Facebook cracks down on spread of ‘fake news’

    
     Facebook is facing increasing criticism over its role in the 2016 US presidential election because it allowed propaganda lies disguised as news stories to spread on the social-media site unchecked.
The spreading of false information during the election cycle was so bad that President Barack Obama called Facebook a "dust cloud of nonsense."  With more than 1.7 billion monthly active users, Facebook’s role in society continues to be closely scrutinized.  This should not surprise anyone who understands how Facebook works. People tend to read, like, and share stories that appeal to their emotions and play to their existing beliefs. Without robust countervailing forces favoring credibility and accuracy, Facebook’s news feed algorithm is bound to spread lies, especially those that serve to bolster people’s preconceived biases. And these falsehoods are bound to influence people’s thinking.

      Facebook updated its Audience Network policy Monday to make clear that it will not display ads in websites or mobile apps that contain fake news. Such outlets will now be included under the already banned category of misleading, illegal or deceptive sites. Earlier Monday, Google announced a similar policy prohibiting ads from being placed on websites that publish fake news.  This is an area where I believe we must proceed very carefully though. Identifying the "truth" is complicated. While some hoaxes can be completely debunked, a greater amount of content, including from mainstream sources, often gets the basic idea right but some details wrong or omitted. An even greater volume of stories express an opinion that many will disagree with and flag as incorrect even when factual. I am confident we can find ways for our community to tell us what content is most meaningful, but I believe we must be extremely cautious about becoming arbiters of truth ourselves.

    








Yes, the truth is complicated, and Facebook should proceed carefully. But there is a growing sense, both inside and outside the company, that it may be proceeding rather too carefully, given its increasingly dominant role in the distribution of news online.  Yet in the long run, fake news on Facebook may prove to be a relatively short-lived concern compared with the deeper fault line that the tremors have exposed. It reveals a company increasingly torn between its self-conception as a neutral technology platform and its undeniable influence on the creation, distribution, and consumption of news and other media.



 

     Facebook does more too. It suppresses news about Facebook, for instance. It works to elevate coverage of issues politically important to Facebook’s largely left-leaning staff, such as the Black Lives Matter protests. When there’s energetic discussion of a hot story originating on a conservative site, Facebook’s curators look for a link to a non-conservative outlet, such as the New York Times, rather than directing Facebook users toward (angels and ministers of grace defend us!) a conservative publication. 

This is hardly without precedent. Twitter famously revoked the coveted blue checkmarks denoting “verified” accounts belonging to a number of conservative commentators and suspended the accounts of others. Federal workers have written to me complaining that their office firewalls will allow them to access pornography sites but block National Review. This is all painfully normal.

     Where the Left has power, it will use that power to try to crush dissent, debate, and criticism. It isn’t conservative student groups chasing nonconformist speakers off of college campuses or demanding indoctrination sessions. But it isn’t just the campus P.C. police, either. No, it’s the real police, too. 

The people who have the audacity to call themselves “liberals” are busily building an emerging police state. Don’t look for the heroic entrepreneurs behind Facebook or Twitter to spread the word about that.

 

     

     But Facebook has to be careful.  Facebook is popular and a lot of people use it, but if they say add something like  ''Fox News''  to the ''fake news list'' they can expect a lot of backlash.  And worse they might loose users.  They could easily destroy themselves.  If everyone except the liberals abandons Facebook, then it will be a shell of what it is today.  Maybe that will be a good thing?  Maybe we will get a new, fair, social website?  Maybe Facebook will just join the pile of websites that were once popular, like My Space.....remember My Space?