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Facebook Has Repeatedly Trended Fake News Since Firing Its Human Editors

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Re: Facebook Has Repeatedly Trended Fake News Since Firing Its Human Editors

#161

Post by matwood »

jsmith0295 wrote: post #127
vinhboy wrote: post #34

Thank god someone is writing about this. Recently I've been on the Yahoo's homepage a lot, because of Fantasy Football, and I noticed that a lot of the content is exactly like the article says, fake news from right-wing propaganda sites. And no, this is not me expressing my liberal bias. It's one thing to have opinionated headlines like the Huffington Post, it's another thing to have a completely fictional headline c…

My perspective is that they're basically the same, The NY Times (and CNN and Fox and many others) are just a lot more subtle about it than Breitbart. But fundamentally it's the same thing. There's a pre-established narrative, and they find a way to make everything fit it. If there's something that contradicts it directly they don't even report on it.

I agree. Sensationalizing news stories has been going on since news was a thing. Each organization picks what they think is important and then makes it as exciting to their readers as they can.

My wife is a news junkie. She actually watches CSPAN along with all of the news channels. Sometimes I catch the same story from a few different places, and it is clear they ALL apply their own bias. For a current example, Fox tries to pluck out emails from the leak that show some wrong doing and MSNBC has a story about a leaked email sharing a risotto secret.

Re: Facebook Has Repeatedly Trended Fake News Since Firing Its Human Editors

#162

Post by tgb »

return0 wrote: post #150
angry-hacker wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For someone outside of U.S, both right (breitbart etc.) and left (huff etc.) are propaganda all the way down . It is your left bias. And the people on other political spectrum feel the same but other way around. Watching American elections is like seeing a freak show. I don't understand who are those people who can support any of the candidates or the media.

And for anyone who doubts this, please visit the candidate's reddits https://www.reddit.com/r/The_Donald/ and https://www.reddit.com/r/hillaryclinton/ just to realize that it's all the media, not just some of them.

/r/the_donald currently has four posts that are just pictures of portions of a centipede, such that if they are voted correctly then they will appear to form a complete centipede. I uh... I'm just not sure what's going on there.

Re: Facebook Has Repeatedly Trended Fake News Since Firing Its Human Editors

#163

Post by andygates »

return0 wrote: post #115
andygates wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In what way? Explain and justify, please.

Fake news are easier to detect. Bias is always subtle and insidious.

And yet we see the general readers swallowing fake news as if it were truth, and even retorting that they don't care if it's fake, it's the kind of thing those people would do.

This is out of the scope of news and into the scope of propaganda, and it does matter.

Re: Facebook Has Repeatedly Trended Fake News Since Firing Its Human Editors

#164

Post by andygates »

bartread wrote: post #143
angry-hacker wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For someone outside of U.S, both right (breitbart etc.) and left (huff etc.) are propaganda all the way down . It is your left bias. And the people on other political spectrum feel the same but other way around. Watching American elections is like seeing a freak show. I don't understand who are those people who can support any of the candidates or the media.

Agreed, and sadly not limited to the US. One of the things I (eventually) realised is that here in the UK The Guardian is equivalent to The Daily Mail, but for liberal intelligentsia instead of Conservatives and UKIP supporters.

When has the Graun published bald-faced lies? It has an editorial slant, for sure, but it's not a fountain of factual untruth.

Re: Facebook Has Repeatedly Trended Fake News Since Firing Its Human Editors

#165

Post by matwood »

paulddraper wrote: post #63
unityByFreedom wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think tech culture's misguided desire to treat everyone "equally" creates a huge imbalance. You can't put the NYTimes in the same category as Breitbart. Just as you wouldn't compare it to "National Enquirer". I agree. I think we're seeing a sharp rise in foreign "soft power" online in America this election. It's being supported by the evangelicals who will not remove their vote from Trump on the grounds that they…

> It's being supported by the evangelicals who will not remove their vote from Trump on the grounds that they really want that supreme court seat. You make it sound illogical. As a religious conservative, I do really want that supreme court seat. The President has to really ask for permission for everything else (laws, budgets, wars, etc.), but justice nomination is very largely his choice. Don't be surprised if that…

> The President has to really ask for permission for everything else (laws, budgets, wars, etc.), but justice nomination is very largely his choice.

Reason magazine editorial made the same argument that Bernie was the best choice for libertarians. Basically he aligns with libertarians on social issues, and everything else he could not get done anyway.

Re: Facebook Has Repeatedly Trended Fake News Since Firing Its Human Editors

#166

Post by mtberatwork »

AlexB138 wrote: post #149
mtberatwork wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not seeing how your example is actual propaganda when it is more easily attributed to human error. If CNN were pushing this as a propaganda piece, they never would have issued a follow up statement correcting themselves.

They issued a statement after they were very publicly called out on it.

That still does not prove propaganda was deliberately being pushed by CNN. We should not be so quick to dismiss Hanlon's razor.

Re: Facebook Has Repeatedly Trended Fake News Since Firing Its Human Editors

#168

Post by panic »

quirkafleeg wrote: post #160
argonaut wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If this is the article you are talking about: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/11/world/europe/copenhagen-de... , you are misreading it. "One theory is that cars in Denmark are being burned by individuals from an angry underclass in a country where far-right groups have organized bitter protests against immigration, calling it a threat to the nation’s identity." The article makes it clear the "angry underclass" is sepa…

If that paragraph is not suggesting the far-right may be responsible, why does it refer to their "bitter protests" immediately after the theory that an "angry underclass" are burning cars? Why even mention the far-right at all, if nobody is suggesting they have something to do with these crimes?

They're implying that the far-right protests caused the "Arab ghetto kids" in question to become the "angry underclass", not that the "angry underclass" was itself far-right. The sentence could definitely be written more clearly.

Re: Facebook Has Repeatedly Trended Fake News Since Firing Its Human Editors

#170

Post by ionwake »

josu wrote: post #27
smokeyj wrote: post #26

I'm becoming increasingly skeptical that anyone on the internet is an actual human being. Especially so if this entity decides what I'm reading and why. I want to see the source to ranking algorithms, input sources and moderation activity. Not that I don't trust the Zuck.

Nice try, bot!

In all seriousness we probably already have AI companies subtlety testing their software on these boards =]
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