The company that should solve fake news
Dear Sergey and Larry,
I love Gmail. All my spam disappears. Heck you guys even know how to sort my promotional emails into a separate tab. And Google search. It’s lit, filled with real and relevant results. Many content farming sites have died a slow Google search death.
I know you guys noticed what happened this election. Along with voting issues, bad polling and a host of other issues, fake news had a hand. No one is saying that fake news by itself changed the course of this election. But it didn’t help. When I was a high school teacher in Brooklyn I taught a class, Participation in Government, that all NYC public school seniors had to take. The class as best it could, was based on facts and information about our democracy, our checks and balances and the role of the student as citizen.
The Internet has enabled the spread of misinformation, false information and libelous information in a way in which we can not yet fully comprehend. My Participation in Government class did not teach 17 year old kids how to identify a fake news site, a fake news story or bias. Maybe it should have. But until then, let’s fix this.
Google should use its spam algorithms, its ability to identify those who game the system, and build the equivalent of a link based credibility system. Google should build a white list, do semantic analysis, and provide passive crowd based intelligence tools. It should offer this service as a free public service API to any social network or social news platform.
Facebook has recently started cracking down on kids who post videos of cover songs. Yes, if you post a video of yourself singing a Taylor Swift song on Facebook, they will flag you and take it down. If that is the priority that trumps fake news, then Google, we really, really need you.
Remember that “don’t be evil” slogan you guys had? You’ve got the brains, the money and the power. You have the algorithms. Build this and set it free. So that we can all participate in government with equal and fair information.
JAM Marketing Communications
7 年You need to write this article...again...buy a billboard...picket Google -- that is, we all need to! Hard to track the liar's lies!
Serves leaders of organizations and cities redesigning the scale and/or scope of their customer relationships and strategy (Emerging Technology Centric).
8 年This is a new challenge for checks and balances ---- Facebook too has a role to play!
Independent Writing And Editing Professional at Independent Worker
8 年Yep, cause we have enough damn problems in our little messed up lives without having the extra guessing games thrown on us. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsanMKpJlo8
Business and data analyst, economist and computer programmer who earned a Post MBA in Finance and passed all CFA exams
8 年Don't worry, there should soon be a Ministry of Propaganda which will vet all news and correct all former misconceptions of truth. On a less whimsical note, there was a synergy between Politifact certified lies and the memes going viral during the last presidential campaign. This is worth looking into.