on him on the same day, pegging the meter. So, who is Paul Bocuse? And why does everyone seem to care?
- Master French Chef, apparently one of the most famous
- Nicknamed the “pope of French cuisine”.
- Born, lived and died at Collonges-au-Mont-d’or in Lyon, eastern France. Lived to 91 years old. He still slept in the same room he was born in!
- He opened and ran his restaurant, L’Auberge du Pont de Collonges, there.
- It had three Michelin stars, but reviews suggest quality had gone downhill.
- It is the oldest restaurant to have three stars. (This is also a fun overview/review to read.)
- He also had a restaurant at Disneyworld’s Epcot in Orlando, opened in 1982.
- Monsieur Bocuse died January 20, 2018.
A subset of the articles that hit our radar:
BBC, Bloomberg, CNN, Fox News, Washington Post (obituary), Washington Post (impact), USA Today, New York Times, People (Magazine.)
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