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from the no-more-profits-from-false-prophets dept.
Google and Facebook finally announced steps to tackle fake news on their respective platforms this week following increasing pressure from critics eager to halt the flow of falsehoods online.
Both companies said they will prohibit fake news websites from advertising on their platforms, thus reducing the exposure of such articles to the public while also starving the companies of an important source of advertising income.
The move comes after the companies received a wave of criticism over its role in propagating misinformation, particularly in this election cycle in which many observed that a bitter partisan war was potentially worsened by polarizing news sources touting untrue assertions. While the technology companies have in the past been hesitant to mediate the flow of news, this change might signal a change in thought as they come to grip with the real-life implications of lackluster surveillance on their platforms.
Wrongthink will not be permitted, citizens.
(Score: 2) by Username on Friday November 18 2016, @11:40AM
The Onion leans left, they will never be targeted.
(Score: 3, Funny) by BasilBrush on Friday November 18 2016, @04:11PM
As the Fake News problem leading up to the election was universally right-wing, that's probably true.
Hurrah! Quoting works now!
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Friday November 18 2016, @07:12PM
They won't be targeted because they lean *establishment*. Particularly now that they're owned by one of Hillary's major supporters...
(Score: 2) by quintessence on Friday November 18 2016, @07:52PM
To me it's less a question of left or right, but more a philosophical stance that the best way to address this is through more speech.
Any of these stories could be debunked. People could engender a more skeptical perspective, especially given it is a political season.
That people are focusing on such a blunt approach for what amounts to a chain email with better graphics speaks more to the continued degradation of free speech, especially from people who supposedly at least pay lip service to the idea.
It use to be the right moving to ban/restrict debil music and like due to undue influence, and now it's come full circle under the banner of people protecting "the truth".
These campaigns never end well, and instead just mark the idiocy of the age.