When fact matters less than cleverly worded fiction.
When fact matters less than cleverly worded fiction.
In the aftermath of Donald Trump’s election to the US presidency, the Oxford English Dictionary bestowed the title of international word of the year on the word “post-truth.” It could not have been more apt, especially after an election cycle marred by malleable facts and shoot-from-the-hip tweets from the President-elect himself.
This past US election shone a spotlight on the so-called fake news that lives on platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Even Google is not immune. Sometime in November, a Google search for “final election numbers” or “final vote count 2016” led to a top result from a dodgy Wordpress blog called 70 News. This site looks to be run by just a single person, and the headline incorrectly blares that Trump took both the popular and electoral college vote.
And if even the top result of a Google search – which one instinctively assumes surfaces real news – can lie, the truth appears even more precarious than before.
What is Facebook?
And while Zuckerberg has officially resisted characterizations of Facebook as a media company, insisting instead that it is a tech firm, Facebook employees have reportedly banded together in an unofficial effort to combat fake news. Furthermore, Elliot Schrage, Facebook’s vice-president of communications and public policy, admitted last month that Facebook made a mistake by ignoring its responsibility as a news distributor. In a sense, it is untenable for Facebook to think of itself only as a service for sharing.
Its algorithm has also proven quite susceptible to being gamed – a BuzzFeed investigation found that a group of Macedonian teenagers had learned how to work the algorithm to their advantage and earn ad dollars from sensationalist, pro-Trump content. It didn’t matter that most of the content on the roughly 140 websites BuzzFeed tracked was false.
People lapped them up, and an article claiming that Pope Francis had endorsed Trump was shared nearly a million times on Facebook. Still more damning is the fact that by some estimates, the top 20 false stories from hoax websites and fringe blogs generated over 8.7 million shares on Facebook, compared to just 7.4 million from major news outlets in the three months leading up to the election.
Given the magnitude of Facebook’s reach, it appears irresponsible for the company and other social media and search platforms like Twitter and Google to ignore the role they play in shaping public opinion. At a time when mainstream newspapers, the traditional gatekeepers of facts, are losing clout, the onus is on these digital platforms to pick up the slack.
TOTAL FACEBOOK ENGAGEMENTS FOR TOP 20 ELECTION STORIES.
Engagement refers to the total number of shares, reactions, and comments for a piece of content on Facebook. Source: Facebook Data via Buzzsumo.
Smashing the echo chamber
That said, we can’t pin everything on Facebook and other platforms. Because their algorithms are tweaked to show us stories that we engage with, you’re going to see more stories with a particular partisan slant if you only click on similar articles. Every time you click on a story that conforms to your views, you’re adding an additional brick to an echo chamber of your own making.
What’s more, we’re more likely to have like-minded friends as well, further contributing to a self-reinforcing loop of homogenous perspectives. In fact, a 2015 study by Facebook researchers found that users’ actions, and not any personalization algorithm, was the primary factor in the creation of digital echo chambers.
Of course, any study conducted by Facebook itself requires a pinch of salt, but it still serves to drive home the fact that we can make conscious decisions to tear down intellectual walls and be more open to differing views.
This has the effect of making us less susceptible to stories with an extreme partisan or ideological bias, as most fake articles do. Even if they don’t show up less often, you’ll hopefully find yourself less inclined to buy into them immediately.
“The top 20 false stories from hoax websites and fringe blogs generated over 8.7 million shares on Facebook.”
Meanwhile, you won’t believe what happened:
FBI agent suspected in Hillary email leaks found dead in apparent murder-suicide.
WikiLeaks confirms Hillary sold weapons to ISIS… Then drops another bombshell!
CNN: “Drunk Hillary” beat sh*t out of Bill Clinton on Election Night.
Ireland is now officially accepting Trump refugees from America.
Donald Trump: If I were to run, I’d run as a Republican. They’re the dumbest group of voters in the country. They believe anything on Fox News. I could lie and they’d still eat it up. I bet my numbers would be terrific.
(All of these headlines, which spread all over the Internet, are false.)
