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Microsoft is trying to fight fake news with its Edge mobile browser
Microsoft has started warning users of its Edge mobile browser about untrustworthy news sites. The software giant has partnered with NewsGuard to provide warnings in its Edge browser for iOS and Android, and this functionality has been added this week as an optional setting. NewsGuard was founded by journalists Steven Brill and Gordon Crovitz, and rates sites based on a variety of criteria including their use of deceptive headlines, whether they repeatedly publish false content, and transparency regarding ownership and financing.
Microsoft first started offering an optional NewsGuard browser extension for Edge on the desktop version of Windows 10 last year, but the move to build this directly into the mobile version suggests the company may be looking to make this a core part of Edge in the future. The Guardian reports that Edge mobile is now warning users that the Daily Mail's website, Mail Online, "generally fails to maintain basic standards of accuracy and accountability."
WhatsApp Tries To Curb Misinformation, And Annoying Aunts And Uncles
WhatsApp is one of the most popular messaging platforms in the world. With about 1.5 billion users, it's a free way to text and place international voice and video calls.
But recently the platform, which is owned by Facebook, has faced accusations of being used to spread misinformation — with serious consequences. Last year in India, rumors spread mostly on WhatsApp led to mob killings. In the run-up to Brazil's recent elections, misinformation and conspiracy theories also went viral on the messaging app.
WhatsApp is now limiting the number of people users can forward messages to, to five. [...] WhatsApp "carefully evaluated this test and listened to user feedback over a six-month period," a company spokesperson told NPR. "The forward limit significantly reduced forwarded messages around the world. We'll continue to listen to user feedback about their experience, and over time, look for new ways of addressing viral content."
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 23 2019, @11:22PM (7 children)
Yeah, only warnings. But are people really that godawful stupid?
Wait, yeah the are. Sorry. Still.... maybe anyone stupid enough to believe a WhatsApp or a Tabloid really gets what they deserve? Just a thought...
(Score: 2) by Snow on Wednesday January 23 2019, @11:26PM
Well, if you have the Edge browser on your phone and use it, then yea, potentially.
Not sure how many people fall into that category. I'm guessing not too many (Play store shows 5 million downloads, which I find surprisingly high...).
(Score: 4, Informative) by c0lo on Wednesday January 23 2019, @11:57PM (3 children)
Yes.
Next?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 24 2019, @12:20AM (2 children)
The problem here is India, not WhatsApp. Believe me there have been mob killings in India way before WhatsApp existed.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday January 24 2019, @01:51AM
The problem in here is the post-truth civilization invading simpler cultures [soylentnews.org].
Not much different from the invasion of native Americans or Aborigines by the anglo-saxons, except today they aren't using smallpox infected blankets, but lies and trolling.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday January 24 2019, @02:14AM
It is worth noting that you fastened on India, and not the uneducated poor backwoods people. I also note that "the small town of Acatlán in the central Mexican state of Puebla" from the first article above probably has few Indians living in it.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 24 2019, @12:56AM (1 child)
Well, the idea is that when somebody links to some #fakenews site like wswswswsws covering something that Big Brother has ordered a media blackout on like 70,000 maquiladoras still striking in Matamoros [wsws.org], which is beginning to disrupt North American auto manufacturing, then this will handily come along and tell you that it's just more Russian meddling.
I'm sure that this will also flag any news sources like Consortium News, Counterpunch, or wswswsws reporting that the Yellow Vests are a left-wing movement as #fakenews, because everybody knows that they're right-wing extremists. The mutual interest the Yellow Vests, maquiladoras, LA teachers (and Colorado?), auto workers in USA and Canada, and plantation workers in Sri Lanka have been reporting to wswswsws of linking these struggles up internationally is of course just Russians trolling /pol over on 4chan with their dank memes. (Saturday, February 9th is starting to look like an interesting day.)
In actuality, the ruling class is playing a careful balancing act. The international working class is organizing on services like Facebook and WhatsApp. The ruling class wants control over this to label it all #fakenews and shut it down, but they can't come down too hard with the banhammer too early, because then the proles might start listening to incel misogynerds and moving to distributed social networking. Always difficult putting toothpaste back into the tube.
(And XMPP will rise at last! Maybe, probably.)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 24 2019, @01:21AM
Looks like there's a Chrome extension, so I'll fact check my comment.
wswswsws and Consortium News are in the process of being rated, it says. Counterpunch gets green.
And now to go uninstall it.