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Facebook is banning misinformation about voting ahead of the midterms
Partisan fraudsters may have a tougher time disseminating misinformation to voters over the next 22 days, as Facebook has vowed to crack down the spread of such "fake news" ahead of November's midterm elections, Reuters reports.
Study: Fake Twitter accounts from 2016 US election are still active
Fake news had proven to be a big issue around the 2016 presidential election in the US, with major social platforms falling victims to misinformation-spreading actors. Twitter, in particular, made repeated announcements that it was cracking down on the problem by improving its ability to recognize fake accounts and shut them down. According to a study, however, a large number of suspected accounts could still be at large, posting millions of tweets that link to fake news.
AI catches fake news by gauging the accuracy of its source
Internet giants are getting better at countering fake news. For the most part, though, they screen content on a story-by-story basis and only block entire outlets well after they've done significant damage. Researchers from MIT's CSAIL and Qatar's Computing Research Institute might have a better solution: use AI to measure the quality of the source. Their machine learning algorithm uses collections of existing articles to gauge the accuracy and bias of a given outlet on the assumption that a fake news peddler or spin factory isn't about to change its ways. Rather than focusing on the claims themselves, it studies the language used to express those claims.
WhatsApp hires grievance officer to battle fake news in India
WhatsApp has hired a grievance officer for India in order to meet a key demand set by the country's government to halt the spread of fake messages that triggered mob lynchings. In an update to its FAQ section, WhatsApp directs users to lodge complaints through the mobile app, send an email, or write in to grievance officer Komal Lahiri (formerly of Facebook and PayPal), who's based out of the US. According to her LinkedIn, Lahiri was brought on in March as "senior director of global customer operations and localization."
Facebook’s 'War Room' is its latest effort to protect elections
Facebook has more than 300 people working on protecting elections from misinformation aimed at influencing voters. But starting next week, the company will have one more weapon in its arsenal -- a War Room. The New York Times reports that Facebook is currently converting a conference room into a final line of defense against fake news campaigns that target elections. Around 20 people, including engineers, data scientists and executives, will sit in the room and monitor dashboards that show activity on the platform and how it's changing in real time.
Why are people pretending to be dead on Instagram?
Ahmed Simrin, 15, is one of the millions of teenagers who uses Instagram. He doesn't post pictures on his page every day (there are two total), yet somehow he's managed to get nearly 3,000 people to follow it. That doesn't make him a social media influencer, by any means, but his Instagram page quickly stands out when you realize one of the photos has over 22,000 comments and 4,000 likes. This type of engagement is typically only seen on accounts from celebrities. His viral picture, posted in October 2017, isn't anything out of the ordinary, either: It's Simrin simply standing next to his friend, each staring directly into the camera, with a caption that reads "Fresh out the oven." But then you look at the comments, and it would appear that poor Simrin is no longer with us. There are thousands of users telling him to rest in peace. "RIP, you'll be missed." "RIP, bro." "You died way too young." "I can't believe you're gone." The list goes on and on.
Facebook is hiring a human rights policy director
Facebook has faced criticism for its slow response to the Myanmar government's use of its social network to fuel atrocities, and it's determined to prevent that from happening again. The company is hiring a Director of Human Rights Policy who will develop approaches that foster human rights and peace while simultaneously cracking down on those who "enable harm, stifle expression, and undermine human rights." This leader would steer investigations into human rights abusers and work with both government and corporate partners.
Researchers say Facebook’s anti-fake news efforts might be working
Since the 2016 US presidential election, social network sites have acknowledged the issue of fake news as well as their roles in spreading it. Companies like Facebook and Twitter have made efforts to address the problem, instituting a number of measures aimed at stemming the spread of misinformation and disincentivizing those that spread it. But how useful have those efforts been? Researchers at Stanford University and New York University say at least in Facebook's case, they may be working.
Facebook is fact-checking photos and videos to fight fake news
It's no secret that Facebook has been struggling to stop fake news from spreading on its site, though it has indeed made progress since the 2016 US presidential election. Now, as part of its ongoing efforts to fight misinformation, Facebook has announced that its 27 fact-checking partners across the world now have access to a new tool that will analyze pictures and videos. According to Facebook, this feature is powered by machine learning and is designed to help reviewers identify and take action against false content faster.
Google supports small-scale journalism with free G Suite licenses
Earlier this year, Google announced that it would put $300 million towards fighting fake news and part of that effort included the Google News Initiative, a program aimed at strengthening the quality of journalism, enabling new business models to drive growth and empowering news organizations through innovative technologies. Now, the company says it will support local, small and medium-sized news organizations through its new Google News Initiative Cloud Program.
The BBC will host the first non-US news show on Facebook Watch
After launching its news section in June, Facebook Watch has its first non-US show. BBC News' has unveiled a weekly news show for the fledgling video channel called Cut Through the Noise, Variety reports. The show, specifically aimed at mobile users with the use of vertical video, will run weekly and report on various issues from Washington, DC and elsewhere.
Sandberg’s ‘alternative facts’ comment won’t help Facebook’s cause
Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee today, addressing social media's role in election meddling and their platforms' efforts to combat it. When discussing misinformation, Sandberg described Facebook's use of fact checkers, saying that once third-party fact checkers mark a story as false, the platform then shows related articles next to the original in order to provide readers with additional and more factual coverage. But her choice of words was rather telling. "If it's marked as false we dramatically decrease the distribution on our site, we warn you if you're about to share it, we warn you if you have shared it, and importantly we show related articles next to that so people can see alternative facts," she said (emphasis added).
Facebook tells Senate it needs help stopping election interference
Facebook has been scrambling to fight election meddling ahead of the 2018 midterms, but it doesn't want to go alone. The social network has released COO Sheryl Sandberg's prepared testimony ahead of her Senate appearance on September 5th, and she uses the presentation to call for more government help in battling interference from countries like Russia. Facebook's staffers "can't stop interference by ourselves," she said, noting that Facebook doesn't have "all the investigative tools" of government and can't always identify perpetrators or their motivations.
Reddit moderators spotted Iranian fake news campaign months ago
Earlier this week, Facebook, Twitter and Google announced they had pulled a number of accounts linked to a misinformation campaign based out of Iran. Facebook took down 652 pages believed to be connected to the campaign while Twitter suspended 284 accounts. Google also removed a number of YouTube channels, Google+ accounts and Blogger blogs. But NBC News reports today that a handful of Reddit moderators spotted this misinformation effort some time ago and that their reports to the website were ignored.
About that Facebook trust ranking
To the complete horror and amusement of those watching the grand experiment Facebook is doing on everyone, this week we found out the company is assigning a reputation score to users that ranks their trustworthiness. The perversity of the situation was lost on no one. (And no, it's not the kind of perversity we like; this is Facebook, after all, the anathema to human sexual expression.)
Facebook is rating users based on their 'trustworthiness'
Facebook hasn't been shy about rating the trustworthiness of news outlets, but it's now applying that thinking to users as well. The company's Tessa Lyons has revealed to the Washington Post that it's starting to assign users reputation scores on a zero-to-one scale. The system is meant to help Facebook's fight against fake news by flagging people who routinely make false claims against news outlets, whether it's due to an ideological disagreement or a personal grudge. This isn't the only way Facebook gauges credibility, according to Lyons -- it's just one of thousands of behavior markers Facebook is using.
Jack Dorsey explains why Twitter is reluctant to fight fake news
Twitter chief Jack Dorsey's media tour has swung past CNN, and he's using this latest opportunity to defend more of the social network's controversial decisions over subjects like fake news. In an interview with Reliable Sources host Brian Stelter, Dorsey argued that his company hadn't "figured this [fake news] out" and was reluctant to outright remove false reports. It would be "dangerous" for Twitter staffers to serve as "arbiters of truth," he claimed.
Anne Frank Center asks Facebook to remove Holocaust denial pages
The Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect is calling out Facebook for allowing Holocaust denial pages on its site. And the center is doing so through a petition in which it's requesting Facebook and CEO Mark Zuckerberg take them down. "When these pages spread lies and untruths, it is veiled hatred and anti-semitism designed to cast doubt on facts," the center says in the Change.org petition. "There is a difference between providing a platform for free expression and knowingly spreading false information and lies. Denying the Holocaust causes harm."
Twitter doesn’t have the spine to ban Alex Jones
It seems like every major tech company has had enough of Alex Jones, the conspiracy theorist and propagandist behind the controversial far-right site InfoWars. Well, almost everyone. The obvious holdout: Twitter. On Monday, Twitter said InfoWars and its associated accounts, including Jones', were not currently violating its rules. And last night its CEO and co-founder, Jack Dorsey, tried to explain the decision. He said Twitter is going to "hold Jones to the same standard we hold to every account," but that it isn't "taking one-off actions to make us feel good in the short term, and adding fuel to new conspiracy theories."
Recommended Reading: The plight of fact-checkers in the fake news era
The fact-checkers who want to save the world Kate Knibbs, The Ringer In the era of fake news and rampant misinformation, fact-checkers are a key line of defense and an important tool in separating truth from lies. The Ringer takes a look a the organizations and individuals who have accepted the challenge, shifting through stories and even fact-checking those claiming to be fact-checkers.
