Your Favourite Pro-Trump Blog Is Likely Run by a Teen in Macedonia: Here’s What to Read
The Daily 5 is Sharp’s essential reading list for what’s happening in the world today. Make sure to follow us on Twitter or subscribe to the Sharp Insider newsletter to stay up to date.
Here’s what we’re reading today:
1. How Macedonia became a global hub for pro-Trump misinformation
“The young Macedonians who run these sites say they don’t care about Donald Trump. They are responding to straightforward economic incentives: As Facebook regularly reveals in earnings reports, a US Facebook user is worth about four times a user outside the US. The fraction-of-a-penny-per-click of US display advertising — a declining market for American publishers — goes a long way in Veles. Several teens and young men who run these sites told BuzzFeed News that they learned the best way to generate traffic is to get their politics stories to spread on Facebook — and the best way to generate shares on Facebook is to publish sensationalist and often false content that caters to Trump supporters.”
+1: Can Facebook solve it’s Macedonian fake-news story? Probably not.
+1: How to satirize this election? Even The Onion is having trouble.
2. What if everyone is wrong?
“What if the polls are wrong? And more: What if Clinton’s vaunted data operation and ground game don’t deliver? What if there is, in fact, a ‘silent majority’ of Trump fans? What if Clinton’s banked stash of early votes is insufficient? What if, as President Barack Obama’s former campaign manager David Plouffe not so affectionately describes nervous Democrats, the ‘bed-wetters’ are right?”
3. What the Paris climate agreement means for Big Oil
“While many of these companies have acknowledged the goals set forth by the Paris Agreement—some even commending them—they’re still gambling on energy scenarios that climate scientists insist we cannot afford if we want Earth to remain habitable.”
4. There’s a secret Canadian spy database we just found out about
“The Canadian Security Intelligence Service, better known as CSIS, has found itself in trouble with the legal system once again after a federal court discovered the existence of an ‘illegal’ database full of information on Canadians, held at a secret data centre.
The information came to light in a federal court judgement, released Thursday, that takes aim at the previously-unknown Operational Data Analysis Centre and a program whereby CSIS was storing large amounts of data that had nothing to do with its investigations.”
+1: What CSIS did wrong with your data.
+1: Six reporters spied on by Quebec police.
5. The NFL was a sure thing for TV networks. Until now
“This is the NFL on prime time: the greatest snoozefest on turf. Pro football, which has riveted TV viewers for decades, is now repelling them. Ratings are down across the board, particularly during prime-time games. So far this season, Monday Night Football ratings are down 20 percent from this time last year, according to Nielsen data.”
