Not doing enough to remove fake news

[Randy]

Big Tech not doing enough to remove fake news, activist NGO Avaaz says

Twitter, Google's YouTube, Meta Platform's Facebook, Microsoft's LinkedIn and TikTok are not doing enough to remove fake news from their platforms, raising doubts about their ability to comply with new EU online content rules, activist NGO Avaaz said on Tuesday.

www.reuters.com

Big Tech not doing enough to remove fake news, activist NGO Avaaz says​

Twitter, Google's (GOOGL.O) YouTube, Meta Platform's (META.O) Facebook, Microsoft's (MSFT.O) LinkedIn and TikTok are not doing enough to remove fake news from their platforms, raising doubts about their ability to comply with new EU online content rules, activist NGO Avaaz said on Tuesday.

The companies are due to present reports this week on the measures they have taken to comply with the updated EU code of practice on disinformation which is linked to the online content rules known as the Digital Services Act (DSA) that came into force last November.

Avaaz said it analysed a sample pool of 108 fact-checked pieces of content related to a 2022 American anti-vaccine film and found efforts by the social media platforms including Meta's Instagram to remove disinformation fell short.

"Overall, just 22% of disinformation content we analysed was either labelled or removed by the six major platforms," Avaaz said.

It said the companies did not do enough to tackle disinformation in languages other than English.

"Despite explicit platform commitments in the code to improve their services in all EU languages, our research found that in certain EU languages - Italian, German, Hungarian, Danish, Spanish and Estonian - no platform took any action against violating posts," Avaaz said.

"This study suggests that most of the major platforms are failing to comply with their Code of Practice commitments and might infringe upcoming DSA obligations," the group said.

Meta, Alphabet, Twitter and Microsoft last year vowed to take a tougher line against disinformation after committing to the updated EU code.

Companies face fines up to 6% of their global turnover for DSA violations.

Thoughts?

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

Part of me thinks they should be going after the people who published the fake news, not the platform itself. If someone posted some disinformation here on Off Topix, should I be sued for it? No the person who authored the content it should be held responsible.

 

[duskpire]

Part of me thinks they should be going after the people who published the fake news, not the platform itself. If someone posted some disinformation here on Off Topix, should I be sued for it? No the person who authored the content it should be held responsible.

When we do nothing about people spreading misinformation, it devalues the news that is factual and reliable. It's teaching people to not know what to believe because everything they get off of social media is a blatant lie. It's becoming hard for a lot of people to distinguish a reliable source from a bullshit one.

 

[Progrumz]

The best defense against fake news is strong education, which would allow people to use their critical thinking skills to determine if a source is reliable or not. Unfortunately,many of the same people who are disseminating the fake news are undermining public education, seeking to make it impossible for teachers to teach students how to think critically because that is apparently "indoctrinating" kids.

 

[Webster]

How do we even define "fake news"?

Is it outright falsehoods, mistakes or things we don't like?

 

[safeinsanity]

How do we even define "fake news"?

Is it outright falsehoods, mistakes or things we don't like?

Lies.

 

[duskpire]

How do we even define "fake news"?

Is it outright falsehoods, mistakes or things we don't like?

The kind of bullshit that causes shit and gets people killed. Ruby Ridge, The Waco Siege, and The West Memphis 3 are good examples. Had the authorities done their homework, those events wouldn't have become what they are today.

 

[Webster]

I get that but a lot of what passes for "fake news" is nothing more than things you or I might disagree with, so instead of bothering to read it we just call it "fake news" and ignore it.

 

[duskpire]

I get that but a lot of what passes for "fake news" is nothing more than things you or I might disagree with, so instead of bothering to read it we just call it "fake news" and ignore it.

To me, misinformation are things not supported by evidence or facts.

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

To me, misinformation are things not supported by evidence or facts.

Like religion?

 

[duskpire]

Like religion?

Most definitely.