{"id":67582,"date":"2017-03-05T09:20:55","date_gmt":"2017-03-05T13:20:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=67582"},"modified":"2017-03-05T09:20:55","modified_gmt":"2017-03-05T13:20:55","slug":"facebook-uses-snopes-the-dopes-to-censor-fake-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=67582","title":{"rendered":"Facebook uses &#8220;Snopes the dopes&#8221; to censor \u2018fake news\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 class=\"article__heading\">Facebook begins \u2018fake news\u2019 crackdown with \u2018disputed\u2019 story tag roll out<\/h1>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_67583\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/58bb2ab9c36188d71d8b4595.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-67583\" class=\"wp-image-67583\" src=\"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/58bb2ab9c36188d71d8b4595.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"356\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/58bb2ab9c36188d71d8b4595.jpg 900w, https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/58bb2ab9c36188d71d8b4595-300x167.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/58bb2ab9c36188d71d8b4595-768x427.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-67583\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u00a9 Christian Ohde \/ face to face \/ www.globallookpress.com<\/p><\/div>\n<p>RT.com<\/p>\n<p>Facebook has begun rolling out its much hyped \u2018fake news\u2019 crackdown initiative, launching its \u2018disputed\u2019 news tag on stories deemed false by fact checking organisations working with the social media giant.<\/p>\n<p>The tool appears to have been unveiled without fanfare in the US, but some users have shared screenshots of it in action on Twitter.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Facebook is flagging links to fake sites now, looks like: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/N7xaWDkdYA\">pic.twitter.com\/N7xaWDkdYA<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Anna Merlan (@annamerlan) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/annamerlan\/status\/837804702255431680?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 3, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<div class=\"rtcode\"><\/div>\n<p>Facebook has added a question to its help center page entitled <em>\u201cHow is news marked as disputed on Facebook?.\u201d<\/em> The section notes, however, that this feature is not yet available to everyone. It is unclear how many people currently have access to the \u2018fake news\u2019 debunking feature.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article__cover\">\n<div class=\"media\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"media__item\" src=\"http:\/\/cdn.rt.com\/files\/2017.03\/original\/58bb29b6c36188d71d8b4592.jpg\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Facebook introduced their solution to false stories last December amid outcries that so-called fake news influenced the outcome of the US presidential election. These unproven claims have been disputed by a Stanford University\/NYU study.<\/p>\n<p>As part of the plan, the tech giant partnered with fact checkers that are signatories of Poynter\u2019s International Fact Checking Code of Principles. These include ABC News, FactCheck.org, the Associated Press, Snopes and Politifact.<\/p>\n<p>Stories flagged by Facebook users as \u2018fake news\u2019 are passed on to these fact checkers for verification. If the fact-checkers agree that the story is misleading, it will appear in News Feeds with a &#8220;disputed&#8221; tag, along with a link to a corresponding article explaining why it might be false.<\/p>\n<p>These posts then appear lower in the news feed and users will receive a warning before sharing the story.<\/p>\n<p>Similar efforts are planned in Europe amid threats from the EU to clamp down on the spread of misinformation. Facebook recently revealed fact checking partnerships in Germany and France ahead of respective elections in each country.<\/p>\n<div class=\"arcticle__read-more read-more\"><\/div>\n<p>Concerns have been raised, however, over the implications of such practices on freedom of speech.<\/p>\n<p>Project Censored, a non-profit that aims to fight censorship through promoting media literacy, views Facebook\u2019s fake news crackdown as \u201cproblematic.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cWhat Facebook, and the Washington Post&#8217;s <\/em>ill advised<em> list of fake news sites, has attempted to do is make lists of news outlets that are &#8220;fake,&#8221;<\/em> Nolan Higdon, faculty advisor at Project Censored told RT.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cHowever, this is problematic because some news sites have both journalists doing credible work and those disseminating propaganda. While some consumers may be swayed by the digestible notion of &#8220;these sites good, these sites bad&#8221; lists; it does not solve the problem of people consuming propaganda,\u201d\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0he added.<\/p>\n<p>The key is education, Higdon insisted, explaining the importance of teaching individuals to examine a media outlet critically.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cSimply creating an arbitrary list of whose websites can and cannot be viewed on Facebook or considered \u2018news\u2019 is normalizing censorship instead of informing individuals.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>___<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.rt.com\/viral\/379469-facebook-disputed-news-crackdown\/\">http:\/\/www.rt.com\/viral\/379469-facebook-disputed-news-crackdown\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Facebook begins \u2018fake news\u2019 crackdown with \u2018disputed\u2019 story tag roll out<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=67582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67582\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=67582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=67582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=67582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}