'On Thursday, the company said it would do more to prevent the spread of false stories on its platform.' (Oh, good, just in time.) :/
Donald Trump likes to talk about “draining the swamp.” The president-elect seems to mean cleaning up corruption in Washington. But for the real swamp of 2016, you needn’t look to our capitol ― just pick up your phone and open Facebook.
The social network describes itself as a tech company, but in reality it is the main news source for a growing number of Americans, according to data from Pew. In the lead-up to the 2016 election, it was often a black hole of misinformation and propaganda, fueling bias and hatred on both sides.
Nonetheless, the company’s founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, downplayed fake news’ role in the election. “Personally I think the idea that fake news on Facebook, which is a very small amount of the content, influenced the election in any way — I think is a pretty crazy idea,” Zuckerberg reportedly said at a conference Thursday. “Voters make decisions based on their lived experience.”
Zuckerberg didn’t provide evidence that fake news didn’t play a role, but anecdotally, it seems to have influenced the wider conversation in 2016 (fanning the flames on stories around Hillary Clinton’s health, for example.) Cont.
Story from - Huffington Post
No comments:
Post a Comment