NEWS UPDATE

How To Fight Back Against Fake News Websites

noreply@blogger.com (Carlo) — Sun, 04 Sep 2016 06:23:00 +0000

Fake News Websites are everywhere! They gained massive popularity IN the last national Philippine elections because of some crooked people looking to make a quick buck. While they might not be as popular now, it seems that they are here to stay.

Because of their nature, it's hard to fight against these so called "news" websites. People with are too quick to share articles on social media without bothering to check its integrity, as long as the information favors them.

On the bright side, there is something we can do to fight back. Here are a few ways.

Disclaimer - this is not written to favor pro- or anti- administration websites. There are lots of fake news websites on either side. These are steps to fight back against any website spewing out false information claiming it's be true. And needless to say, these are powerful steps, so use with caution. Be 100% that a website is posting fake news before you try these steps.

1. Report In Facebook

This is where these fake news articles usually get their traction. When you see a Page's post with fake news, click on the down arrow on the top right corner of the post.

Then choose "Report Post."

Then choose "I think this shouldn't be on Facebook."

Then choose "It's a false news story."

2. Report The Website To Their Advertisers

This makes sense since these fake news websites exist mainly for ad revenue (well, aside from possible black propaganda; but I digress). Most often, these websites still use the king of Internet advertising- Adsense. Luckily, there is a quick online form you can fill out to report websites publishing fake news:

https://support.google.com/adsense/contact/violation_report

In case they are using a different ad network, you can just go to that ad network's website and check if there is a way to report abusive publishers.

3. Report The Website To Their Web Hosting Company or Domain Name Registrar

To find out who a a certain website's domain name registrar is, I often use any of these tools:

https://www.whois.net/
https://who.is/
https://whois.icann.org/en

To find out who their web host is, you can use these:

http://www.whoishostingthis.com/
https://hostadvice.com/tools/whois/
https://www.webhostinghero.com/who-is-hosting/

Once you have found who their domain name registrar or web host is, just search on Google on how to report abusive websites.

For example, if a fake news website is hosted on Hostgator, this is how you report to the offending website - http://support.hostgator.com/articles/pre-sales-policies/where-can-i-report-abuse-and-or-spamming

For Godaddy - https://supportcenter.godaddy.com/abusereport

For Blogspot - https://support.google.com/blogger/answer/76315?hl=en

For those of you who are too busy, here simpler ways to combat these crooked online publishers.

4. Do NOT Share The Article

This can be argued on. While you can mention from the start when you share a fake article that it is fake, the fact that you shared it into other people's news feed is still getting it some attention and more potential ad revenue. Worse, some idiot might be too lazy to read your caption and consider the article accurate and share it some more. It is best to just stop more eyes from seeing the article.

5. Use Adblock

Just do a quick Google seach for Adblock. This is an add-on software for your browser that blocks all the ads on all the websites you visit.

Fake vs Satire

It also worth mentioning that fake news is different from satire. Satire is a valid form of entertainment and can be very amusing if done correctly. Satire attempts to "make fun" of real news and present information in a comical or funny way. The main difference between satire and fake news is that satire is often easily identifiable as being not real and there is a disclaimer somewhere in the website stating that its content are not factual. The most popular example of a satirical news website is The Onion. On the other hand, fake news websites try to pass its fake information as factual and even attempt to get its users to share the article with their friends in order to get more website traffic.

Conclusion

Obviously just one person reporting to Facebook, the advertiser or the domain name registrar or the web host isn't going to solve anything. But if you can encourage more people to report these fake news websites to the proper agencies, then we can make a difference.

Are there ways you can think of to help combat these abusive online publishers? Share them in the comments below.

ABS-CBN Reporter Doris Bigornia Is Mean To Regional Journalists - FB Post

noreply@blogger.com (Carlo) — Thu, 12 May 2016 06:54:00 +0000

image from Rappler

An open letter to elderly journalist Doris Bigornia is making the rounds on Facebook because of the way the Abs-Cbn news reporter allegedly treated the regional journalists. In a Facebook post written by John Paul Sarsuelo Seniel he detailed how Bigornia behaved during his news report-

Miss Doris Bigornia, please act with decency when you are with your fellow members of the media.
Maybe you did not know that we had a live report for our GMA 24 Oras Southern Mindanao Newscast, i can forgive you on that, but you acted like you did not see anyone interviewing Mr. Bong Go.
Our DMNG Engineer Al Lim Ramz politely told you to excuse yourself from our camera since you became an eye sore to my live report.
Mr. Bong Go and I were on cam, but you immediately scolded him and even told him "sapakin kita".
I don't care who you are, yes you are Doris Bigornia of ABS CBN, nauna kayo sa amin sa media, hindi pa ako nakarating sa trabaho na ito, napapanood na kita sa TV.
Pero nakakabahala ang inasta niyo. Regional Media kami, oo, pero kahit ihilera ka sa amin dito sa region, namumukod tangi kami sa rehiyon namin dahil rehiyon namin ito. Kahit sa rehiyon namin, hindi kami pa star, we work with humility and authority.
You have shown disrespect sa mas nakababata sa inyo. Huwag po kayong pa Star dahil kahit kilala po kayo ng karamihan, hindi niyo po nasisiguro kung gusto ka ba nila.
I opened this up kasi nababastosan kami sa inaasta mo. Pilipino naman po tayo. Yes our companies compete against each other, but we are still Filipinos and we should respect each other sa kung anumang trabaho meron tayo.
I have heard a lot of negative things about you, and now i fully witnessed a glimpse of your character.
But I thank you for the opportunity of testing our character in the midst of a live report, i was not distracted. We stood with good character and we delivered well.
Mindanaoans like my team (MELCHOR, JP, ALLAN) lighted a candle of good reportage and everybody follows.
TO GOD BE THE GLORY.

It can be recalled that Bigornia behaved similarly during the concert the band The Script in Manila.

IT Expert Counters Marcos Camp Statements

noreply@blogger.com (Carlo) — Wed, 11 May 2016 13:57:00 +0000

Facebook user Wilhansen Li posted a statement countering the claims laid out by vice-presidential bet Bongbong Marcos. In May 11, 2016, Bongbong Marcos's team held a press conference questioning some events that happened during the counting of the election results. He writes-

TL;DR: they're getting desperate and are lying through their teeth.

1) The VCMs send results to not one, but THREE INDEPENDENT servers. If you ever tried to alter the results in the transparency server, the numbers on the central and national canvassing servers will differ.

2) One surefire way to prove that the transparency server is compromised is by comparing the tallies of it to the central server located here: https://www.pilipinaselectionresults2016.com/#/er/0

3) Just to nitpick (but it shows how technically inept their explanation is): A packet is what we call data that is packaged to be sent between computers. It's like the box that you put your stuff in to have it shipped. It does not have such thing as a "hash code", but it does have a "checksum".

4) Let's give them the benefit of the doubt and say that they probably meant that the data was altered in transit and the hash code of the data is altered in order to fake the data's authenticity. This is also wrong since the data is encrypted AND digitally signed (see https://www.facebook.com/notes/wilhansen-li/laymans-guide-to-aes2016-security/10154102115416000 on what digital signatures are) so just tampering the hash code is not enough and the data will be rejected if it's not signed. Signing the data requires the BEI's private keys which is in the SD cards of the VCM... not in the CCS or transparency server! So you can't just generate fake data on the transparency server alone.

P.S. to play the "an IT expert said X" game, this is written by a professional programmer, co-founder of a software developement company, and part-time instructor at Ateneo who read through the source code of the Automated Election System on a pro-bono basis (i.e. I did it for free, sacrificing my time and money).

What To Do After The Comelec Hack And Database Leak

noreply@blogger.com (Carlo) — Fri, 22 Apr 2016 10:23:00 +0000

In the what is hopefully the aftermath of the Comelec website hacking and database leak, we are left with nothing but a few security measures to counter possible identity-related issues that might stem from the said incident. Or at the very least, provide us peace-of-mind. Here are some steps you can take to help you sleep better at night.

1. Change Your Email Address

If you're using one email address for all your online accounts, good for you. All you have to do is create a new email address and use your new email address from now on. If you're using more than one email address, better file a leave from work because it looks like it's going to take you hours, if not days to update everything.

2. Change Your Email Address On All Your Accounts

List all your accounts and profiles where you are using your email address. Now log-in to those accounts and change your email address. If you just go onto Facebook and don't use anything else online, good for you. For the Internet-savvy people who has several accounts, I feel you.

3. Change Your Backup Security Measure On All Your Accounts

This includes changing your security question/s. Change everything.

4. Contact Your Bank / Credit Card Company

Call your bank / credit card company / financial institution and inform them of the situation.

See this and this

VIDEO Maria Ozawa Admits Having Sex With Cesar Montano

noreply@blogger.com (Carlo) — Thu, 03 Mar 2016 08:37:00 +0000

image from Rappler.com

In an interview with DJ Mo Twister, former adult actress Maria Ozawa admitted to having intimate relations with actor Cesar Montano. Ozawa was shy and giggling at first but the Japanese actress eventually answered the question. Twister followed up with questions relating to the sexual act.

Ozawa said it happened once before they started filming MMFF entry "Nilalang."

Montano was a last-minute replacement for Robin Padilla who wasn't able to take up the role. Cesar was married to also-former-sexy star Sunshine Cruz.

See video below :

Scroll to 1:05:50

Trending: 66-Year-Old Lolo Now A Popular DOTA 2 Player

noreply@blogger.com (Carlo) — Mon, 30 Mar 2015 04:09:00 +0000

Now trending in Facebook is the story of this 66-year-old grandfather who was advised by his physician to take up a new hobby to exercise his mind. The doctor's mind exercise of choice happens to be DOTA 2 - a popular online game among the youth.

Facebook user Tryke Gutierriez writes:

The story behind the 66 year old DOTA 2 player.

A few years ago, this lolo was recommended by his doctor to play computer games as a form of stress reliever and for him to be able to exercise his brain. Apparently when you grow old, you tend to just sit and stay at home and that can make your mind deteriorate so its best to find an activity that involves logic and decision making. The doctor specifically recommended DOTA 2, a strategy heavy game just like how other doctors recommend the elderly to play majong. According to the people here in iloilo this 66 year old lolo comes to acclaim comp shop in the morning and plays DOTA 2 for the whole day everyday regularly and is a popular figure in the cafe. I don't know personally if theres a science that can prove what the doctor recommended but this is definitely an out of the box medication but it seems to be working fine.

P.S. sniper and viper best heroes ni lolo

Update

There is a possibility that the lolo Dota will be on local TV show MMK.

GRAPHIC INJURY - Airline Crew Gives Scalding Hot Water To Passenger

noreply@blogger.com (Carlo) — Tue, 03 Mar 2015 10:03:00 +0000

A passenger was fuming mad after an airplane crew allegedly gave her niece burning hot water.

The passenger asked for warm water but instead, the airline crew gave them scalding hot water that caused injury to her niece. Gracie Cuico posted the following photo of the injury:

The airline (PAL) has not issued a statement as of yet. This post will be updated when Philippine Airlines posts a statement.

Photo/screenshots via Fashion Pulis

Time to do a Lazarus

noreply@blogger.com (Carlo) — Thu, 18 Sep 2014 09:37:00 +0000

It's about time.

Let's roll.

Typhoon Yolanda relief goods 'go to wrong hands', says foreigner (viral video)

noreply@blogger.com (Carlo) — Wed, 13 Nov 2013 04:21:00 +0000

Sadly, a foreigner has expressed worry over how donations and relief goods for the victims of typhoon Haiyan (local name Yolanda) is being distributed.

Use Mozilla Firefox to view video

source

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noreply@blogger.com (Carlo) — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 04:13:00 +0000

Some men just want to watch the world burn

noreply@blogger.com (Carlo) — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 04:12:00 +0000

Little piece of sh....

noreply@blogger.com (Carlo) — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 16:28:00 +0000

Kids these days....

NEW Marvel Movies Coming Soon!

noreply@blogger.com (Carlo) — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 08:40:00 +0000

Seems legit

noreply@blogger.com (Carlo) — Sat, 07 Jul 2012 11:37:00 +0000

You're your own mistake

noreply@blogger.com (Carlo) — Sat, 07 Jul 2012 11:36:00 +0000

Facebook these days

noreply@blogger.com (Carlo) — Sat, 07 Jul 2012 11:35:00 +0000

This is wrong in so many levels

noreply@blogger.com (Carlo) — Sat, 07 Jul 2012 11:34:00 +0000

Well DUH

noreply@blogger.com (Carlo) — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 13:47:00 +0000

I hope everything works this way

noreply@blogger.com (Carlo) — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 13:45:00 +0000

In Case Of Fire....

noreply@blogger.com (Carlo) — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 13:44:00 +0000

The KING of sarcasm

noreply@blogger.com (Carlo) — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 13:43:00 +0000

I still haven't forgiven you for demoting Pluto

noreply@blogger.com (Carlo) — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 13:42:00 +0000

No one knows whats it like

noreply@blogger.com (Carlo) — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 13:27:00 +0000

I'm getting this for my backyard

noreply@blogger.com (Carlo) — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 13:24:00 +0000

Dressed for the occassion

noreply@blogger.com (Carlo) — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 13:23:00 +0000