(2017-05-23) Diresta Bots Like Hft

Renee DiResta compares ChatBot FakeNews to HFT.

Something very similar happened in finance with the advent of high-frequency trading (the world I came from as a trader at Jane Street): technology was used to distort information flows and access in much the same way it is now being used to distort and game the marketplace of ideas.

Just as HFT was a simplified boogeyman for finance, “fake news” is an imprecise term used to describe a variety of disingenuous content: clickbait, propaganda, misinformation, disinformation, hoaxes, and conspiracy theories.

Disinformation Campaigns are the ones that matter most, and that’s because the goal of disinformation is specifically to introduce fear, uncertainty, and doubt

Disinformation-campaign material is spread via mass coordinated action, supplemented by bot networks and sockpuppets (“fake people”). Once it trends, it’s nearly impossible to debunk.

*Media and analysts, meanwhile, simplify the story to make a very complex issue more accessible, creating a boogeyman in doing so: high-frequency trading (HFT).

The trouble is that “high-frequency trading” is about as precise as “fake news.”*

*Technology transformed financial markets, increasing efficiency and making things better for everyone.

Except when it didn’t*

A middle way that may be more palatable is that of the SRO (Self-Regulatory Organization... American Medical Association.

When it became obvious that malicious HFT strategies were threatening the integrity and resilience of the financial markets, the financial industry’s largest SRO, FINRA, worked alongside the SEC to address the problem.