Site icon The Punching Bag Post

Facebook to 'Address' the Fake News Problem

<p>You&rsquo&semi;ve probably heard the Democrats blaming &ldquo&semi;fake news&rdquo&semi; for Donald Trump&rsquo&semi;s victory&period; And while the media is rife with fake news&comma; that isn&rsquo&semi;t the reason Hillary lost&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As we wrote in a previous article&comma; the American media gave up on real&comma; objective news a long time ago&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Facebook &ndash&semi; on which many young people depend for their news nowadays &ndash&semi; has been criticized for the way it handled &lpar;or failed to handle&rpar; the torrent of fake news that surfaced during the 2016 elections&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&ldquo&semi;I think the idea that fake news on Facebook influenced the election in any way is a pretty crazy idea&comma;&rdquo&semi; said Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>But after a man opened fire on a DC pizzeria after reading a fake news story about Hillary Clinton&comma; Zuckerberg decided to take action&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The social media site will now work with the Poynter International Fact-Checking Network to evaluable news articles&period; &ldquo&semi;Disputed&rdquo&semi; stories will come with warning messages and users will have more options to report fake posts&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Flagged stories will be pushed lower in the news feed than &ldquo&semi;real&rdquo&semi; stories&comma; and people who try to share debunked stories will see a warning message before they post&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&ldquo&semi;We have a responsibility to reduce the spread of fake news on our platform&comma;&rdquo&semi; says Adam Mosseri&comma; Facebook&rsquo&semi;s vice president of product development&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&ldquo&semi;We&rsquo&semi;ll have to wait and see early results to determine how effective the strategy is&comma;&rdquo&semi; says Poynter&rsquo&semi;s Alexios Mantzarlis&period; &ldquo&semi;In my eyes&comma; erring on the side of caution is not a bad idea with something so complicated&period;&rdquo&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Donald Trump&rsquo&semi;s victory proved just how corrupt the American media has become&period; While Zuckerberg may have good intentions in mind&comma; it is arrogant for him to believe that his strategy will make a difference&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Neither Facebook nor &ldquo&semi;fact checking outlets&rdquo&semi; have any clue whether news is real or not&comma; and this could quickly turn into liberal censorship&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Editor&&num;8217&semi;s note&colon;<&sol;strong> This is such a dangerous precedent&period; Are they going to depend on the liberal news outlets and left leaning fact checking organizations&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>While abuse is certainly rampant&comma; the internet is supposed to provide for a free exchange of ideas&period; Up until the election occurred&comma; there were many claims that&nbsp&semi;polls were biased and Trump would win&period; it could easily have been dismissed as fake news&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>We don&&num;8217&semi;t let the government censor our news&comma; in fact the First Amendment prevents it&period; Should we allow Facebook to censor our news&quest;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

Exit mobile version