fake news

Old fights about radio have lessons for new fights about the Internet.

Continuing its crackdown on “fake news,” Facebook will no longer let publishers advertise on its network if they are found to be spreading such content. If a page repeatedly shares stories that have been marked as false by third-party fact-checkers, they will no longer be able to buy ads on Facebook.

President Trump blasted the news media ahead of his return to Washington on Sunday after a 17-day working vacation. “Heading back to Washington after working hard and watching some of the worst and most dishonest Fake News reporting I have ever seen!” the president said.

Mozilla, the creators of the popular Firefox web browser, are launching a new program to counter fake news stories. The Mozilla Information Trust Initiative (MITI) will increase funding for research on misinformation, the first findings to be released later this year. The company hopes to leverage Firefox’s size and reach to get data about news browsing habits.

The company said it has created a software algorithm to flag stories that may be suspicious and send them to third-party fact checkers. If the fact-checkers review the post and write a story debunking it or giving context, that post may appear below the original content on Facebook’s news feed, according to a company blog post.

President Trump ripped CNN, again early Thursday morning in Warsaw during a joint press conference with Polish President Andrzej Duda, saying, “They have been fake news for a long time.” He also said: “NBC is equally as bad despite the fact that I made them a fortune with The Apprentice — but they forgot that.”

Some in the White House see the president’s feud with the press as giving ammunition to his base. To many inside the White House, as well as outside allies, what looked like a public relations debacle last week amounted to an abundance of “winning” — a Trumpian catchphrase playfully repeated Friday by some West Wing officials, even as they were discomfited by the Brzezinski broadside.

Trump wrote in a Tuesday morning tweet, “Wow, CNN had to retract big story on ‘Russia,’ with 3 employees forced to resign. What about all the other phony stories they do? FAKE NEWS!”

The editor of the New Yorker spoke at Cannes Lions: “If we immerse ourselves in deception, sooner or later we lose.”

ABC News chief James Goldston on Tuesday made a surprising admission about the U.S. leader during a keynote address to the Banff World Media Festival — Trump has overseen a renaissance of journalism in America. “This [Trump] administration has given us a true clarity of purpose about what we do as journalists every day. He has single-handedly shaken up journalism, he has reinvigorated journalism,” declared Goldston, before adding, “It feels like a new golden age.”

NBC newsman Tom Brokaw, longtime anchor at NBC’s Nightly News before stepping down in 2004, accepted an award from Syracuse University on Tuesday. Brokaw says the amount of false stories in the news ecosystem doesn’t get enough attention. He challenged fellow journalists to write more about the scourge of “fake news.”

President Trump went after the “Fake News Media” early this morning, accusing the press of publishing false stories. “The Fake News Media has never been so wrong or so dirty,” Trump tweeted Tuesday. “Purposely incorrect stories and phony sources to meet their agenda of hate. Sad!”

Fake news might be the next issue for activist tech-company investors. The growing stream of reporting on and data about fake news, misinformation, partisan content, and news literacy is hard to keep up with. This weekly roundup offers the highlights of what you might have missed.

As the case of the Seth Rich murder shows, uncorroborated stories will spread as long as some people want to tell them, and others want to believe.

The president rarely surfs the web on his own, but his staff have made a habit of slipping news stories on to his desk — including the occasional internet hoax.

LONDON (AP) — Facebook says it has deleted tens of thousands of accounts in Britain ahead of the June 8 general election in a drive to battle fake news. The […]

A “fake news” graphic superimposed over the faces of news anchors in the Trump commercial was cited by CNN, ABC and NBC for not airing the ad. The networks contend that makes it inaccurate, and ABC said it represents a personal attack.

In a world where the traditional newsstand has been blown apart by technology and plastered on the social media feeds of millions of Americans, it’s gotten increasingly difficult to discern what’s real and what isn’t. Journalists from NPR, CNN and the founder of PolitiFact weigh in.

President Trump on Thursday blasted the media, saying members of the press will do anything to “get attention.” “The Fake News media is officially out of control,” the president tweeted. “They will do or say anything in order to get attention — never been a time like this!”

President Trump’s campaign is criticizing CNN for refusing to air an advertisement touting the president’s achievements during his first 100 days in office, saying the network doesn’t want it because the ad “doesn’t fit their narrative.” CNN said it requested that the campaign remove a portion that referred to the mainstream media as fake news.

Google’s pain may be Rupert Murdoch’s gain. Murdoch’s News Corp. is introducing a new service to ensure online ads don’t appear next to fake news or offensive videos, marking the latest salvo in the billionaire media mogul’s long battle with the world’s biggest search engine. News Corp.’s Storyful unit, which filters through the firehose of social media for publishers and brands, will track websites known as purveyors of fake news or extremist content and share that list with advertisers, who can use it to keep ads from appearing in controversial places.

The company has promoted Alex Hardiman, formerly of the New York Times, to its new head of news products role. The job means Hardiman will work with publishers to create news features, and also try to stop the proliferation of false news on the service.

Jimmy Wales, the founder of online encyclopedia Wikipedia, has launched a website aimed at countering the spread of fake news by bringing together professional journalists and a community of volunteers and supporters to produce news articles.

Facebook is looking to hire someone to head up its news products, a significant new role charged with helping to combat the proliferation of so-called fake news on its service. Facebook is talking to veterans of both the tech and media industries, according to multiple sources, but is having trouble finding someone with both the news and technology chops necessary to fill the role.

Since last October, the FCC has received 40 consumer complaints involving “fake news.” Of the 40, 19 addressed the mainstream media’s reporting as a whole, or focused on that of a supposedly left-leaning outlet, such as CNN or MSNBC. Five others addressed Fox News’ reporting. The rest ran the gamut, and included complaints about the National Enquirer’s presence at supermarket checkouts and the urgent need for the FCC to “drain” Facebook’s “swamp.”

Fake news is effective because it tells you something about the world that you, in a way, already know. This may sound counterintuitive. But a look into the work of a 19th-century fake news writer helps explain this phenomenon — and what’s going on today.

There’s a situation that has been trending for some time that we need to be concerned about — ads masquerading as genuine media-generated stories. On the home pages of legitimate news sources — The Washington Post, The New York Times and other publications — are articles that may not immediately be recognized as advertiser-driven content.

By looking more closely at how fake news moves and mobilizes people, we can develop a richer picture of not only how much it circulates where, but also why it circulates and how it resonates among different publics.

The resource, similar to previous efforts around privacy and security, is basically a notification that pops up for a few days. Clicking on it takes you to tips and other information on how to spot false news and what to do about it. Adam Mosseri, VP of News Feed at Facebook, said he hopes people will become “more discerning consumers” of news.

With the proliferation of hoaxes, conspiracy theories, doctored photos and lies that look like news, it’s inevitable: We’re all chumps sometimes.For those who are tired of it, along comes the first International Fact-Checking Day — which arrived, appropriately, on Sunday, just after April Fools’ Day. Think of it as a global counterpunch on behalf of truth.

The News Media Alliance calls on the public to subscribe to local newspapers, support journalists.

Veteran newsman Ted Koppel told Fox News host Sean Hannity that he is “bad for America” in an interview that aired on CBS’s Sunday Morning that quickly became a trending topic on social media Sunday. Hannity fired back on Twitter.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai Thursday sidestepped questions from reporters about the Commission’s position on so-called “fake news.” Calling it a “political debate,” Pai said, “I will not wade into that. I will be focused on the core values of the First Amendment and protecting them.”

President Donald Trump labeled reports from two of the major broadcast TV networks on alleged ties between individuals linked to his campaign and the Russian government as “totally biased and fake news” Thursday morning, continuing his tirade against allegations that his election team colluded with the Kremlin.

Facebook has started rolling out its third-party fact-checking tool in the fight against fake news, alerting users to “disputed content”. The site announced in December it would be partnering with independent fact-checkers to crack down on the spread of misinformation on its platform.

Facebook has been repeatedly accused of facilitating and magnifying an ecosystem of websites that spread false information and conspiracy theories across the platform. That criticism led Facebook to begin collaborating with “third-party fact checking organizations” to identify stories that don’t hold up to scrutiny, and warn users when they try to post these stories. This is what happens when you try to share a fake story on Facebook.

Facebook has started pinning a “disputed” tag on fake news, as it promised it would back in December, as part of its “we’re going to fight fake news but there’s only so much we can do” campaign.