Headline July 30, 2018/ " 'VIRTUAL WAR ROOMS' "

" 'VIRTUAL WAR ROOMS' "

IN AN UNDISCLOSED LOCATION : Zilli, doubles up with laughter. Few like me - in the entire world, were more blessed. I wise-crack a few historical twists and turns.........

'Now, You Great Heroes' I said. "YOU : - Merium, Rabo, Haleema, Saima, Sarah, Zainab, Anne, Dee, Seher, Dantini, Lakshmi,  Eman,  Armeen, Aqsa, Paras, Sorat, Hussain, Shahzaib, Haider, Faraz, Umer, Awais, Ali, Reza,  Bilal, Jordan, Vishnu, Zaeem,  Danyial, Ghazi" and ....

*You Little Angels : Maynah, Maria, Haram, Masood, Dawood, Ibrahim, Haanyia, and Merium, time to give the Captain, lovingly called, Kaptaan, a standing ovation*.

The World Students Society, rises Up and Tall, to give the Prime Minister of Pakistan to be, Captain Imran Khan, a standing ovation. Soon, I cover the Captain in more Headlines.

BEFORE THE SUN came up on Oct 31, last year, Renee DiResta sat in bed in her pajamas and logged into a *virtual war room*.

For years, Ms. Diresta had battled disinformation campaigns, cataloging data on how malicious  actors spread fake narrative online.

That morning, wearing headphones so she wouldn't wake up her two sleeping children, Ms. DiResta  watched on her laptop screen as lawyers representing-

Facebook, Google and Twitter spoke at congressional hearings that focused on the role social media had played in a Russian disinformation campaign before the 2016 campaign.

Ms. DiResta knew the lines of questioning inside out. Along with a handful of people with a similarly obsessive interest in mapping data across social media, she had helped prepare congressional staff members before the hearings.

That morning they gathered in a dedicated channel on the  Slack messaging app to watch and listen for answers to questions they had been asking for years.

"We were monitoring closely to see when the companies gave misleading or partial answers so that we could follow up," said Ms. DiResta 36, who became immersed in disinformation campaigns in her spare time outside of her job as a founder and head of marketing at Haven, a shipping technology company.

How a small group of self-made experts came to advise Congress on disinformation campaigns is a testament to just how long tech companies have failed to find a solution to the problem.

For years, the informal group - about a dozen or so people - has meticulously logged data and  published reports on how easy it is to manipulate social media platforms.

In 2016, they monitored thousands of Twitter accounts that suddenly started using bots or automated accounts, to spread salacious stories about the Clinton family.

They watched as multiple Facebook pages, appearing out of nowhere, organized to simultaneously create anti-immigrant events. Nearly all of those watching were hobbyists, logging countless hours outside their days jobs.

"When I put it all together and started mapping it out, I saw how big the scale of it was," said Jinathan Albright, who mer Ms. DiResta through Twitter.

Mr. Albright published a widely read report that mapped, for the first time,  connections between conservative sites putting out fake news. He did the  research as a ''second job" outside his position of a research director at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University.

Senate and House staff members, who knew of Ms. DiResta's expertise through her public reports and her previous work advising the Obama administration on disinformation campaigns, had contacted her and others to help them prepare for the hearings.

Senator Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia, said in a statement that researchers like Ms. DiResta had shown real insight into the platforms. "In many cases, despite efforts by some of the platforms to  undermine their research."

Mr. Warner is a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

The Honor and Serving of the latest Global Operational Research on  Fake News, War Rooms, Tech Giants, State of the World, continues.

With respectful dedication to the Leaders, Students, Professors and Teachers of the world. See Ya all " register " on : www.wssciw.blogspot.com - for every subject in the world and Twitter - !E-WOW! - the Ecosystem 2011:

''' Jams & Jabs "'

Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless