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Microsoft Fights Fake News With NewsGuard Integration in Its Mobile Edge Browser (pcworld.com)

Posted by msmash on from the taking-a-stand dept.

In a bid to fight fake news read while on your phone, Microsoft's mobile Edge browser on Android and iOS now includes the NewsGuard extension. From a report: The addition needs to be toggled on within the Edge settings menu to be enabled. Once it is, Edge will display a small shield icon next to the site's URL in the search bar: a green shield with a checkmark for a trusted news site, and a red shield with an exclamation point inside of it for a site that NewsGuard believes isn't always accurate. (Some sites haven't been evaluated, and these will simply show a gray shield.)

5 of 180 comments (clear)

  1. Self-defeating inverse relationship by GameboyRMH · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The problem with this NewsGuard extension is that the more likely someone is to need it, the less likely they are to want it (and the more likely they are to actively dislike the idea of it).

    --
    "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
  2. So what is Fake News? by GregMmm · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Who determines what is "fake news"?

    This should scare people. Don't they realize we are ASKING businesses/governments to make judgement calls of what is fake news? Translation: People are asking these entities to censor what they feel is fake news.

    This seems like a dangerous idea to me. Heavens know a business will not call something it doesn't like to be fake news. Nor would a government who doesn't agree with certain ideas would call something fake news.

  3. Re:From NewsGuard's site: Why Should You Trust Us? by slinches · · Score: 4, Insightful

    My policy is to never trust someone who is making a point of trying to convince me they are trustworthy.

    Trustworthiness should be evident in your actions and no amount of assurances will be enough if that isn't true.

    --
    Knowledge Brings Fear
  4. Re:Not even close to the big fish. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    And yet they're still far more truthful than CNN.

  5. They seem shady by asdfman2000 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    For a tool that claims they care about transparency they really do their best to prevent you from looking up a list of sites and their ratings.

    If anyone is interested, I dug into the code for the chrome extension and grabbed their API URL so you can look up sites without having to install their extension:

    - Trusted: CNN
    - Trusted: Daily Caller
    - Trusted: The Independent
    - Trusted: Mother Jones (lol)
    - Trusted: Huffington Post (lol)
    - Trusted: The Daily Beast (lol)
    - Trusted: BuzzFeed News (ok this is just sad)
    - Not Trusted: Breitbart
    - Not Trusted: Daily Mail

    Looks fair and balanced to me.