The company who should solve fake news
Dear Sergey and Larry,
I love Gmail. All my spam disappears. Heck you guys even know how to sort my promotional emails into a separate tab. And Google search. It’s lit, filled with real and relevant results. Many content farming sites have died a slow Google search death.
I know you guys noticed what happened this election. Along with voting issues, bad polling and a host of other issues, fake news had a hand. No one is saying that fake news by itself changed the course of this election. But it didn’t help. When I was a high school teacher in Brooklyn I taught a class, Participation in Government, that all NYC public school seniors had to take. The class as best it could, was based on facts and information about our democracy, our checks and balances and the role of the student as citizen.
The Internet has enabled the spread of misinformation, false information and libelous information in a way in which we can not yet fully comprehend. My Participation in Government class did not teach 17 year old kids how to identify a fake news site, a fake news story or bias. Maybe it should have. But until then, let’s fix this.
Google should use its spam algorithms, its ability to identify those who game the system, and build the equivalent of a link based credibility system. Google should build a white list, do semantic analysis, and provide passive crowd based intelligence tools. It should offer this service as a free public service API to any social network or social news platform.
Facebook has recently started cracking down on kids who post videos of cover songs. Yes, if you post a video of yourself singing a Taylor Swift song on Facebook, they will flag you and take it down. If that is the priority that trumps fake news, then Google, we really, really need you.
Remember that “don’t be evil” slogan you guys had? You’ve got the brains, the money and the power. You have the algorithms. Build this and set it free. So that we can all participate in government with equal and fair information.
