Facebook ’ s Flimsy Denial of Fake News & Its Impact

Facebook paints a very dichotomous, contradictory picture of itself. On one side, they claim to be the world’s largest social network, impacting the lives of over a billion people each month. On the other side, CEO Mark Zuckerberg — apparently not using his own social network or perhaps living under a rock this past year? — claims that Facebook has virtually no influence on national elections. The disconnect is important, because it shows that Facebook doesn’t appear to take a leadership position of responsibility for unleashing and reinforcing the technology that has become a part of billions of people’s lives everyday. Is fake news an actual problem on Facebook, and if so, what can be done about it? On Tuesday, after Google said it would no longer accept publishers into its ad network who publish fake news — fictionalized news designed to be shared and clicked-on by others — Facebook followed suit. It’s telling that Facebook followed Google’s lead given Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s comments over the weekend calling it “crazy” that Facebook would have had any influence in the most contentious recent presidential general election. However, banning fake news sites from using your ad network is a far cry from actually working on the real problem — people sharing and liking fake news stories just as readily as real, legitimate news stories. Will Oremus, writing over at Slate, lays out the problem: ...
Source: World of Psychology - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Brain and Behavior General Minding the Media Policy and Advocacy Psychology Technology Facebook Fake News fake news problem Mark Zuckerberg social media social network Source Type: blogs