Ad-driven media doesn’t care about the truth, and that isn’t going to change
Is Revcontent’s ‘Truth in Media Initiative’ fake news?
Ad distribution company Revcontent uses so-called ‘content recommendation’ widgets to place paid-for content on websites. Recently, they launched a ‘Truth in Media Initiative’ to “continue the fight against fake news”. What this involves thus far is a feature in their widget for users to give feedback on content, with one option being to report articles they believe to be ‘fake news’. So why is Revcontent claiming to fight fake news?
Sincerity in question
Defining ‘fake news’ can be challenging, but we’re basically talking about misinformation: content designed to look like reputable journalism that has no basis in fact. Why is Revcontent suddenly concerned about it? Well, a lot of ‘fake news’, and its cousin clickbait, has historically been distributed through ad distribution networks like Revcontent, along with the two main players Taboola and Outbrain.
Recent events such as the Brexit referendum and the US presidential election have seen a surge in fake news. The effects, as exemplified by Pizzagate, have led to calls from across society to fight fake news, and they’re getting stronger. Consumers are waking up to how they’re being manipulated, so being associated with fake news is now bad for business.
Another ad-driven company which has become synonymous with fake news, Facebook, tried to take the lead in response to the controversy. The site announced in late 2016 that it would be partnering with independent fact-checkers to crack down on the spread of misinformation on its platform. However, this PR move has run into trouble. Facebook’s apparent unwillingness to pay for fact-checking, mostly relying on users and independent organisations, has prompted criticism ever since.
Suspicions that the problem of fake news may not be a priority for the company were hardly laid to rest by events at the recent annual shareholders’ meeting:
New ‘initiatives’ can’t help but come across as simply more data-gathering for businesses like Facebook and Revcontent, finding out exactly what consumers will tolerate in order to tread as closely as possible to that line.
People are rightly questioning how sincere ad-driven companies are when stating they are serious about combating fake news.
Buzzfeed News and the strange case of the fake news network
Like Facebook, Revcontent wants to distance itself from fake news. Also like Facebook, an ill-thought-out piece of PR has highlighted its hypocrisy. When BuzzFeed News heard about Revcontent’s ‘Truth in Media Initiative’, they were puzzled, since their recent review of ad networks on fake news sites found Revcontent’s content ad module was present on 22 of them. So they wrote a new article exposing this double-dealing: “An ad network that helps fake news sites earn money is now asking users to report fake news”. Craig Silverman reported that at the time of Revcontent launching their initiative, it was distributing content from 21 websites that published fake news stories:
This isn’t surprising. Extreme content generates clicks, and clicks mean $$$ for Revcontent. Even after BuzzFeed contacted Revcontent to point this out, they only removed 4 of the 21 sites from their pool of publishers.
Revcontent’s PR release on its ‘Truth in Media Initiative’ begins to seem a lot like the fake news it’s supposed to combat.
Fake news is a feature of the ad model, not a bug
Let’s be frank — the business models of ad-driven companies like Facebook and Revcontent work against ‘Truth in Media’ because it’s bad for business. It’s quite simple: being reliant on ads means attention = money. So, unsurprisingly, these companies have entered an all out race for our attention. That’s a race that clickbait and sensationalism (the bread and butter of fake news) always wins:
Fake news is very much like the car crash in Ev Williams’ analogy. As Michael Radutzky at CBS put it recently:
“Fake news are stories that are provably false, have enormous traction and popular appeal in the culture, and are consumed by millions of people”.
Content recommendation is just one piece of the puzzle
Networks like Revcontent give content recommendation a bad name. In fact, this isn’t content recommendation at all, it’s content marketing. By distributing clickbait and fake news they reduce trust in media sources and increase polarization inside the filter bubbles where much of this content is consumed. This is just a small part of the larger problem we all face: how the internet and quality media can learn to co-exist in the 21st century if advertisers write the script.
As Ev Williams said in a recent interview with The New York Times, we need to “change the architecture of content creation, distribution and monetization on the internet”. As long as ad networks like Revcontent, Taboola and Outbrain make money from sensationalism and clicks, they stand to lose from positive change and we can expect more spurious ‘initiatives’.
Media and publishing need to find new ways of generating revenue on the internet that don’t involve feeds full of content car crashes. In a world where the call for quality, truthful content and great discovery experiences is stronger than ever, we need people — and recommender systems — to put their money where their mouth is.
Bibblio is a content recommendation platform that helps content businesses and publishers deliver more relevant and engaging discovery experiences to their users. Visit us on Twitter, LinkedIn or our website.
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