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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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 18 2016, @05:26PM
how is this different from draining the swamp?
I'd much rather people did nice things than bad things, but I can tell you this -- if soylent ever accepts money to promote political ads, I'll visit here as much as I do twitter -- which is never.
I dont need a social machine shaping my bubble, I already have my own outlook to do that.
It sounds like what you want is for these companies to be regulated like broadcast television networks, and to rendered unable to twist the results in the ways you have described by filting content in the ways you describe.
Libertarians do not have a problem with this. The companies can be run however the companies want to run them, and our free market lets us pick a solution that can replace it, correct?
I believe the gab.ai fills this role for libertarians that don't believe its right for other libertarian tendencies to compete with their own. Conservatives, too.
Perhaps it would be easier for all offended parties to simply not post offending things, or take it to a private forum. I don't care to read propaganda, but on these free sites, I should expect nothing more than what I pay for.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by jmorris on Friday November 18 2016, @05:52PM
Actually, I would settle for honesty. Let them come out and say they are enforcing a Progressive SJW code of conduct and my objection vanishes. Same for the legacy media, stop pretending to be journalists (after WikiLeaks only the ignorant could still believe anyway) and admit to being the Public Relations wing of the Democratic Party and again, no objection. I do not like liars but they hold lying to be a virtue. That is what i do not like.
Once they admit what they are, anyone who uses their services or reads/watches their media know exactly what they are getting. And we can ramp up alternatives at warp speed. Although the ramping up is happening pretty fast anyway. People no longer trust the media and are seeking out alternatives, that is why the banhammer is being wielded. Many of the alternatives aren't any better than the legacy outlets, but so long as the marketplace of ideas grows more open the invisible hand will sort it out. Same for social media, now that everyone (if you are paying attention) realizes building a presence on legacy Progressive social media runs the risk of sudden loss of the account, people will quickly adapt. And don't think the purging will stop with the Alt-Right, left wing holiness spirals have a way of getting out of control in unpredictable ways. The Revolution has had a tendency to eat itself going back to the French Revolution.
Most people have better things to do than carefully keep up with what is politically correct as it changes faster and faster. Right now it all about [current year] but soon it will be [current day].
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 18 2016, @07:36PM
Next you'll be telling us you're the next incarnation of Jesus, what with your persecution complex and all.
These come after a string of false news that trended throughout the campaign season that ranged from Hillary Clinton calling for civil war to Mike Pence insulting Mrs. Obama.
I see fake news on both sides being mentioned. You're just getting off on some more News Outrage, its the new hip thing!
I for one would like to focus on the censorship side of this issue and not "liberal media is being meaaannnn to meeeee". Let us wait and see if fake liberal news sticks around and only fake conservative news is marginalized.
Personally I avoid FB most of the time, but when I do log in I always see some conservative craziness from the handful of friends who lean that way. I am not worried about only conservative fake news being censored, but I am worried about any censorship at all. Who watches the watchers?