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Snopes ends fact-checking partnership with Facebook
Snopes is no longer helping Facebook debunk fake stories. the fact-checking company announced Friday that it isn't renewing its agreement with the social networking giant. Snopes said that it is still open to working with Facebook again in the future, but the small operation simply didn't have the bandwidth to continue helping debunk bad information being spread across Facebook's platform.
Study finds fake news spreads faster and further on Twitter than truth
There's been a lot of discussion about fake news, how it spreads on social networks and how it impacts behaviors like political decisions. But there hasn't really been an in-depth look into how true and false information spreads on sites like Facebook or Twitter, nor has there been an analysis on how big of a role bots play in that spread. Well three researchers at MIT have just published a study in Science that does just that and their work finds that false information spreads faster, further, deeper and more broadly than true information and that humans, not bots, are to blame.
Google reportedly serves fake ads to fact-checking sites
It's not just Facebook that has a fake news advertising problem. Google also found evidence of Russian influence in the most recent US presidential election, and reportedly set up anti-Muslim ads (which it subsequently shut down). Now, according to a report in The New York Times, fake ads that look like news are appearing on sites that actively try to counter fake news, including Politifact and Snopes.
Facebook’s fact-checkers say the company is withholding useful data
Facebook has been plucking away at its big fake news problem over the last few months. So far, it has cut off fake news sites from ad revenue and blocked advertisements from Pages that spread fake news. It has also deprioritized false reports and posts shared by high-frequency posters. And the company has also been incorporating fact-checkers into its system who go through articles tagged as fake and look into their claims. If they do turn out to be riddled with errors, the articles get flagged and fact-checked reports will now even show up alongside other related articles in the Trending News section.
Snopes needs money to continue fighting fake news
When you want to find out if something on the internet is true, you head to Snopes.com. The venerable fact-checking site, established in 1994 by David Mikkelson, is now part of Poynter's International Fact-Checking Network, the group that Google and Facebook use to deal with the recent rise in fake news. Unfortunately, Snopes is having trouble with revenue and has gone to GoFundMe to stay afloat on while it deals with legal issues around advertising.
The myth of the bloody Webkinz murders
It's just a sign of the times: online worlds are increasingly a part of America's collective unconsciousness. From World of Warcraft's truck commercial to the popularity of Barbie Girls, young and old have come to accept online gaming as a part of our society. For better or worse, that means MMOs are now a part of the vicious rumormill that swirls online ... and the result is as disturbing as it is funny.It seems there's been a rumor going around since early last year concerning the perhaps-too-popular kiddie-world Webkinz. The story goes that some sort of malware can 'kill your Webkinz' inside the game. The accounts vary, but many seem to come back to an evil version of one of the in-game NPCs coming after your huggable critters with a weapon. While the image of a chainsaw-wielding duck is evocative, Snopes sets things to right: it's completely untrue. The site categorizes these rumors as expressions of anxiety over treasured friends/objects; much like a young person would fear a bully ripping the head of their stuffed animal off in real life, so they fear the virtual equivalent. And no, they note, neither Club Penguin nor NeoPets have anything to do with these rumors.[Via Cleolinda]
