What People are Missing About Facebook’s “Fake News” Crisis

There has been an explosion of concern about “Fake News” in the aftermath of the U.S. election. Craig Silverman of Buzzfeed Canada reported that, towards the end of the election, “fake” stories on Facebook were being shared more than “real news” sites. Many were provably false stories that benefited the Trump campaign.

There was a panicked realization that fake news may have affected the election: though Clinton’s lead in the popular vote is approaching 2-million, the electoral college was decided by a mere 50,000 votes in three states. One of the stories shared over 1-million times was that the Pope had endorsed Trump, which never happened.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg brushed this aside, claiming that 99% of the site’s content is factual. This raises the question — has Zuckerberg ever been on Facebook?

There is lots on Facebook that isn’t true — some isn’t supposed to be.

There are deadpan “fake news” satire and comedy sites, like The Onion, The Beaverton, or Manitoba’s own Daily Bonnet. There are sites sites dedicated to legitimate alternative or traditional medicines, but there are also snake-oil salesmen peddling miracle cures to desperately patients.

There are also pranks, hoaxes and conspiracy theories — some silly, some risky, some sinister. Many conspiracy theories are laden with politically-charged hatred.

The problem with the “fake” news people are concerned about is that it was misleading political propaganda, deliberately created to manipulate specific voters. “Fake news” sites aren’t being banned — they’re just not allowed to buy advertising anymore. That is because the stories did not go viral on their own — Facebook and Google were being paid to distribute the stories to a targeted audience.

The controversial stories came from websites like “End the Fed” and “The Denver Guardian” with no clear authors, editors, publishers or owners. Even the sites’ registration data was entirely anonymous. All posts on the Denver Guardian have since been deleted.

It was never about news — it had all the hallmarks of a political dirty tricks campaign, and Facebook and Google made it it cheap and easy to deliver false information on a mass scale.

Facebook uses all your information to let advertisers to target you — age, education, marital status, where you live, and your interests, likes, shares and friends. In the U.S., political campaigns with a profile of swing voters could target them with surgical precision, down to the postal code.

This is what make Facebook and Google appealing to advertisers, but no one considered the way it could be weaponized for propaganda.

This is all something traditional media keep in check. People may bash the “mainstream” media, journalists have to fact-check stories, get multiple sources, and if they get things wrong, they are held accountable by public complaints, internal discipline and lawsuits. Reporting, editorial and advertising are kept separate.

There is a bigger problem beneath all of this, which is that the economics of the digital media have created a “Gresham’s Law” of news: fake stories are driving out facts.

While the internet has made the audience for news greater than ever, it is hard for the people creating it to get paid for it. Facebook and Google (and other sites) make money from advertising, but they pay little or nothing for the content they share. To make up for lost revenue, newspapers share limited stories or create “paywalls.”

The result is that “high-quality” fact-checked and accountable stories — circulate less, while “low quality” stories — verifiably wrong, deliberately misleading and anoymous — circulate freely. Facebook and Google make more money from junk and propaganda — not from accurate stories.

No matter what your political leaning, this is a very serious problem, because it could be used and exploited by any political party, third party — or, for that matter, foreign country to skew elections.

Facebook has skated around the situation by saying they don’t want censorship, or have argued they don’t want to figure out what’s “true.” How would you build a digital filter for the truth?

You don’t have to. What’s really missing is accountability — on the part of Google, Facebook and the people creating misinformation.
When it comes to reducing “junk information”, Facebook could insist that an actual, named person or a real-world company takes responsibility for the content.

The “Gresham’s Law of Internet News” is a crisis, because news media aren’t being paid for their work. To support “real” journalism, Facebook, Google and other companies should pay royalties to media organizations with paid employees who create original, fact-checked content. Put together, this would reduce scams, fund solid journalism and make fact-checked stories easier to share. Big Tech needs to take its civic duty seriously. A free and independent press is essential not just to elections, but to democracy.

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Originally published at wholebuffaloreview.tumblr.com.