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Apr 25 8 tweets 6 min read
"Alexa, which British political @Twitter accounts have a much higher proportion of Fake Followers than other similarly sized accounts measured by followers?"
Elon Musk - who wants to buy @Twitter & who already has the highest Fake Follower score I've ever seen - should write a book called 'How To Buy Friends & Influence People'.
And let's #NeverForget that according to The Tory-supporting Telegraph, the @Conservatives 'hired an army of tweeters to take on Jeremy Corbyn's supporters on social media'.

In the UK & USA the biggest spenders nearly always win general elections.

The @Conservatives spent more than £16 MILLION on #GE2019, including £6m on unsolicited material, £1.6m on a polling firm set up by Lynton Crosby, & £0.5m on Twitter graphics & videos, including rebranding the Tory main Twitter account as #FactCheckUK during the leaders’ debate.
In the 2017 general election, 75 parties and 18 campaign groups reported spending more than £41.6 million between them.

The Conservatives spent most at £18.6 million.
Labour came in at £11 million and the Liberal Democrats at £6.8 million.
Non-party campaigners that pushed anti-Labour attack ads to millions of voters ahead of the 2019 general election spent more than £700,000 without declaring any individual donation, an investigation by @openDemocracy found.

opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-…
The Tory party raised £37.4m in “large” donations in the run-up to #GE2019 - over three times more than Labour.

In the six weeks before polling day, they raised more in donations than all other parties combined during the same pre-poll period in 2017.

ft.com/content/eb4c25…
Unusually, the @LibDems are said to have spent more than @UKLabour on #GE2019.

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More from @docrussjackson

Apr 26
#THREAD

The level of debate around the controversial issue of “free speech” following the announcement of Elon Musk's intention to buy @Twitter, just reinforces the importance of considered, well-informed, & intelligent opinions, backed up by historical & contemporary evidence.
'Free speech isn’t a norm, but a slogan: a label each of us applies to language & conventions we approve of. People complaining about threats to free speech sometimes don’t like the way new norms & voices are challenging their own.' - Fara Dabhoiwala.

theguardian.com/books/2020/dec…
This thread is edited from Fara Dabhoiwala's (@fdabhoi) review of the book 'The Free Speech Wars: How Did We Get Here and Why Does It Matter?', by Charlotte Lydia Riley, printed in the @guardian in December 2020 (link above).

manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526151162/
Read 33 tweets
Apr 26
The actor, liar, & smearer of many left-wingers, Tracy-Ann Oberman has apologised & paid “substantial damages” to politician & academic Dr @PhilipProudfoot, the founder of the Northern Independence party (NIP), who she falsely accused of antisemitism.

theguardian.com/news/2022/apr/…
Millions of people from all sorts of backgrounds have had to put up with Tracy-Ann Oberman's relentless bigotry, insults, & frankly bizarre & utterly delusional tirades.

Some might say it's ironic that she was recently on #BakeOff's Stand Up To Cancer.

Tracy-Ann Oberman's comeuppance & apology is long overdue.

#Solidarity to @PhilipProudfoot & to all the other decent people who have suffered abuse from the ghastly Oberman just because they feel moved by the plight of the people of #Palestine, or because they supported Corbyn. Image
Read 7 tweets
Apr 24
#THREAD

John le Carré & Ben Macintyre in conversation with the NYT, 2017.

"Their subject is spying. Their obsessions are secrecy & betrayal. They are Englishmen of a certain background, old friends & admirers of each other's work. They speak in practically perfect sentences..."
Conversations between John le Carré and Ben Macintyre are inevitably warm, interesting, witty, discursive, conspiratorial and gossipy, although their gossip is often espionage-related and more rarefied than yours or mine.
Le Carré, who over a 56-year career has virtually single-handedly elevated spy novels from genre fiction into works of high literature, has a new book, "A Legacy of Spies," coming out in September (2017).
Read 62 tweets
Apr 24
"There is no deceiver more effective that a public-school-educated Brit."

Prior to becoming an MI5 officer, John le Carré taught at Eton. In 2017, le Carré & author Ben Macintyre discussed the brutalising effects of fee-paying schools - imho describing Boris Johnson to a tee.
Link to conversation with le Carrè & Macintyre:

nytimes.com/2017/08/25/boo…
Read 4 tweets
Apr 23
I worked at the Peak National Park for a decade. The Kinder Mass Trespass of 24 April 1932 was often in my thoughts & I lobbied for more access to moorland owned by rich individuals & organisations. At noon on Sunday there will be a mass swimming trespass.
theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2…
At noon on 24 April, a group of swimmers plan to plunge into Kinder reservoir as “an act of defiance against widespread lack of undisputed access to inland open water in England & Wales, & the disconnect this causes between people, water, & each other”.🏊‍♀️

rapidtelecast.com/the-right-to-s…
All are welcome at the mass swimming trespass, whether for a paddle or a leisurely swim; in a cossie, a wetsuit or even birthday suit. But with water temperatures unlikely to be much above 10C (swimming pools are around 26-28C) caution is advised for anyone planning to take part.
Read 7 tweets
Apr 21
Information Disorder Report:

#Disinformation: false information deliberately created to cause harm.

#Misinformation: false information, but not created with the intention to mislead.

#Malinformation: information based on reality, but used to deceive.

rm.coe.int/information-di…
The Council of Europe report provided a conceptual framework for thinking about information disorder, arguing that only by beginning with a shared understanding can we start constructively discussing solutions, & set out proposals they hope will help bring nuance to the debate.
If we are serious about creating solutions, we need to consider the specific & shifting motivations of different types of agents, the characteristics of different types of messages, & the factors impacting how people interpret those messages.
Read 4 tweets

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