Days after President Donald Trump's surprise victory, Zuckerberg brushed off assertions that the outcome had been influenced by fictional news stories on Facebook, calling the idea "pretty crazy ."
But Facebook's blase attitude shifted as criticism of the company mounted in Congress and elsewhere. Later that year, it acknowledged having run thousands of ads promoting false information placed by Russian agents. Zuckerberg eventually made fixing Facebook his personal challenge for 2018.
[...] The war room is a major part of Facebook's ongoing repairs. Its technology draws upon the artificial-intelligence system Facebook has been using to help identify "inauthentic" posts and user behavior. Facebook provided a tightly controlled glimpse at its war room to The Associated Press and other media ahead of the second round of presidential elections in Brazil on Oct. 28 and the U.S. midterm elections on Nov. 6.
"There is no substitute for physical, real-world interaction," said Samidh Chakrabarti, Facebook's director of elections and civic engagement. "The primary thing we have learned is just how effective it is to have people in the same room all together."
More than 20 different teams now coordinate the efforts of more than 20,000 people—mostly contractors—devoted to blocking fake accounts and fictional news and stopping other abuses on Facebook and its other services. As part of the crackdown, Facebook also has hired fact checkers, including The Associated Press, to vet new stories posted on its social network.
To assess the factual content of news stories published by agencies like the Associated Press, Facebook is hiring the Associated Press.
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by VLM on Friday October 19 2018, @11:24AM (5 children)
Note the definition of fake information is merely non-leftist opinion.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 19 2018, @12:40PM (3 children)
Also as WSWS has extensively documented, fake news is anything that does not agree with the Democratic Party party line. News sources that are more right-wing are "fake." Additionally, news sources that are more left-wing (as in anti-war) are also "fake." See The “new cold war,” censorship, and the future of the internet [wsws.org] and Facebook’s purge of left-wing media: A frontal assault on freedom of speech [wsws.org].
The problem child is the Democratic Party and the ruling elites it represents. Now if only the Republican Party weren't a fucking dumpster fire....
Nothing will change as long as we keep voting for those two parties. We need to vote for Libertarians and Greens. You might be interested in the Natural Law/US Taxpayer's party.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 19 2018, @01:27PM (2 children)
They are the left wing and much less critical of Trump than the Democrats. The Dems are blissfully unaware they've become corporatist collectivists as they run around calling everyone else "fascists".
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 19 2018, @02:05PM (1 child)
If you mean WSWS and the International Committee of the Fourth International, they aren't as critical of Trump because they don't need to be. His depravity is on clear display every time he opens his mouth for all to see.
The great irony of the Democratic Party and its adherents calling everybody who disagrees with them "fascists" and... wait for it... Literal Hitler! is that they praise passages from Mein Kampf that have been piped through sed -E "s/Jews/men/". See A discussion with Helen Pluckrose, co-author of “Grievance Studies” hoax article [wsws.org], which is the kind of thing this "War Room" seeks to suppress while promoting propaganda painting the Democratic Party is somehow "progressive." Specifically:
Parent comment:
One nitpick. As with all right-wing authoritarian movements (Altemeyer), the followers and the leaders are distinct. The SJWs, the right-wing authoritarian followers of the Democratic Party, perhaps have this blissful unawareness. However, it's almost certainly a different story when it comes to the DNC and the ruling elites, the right-wing authoritarian leaders. Anti-Kissinger protest at New York University [wsws.org]:
More: The CIA Democrats: Part one [wsws.org] of three.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 19 2018, @02:45PM
The Kissinger protest was strange [thenation.com] considering the Dems election platform. I think the guy should have stood trial but to ignore hard won cease fires or the tarnishing effects of Watergate is to do him a disservice. And nobody else predicted Trumpian RealPolitik [axios.com] as a risky but overdue realignment of world power.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday October 19 2018, @06:04PM
Note the definition of fake information is merely non-leftist opinion.
Just 'cause you guys think it's OK to blatantly lie now doesn't mean Facebook is required to agree.