In Fort Collins 25 Up next Business Daily I'm sorry the news room. People believe that and Independent Commission of Inquiry is absolutely necessary and we cannot accept why the government still we feel is to set up such a commission on the eve of the 30th anniversary of the fall of the burden wall the u.s. Secretary of state has warned of the dangers posed by all Thora Tarion ism and countries like Russia and China Mike Pompei Oh said the West was wrong after the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe to assume the tree societies would flourish everywhere he singled out Russia Today Russia led by a former k.g.b. Officer stationed in Dresden invade his neighbors and slays political opponents It suppresses the independence of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine Russian authorities even as we speak use police raids and torture against Crimean Tartars and Ukrainians who are working in opposition to Russian aggression Mr Pompei also said methods used by China's Communist Party to suppress its own people would be horrifyingly familiar to East Germans paging has reacted angrily accusing Mr Pompei of having a Cold War mindset. Firefighters in eastern Australia say they're facing an unprecedented situation as dozens of bush fires raged across New South Wales a record 16 fires are burning at emergency levels with at least 50 others described as out of control Sharona Webb was evacuated from her home and says the fire is spreading fast if I was in. Called the South to me he says that one that is away from their house within about 3 hours is fine I say within probably one to 2. Our residents more than a 1000 firefighters and 70 aircraft have been deployed but are unable to reach everyone affected the political parties in Spain are embarking on their final day of campaigning ahead of Sunday's elections with the issue of Catalan separatism looming large it follows an inconclusive election in April in which the socialists emerged as the largest party but short of a majority opinion polls suggest they could be a similar result this time we'll news from the b.b.c. The army in the Democratic Republic of Congo says it's killed $25.00 rebel fighters since it launched an offensive against militia groups in the east of the country at the end of last month 7 government soldiers are also said to have been killed the Congolese military launched the operation from Beni an area targeted by the Ugandan group allied democratic forces which has killed hundreds of people. Police in northern India have detained hundreds of people ahead of a Supreme Court ruling on a disputed religious site and now you're Dia many for making social media comments which could increase calm you know tensions in 1902 Hindu fundamentalists destroyed the mosque sparking religious violence in which around 2000 people were killed and bear a son at a rotter and reports more than 5000 police and paramilitary troops have been deployed in the city of in with the previous state Hindus and Muslims there for decades been bitterly divided over the 16th century Barbary mosque and the built on what Hindus believe was the birthplace of the God Ram Hindus want to build a temple over the site in recent years IOW the a has become a rallying point for the governing Hindu nationalist b.g.p. That decision on the future of the site is expected sometime next week and there are concerns that the verdict could trigger under arrest the Iranian military is reported to her shot down an unmanned and identified drone on the Gulf Coast in June Iran shot down and unmanned u.s. Surveillance drone to Iran said it was flying over Iranian territory but Washington said it was downed over the Strait of Hormuz recent political unrest in Chile has led the coach of the national football team to choose foreign based players for his upcoming friendly against Peru many matches in Chile's Football League have been suspended in the last few weeks due to the massive anti-government demonstrations and some players may not be fit enough to play b.b.c. News. You're listening to the newsroom from the b.b.c. World Service with me Alex Ritson Charles c. Lot cool so known as Alix died on Friday succumbing to injuries suffered on Monday as Hong Kong Police used tear gas as they attempted to clear pro-democracy protesters from a car park he fell from the 3rd to the 2nd floor of the building the 22 year old's death sparked both anger and sadness and police in Hong Kong have called for calm it's a flash point that coincides with the appearance of 2 of the most prominent activists appearing in court charged with unlawfully organizing a public meeting outside a police headquarters Agnes Chao spoke to reporters as she and just your warm arrived at court the most important thing is that we see you do not know the truth what happened that day what makes such our friend fell down from from the platform to to the 2nd floor and so we believe that the government and the police have the responsibility. In nice shape our plan a transparent and fair investigation police say there will be an investigation the B.B.C.'s Stephen McDonell has been on the streets of Hong Kong but it's pretty tense here tonight I can tell you I mean it's been a week in Hong Kong with several stabbings with the pro-democracy having Harveys here bitten off and there are the death of this protester fell from a car park is the right place for approaching firing tear gas into the car park and surrounding areas in an attempt to clear activists away has really sent shock waves through the city a police spokeswoman came out tonight calling for calm calling for people to be rational in their approach to this and that was after. At lunch time protesters came out of the office blocks and or call an occupied streets as any sort of a vigil to mark his death once the announcement to come the doctors couldn't save him just shows the extent of the distress here in this particular day now we don't know why he fell from the 3rd to the 2nd floor of this car park as I say there was tear gas being fired into the car park. He struck he said receiving severe brain injuries and all week doctors have been trying to save him he's been in a coma but finally this morning at the University student had a heart attack and died and the police have been coming under particular criticism but they because of this all happened as that were approaching you know firing tear gas and the like but also because paramedics said it took them 19 minutes to reach this severely injured student and they said that was because of a something which activists have blamed on a police roadblock now again the place about comments that they didn't stop the ambulance getting through but the ambulance service has been pretty clear in saying something stopped them from getting in and they had to get out and walk in now if you can imagine if that somebody had a critical Brian injury every minute counts and 90 minute was just too long for them to get there either way the police having to fend off some pretty serious criticism that they hold some of the responsibility for this protest this death Stephen McDonell in Hong Kong yesterday we told you about the French president a man your macros claim that NATO had been left brain dead by unit lateral ism on the part of the United States well the u.s. Secretary of state Mike Pompei o has now responded joining a speech in Germany to help mark the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall I think NATO remains an important. Recall perhaps historically one of the most critical strategic partnerships in all of recorded history it is an absolute period of the every country participate and join it and contribute appropriately to achieving that shared security mission is to Pompei also urged his country's allies term main vigilant against Russia and China to think of Russia as a worthy partner in the same undertaking that we are taking down the threat of terrorism around the world or promoting freedom and prosperity in the economic well being of citizens around would think that Russia would remotely be a partner in anything like the United States or anything like a European country is irrational defense and diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus is here in the studio Jonathan what message was Mike Pompei are trying to send in response to Emanuel macro's comments Well I think to some extent he was shrugging them off obviously pointing to the still the central that NATO holds he believes in American thinking the difficulty of course is that's not the impression President Trump himself has given but he has made it clear and this is the constant u.s. Refrain a not just from this administration that NATO countries have to provide the resources for their collective defense and if they didn't miss the Pompei was said there was indeed a risk that NATO could become ineffective or obsolete we just heard Mr Pompei warn against the growing power of Russia and China is that unusual given that Donald Trump are so often been criticized for being too chummy with a lot of me Putin would indeed I think it is a problem I mean if it goes again to this whole question of the u.s. Leadership in the West the leadership that in many ways Mr Trump does not appear to want to exercise mr pump post toe was really quite cold war in its broad themes any difference being that there are now 2 major adverse true is Russia on the one hand . And of course China's growing power in the Pacific he didn't mince his words about either of these countries indeed his comments on China drew a very swift rebuff from Beijing and the difficulty of course is that whilst many of America's European allies NATO allies share a large part of these concerns many of them are a lot closer to Russia many have big business dealings with Russia for example Mr Pompei o pointed to the dangers of relying upon Russia for Europe's energy needs the Nord Stream to a pipeline that is going to carry carry energy from Russia to to the west and to Germany and of course that is something that many European countries view rather more positively than does Washington do Donald Trump and Mike Pompei briefly speak from the same page now they don't really and I mean this has been a constant problem with this administration we see it in the starkest terms in that in regard to Ukraine and the shenanigans surrounding the proposed impeachment of Mr Trump there Mr Trump and his immediate circle were running a parallel foreign policy to that being run out of the State Department by America's professional diplomats and I think that lack of coherence that lack of clarity really extends across the piece into all aspects of u.s. Foreign policy under the trump of ministration Jonathan thank you Jonathan Marcus Michael Bloomberg was a mare of New York City for more than a decade but he's always ruled out running for president reportedly because he never thought Americans would support a billionaire New Yorker now the Democratic Party is trying to find a candidate who can beat the incumbent New York billionaire Donald Trump and Mr Bloomberg looks ready to step into the breach So just who is he the newsroom's Peter coffin reports Michael Bloomberg is by his own description a self-made man a veteran of Wall Street and Harvard business. School he's built a financial services and media empire Forbes magazine has said his net worth is more than $50000000000.00 That's over 16 times Donald Trump's $3100000000.00 and Mr Bloomberg is not shy about contrast in the 2 Here he is at the 2016 Democratic Party convention I built a business and I didn't start it with a $1000000.00 check from my father. I believe we need a president who is a problem solver not a bomb thrower a lifelong Democrat Mr Bloomberg switched sides to run for mayor as a Republican in 2001 but after leaving office he returned to the Democrats and in the years since he's been a driving force not to mention the financier behind several Democratic campaigns and causes he's put millions of dollars into initiatives that fight climate change and he's founded the gun control group every town for Gun Safety this week Mr Bloomberg in every town were credited with helping the Democrats win a governorship and several Senate seats in the state of Virginia after they vastly outspent the Republican aligned to the National Rifle Association but as a moderate Democrat entering the race defined by bold progressive ideas Mr Bloomberg could struggle to win over the party's base he said that providing free health care to all Americans would bankrupt the country and he scoffed at other candidates plans to tax the rich he's also closely associated with the so-called stop and frisk policy used by New York City police while he was mayor the strategy resulted in a disproportionate number of black and Hispanic men being targeted by officers for little reason and for voters who have worried that the likes of Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders are too old for the White House the 77 year old Mr Bloomberg is hardly a solution but he will be an alternative for centrists who were turned off by other moderates by Joe Biden for his verbal gaffes are people who judge for his inexperience and as a tough talking New Yorker Michael Bloomberg could position himself as the best choice to stand up to Donald. Beating off and you're listening to the b.b.c. World Service Still to come on The Newsroom who's not smoking in China 1st David has the headlines candlelit vigil for being held in Hong Kong in memory of the student who died from injuries sustained during a recent pro-democracy protest police in the Territory have appealed for calm the American secretary of state has warned of the dangers of rising more thorough Terry Unism 30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall and that unprecedented number of wildfires are burning in eastern Australia a ruling from Brazil's top court could free jailed ex-president Luis in arceo Lula da Silva decision for him Moseley Braun's there's. The Supreme Court's President Jose Antonio Diaz to Foley announcing the court's decision that a person can only be imprisoned after all appeals to higher courts have been exhausted it could benefit not just Lula But nearly 5000 other convicts the 74 year old left wing leader though is serving a long sentence for corruption he was president between 20032010 had been a favorite to win last year's election but his imprisonment barred him from running that speak to Camilla motor who joins us now from Sao Paolo Camilla What's the significance of this ruling Well Alex former President Lula has been arrested for exactly 579 days he's been convicted in 2 corruption cases but in both of them he could still appeal to higher courts so last night Supreme Court decision means that Lula could request to wait for trial out of custody in fact he's attorneys will meeting this morning and have said in a statement they will request he's released this Friday so what's been the reaction to this in Brazil. Brazilian society has been divided for a few years now and the reactions reflect that in a way who has this hardcore base of supporters who say his trial and imprisonment was unfair and political so they celebrated last night's decision but the former president also faced high rejection mainly because of all the corruption charges so there's a lot of people angry with the Supreme Court ruling Why did the supremum Court decide to do this now so the justices have been going on and off with this so-called 2nd instance imprisonment for a while they fought it for it in 2009 and confirmed the very big on 3 other occasions Brazil has so many appealing courts that historically it always took years and years for someone convicted to actually start serving the sentence so the rulings were seen as a way to make the system fairer but some experts have argued doing this time that Brazil's Constitution states that no one can be considered guilty until due process is concluded and that was the understanding that prevailed yesterday justices said that if the Brazilian society one second instance in prison meant that should be decided by the legislative by the House of Commons in the Senate and not by the Supreme Court course he has been a favorite to win last year is election and whatever the outcome of this you can't turn back time. Oh yes exactly a little has already said that he once he's out of jail he will try to reorganize the opposition the left wing movie the Labor Party special the opposition to the current president labels and I don't the thing is that he could not fully exercise his political rights because of the Brazilian law a Brazilian law called a clean record Act that prohibits convicted politicians from running for 8 years after serving their sentences so that's something that we'll need to see what will be he's part of this there's opposition reorganizing movement Camilla thank you Camilla from Sao Paolo. Earlier this week the British government announced it wouldn't be publishing a report into alleged Russian interference in u.k. Democracy until after the upcoming general election now though former national security official has raised concerns about how vulnerable the British political system is to outside exploitation our star security correspondent Gordon Corera to explain his name is Paddy McGuinness and he was until the start of last year deputy national security advisor for intelligence and security said he was involved at the center of government advice in the prime minister on the kinds of issues his concern really is that it's not just about Russia but it's about the vulnerabilities in the electoral and political system and those vulnerabilities if they're not dealt with leave the u.k. And its political system open to be exploited by all kinds of hostile actors of which Russia is one but even u.k. Malicious actors within the country who want to take advantage of some of the laxity over data over rules over transparency and that if you like if you leave that door open lots of people will push it and the Russians are simply one of those is this a theoretical threat or is there evidence that Milan bodies have actually been trying to influence. It's a good question and that's why I think a lot of people were so interested in this report from the intelligence and security committee because there's been questions about whether there has been extensive Russian interference in things like the Brits at referendum in previous elections now there hasn't been as much evidence produced as there is for the United States where thanks to the miller inquiry there's a really large body of evidence suggesting Russian interference there's never been the same investigation in the u.k. This was the closest we've got it doesn't look on the surface as if there was as much direct interference but we simply don't know the full extent of it and I think there's a broader sense in which this report from intelligence and security committee was not just looking at some of the things we thought of in terms of social media war hacking of elections and the use of data but also funding money influence the role of oligarchy the more subtle ways in which implants might be exerted as well so what is the government's position and why is this report being sat on by Number $10.00 Downing Street the government have said that the report has to go through the usual process and there simply wasn't enough time before the election now the person who chairs the Intelligence Committee has said he thinks it's not true to claim that and it's being sat on now whether there is something embarrassing in the report whether there was some Russian money in the system or something like that that's $1.00 possibility of that they simply do not want that out but they're saying it's just part of the process of course the election was called relatively suddenly and they're saying that didn't give it time to be released Gordon Corera Davies has some other stories from our news desk the Philippines has granted refugee status to a former Iranian beauty queen after she was held for 4 weeks in an airport by her resigning Bihari was the subject of an Interpol red notice issued by Iran Ms Bihari who's a critic of the Iranian regime had been seeking asylum in the Philippines fearing she would be jailed or executed if she returned to Iran. Scientists say they've developed a technique for making fake rhino horn which they hope could undermine the illegal market with incredible fake researches say they made the fake corn by gluing together horse hair and silk fibers rhino horn is popular in traditional Chinese medicine where it's claimed to be an aphrodisiac. A number of possessions belonging to the Prodigy singer Keith Flint sold at auction for nearly 350000 pounds the collection included a custom made gothic bed his nose ring and 3 m.t.v. Awards which he won in the ninety's and 6 years after the original became the most successful animated film of all time the sequel to Disney's Frozen has had its premiere in Hollywood industry experts expect to to break more records when it's released in a fortnight David thank you now to China where the authorities have announced a plan to try and limit smoking in films and t.v. Programmes or Asia Pacific editor see there hasn't told me more well this is part of an overall new national push by some parts of the Chinese government to try to do what they can to limit smoking it's causing more than a 1000000 people to die each year in China because of tobacco related illnesses China is by far has the biggest population of people who smoke in the world it's also the biggest tobacco producer in the world so yes it's now it's a new plan to try to limit this so it's stopping representations of cigarette smoking on film and television especially a ban on young people smoking any program that features too much smoking will now be stopped from applying for any award so it's trying to kind of force directors to really think about the representations of cigarettes and also there's lots of other things in this national plan so shops that sell cigarettes to children will be given quite have to find now and they're also trying to push the number of Chinese cities that limit smoking on public transit and in public places when you go out in London New York the European capitals it is actually quite rare to see people smoking Now why is China so to use the phrase far behind on this whole China has an essential contradiction because the Chinese government parts of the Chinese government as I said are. Eager to limit this but other parts of the Chinese government profit from tobacco the Chinese government has a monopoly on selling tobacco and China tobacco which is that sort of the state cigarette company sold 170000000000 dollars of worth of cigarettes last year it's a major source of tax revenue for for Beijing so some parts of the Chinese government are actually working against other parts of the Chinese government so sometimes when when for example in $28000.00 in the city Chinese city of Hong Joe there was an effort to limit smoking in public places and actually the Chinese tobacco industry actively tried to stop on Joe officials from implementing that change Celia Hatton added Senate ancient Rome was the capital of an empire of 70000000 people but little is actually known about the genetics of ancient Romans but now scientists from the United States Austria and Italy have examined the d.n.a. Of some of the inhabitants of the Eternal City and discovered just how diverse its people were as the newsroom's which is Hamilton report the research is also found there was a major shift in the make up of the population. As seen from the t.v. Series Rome in which a cohort of disciplined Roman soldiers repelled a racket a horde of barbarians but this research suggests the people we think of as Romans were actually much more diverse the scientists from Stanford in California as well as the Universities of Vienna and sappy ends studied the d.n.a. Of $127.00 skeletons from $29.00 archaeological sites in and around Rome they discovered that when the Roman Empire was at its peak around $100.00 a.d. Its inhabitants included many migrants from the Middle East and Eastern Mediterranean Jonathan pro chart is Professor of Genetics at Stanford and one of the lead research. Even as early as 3000 years ago around the time that the city itself starting to be established beginning it was already a cosmopolitan place with people coming from North Africa from with ancestry from Iran and it was a very mixed community from very early on by the I and I if so in the 1st millennium b.c. There were already extensive trade connections of around the Mediterranean so transport by ships was already quite advanced at that point and we already see a lot of both archaeological influences as well as in our study genetic influences as early as that he says that when the Roman Empire began to fragment in the late 3rd century a.d. Rome became more western facing its political outlook and its population was much more European later the rise of the Holy Roman Empire brought an influx of central and north European ancestry Jonathan Pritchard says the genetic evidence indicates the population of the a turnoff city was in a constant state of flux mirroring shifting political developments and amid the current debate about migration to Europe this aspect of ancient history is still highly relevant today Richard Hamilton until next time. In welcome to k.g. And you Boulder Denver and Fort Collins we're coming up on 630 where will go to Business Daily and then at 7 o'clock democracy now 8 o'clock morning magazine and then at 830 on connections Cajun use handily Meyer's host a 2nd special program with flows sustainability leadership team will hear new to Team discussion and I'm sorry we'll be hearing new team membership stories and hear a discussion on some of their top sustainability tips and then Amy Goodman of Dr democracy now will be moderating today's presidential forum on environmental justice and Cajun you will be carrying 2 hours of the form starting at 4 o'clock this afternoon and in today's weather we will have sunny skies with a high of 62 and tonight clear lower 42 Saturday high of 69 let's go to Business Daily. You're listening to the b.b.c. World Service with me Ed Butler today we are looking once again at influences online these are the people that millions of us follow on Instagram and they're getting paid millions themselves to promote products and services on their accounts but how many of them off faking their way to riches by manufacturing bogus follow as his daily investigates in a couple of minutes. B.b.c. News with David Alston hundreds of people in Hong Kong have gathered for a vigil in the car park where a university student was injured during pro-democracy protests this week charging a lock died on Friday 4 days after he fell from the 3rd level of the Coppock police have appealed for calm. On the eve of the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall the u.s. Secretary of state has said all Thora Tarion is a many countries like Russia and China poses a threat he accused Moscow of invading its neighbors and killing its political opponents the International Court of Justice will rule shortly on whether it has judicial power to consider a lawsuit brought by Ukraine against Russia Kiev accuses Moscow were violating un conventions by financing terrorism in eastern Ukraine and by discriminating against Tartars in occupied Crimea prosecutors in Salzburg formally charged a former colonel in the Austrian army with spying for Russia the unnamed colonel who's in his early seventy's was detained 12 months ago prosecutors allege he supplied state and military secrets to Russian military intelligence the g.r.u. Pretties to 25 years it's the final day of campaigning in Spain's general election which is being dominated by the issue of cattle and separatism the socialists of the prime minister Pedro Sanchez hoped to get a majority which they currently lack police in India have detained hundreds of people in the run up to a Supremes Court ruling on a religious site in I your dear that's claimed by both Hindus and Muslims dozens of being held for inflammatory comments on social media a record 16 wildfires are burning at ports classed as emergency level in Australia as new thoughts of Wales State 50 more blazes are classified as out of control that's the latest b.b.c. News. Hello I'm Ed Butler and welcome to business daily from the b.b.c. Today we are looking into the fakers the deviling the world of Instagram we found that somewhere between 20 to 30 percent of influencers will be artificially inflate in their metrics in some way shape or form whether that be buying fake followers or even now people are buying fake likes or comments that's like a 30 percent chance that when you invest in info and so it's a total Doug fake is and fraudsters and the people making millions online that's been from the b.b.c. . Ok right Ed when we were talking yesterday about influencers these are the people regular men and women of course on social media maybe they're models maybe they're actors minor celebrities anyway they are on Instagram and they're talking about their lives and their likes and they're taking money from advertising firms to promote stuff products fun fact that I was reading beauty firm Estelle Lauder they spend 3 quarters of their marketing budget on influencers in the last week or so Edwin you've been trying to turn yourself into an influencer Now we talked about this yesterday correct me if I'm wrong it was becoming pretty clear that you were finding this hard work yet so I set up my influence a profile London past a guard focused on pastor which elevating and making so I thought that would be a good need for me but building a following getting people to like my posts that's a really slow process so to get me a profile of the ground I started looking around on the Internet for help and I found help in an unlikely place a conceptual artist in Belgium called Greece Deporter periods so a few months ago and meeting new projects and it's called quick fix and it's length and then a machine at his place on the wall you can buy likes and followers for Instagram on this machine right he really is a faker isn't a well he's an artist so he's sort of doing it for an art project but yeah he made this vending machine and it dispenses followers and likes it's an art installation but it works you put in some coins you punch your instagram name in on the keyboard and then your latest post gets hundreds of likes so I asked him how it works I mean actually a lot of the accounts there will follow you or like you ladies. And you're a control of them yeah Ok Drees at the moment I'm trying to become a bit of an Instagram influence and why so. Of what if you are counting it's London past the guy one word Ok yet so what I've got one new post there today I took a picture of my lunch yet new ones on extra lax read what sort of numbers are we looking at are we can give you 500000 and what you want while Ok well at the moment I'm on 0 like that actually got 0 followers you know let's try a 1000 and see what happens I've got my phone in front of me so you already have now 13141500 my God Ok so suddenly I'm on one for one likes to have new. One now in 5 likes says here your new 57. 0 my God Ok I'm getting really popular really quickly to wait for likes Yeah and then if you are now we own almost 300 and then you will I think in a minute you will end up with gallon of wow that's so quick it's it's just a basically an immediate response and if I look through at the like so I can look at the list of the accounts that like that post. And there all there all counts that are controlled by you so these are real people no 541 still going through my lunch as never being so popular. And it's what is interesting it's a b. It's not my food that I'm job for some people it's their full time job to sell those likes and to ask money for it so what should I learn from this they're not the numbers on your screen you know remarks are always real you know it looks a bit you have 0 following But now almost Internet like so the board. Looks like I'm going to have to find myself some followers as well yeah what I loved about that clip there that interview was that even though you knew all of this stuff was fake all of these followers who were being bestowed to you I said stead when am I wrong I sensed that there was something visceral about all the approval you were receiving from those from those clicks if like me you're the kind of person who gets maybe 10 likes on your most successful post on Instagram and a couple of comments from your real close friends getting a foul I got a I got a 1003 likes now and one of my posts on my London passed a guy profile that's just looks amazing so I can understand the sort of the thrill of getting that kind of feedback and that kind of response when you're not used to it being human this is an industry isn't it I mean people like drugs are doing it but there are thousands of others doing yet so this is like a whole industry on the Internet it's really easy to go out and find a company that will sell you as many likes or as many followers as you like as long as you prepared to pay some money for it so after speaking to 3 it took me about 2 minutes on google to find a site charging me about $15.00 and I got a 1000 followers for that so I paid my money I sat back crossed my fingers and the next couple of minutes I got that for. $500.00 followers almost immediately and then I've got about $300.00 more over the last 3 days or so trip through it has actually stopped at around $800.00 so maybe I've been short changed slightly and when you look through the profiles of the people who are now following my account those 800 they all look really fake the names are kind of computer generated the photos look a bit generic some of them do actually have posts in there in their profiles but even those posts look like kind of stock images that have just been put in there automatically So how close with all of this are you getting to actually getting sponsorship I'm not very close until the moment I think I probably need to buy a whole lot more followers for I get to that level but it does demonstrate how easy it is to buy a following with a few dollars online the few minutes all right well listen I want to follow this up now with someone we did speak to today who didn't manages on a more industrial level His name is Evan a son and he runs an influence a marketing firm in the California school media kicks in a couple of years ago he did exactly the same trick on a slightly bigger level he created to fake Instagram profiles just to see how easy it was to attract indorsements from advertisers at the time you could buy followers on Instagram literally like for $10.00 you could buy like $10000.00 followers or more so what we did this is a retired model and a photographer and we took photos and we created an account and then we only bought followers and didn't do any of the vast practices we didn't put captions within you know hash tag the photos we just put the photos up basically and then by followers and we created a 2nd account which was the travel account with just free stock photos so now we have 2 accounts we bought followers for both accounts we have respects avoid 50000 dollars and 30000 followers and we put the. Counts in 2 platforms which are marketplaces where brands and influencers get matched and react within I think a week or 2 weeks we've got 4 paid offers from brands to sponsor these accounts good money that yes good money respects to the following Right I'm very respectful to brands didn't check they just went straight for the bait exactly they just said Ok this one was good this one looks good that was 2017 years have passed since then Instagram as you say has grown exponentially as has the sophistication of those people marketing on it do you think that you could get away with the same stunt now what we did again last year actually what we found out was that there are these stories of hotels getting like dozens of emails a day for I'm in Florence there's the man increased days at their hotel to showcase them or free you know meals at restaurants to showcase their Instagram hadn't taken down our accounts the 2 counts so we said well why don't we email hotels you know in the area just around the country and ask you know if we can stay for free in exchange for some photos on Instagram or let's email a couple restaurants that ask for free meals and some of them responded yes that they would do it I imagine that it still works I'm so you can still do it the thing that has changed is that Facebook's algorithm of detecting bots has gotten much better so there are fewer bots and they're more expensive so it's more expensive to buy fake followers in the Buy The engage read basically But it's interesting isn't it that Facebook get involved they have calls Instagram that you control obviously is their u.s. Supposedly breaking all of the guidelines if you have these fake follows. I you or I can still live. So after our 2nd story I think this boy got tired of us doing this so it's worked out our counts he counts our library more than 7 Assane of media kicks there are of course people trying to police all of this one of them is Andrew hokey set up a tool called audit which basically allows you to plug in the name of any Instagram account and find out how many of the followers on there are actually fake I asked him how widespread fakery really was among influences now yeah that's a good question we found that somewhere between 20 to 30 percent of influencers will be artificially inflate in their metrics in some way shape or form whether that be buying fake followers or even now people are buying fake likes or comments or even story views because story promotions have become a more common thing as of late as well but yeah ante to 30 percent of that's right influences people are dishonest and they are well you know I don't think it's people's fault really right like I think the industry is just not regulated yet and so it's just an opportunistic approach to say I can get ahead of the market and there's nothing to really regulate that and so it's just a sign of like an industry that's yet to evolve so but what means do you fairytale those fake accounts the primary features we'll look at are things like well how many accounts are they following how many accounts are they followed by you know how many posts are they made to they have highlights on their feed into they have a profile picture filled out and then what is the composition of their username as well so you'll see an account for example that has like 2 or 3 posts no profile picture a bunch of let random letters and numbers in the username and then they'll be following like 4000 people that's like the general look of a fake follower around themselves doing enough to fight the frauds that's a good question I can't speed. Because I don't really know what's going on internally but here's what I will say they're not financially incentivized to fully solve the problem because you know those same fake users get counted in their monthly active users it's nothing against them their business with their own financial incentives right but the bigger thing is just the idea that brands are being ripped off right now right so it's like if you think about like some are between 20 to 30 percent of influencers are inflating their stats to who knows that agree that's like a 30 percent chance that when you invest in influence so that it's a total Doug and that's not fair to the brands or the influencers really right like the ones that are doing it for real should be paid their fair share and arguably more than the market is willing to right now this fraud that hasn't been accounted for is depressing the prices for the influencers and causing this cloud to exist over the brand investments as well it's presumably a kind of an arms race between you and the bad guys here because we're going to get better at producing fake profiles fake accounts that they can feed in to Instagram influences to decorate their account and make them look kind of fleshy and juicy and real and strong and you likewise get to be using ever more sophisticated tools to unpick that fakery Oh absolutely and it's definitely an arms race you hit the nail on the head their ultimate really this arms race gets to a place where you can make fake accounts that look exactly like real accounts to any machine learning algorithm the newest tool that bill takes more of an opt in approach so instead of you know typing in a user name and fetching the data on demand you'll have the influencer sign in and authenticate themself so it'll it'll pull the data that's normally only visible to so in future marketers could demand that influences self regulate show their own data their own metrics to prove that all of their declared followers truly exist. Precisely I think the future of this space lies in giving influencers the control to Arthur and to get themselves with their personal data and they're describing his tool I audit in the battle against the fakers What do you make of that Edwin do you think who's winning this arms race as far as you can see well it's difficult to tell I mean there's lots of these companies that are set up as order to companies that help brands audit the influencers to make sure they're not too fake if that makes sense but if you look online the service is available to people who want to fake their profiles seem to be increasing and there's a lot of diversity so not just buying fake followers or buying fake likes as I did but for example there's this thing called engagement pods where different Instagram users different influencers might get together in what's basically a chat room and like and comment on each other's posts to bump up the engagement that way so they real I mean they're really all and you're getting real comments and you're getting real likes to that's basically impossible to spot even though it's kind of manufactured but the step beyond that is that some companies online you can pay the most of scription they'll take your profile details and they'll do that liking and commenting for you automate it and in return you get the automated likes and comments from the other people who have signed up for the subscription so the people are all real but profiles are real so that's difficult to spot but their interactions their engagement with you is fake and automated so that's something that you know presumably is getting much more difficult to spot for the likes of Instagram and these auditors' who are paid to try and spot fake people what does Instagram say about all of this nefarious activity Well they sent me a statement it says in authentic activity is bad for the community and since the early days of Instagram we've invested in ways to block millions of accounts to mean. In the best possible experience on the platform we'll continue to build on the technologies we use to identify and remove fake likes follows and comments so made when I mean to sum up you've been engaged in this effort over the last couple of weeks to become an influencer yourself it's been a nightmare it sounds like or at least it's been a big struggle for you what will you take away it well there is the obvious point about whether advertisers are actually wasting some of their money if they're spending money on influencers with fake followers but from an influencer point of view I kind of learned it's just really hard work building up a genuine in Gauge following and that's really really difficult to fake so you can buy a big following if you've got enough money you're not going to get a very engaged following of people who really care about your profile and therefore might be interested in buying stuff and so you might be able to fake it for a little bit but the idea of getting rich off instagram in a way that is going to be sustainable that's going to be a living for you of the long term I don't think you could really do that with with fake followers and fake and gauge what you can have to spend a lot of time and commitment to building up a genuine following and that's that's hard work you heard it here folks that was Edwin lane faking it till he made it except he didn't quite make it this is daily We're back same time on Monday join us then. Now here at the b.b.c. World Service witnessed history with me the reason. Today we go back to a pop concert in Berlin in 1907 that's being seen as one of the events that led to years later to the fall of the Berlin wall among those headlining at the concert was form a burden resident David Bowie from when I saw guesses about you know stay with Bowie. The 3 day concert was held to celebrate 750 years have been playing with some of the biggest names in pop music the arithmetics Genesis as well of course as David Bowie performing beside the Reichstag building and the 10 foot rule that by then had divided and Germany physically and politically between east and west communist and capitalist for more than a quarter of a sentry rock and pop music has an incredible power and the concert for Berlin is maybe one of the brewery outstanding examples for how strong the power of music can be we're talking about freedom here freedom of expression journalist Christophe Lentz worked for the only radio station allowed to beam the concert live across the barbed wire and watched I was of the Berlin wall into communist venues Germany. The concert was big forest polymers even it was big and the place was packed with people so if I would have been an East Berlin youngster I would have maybe try to get close to the wall and the 1st evening we didn't hear anything when David Bowie played but during the Genesis concert somebody said there were riots in East Berlin and friend of mine told me in East Germany that was the 1st time young people got so sick off their circumstances of living in that dictatorship in East Germany that they started to shout the war might. No. At one point during his concert David Bowie actually addressed the people of East Berlin didn't he said in German greetings to our friends on the other side of the room is if he he wanted them to be part of it I guess if it was our best to watch out it was around for a good day I doubt that it was 2 years and 3 months after that concert the Berlin Wall did finally fall on the van but the 9th 1909 passed of the way the revolutions that led to communism collapsing in East and Central Europe and when David Bowie died in 2016 the German government actually thanked him did it for the part he played yeah yeah there was a tweet from the foreign ministry admiring his role he played in the past to the German reunification and I think that was well this. Was back in 1087 however Christoph lances there was little sign that the mentors change was coming in the Soviet Union East Germany's main backer there was a new leader Mikhail Gorbachev talking for the 1st time about modernizing the economy and politics and the opening up to the West but in East Berlin the old guard with still very much in power he thought maybe that we would cooperate more that there would be more exchanges but none of us thought that what happened on the 9th of November 89 would happen you used to cross quite regularly into East Berlin Didn't you to meet musicians you have friends there how did it differ from the West East Berlin still looked like a black and white picture there were not much color. In the street so it was grey dark and almost every building still had the impact of the bullets from the 2nd World War and there was not many buildings that were in good shape and West Berlin was this sort of island inside East Germany was it what was that like wherever you drove to there was suddenly a wall right in front of you there was the end of the street that's at and when you wanted to get out of the city you either had the money to take a plane or when you took the car you had to go through an in very fortified places where the East Germans were checking your car once when I returned from East Germany and friend of mine gave me it was shot before Christmas and he gave me a cake that his mom has backed as a gift so going across the border back these tremendous x. Rays that cake what you eat a cake that went through a Russian x. Ray machine but the hassle and small injustices that West Germans and counted crossing from west to east paled compared to the barriers that East Germans faced the Berlin Wall you know the figure maybe 170 people died trying to cross and I don't know how many got caught it was just a real fortified trance the radio station that Christophe lens worked for Reus had been set up by the Americans at the start of the Cold War by the 1980 s. The station was broadcasting mainly pulp music the target audience was young East Germans and even though it was dangerous to listen listen they did we didn't know that during the time when we broadcast it to the spring and Judea how enormous our Writings where how could you after the fall of the war we understood that almost everybody listening to our station and also listening to that concert the station was determined that East but it is should be able to hear the concert life just like West Berlin is could 1st though they had to get permission from the band's Genesis agreed only 48 hours before the concert but Christopher. As David Bowie understood immediately and David Bowie was one of the strongest popular rock stars not allowing any concerts to be broadcast to come radio but in this case he knew it made sense he'd spent 3 years in Berlin in the seventy's he recorded 3 albums while he was living that too it is studio actually looking out onto the wall the title song of the album Heroes talks about a couple kissing by the yeah there he knew what it meant was. He knew the city and he knew how it was I mean having written that song Heroes and playing that right in the center for learn actually when I recall that moment it's still hits me and David Bowie by the way insisted on going to East Berlin I think the day before the concert. Was. The concert for Berlin took place on the north side the Reichstag building one of Poland's most important monuments next to it was the Berlin Wall and immediately across the wall the Brandenburg Gate which East Germans would famously preach 2 years later the day off to the Bowie concert you crossed into East Berlin to visit a friend didn't you yes it was his birthday and it was right on the day Genesis play and we celebrated to spur stay in the afternoon and I had a cup of coffee and some birthday cake but then that maybe 5 o'clock in the afternoon I had to say that I have to go over to West Berlin in order to emcee the 2nd day of the concert and I said to him I wish you could come with me and he said well I have to listen to the radio on that's so absurd that I can cross easily the border and can enjoy things that he can't and dry. That night a 1000 East Berlin is tried to get near the wall to listen to the concert there were clashes with the police trying to stop them and arrest Crystal's friend talked about trying to escape which he didn't do because actually he was so afraid that she would get caught and would end up in jail but then in November 189 the wall came down what do you remember. What happened as the wall felt in the evening of the nights the morning of the 10th early in the morning it was like 630 my dog bell rang and. My friend was standing in the door unset now we can meet Yeah yeah a year after that East and West Germany were united Crystal Flans today still lives in Berlin he's head of the board of Thomson media Germany he was talking to me and we said I'll go for witness history support comes from Boulder Valley School District hiring bus drivers and food service employees for the 20192020 school year more information a job stock b.v. Estie dot org And thank you for tuning in to cage a new Boulder Denver in Fort Collins coming up on 7 o'clock Well we will join democracy now in today's weather sunny with a high 62 tonight clear 42 and then Saturday sunny with a high 69 Sunday mostly sunny during the day high of 58 and then Sunday night and going through starting about 8 pm going through Monday there's a cold weather some cold weather moving in with a pretty good chance of snow and freezing drizzle up next Democracy Now. Right. Right. Right. Right. From Orange Burke South Carolina this is Democracy Now. Sells and people are dying prematurely each year from air pollution that's more than are dying from gun violence and unfortunately it is African-American and Latinos who are actually losing their lives. Or step her presidential forum on environmental justice is taking place tonight here at South Carolina State University will speak to local leaders and environmental justice advocates then we remember the Orangeburg Massacre it was here February 8th 1968 that South Carolina Highway Patrolmen open Cryer an unarmed black student protesters here in South Carolina State University killing 3 and wounding 28. Hours seconds because the woman whom storms all are running. By this time are. Born into a school. For example where Fournier the campus and our New York. Are God go on and I took one still that's all I can remember it took that one still I got hit in the butt. When I got hit in the bird this is when I got Pearl as we'll hear from survivors of the massacre and speak to the civil rights but Congress 1st Cecil Williams who spent decades trying to raise awareness about this largely ignored moment in American history all that and more coming up. Welcome to Democracy Now Democracy Now dot org The War and Peace Report I mean the goodman a senior State Department official George can't told impeachment investigators that President Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani carried out a campaign of lies to smear u.s. . Ambassador to Ukraine Marie of an overage before she was abruptly were cold from her post in May That's according to a full transcript of Kent's closed door testimony released Thursday can't displayed it to testify next Wednesday on the 1st day of televised hearings in the impeachment inquiry into whether President Trump withheld military aid from Ukraine in order to pressure the Ukrainian president to investigate Trump's political rival Joe Biden and his son the New York Times reports Ukrainian president followed America's on ski was prepared to bow to Trump's demands and was planning to announce the investigations in an interview with c.n.n. .