Ending Fake News
“Trump staffer just convicted on ten charges of felony election fraud!” was one of the most popular stories today…. seen, shared and liked by 16.6 thousand people on Facebook. But how many readers took the time to fact check the article or look into its source? It is fair to assume that many peopledid not have the time, inclination or ability to do that kind of due diligence.
A little digging would have revealed the Trump staffer was more of a Trump supporter named Brandon Hall. A jury in Grand Haven, Michigan found Hall guilty of forging signatures to get a judicial candidate on the local ballot in 2012. Suddenly, the salacious headline that might have contributed to its social velocity suddenly seems undeserved.
A quick search revealed the publisher, U.S. Uncut, to be a repository for left-wing stories, a description the publisher might dispute. Regardless, it is the kind of bias that a casual reader might not detect.
Finding an objective way to evaluate the accuracy and trustworthiness of top-trending stories is Aziz Ovadya’s goal. Ovadya, a 29 year old MIT graduate, says fake news is obviously a huge problem but it’s not the only problem. He is working on a way to automate the fact checking process humans go through, along with their methods of detecting bias. (Full disclosure, I am working with Ovadya on this project.) Articles and sources will receive rankings that can help people make better decisions about the stories they find online. As Ovadya put it,"There is no one providing the data about credibility for what is being shared online in a way that attempts to be robust to bias."
Whether you believe fake news is a real threat or a fake crisis, it’s clear media literacy is low in this country. A Stanford University study released late last month showed 82% of middle schoolers could not tell the difference between an ad labeled sponsored content and a real news story on a website. And these kids are supposed to be internet savvy! It will take education to help kids become more discerning. Adults also need help. With 62 percent of U.S adults getting most of their news from social media, Facebook and Google have moved to address the problem by denying advertising to “fake news” sites. It will take the proverbial village to stop fake news. The good news is the race is to find effective ways to do that is on.
Update: Since writing this blog post, more has come to light on the role bots play in spreading false information. This past Sunday, Sixty Minutes ran a fantastic story on the real consequences of fake news and the con artists behind the phenomenon. Click here to see the story or read the transcript