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Facebook Takes Out Full-page Newspaper Ads To Help UK Citizens Detect Fake New (venturebeat.com)

Posted by msmash on from the assuming-responsibility dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Facebook has today taken out full-page ads in U.K. newspapers ahead of the general election that's scheduled to take place next month. These ads are designed to educate the public about how to spot fake news online. Appearing in nationwide publications, including the Guardian and the Telegraph, Facebook's "Tips for spotting false news" ad is similar to the one it published in France last month and covers such areas as being skeptical of misleading headlines, spotting manipulated images, and checking the URL of the story. The advice offered may not always help, however -- under "Consider the photos," for example, the text reads: "You can search for the photo or image to verify where it came from." But anyone requiring advice on how to spot fake news through a newspaper ad likely isn't tech savvy enough to know how to do that or to even understand what it means. Alongside these ads, Facebook also revealed that is has deleted "tens of thousands" of accounts that it believes were deliberately spreading fake news and that it is also updating its algorithms to demote articles it suspects of carrying dubious messaging.

3 of 82 comments (clear)

  1. FB vs Bias by Chas · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Basically, as long as it moves in lock-step with what major media and a bunch of heavily biased corporations tell you, for your own good of course, it's not fake news.

    However, if it dissents in any way with the popular narrative, it's GOTTA be fake!

    See! We even have Snopes and FactCheck.org looking into it for us! Because none of their fact-checkers would EVER exhibit ANY sort of bias!
    And any stories to the contrary MUST be fake news right?

    Now to get real here.

    Any time you see "news" from ANY outlet whatsoever, assume that the outlet has some sort of sociopolitical axe to grind.
    Apply skepticism in liberal amounts.
    Do your OWN fact-checking.

    Well, unless you like looking like an idiot later on if you're parroting something incorrect...

    --


    Chas - The one, the only.
    THANK GOD!!!
    1. Re:FB vs Bias by SumDog · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I hate all this "fake news" garbage. Back in my day, we had it too, but it went by a different name. We just called it "News."

      It's all bullshit. Every network from the BBC to NPR to ABC all have tons of bullshit sprinkled throughout their feeds. Some of it is just blindly reciting government press releases, others are intentionally planted stories from government propaganda groups (both in the US and the UK. If you don't think this is happened you need to take a good hard look at the past several decades).

      It's all fucking bullshit all the way. Turn off your TV. Go outside.

  2. Re:In other words by AthanasiusKircher · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yes, exactly. We have many documented cases where lots of people have shared satirical fake news articles without reading them. We had a number of high-level politicians and advisers in the last election sometimes tweeting these as well without reading them.

    How do we know they didn't read them? Because many of the articles turned into obvious nonsense or ridiculous crap that often made fun of the audience they were targeting in the 4th paragraph or so. Facebook users (and even public figures who should know better) have been shown to just "Like" things and forward or tweet them without even reading beyond the headline or 1st paragraph. And Facebook expects people to start examining details of URLs, where photos came from, etc.??

    LOL.