How to solve Facebook’s fake news problem: experts pitch their ideas by Nicky Woolf.
From the post:
The impact of fake news, propaganda and misinformation has been widely scrutinized since the US election. Fake news actually outperformed real news on Facebook during the final weeks of the election campaign, according to an analysis by Buzzfeed, and even outgoing president Barack Obama has expressed his concerns.
But a growing cadre of technologists, academics and media experts are now beginning the quixotic process of trying to think up solutions to the problem, starting with a rambling 100+ page open Google document set up by Upworthy founder Eli Pariser.
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Woolf captures the essential wrongness with the now, 120 pages, of suggestions, quoting Claire Wardle:
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“The biggest challenge is who wants to be the arbiter of truth and what truth is,” said Claire Wardle, research director for the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University. “The way that people receive information now is increasingly via social networks, so any solution that anybody comes up with, the social networks have to be on board.”
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Don’t worry, selecting the arbiter of truth and what truth is won’t be difficult.
The authors of these suggestions see their favorite candidate every day:
So long as they aren’t seeing my image (substitute your name/image) in the mirror, I’m not interested in any censorship proposal.
Personally, even if offered the post of Internet Censor, I would turn it down.
I can’t speak for you but I am unable to be equally impartial to all. Nor do I trust anyone else to be equally impartial.
The “solution” to “fake news,” if you think that is a meaningful term, is more news, not less.
Enable users to easily compare and contrast news sources, if they so choose. Freedom means being free to make mistakes as well as good choices (from some point of view).