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posted by mrpg on Monday December 18 2017, @06:32PM   Printer-friendly
from the dont-believe-anything-on-the-web dept.

Google has made some changes to try and tackle "fake news":

Google moved to strip from its news search results publications that mask their country of origin or intentionally mislead readers, a further step to curb the spread of fake news that has plagued internet companies this year.

To appear in Google News results, websites must meet broad criteria set out by the company, including accurately representing their owners or primary purposes. In an update to its guidelines released Friday, the search giant added language stipulating that publications not "engage in coordinated activity to mislead users." Additionally the new rules read: "This includes, but isn't limited to, sites that misrepresent or conceal their country of origin or are directed at users in another country under false premises."

A popular tactic for misinformation campaigns is to pose as a credible U.S. news outlet. Russian Internet Research Agency, a Kremlin-backed organization, used that technique to reach an audience of nearly 500,000 people, spread primarily through Twitter accounts, Bloomberg reported earlier.

Also at Engadget.


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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by meustrus on Monday December 18 2017, @11:17PM (2 children)

    by meustrus (4961) on Monday December 18 2017, @11:17PM (#611626)

    Some people stubbornly ignore evidence of Russian propaganda posing as real news stories on Facebook and others in an attempt to swing the 2016 election towards Trump. Every time the adults try to talk about it, they hijack the conversation into their hyper-partisan bullshit redirecting the term "fake news" onto the low quality of mainstream news sources.

    It's not just wrong. It's dangerous, and it will be the means by which Trump and the far right eliminate not just the free press, but the very idea that facts exist and that we can use common understanding of such facts to come to mutual agreement.

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    If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?
    Starting Score:    1  point
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  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 19 2017, @02:28AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 19 2017, @02:28AM (#611680)

    Most people don't see the problem, because while the Russians may have been posting news and trying to influence the election, it was not fake news. Hilary really was a murderous, lying, corrupt, treasonous bitch who would have been far worse for the USA than any of Trump's buffoonery.

    • (Score: 2) by meustrus on Tuesday December 19 2017, @03:46PM

      by meustrus (4961) on Tuesday December 19 2017, @03:46PM (#611828)

      Conduct some basic research and something like 90% of those stories completely fall apart. No, plausible as it may be for any politician, Hillary was not running a child sex trafficking operation out of a local pizza shop. And as far as treasonous, she can't be that bad if our greatest adversary was willing to wage a propaganda campaign against her.

      --
      If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?