
Will tech firms save us from fake news?
Fake news has become a cause célèbre and fighting it has attracted some powerful players. Facebook just launched its “disputed” tag for possible fake news, and Google has promised to also go on the attack.
But can current tech firms really stop or even slow down fake news? Probably not. Frankly, these firms’ business models enable the economic engine that powers fake news, and the demand for a social media site’s version of the truth is probably quite low.
Is fake news something new?
Fake news isn’t a new phenomenon. In 1782, Benjamin Franklin published a counterfeit issue of the Boston Independent Chronicle that included a fictional account of American scalps being sent to the king of England. During the era of yellow journalism, Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst sometimes knowingly published false stories to rouse anti-Spanish sentiment over Spain’s colonization of Cuba. Ryan Holiday, author of “Trust Me, I’m Lying” (Penguin Group, 2013), describes numerous instances over the past decade where he fed made-up stories to a gullible media.
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Will tech firms save us from fake news?
Πηγή: TechPolicyDaily.com