5 votes

Facebook to start fact-checking program in Brazil - Six months ahead of general elections, the platform pledges to reduce organic dissemination of "news" items confirmed to be false.

Posted by cfabbro
Tags: social media, facebook, fake news, brazil, politics, elections, fact checking, author.angelica mari, source.zdnet, short read
https://www.zdnet.com/article/facebook-to-start-fact-checking-program-in-brazil/

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Title
Facebook to start fact-checking program in Brazil | ZDNet
Authors
Angelica Mari
Published
May 11 2018
Word count
176 words

4 comments

  1. [3]
    arghdos
    Link
    Damn Considering how well YouTube has fared in this realm, the same old ideas of hiring fact checkers and banning repeat offenders has me skeptical at best

    Proposed legislation was also put forward to hold those spreading false news online or operating hoax-spreading bots to account, with jail terms between one to three years.

    Damn

    Considering how well YouTube has fared in this realm, the same old ideas of hiring fact checkers and banning repeat offenders has me skeptical at best

    2 votes
    1. [2]
      cfabbro
      (edited )
      Link Parent
      AFAIK YouTube didn't employ any fact checkers, they just tried to algorithm and crowdsource (through YouTube "Heroes") their fake news problems away. So it's no big surprise that didn't work......

      AFAIK YouTube didn't employ any fact checkers, they just tried to algorithm and crowdsource (through YouTube "Heroes") their fake news problems away. So it's no big surprise that didn't work... and YouTube still haven't learned their lesson and are now trying to use "information cues" (basically just links to Wikipedia) to stem fake news... instead of employing actual independent fact checkers to review trending videos like they damn well should.

      As much as I love to shit on Facebook, they actually seem to be taking the problem seriously and are working with The International Fact-Checking Network run by the Poynter Institute (who operates PolitiFact).

      1 vote
      1. arghdos
        Link Parent
        I guess it's also a problem of scale as well. If they're talking about vetting news stories that are on the sidebar, then that seems reasonable. But it sounded like they were going to try to...

        I guess it's also a problem of scale as well. If they're talking about vetting news stories that are on the sidebar, then that seems reasonable. But it sounded like they were going to try to enforce/regulate what user groups shared or promoted (the language about removing repeat offenders) which is an entirely different order of magnitude

        1 vote
  2. nothis
    Link
    One way to read news like this is “social media has failed”. I mean, I appreciate Facebook doing something but come on, the fact that they have to is a sign that their entire business model is...

    One way to read news like this is “social media has failed”. I mean, I appreciate Facebook doing something but come on, the fact that they have to is a sign that their entire business model is harmful to society.

    1 vote