Facebook and The Fake News Battle
Facebook has had many issues with fake news in recent years, and this has shown to have far-reaching effects. Misinformed masses are unaware of their newly found, incorrect knowledge, and they often share this information, allowing the spreading of “fake news” to perpetuate. This became clear when late last year, it was seen that Facebook’s fake news issues spilled over into the election and had a noticeable effect. As a result, Facebook partnered with Poynter’s International Fact-Checking Network. The goal of this was to check if stories flagged as fake news were real or not. However, Facebook has not disclosed any of their data on the nature of fake news on the web over time. While some think this data could be invaluable in combating fake news, other’s realize that Facebook’s refusal to share this data may show that Facebook is losing the battle on fake news on the web.
This relates to class through the idea of information cascades. We know that the concept of information cascades can be very powerful, and if we are unable to stop the spread of fake news articles, the effect they have will continue to expand and increase unless flagged early. However, Facebook is struggling with this flagging process. Solutions have been proposed, such as creating algorithms to flag such news, but this is easier said than done. Information cascades are very powerful, especially with the uninformed populous that inhabits a large portion of the internet. While fact-checking is a viable solution, humans are lazy, and will often believe much of anything they read. Them then divulging this information is what information cascades are, and while the concept is very interesting and useful, it does have negatives in a situation like this.
https://www.engadget.com/2017/11/13/fact-checkers-say-facebook-is-losing-war-on-fake-news/