Everything I Share on Facebook Is True Now! LIKE AND SHARE TO SHOW HOW SMART WE ARE!
Click here to find out how One Like Equals One Prayer will save the world. And how using shady pills we advertise will improve your sex life.
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Congratulations, you (probably) didn’t fall for the clickbait because you have recognised how nonsensical the beginning is. I’ll admit, however, that I have tried to make it as obvious as possible. Some platforms don’t try to mask their attempts at satire and are thus easy to uncover.
Many other satire platforms or fake news pages, however, pay attention to detail to sound as believable as possible. This causes the problem of fake news articles being shared by thousands of unsuspecting individuals who do not bother to research every piece of news they find. Due to their often convincing tone, their spread happens fairly quickly without much resistance. And let’s be honest: Who, as a common consumer, actually counter-checks every piece of news they stumble upon?
Fake news have become a problem as they are able to spread rumors or directly misinform a certain mass of people through social media. The Washington Post even went as far as claiming that the Russians are also heavily involved into spreading fake news during the U.S. election. Therefore, to ensure that the regular user doesn’t have to deal with fake news anymore, Google and Facebook have decided to pick up a fight against fake news sites by banning them from their advertising network. The resulting loss of revenue for fake news outlets may lead to many false platforms losing popularity or them being shut down.
But won’t that affect parodies and actual satire? Who defines the difference?
“Although satire sites like The Onion are not the target of the policy, it is not clear whether some of them, which often run fake news stories written for humorous effect, will be inadvertently affected by Google’s change,” says the New York Times in the article linked above.
Of course big satire networks that are known to the authors of the planned filter rules will be excluded from the ban as they are considered not harmful. My personal problem is that lesser known parody platforms might end up being filtered from the ad networks as well if people taking their articles too literally report them.
Do we need others to filter our newsfeeds for us just because some of us can’t tell nonsense from real content apart?
It’s much more complicated than just being able to distinguish fake from real, I would say.
On the one hand, people unable to distinguish fake news from real news play a role in this initiative but on the other hand, it’s not purely their fault. With texts being the only indication of what the author is trying to say, a joke or sarcasm is very hard to recognise. Let alone an artificially produced lie with attention to detail and credibility.
I think that Google and Facebook taking filtering into their hands is not the best but the laziest solution for the end-user. Instead of having to research about every topic they find on the Internet, two large companies are beginning to start tidying the user’s newsfeed up.
But bear in mind that they do not block the fake news providers from the search results or block them from being shared altogether: They only want to limit their access to advertising. If you click on and share anything mindlessly, the filter will not magically save you from spreading lies. It will also take a while for Facebook’s post-visibility algorithms to adapt to a slow decline of fake news views. If a noticeable decline actually happens at all.
Therefore, let me tell you: Think. Read. Understand.
Always think before you share. You may be able to be a little lazier in the future, but nobody will take the thinking from you. Don’t just trust your instincts alone. Question. Do your research. Be critical. It’s not that hard — pinky promise.
Read what you share — don’t only share the “shocking” and sometimes pretty much unrelated clickbait previews. The shady pills I mentioned in the beginning are not being advertised at all. Who might have guessed?
Understand what you share. Some things already sound suspiciously ridiculous. Don’t make a fool of yourself. Do your research. Or at least try verifying the sources if any are given. One Like Equals One Prayer posts will not magically help starving children in Africa. Five seconds of using a search engine of your choice will give you the same result.
Oh, and maybe try to not take everything on the Internet too seriously and/or literally. You’ll be surprised how much that can improve your and other people’s browsing experiences.
