Project could help combat ‘troll armies’
BY: Elizabeth Harrington
September 2, 2016 5:00 am
The National Science Foundation is spending roughly half a million dollars to combat “online trolling.”
A joint project by Northwestern and Northeastern universities is examining how to create “trolling-free environments” on the Internet. The researchers define online trolls as those who try to influence public opinion by boosting “misleading” and “inauthentic comments.”
“Today, almost every browsing click that users make is collected by numerous trackers associated with a variety of online services (e.g., advertising networks, online social networks, e-commerce platforms),” a grant for the project states. “Users have often expressed concern about the lack of privacy and control over their personal data. Nonetheless, despite a substantial effort to expose and control this prevalent behavior, the reality is that users keep accepting updated online privacy policies, which in turn grant the gathering of more personal data.”
https://freebeacon.com/issues/feds-spend-499571-combat-online-trolling/
