This is just getting more stupid everday. Facebook is no and never was a news platform. It is a crappy social network and only reflects your inner friend circle.
Why anyone and especially facebook should care about fake news is beyond me.
Why anyone and especially facebook should care about fake news is beyond me.
I won't answer whether that entity should be Facebook. But when people start getting shot at and transparently disreputable demagogues start getting elected I would say the conversation at least has to begin.
Also nobody was shot, the other article i read in the morning clearly mentioned that he only shot upwards and was not trying to actually hurt anyone.
Seriously if people are stupid enough to do such shit there are different issues to be solved. If people are scared of people wearing and using weapons then they should no be so easily available for example.
The only solution against stuff like this without fixing our society would be complete censorship & government control. I hope this is not really what you suggest.
It's in a site's best interest anyway. Imagine if normal adults weren't so embarrassed to admit using Reddit.
But why would Reddit be allowed to decide which conspiracy theorie can be discussed? Seriously, i dont want to live in a world where the few semi open platforms we still have decide what we are allowed to talk about and what not when no laws are broken anyway.
Mainstream journalism has to regain credibility.
The first step down that road is producing credible journalism, a difficult but necessary cost the industry is going to need to swallow if it expects to survive.
The alternatives are an expansion of thought censorship from the mainstream networks to its bubbling alternative competitors.
I understand the urge to misrepresent the world to garner public support. I really do. But nature abhors a vacuum. When the information available to the public is obviously compromised it will be filled by something or someone else.
The response to that isn't to censor alternatives and continue the misreporting. The solution is to recede from propagandistic instincts, and provide the kind of analysis you want to be recorded in history books for providing to democratic deliberation. If people really understand what's at stake in issues, and what powers, people and industries has what stake where, and when they understand issues to the point where they can make discernible political decisions - be they about representation or directly on issues - rather than being emotionally coerced at scale by every media platform above water; then, and only then, will the "information war" the State Department has been waging will really be won. It won't be won by the State Department, but by the people. And it will be for the people and by the people.
Truly: the alternative to this is to continue down this folly road of doctrinal misrepresentation of the world to the American people, and to play whack-a-mole with every narrative that challenges the useless and ill-predictive emotional appeal whose vacuum is being challenged.
(I speak as an American about my country).
And I think the Arab Spring shows your dismissive characterisation of Facebook is way, way off the mark.
You're right that people using it as a primary news source are doing everything else wrong too. They apparently are, including voting for ill-suited demagogues and regressive causes. That is the problem to be addressed.
To function a democracy requires citizens to be well-informed and critical.
I dont see how facebook is to blame here, there are obviously other things going wrong.
Facebook might have a 'moral responsibility' on a civic level, to address issues within it's community, but ultimately, if people are choosing what they are going to read, well then so bit it.
Suppose someone invented an 'open ranking' system whereby news and content from various sties was socially ranked, but wherein there was no 'central platform' ... we would see the same thing but have nobody to blame.
If e-mail had bee designed just a little bit differently - and it was more identity/socially oriented, more conducive to 'sharing' ... then again, we'd have nobody to blame but that form of 'email' - not an organization.
I assume also because people on reddit realize reddit is just a tool and not build their lives a round it which seems to be the case with a lot of facebook users.
Maybe they don't live their lives around it, but they are very influenced by it, and don't realize it.
I'm fully aware the 'Daily Show' is comedy and not real, but I found myself watching it almost exclusively as news for years ... and didn't realize how far down the rabbit hole I was.
My point is the people are the issue and not the platform. The american election is a good example. Only about 50% went voting, they could have easily voted for a third party for example. From them who went voting the majority did not vote for trump ether. And still people try to find the issue with facebook other than themself and their government.
I may be wrong but didnt the outcry against fake news and Facebook come as a result of the US presidential election? Many people are looking for someone or something to blame for the unexpected results.
If things had gone the other way, everyone complaining would be making Trump meme's right now to post in their favorite walled wonderland. Next we'll be hearing about how the expansion of Presidential powers is actually an issue now that it isn't their guy doing the expanding.
IMO they are just trying to rationalize how this could happen and chance history by blaming facebook.
http://www.journalism.org/2015/07/14/the-evolving-role-of-ne...