During 2016, Facebook users came were given the news that pope was endorsing Donald trump during his elections and also that a Democratic operative was murdered after agreeing to testify against Hillary Clinton and that Bill Clinton raped a 13-year-old girl which were all lies and there were so many similar stories like this one. However, stories like these thrives on Facebook and search engine results of Google because Facebook and Google’s algorithm prioritizes “engagement” and a reliable way to get more and more readers to enjoy news or remain engaged to them is by making up outrageous nonsense about politicians they don’t like.
One of the biggest problems of our times is that the internet has broken down the traditional distinction between professional news-gathering and amateur rumor-mongering. Even a fake news site is made to look like a professional newspaper site and this creates problems for people who are looking forward to reading genuine and reliable information. "Fake news" is the crisis du jour for online media in 2017, and now, two tech giants, Google and Facebook are working hard together to stop it from wrecking a pivotal election.
This is not something easy or simple and it might take some time before they are able to sort out information and understand where the fake news or the rumors come from because the world of internet is indeed a big one and it is not so easy to get rid of these people or faculties that are churning our fake news on daily basis. Along with the newsrooms in France that also includes France 24, the partner for Mashable's French-language edition, Facebook and Google are working together on a new project that will help to verify or debunk viral information online. Called CrossCheck, it will be focusing on the 2017 presidential election of France.
The initiative, billed as "a collaborative journalism project," was originally conceived by First Draft, a non-profit organization that is focused on verifying information in the digital age, and Google News Lab. It seems that the French election is the best type of event for google and Facebook to understand what measures to take when it comes to understanding all about fake news and make sense of what is happening on the news scene.
It seems that CrossCheck has its work all cut out because there will be a lot to do for it once the election starts. However, the details about how the project will work or how it will proceed are still a bit sketchy right now and they need to be tweaked before they are known by all. It seems as Google and Facebook will be offering access to tools like CrowdTangle and Google Trends to help experts track how topics are being discussed on social media and what impact they can have on results.
According to a report that was published in Le Monde, Facebook will also be coming up with a French version of a news reporting tool that will enable the users to flog bogus content on social networking and this will enable other users to understand if the news that they are viewing is not credible and they will be quick in getting rid of it. In addition to this, third party fact checkers will also be going through the content and there will be warning on the disputed links too. Not only this, but disputed content will also be ranked lower in the news feed of the users and this will help others make our the significance of news that they are reading.
Fake news has become a big problem for users as well as Google and Facebook and it is detrimental to politics and other fields of life too. There are cases when public is confused and does not know which facts are right and if what they are reading is actually true or not. Even president trump has been tweeting about fake news in his speeches but there was no way to check out which news was fake and how it could be prevented from making its way to the people. It is only now that giants like Google and Facebook are getting to know the truth behind the matter that there will be some progress in this regard and with the right measures and tools, it will make things better for people to understand.
cutting down how misinformation spreads on Facebook or Google is worth the effort because a recent survey conducted by the Pew Research Center indicated that social media does indeed have the power to change what people believe. With the right information and the number of people believing it, there is a chance that people will be smart enough to only forward the right information to others.
As the internet’s most popular news resource and social networking platform, Facebook has the biggest fake news problem and it is worried about being seen as biased against conservatives. This issue will only grow with time if it is not given due attention on the right time and it is necessary that Facebook must take extreme measures to keep a check on what people are promoting and if the content is genuine or not. Google has also announced that it will cut fake sites from access to its vast advertising network and this might be able to help both the internet giants win the war against fake news.
Author Bio:
Chris Greenwalty is social and tech blogger who works with a dissertation writing service, The Academic Papers UK.