Ideas for fighting Fake News
Nov. 19th, 2016 10:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jducoeur[I'm mostly just posting links over in Facebook, but my more technical friends tend to be over here.]
Here is a really excellent collection of ideas about how to fight the Fake News problem -- the way that services like Facebook and Google have been used as propaganda tools by the people (on all sides) who are muddying truth by propagating bullshit. The article suggests a bunch of relatively plausible approaches, both technical and organizational, that these companies could use to ameliorate the problem without undermining their core missions.
It's explicitly not trying to present a comprehensive solution, just some possibilities. But it's a fine rebuttal to the usual line that these services are nothing but pipes, and can't do anything about it. I commend it to everyone, but especially my friends *at* the various big tech companies, who should consider passing this link around as useful food for thought...
Here is a really excellent collection of ideas about how to fight the Fake News problem -- the way that services like Facebook and Google have been used as propaganda tools by the people (on all sides) who are muddying truth by propagating bullshit. The article suggests a bunch of relatively plausible approaches, both technical and organizational, that these companies could use to ameliorate the problem without undermining their core missions.
It's explicitly not trying to present a comprehensive solution, just some possibilities. But it's a fine rebuttal to the usual line that these services are nothing but pipes, and can't do anything about it. I commend it to everyone, but especially my friends *at* the various big tech companies, who should consider passing this link around as useful food for thought...
(no subject)
Date: 2016-11-19 07:58 pm (UTC)I do think there are useful suggestions in this article, but the article itself starts with the idea that these companies should not be deciding for us what is and isn't news. And yet, as long as Facebook is going to call their stream of information a 'News feed' and are going to manipulate it to show us the items it thinks will keep us on the page longer, then they are effectively deciding what is News.
(no subject)
Date: 2016-11-20 04:20 pm (UTC)I mean, yeah -- I get my news from the Economist. I'm right there with you. But calling out for everyone else to do so is basically Canute yelling at the waves. I think we need to honestly admit the facts on the ground, and that exhortations like this aren't likely to change more than a small number of minds, at least in the near term. And that being the case, I have to agree with the premise of the article, that demanding a bit of corporate responsibility from the social networks is likely one of the most *effective* ways to improve the situation...
(no subject)
Date: 2016-11-20 05:11 am (UTC)I don't know more than what's in that article, but if Facebook (et al) won't do something about it, here's an existence proof that third-party tools can work. Getting Facebook et al to fix their algorithms is better because that fixes it for everybody, but in the meantime...
(I don't use Facebook so I can't test it out. If somebody gets this solid enough that we techies could help our less-technical relatives install something like this and have it just work, that'd be grand.)
(no subject)
Date: 2016-11-20 04:23 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2016-11-20 04:26 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2016-11-25 05:57 pm (UTC)