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Facebook has detailed its plan to deal with fake news appearing on the platform. It involves labeling false information with a link to a fact-checking site, as well as warning users when they attempt to repost these flagged items and giving them a worse position in the news feed:
Facebook has struggled for months over whether it should crack down on false news stories and hoaxes that are being spread on its site. Now, it has finally come to a decision. The social network is going to partner with the Poynter International Fact-Checking Network, which includes groups such as Snopes and the Associated Press, to evaluate articles flagged by Facebook users. If those articles do not pass the smell test for the fact-checkers, Facebook will label that evaluation whenever they are posted or shared, along with a link to the organization that debunked the story. Many of the organizations said that they're not getting paid for this.
"We have a responsibility to reduce the spread of fake news on our platform," Adam Mosseri, Facebook vice president of product development, told The Washington Post. Mosseri said the social network still wants to be a place where people with all kinds of opinions can express themselves but has no interest in being the arbiter of what's true and what's not for its 1 billion users.
The new system will work like this: If a story on Facebook is patently false — saying that a celebrity is dead when they are still alive, for example — then users will see a notice that the story has been disputed or debunked. People who try to share stories that have been found false will also see an alert before they post. Flagged stories will appear lower in the news feed than unflagged stories. Users will also be able to report potentially false stories to Facebook or send messages directly to the person posting a questionable article.
The Pew Research Center also released a survey about fake news, finding that a majority of Americans believe that fake news has caused confusion about the basic facts of current events.
(Score: 5, Informative) by BsAtHome on Sunday December 18 2016, @10:38PM
The gullibility of people eating up stories is simply amazing. Like there is no reality show like farcebooks reality. It is a propaganda tool of large scale. And, with all propaganda, you need to assume it to be utterly false to begin with and then filter the small true parts while discarding the bulk.
But then, junk news, propaganda and other failures can only be recognized by those competent in recognizing it. The incompetent will overestimate their abilities and fail miserably (see Unskilled and Unaware of It [psu.edu] for a nice stydy).
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 18 2016, @10:53PM
> Wouldn't it be simply a lot easier to assume that any and all story on that media is false?
Easier? Yes.
More useful? No.
With so many people on facebook the idea that everybody should just ignore anything on facebook is tech-hermit elitism at best and nonsensical at worst.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 18 2016, @11:38PM
The real problem is that anyone is on Facebook [stallman.org] to begin with. It's not just a personal decision, because Facebook even collects information on people who don't even have accounts. People should not be promoting such an unethical service.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 19 2016, @02:05AM
Like I said, techno-hermit elitism.
It really doesn't matter what platform people use, these problems will happen with all of them because the problem is people. Traditional journalism had a process for dealing with it - editorial discretion, multiple sources, fact-checkers, retractions, etc. The new p2p communication system on the net lack an equivalent. So now we are back to a complete free-for-all. And if we are all omniscient experts that would be fine. But we aren't so it isn't. Instead we get an object lesson in the fact that opinions are like assholes because everybody's got one and most of them stink.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 19 2016, @02:24AM
As another AC has pointed out: easier, yes; more useful, no. Perhaps you meant that people should assume that all stories on that media should be viewed as suspect until confirmed with more reliable sources? The real solution, of course, is for people to be a lot less gullible. But that is going to be a lot harder (and much more time-consuming) to fix. Also, my sense is that this has much more to do with emotion, rather than intellect. People believe these "fake news" stories because they conform to their warped world view; and I don't think you can rationally argue someone out of a position that they did not enter into rationally. So, what to do? First, we will need to educate the general population to be their own fact checkers. But that is going to take a lot of time. In fact, for most people it will take a lifetime of practice. Unfortunately, I think that for most adults who have gotten swallowed up by the fake news beast, they are (most of them) all but a lost cause; they believe what they want to believe and no amount of fact checking (or "fact shaming") is going to persuade them. In fact, my sense is that fact shaming these people will just cause them to dig in their heels even more. My best hope is for the next generation to be trained up to be less gullible than their elders; I just hope that we can do this before the older generation manages to tear the planet apart. However, with the dumbing down of the school curriculum I think even that may be a vain hope. Sorry to be pessimistic but, yeah, I think we are screwed.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 19 2016, @03:00AM
> In fact, my sense is that fact shaming these people will just cause them to dig in their heels even more.
That's true and its been visibly played out over the last month or so of public hand-wringing about fake news. Trumpkins have taken to labeling any reporting they dislike, no matter how accurate, as #fakenews. They kind of give the impression that they are doing it willfully, that at some level they are aware that their reality is only marginally connected to the real world and that they revel in it. In a way they like that their god emperror is a fountain of fact-free bullshit and constantly gets away with just making up his own reality as it suits him. They want to emulate him. After all if it works for a billionaire born with a silver spoon in his mouth, why shouldn't it work for them too?
(Score: 2) by cubancigar11 on Monday December 19 2016, @12:27PM
No. They are not expecting to turn into billionaire overnight. They are doing politics. They are "playing the game" just the way the game is played. The only reason you realize 'Trumpkins' doing that is because of your personal confirmation bias. Fake news is not new nor it is going to go away with next generation. It was there when people said 99% of men are rapists, it was there when reefer madness became a thing, it was there when dark skinned men had trouble controlling their libido, it was there when Asians lacked that part of brain which allows europeans to drink like an ass yet be civilized or that part of stomach which processes alcohol.
And it is present right now when liberals invent a new word to describe an age old phenomenon but with added twist of creating division. That age old phenomenon is called PROPAGANDA and the new word is FAKE NEWS, but with added twist of creating division.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Monday December 19 2016, @03:51PM
it was there when Asians lacked that part of brain which allows europeans to drink like an ass yet be civilized or that part of stomach which processes alcohol.
I'm reading this list as "things that don't really exist," so thought I should dig up some links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_flush_reaction#Genetics [wikipedia.org]
https://www.bustle.com/articles/101998-is-the-asian-glow-real-5-facts-about-the-drinking-phenomenon-explained [bustle.com]
http://www.nhs.uk/news/2010/10October/Pages/genes-affect-alcohol-tolerance.aspx [www.nhs.uk]
http://www.wisegeek.org/do-people-of-asian-descent-have-difficulty-metabolizing-alcohol.htm#didyouknowout [wisegeek.org]
1. It's Officially Known As Alcohol Flush Syndrome (And Not Only Asians Have It)
My sister may have this, too (although we aren't Asians). My drinking days might be numbered D:
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by cubancigar11 on Monday December 19 2016, @08:55PM
Yeah you read that list correctly. Thanks for that info, always enjoy learning a new thing.
Original point remains same, though :)
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Monday December 19 2016, @09:45PM
If we were looking for another Asian-themed "thing that isn't a real thing" there's always fan death [wikipedia.org], heh.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"